Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-05
Thou Art Weighed in the Bal
anceS and Art Found Wanting.
Every Day is a Day of Judgment and
All People are To-Day Being
Weighed and Inspected.
All the Wealth in the World Placed in the
Scales Against Mems Sins viii Not
Pull the Balance Down.
THE BALANCES LIFTED.

|
T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., preaching to
an immense congregation. His text was :
''Thou art weighed in the balances, and
art found wanting. Daniel V, ~. The
| preacher said:
Babylon was the paradise of architect
ure, and driven out from thence the
| grandest buildings of modern times are
! only the evidence of her fall. The site
! having been selected for the city, , 900, =
0O0 men were employed in the rearing of
| her walls and the building Of her works.
| 1t was city sixty miles in circumfer-
| ence. There was q trench all around the
| city from which the material for the
| building of the city had been digged.
There were twenty-five gates on each
side the city; between every two gates
! tower of defense springing into the skies;
| from each gate on the one side, a street
running straight through to the CORE
! spouding gate on the other side, so there
were fifty streets fifteen miles long.
Through the city ran a branch Of the
River Euphrates. This river sometimes
overilowed its banks, and to keep it from
the ruin of the city a lake was construct
ed, INTO which the surplus water of this
cts, and the water was kept IN this arti-
fetal lake until time of drought, and
then this water would stream down over
the city. At either end of the bridge
spanning this Euphrates there was q pal
ace-the one palace a 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 country and
in a mountainous region, and she could
not bear the fiat district of Babylon; and
so, to please his wife, NebuchadneZzaT
built in the midst of the city q 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; on the top of that q layer Of reeds
and bitumen; on the top of that two lay
ers 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 a Lebanon cedar had room
to anchor its roots. There were pumps
worked by mighty machinery, fetching
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 were in
blossom, or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder of cedar. All this Neb-
uchadnezzar did to please hiswife. Well,
she ought to have been pleased. 1 sup
pose 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 SOP 200, 0G0.
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES.
O, what a city! The earth never saw
anything like it, never VIII see anything
like it. And yet I have to tell you that
it is going to be destroyed. The king and
his princes are at a feast. They are all
intoxicated. Pour ont the rich wine into
the chalices. Drink 10 the health of the
king Drink to the glory of Babylon.
Drink to a great future.
a thousand lords reel intoxicated. The
king, seated upon a chair, with vacant
look, as intoxicated men wlll-with va
cant 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
IldLIGI anu IuCy lOOh 1T JllC same pOILlL
on the wall. And then there drops a
darkness into the room and puts out the
blaze of the golden plate, and out of the
sleeve of the darkness there comes a fin
ger-a finger Of fiery terror ciroltng
around and circling around as though it
would write; and then it comes up and
with sharp tip of fame 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 palace are
followed by the breaking in of the doors.
A thousand cleaning knives strike
into thousand qufvering hearts. Now
Death is King, and he is seated on a
throne of corpses. In that hall there is
a balance lifted. God swung it. On
one side of the balance are put BelshaZ-
Ear S opportunities, on the other side of
thu balance are put Belshazzar sins.
The SINS come down. His opportunities
go up. Weighed in the balances-found
wanting.
There mas been a great deal Of cheat
ing in our country with false weights and
measures and balances, and the govern
ment, TO change that state of things, ap-
pointed commissioners whose business it
was to stamp weights and measures and
balances, and great deal of the wrong
has been correcten. But still, after all,
there is no such thing as perfect bal
ance on earth The chain may break or
some Of the metal may be clipped, or in Z
some way the equipoise may be little
disturbed.
GODS BALANCES ARE ACCURATE.
You cannot always depend upon earthly
balances. A pound is not always a
pound, and you pay for one thing and
you get another; but in the balance |
which is suspended to the throne of God |
q pound is a pound, and right Is right, |
and wrong is wrong, and a soul is soul, |
and eternity is eternity. God has per- |
feet bushel and perfect peck and per- |
feet gallon. When merchants weigh |
their goods in the wrong way, then the |
Lord weighs the goods again. If from |
the imperfect measure the merchant |
pours out what pretends to be gallon of |
oil ana there is less than a gallon, God |
knows it ,iand He calls upon His recording |
angel to mark it: $50 much wanting in |
that measure of oil. - The farmer comes |
in from the country. He has apples to |
sell. He has an imperfect measure. He |
pours out the apples from this imperfect |
measure. God recognizes it. He says |