THE world is in dread of this dies irae; the terror of it pervades even the hymns of the period, as
well as those of bygone days. Bernard sung: —
"Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt; vigilemus!
Ecce minaciter, immanent arbiter, ille supremus!"
another:
" That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away!
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?
Oh, on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be thou the trembling sinner's stay,
The' heaven and earth shall pass away."
again:
"Day of wrath, oh, day of mourning,
See fulfilled the prophet's warning
Heaven and earth in ashes burning.
Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth."
(See 1 John 4:9-19.
How different the Christian state and hope! The reader is invited to turn up the following Scriptures and to mark this difference: Phil. 3:20, 21; Titus 2:13,14; Heb. 9:27,28; John 14:2, 3; 1 Cor. 15:51-57; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Peter 1:3-9; 1 John 3:1-40.
(Note to p. 204.)