Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-09-19
THE BALANCES LIFTED.
DR. TALMAGE. THE ELOQUENT DI.
VINE. IN OMAHA.

The Sermon is Based on These Memorabl
Words: Thou Art Weighed in the Bal
ancas. and Art Found wantins."-Dau
lei v, 81.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage preached t.
An immense congregation in Omaha, OF
Sunday, Sept. /. His text was: Tho
art weighed in the balances, and ar
found wanting. Daniel V, "a. Tn,
preacher said:
Babylon was the paradise of architec
ture, and driven out from thence tn
grandest buildings of modern times ar
only the evidence of her fall. The sit
having been selected for the city, tw
million men were employed in the rear
ing of her walls and the building of he
works. 1t was a city sixty miles in cir
conference. There was trench al
around tine city from which the materia
for the building of the city had beef
digged.
There were twenty-five gates on eacl
sidet city; between every two gates
tower of defense springing into tn,
the skies; from each gate on the on,
side, street running straight through
to the corresponding gate on the othe
side, 30 there were fifty streets tiiteeI
miles long. Through the city ran
branch OF the River Euphrates. Thi
river sometimes overlooked its banks
and to keep 1t from the ruin of the cit,
a lake was constructed, into which the
surplus water of this river would ruI
during the time of freshets. and tn,
water was kept IN this artificial lake un-
til time OF drought, and then this watel
would stream down over the city. Al
ether end of the bridge spanning thii
Euphrates there was a palace-the one
pace mile and a half around, the
other palace seven and half miles
around.
The wife of Nebuchadnezzar had
been born and brought up in the coun-
try and in mountainous region, and
she could not bear this fiat district OF
Bal ylon; and SO, to please his wife
Mel uchadneZzar built IN the midst OF
the city a mountain 400 feet high. This
mountain was built out into terraces
supported on arches. On the top OF
these arches a layer of fiat stones; OIL
the top of that a layer of reeds and
bitumen; on the top of that two layers
of bricks, closely cemented; on the top
of that heavy sheet of lead, and on
the top of that the soil placed-the soil
SO deep that = Lebanon cedar had room
to anchor its roots. There were pumps
worked by mighty machinery, fetchin 3
up the water from the Euphrates to this
hanging garden, as it was called, SO that
there were fountains spouting into the
sky.
Standing below and looking up it
must have seemed as if the clouds we're
in blossom, or as though the sky leaned
on the shoulder of a cedar. All this
Nebuchadnezzar did to please his wife.
Well, she ought to have been pleased.
l suppose she was pleased. If that
would not please her nothing would.
There was in that city also the temple
of Belus, with towers one tower the
eighth of a mile high, in which there
was an observatory where astronomers
talked to the stars. There was in that
temple an image, just one image, which
cost what would be our tifty-two million
dollars.
Owhat a city! The earth never saw
anything like it, never will see any,
thing like it. And yet l have to tell
you that it is going to be DESTROYED.
The king and his princes are at feast.
Thev are all intoxicated. Pour out the
rich wine into the chalices. Drink to
the health of the king. Drink to the
glory of Babylon. Drink to q great
future.
A thousand lords reel intoxicated.
The king, seated upon a chair, with va
cant look, as intoxicated men will-with
vacant look stared at the wall. But
soon that vacant look takes on intensity,
and it is an affrighted look; and all the
princes begin to look and wonder what
is the matter, and they look at the same
point on the wall. And then there
drops n darkness into the room and puts
out the blaze of golden plate, and out
of the sleeve of darkness there comes a
fnger-a finger of fiery terror circling
around and circling around as though
1t would write; and then if comes up and
with sharp tip of flame it inscribes on
the plastering of the wall the doom of
the king: Weighed in the balances
and found wanting" The bang of
heavy fists against the gates of the pal
ace are followed by the breaking in of
the doors. A thousand cleaning knives
strike into thousand quivering hearts.
Now Death is king, and he is seated on
throne of corpses. In that hall there
is balance lifted. God swung it. On
one side of the balance are put Belshaz-
Ears opportunities, on the other side of
the balance are put Belshazzars sins.
The sins come down. His opportuni-
ties 60 up. Weighed in the balances
found wanting.
There has been a great deal of cheat
ing IN our country with false weights
and measures and balances, and the
government, to change the state of
things, appointed commissioners whose
business 1t was to stamp weights and
measures and balances, and great deal
of the wrong has been corrected. But
still, after all, there is no such thing as
perfect balance on earth. The chain
may break or some of the metal NAV be
clipped, or in some way the equipoise
may be little disturbed.
You can not always depend upon
earthly balances. A pound is not al
ways pound, and YOU pay for one
thing and you get another; but in the
balance that is suspended to the throne
of God, pound is pound, and right is
right, and wrong is wrong, and a soul is
a soul, and eternity is eternity. God
has perfect bushel, and n perfect peck,
ana perfect gallon. When merchants
weigh their goods in the wrong way,
then the Lord weighs them again. If
from the imperfect measure the mer-
cuant pourS out wnat pretendS to be q
gallon of oil and there is less than a
gallon. God knows it, nd he calls upon
his recording angel to mark it: $50
much wanting in that measure of oil. +"
The farmer comes from the country. He
has apples to sell. He has an imperfect
measure. God recognizes it. He saws
to the recording angel: Mark down SO
many apples too few-an imperfect
measure We may cheat ourselves and
We may cheat the world, but We cannot
cheat God. and in the great day of iudc-
ment it will he found ont that what We
learned in boyhood, at school, is correct:
that twenty hundred weight make ton,
and Us solid feet make a cord of wood.
No more, no less. And religion which
does not take hold of this life as well as
the life to come is no religion at all.
But. my friends, that is not the kind of
balances am to speak of to-day, that is
not the kind of weights and measures.
l am to speak of that kind of balances
which can weigh principles, weigh
churches. weigh men, weigh nations,
and weigh worlds. What" ven saw, lis
it possible that our world is 10 be
weighed?' Yes. Why. you would think
if God mt on one side the halapcas suS