Matthew 25:34

Then shall the king say— The sentence passed upon the righteous, affords a noble motive to patience and continuance in well-doing. In the beginning of the parable our Lord calls himself the Son of Man only: but he now changes the appellation, taking the title of king with great propriety, when he is speaking of himself as exercising the highest act of kingly power; in passing final sentence upon all men as his subjects, whereby their state will be unalterably fixed for ever. And this title adds unutterable beauty to the condescending words that he is represented as speaking on this great occasion. One cannot imagine a more magnificent image than this before us—the assembled world, distinguished with such unerring penetration, and distributed into two grand classes, with as much ease as sheep and goats are ranged by a shepherd in different companies;—that assembled world waiting to receive their everlasting doom from the lips of Almighty andimpartial justice! The present state of good men is at best but a banishment from their native country;an exile in which they are frequently exposed to manifold temptations, to persecutions, to poverty, to reproach, and to innumerable other evils. But that they may bear all with unfainting courage and constancy, they are given to know by this sentence, that they are beloved and blessed of God, as his own children; and that there is no less than an eternal kingdom prepared for the faithful saints of God from the foundation or formation of the world, through that infinite prescience of Deity, whereby he foresees who will be faithful, and who will not. Well may such bear with the violence of their oppressors, knowing what an exceeding and eternal weight of glory awaits them.