Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-23

dued empires. Idols of wonderful work
standing on pedestals of precious stones.
Embroideries STOPPING about the win
dows and wrapping pillars of cedar.
and drifting on floors inlaid with ivory
and agate. Music, mingling the throne
of harps and the clash of cymbals, and
the blast of trumpets in one wave of
transport that went ripping along the
wall, and breathing among the garlands,
and pouring down the corridors, and
thrilling the souls of a thousand ban
queters. The signal is given, and the
lords and the ladies, the mighty men
and women come around the tables.
-FOUR out the wine! Let foam and bub-
BILE kiss the RIM Hoist every one his
cup and drink to the sentiment, 80
King Belshazzar, live foreverr' Be-
starred head-band and carcanet of royal
beauty cleaned to the uplifted chalices
as again and again and again they are
emptied. Away with care from the
palace! Tear royal dignities to tatters!
Pour out more wine! Give us more
light! Wilder music! Sweeter per-
fume! Lord shouts to lord, captain
ogles to captain! Goblets clash, decan-
tiers rattle! There come in the obscene
song and the drunken hiccough, and the
slavering lip and the guffaw of idiotic
laughter, bursting from the lips of
princes flushed, reeling, bloodshot,
while mingling with it ali hear, "Huz-
"a! Huzza, for great Belshazzarm
What is that on the plastering of the
wall? Is it spirit? Is it phantom?
Is it God? The music stops! the COB
let's fall from the nerveless grasp
There is thrill! There is a START
There is thousand-voiced shrek of
horror! Let Daniel be brought in to
read that writing. He comes in; he
reads it: Weighed in the balance and
art found wanting" Meanwhile the
Assyrians, who for two years had been
laying siege to that city, took advan-
tage of that carOusal and came in.
| hear the feet of the conquerors
on the palace stairs. Massacre rushes
in with a thousand cleaning knives.
Death bursts upon the scene; and | shut
the door of that banqueting hall, for | do
not want to look. There is nothing there
| but torn banners and broken wreaths,
and the slush of upset tankards, and the
blood of murdered women, and the
kicked and tumbled carcass of a dead
king. For lin that night was Belshazzar
slain.
/. | learn from this that when God
writes anything on the wall a man had
better read it as it is. Daniel did not
misinterpret or modify the handwriting
on the wall. 1t is all fooliShnesS to eX-
pect minister of the gospel to preach
always things that the people like or the
people choose. What shall preach to-
day? Shall | tell you of the dignity of
human nature? Shall l tell you of the
wonders that our race has accomplished?
'.Oh, not you say Tell me the mess
age that comes from God" | will. If
there is any handwriting on the wall it
is this lesson: "Repent, accept of Christ
and be saved | might talk of a great
many other things, but that is the
message, and so | declared it. Jesus
never battered those to whom he
preached He said to those who did
wrong, and who were offensive in his
sight: ''Ye generation of vipers, We
whited sepulchers, how can We escape
the damnation of help Paul, the apos-
tie, preached before a man who was not
ready to hear him preach. What subject
did he take? Did he say: 20, you are
good man, q very fine man, Il very
noble man?" No; he preached of right
eousness to a man who was unrighteouS;
of temperance, to a man who was the
victim Of bad appetites; of the Judgment
to come, to Il man who was unfit for it.
So we must always declare the message
| that happens to come to us. Daniel must
read as it is. A minister preached before
James / of England, who was James VI
of Scotland. What subject did he take?
The king was noted all over the world
/ for being unsettled and wavering in his
ideas. What did the minister preach
about to this man who was James | of
England and James VI of Scotland?
! He took for his text James ], 8: He
! that wavereth is like Il wave of the sea
driven with the wind and tossed" Hugh
Latimer offended the King by a sermon
4 he preached, and the King said: Hugh
Latimer, come and apologize II will :
said Hugh Latimer. So the day was APP
pointed, and the kings chapel was fnll
of lords and dukes and the mighty men
and women Of the country, for Hugh
+ Latimer was to apologize. He began his
sermon by SAYING: Hugh Latimer, be-
think thee Thou art in the presence
OF thine earthly king who can destroy
I thy body. But bethink thee, Hugh Lat
inner, that thou art in the presence Of
the King of heaven and earth, who can
both destroy body and soul in hell fire.
0, King, cursed be thy crimes
II. Another lesson that comes to Us:
There is great difference between the
opening Of the banquet Of sin and its
clnsa YOUNG NAM If YOU bad looked