News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: weighed in the Balance"
preached at Omaha, Neb.)

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Babylon was the paradise of architecture,
and driven out from thence the grandest
buildings Of modern times are only the evil
dence of her fall. The site having been
selected fOl che city, two million men were
employed IN the rearing OF her walls and the
building Of her works. 1t was city sixty
miles in circumference There was a 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 springlng into the skies; from each
gate on the one side, street running straight
through to the corresponding 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 some
times oyerfiowed its banks and to keep it
from the ruin of the city a lake was con-
Structed, into which the surplus water of this
river would run during the time of freShetS,
and the water was kept in this artificial lake
until time of drought, and then this water
would stream down over the city. AT either
end of the bridge spanning the Euphrates
there was s. palace-the one palace mile
and 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
mountainous region, and she could not bear
this fiat district of Babylon; and SO. to please
his wife Nebuchadnezzar built in the midst
L.
mountain was built out into terraces sup
ported on arches On the top of these arches
a layer OF fiat stones; ON the top of that a
layer of reeds and bituman; on the top of
that two layers of bricks. closely cemented;
on the top of that a heavy sheet of lead, and
on the top of that the soil placed-the soil so
deep that Lebanon cedar had room to an
Choir its roots. There were pumps worked by
mighty machinery, fetching up the water
from the Euphrates to this hanging garden,
as it was called. 50 that there were fountains
sDouting 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 a cedar. All this Nebuchadnezzar did to
please his wife Well she ought to have
been pleased. I 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 or
a mile high in which there was an obServa-
tory where astronomers talked TO the stars.
There was in that temple an image, just one
image. which cost what would be our nifty
two million dollars.
o what cityl The earth never saw any
thing ike it. never viii see anything like it.
And vet 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
out tho rich wine into the chalices. Drink to
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 chair, with vacant look, |
as intoxicated men will-with vacant look /
stared at the wall. But soon that vacant |
look takes ON intensity, and it is an affrightsd
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 darkness into the room and puts out /
the blaze of the golden plate, and out of the |
sleeve of the darkness there comes finger |
a finger of fiery terror circling 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: Nv elghed 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 a thousand qulverlng hearts. Now |
Death is King, and he is seated on throne
of eorpseS. In that hall there is a balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side OF the
balance are put BelShaZZars opportunities,
on the other side of the balance are put Bel
shazzar's sins. The sins come down. His /
go up. Weighed in the bal
ances-found wanting.
There has been a great deal of cheating
in our country with false weights and meas
ures and balances, and the government, to
change that state of things, appointed COM
missioners whose business it 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 may be clipped, |
or in some way the equipoise may be little |
disturbed.
You cannot always depend upon earthly |
balances. A pound is not always pound, |
and you pay for one thing and you get an |
other; but in the balance which is suspended |
TO the throne of God, a pound is pound, and
right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a
soul is a soul, and eternity is eternity, God
has a perfect bushel and a perfect peck and
perfect gallon. When merchants weigh
their goods in the wrong way, then the Lord
weighs the goods again. II from the imper-
feet measure the merchant pOurs out what
pretends to be gallon of oil and there is less |
than a gallon, God knows it, and He calls |
upon His recording angel to mark it; 80 !
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 recogniz IS it. He says to the
recording angel; Mark down SO many ap-
piles 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 Judgment it viii be found
out that what we learned IN boyhood at
school is correct-that twenty hundred weight
make a ton, and one hundred and twenty
solid feet make a cord of wood. No more
no less. And a 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 lam Co speak of that kind of bal
ances which can weigh principles weigh
churches, weigh men. weigh nations, and
weigh worlds. ''Whatr' you say, lis it pos
slble that our world is to be weighed?'. Yes.
Why, you would think if God put on one
side the balances suspended from the throne
the Alps and the Pyrenees. and the Hima-
layas, and Mount Washington, and all the
cities of the earth, they would crush it. No,
10. The time viii come when God will sit
down on the white throne to see the world
weighed, and ON one side will be the world
opportunities, and on the other side the
worlds sins. Down will 20 the sins and away
will go the opportunities and God will say to
the messengers with the torch: Burn that
world Weighed and found wantingp'
God viii weigh churches. He takes great
church. That great church, according to the
worldly estimate, must be weighed. He puts
it ON one side the balances and the minister
and the choir and the building that cost its
hundreds of thousands of dollars He puts
them on one side the balances. On the other
side of that scale He puts what that church
ought to be, what its conservation ought to
be, what It's sympathy for the poor ought to
be, what its devotion to all good ought to be.
That IS on one side. That side comes down,
and the church, not being able to stand the
test, rises in the balances. 1t does not make
any difference about your magnificent ma
chinery. A church is built for one thing-tO
save souls. If it saves few souls when it
might save a multitude of souls, God will
spew it out of His mouth. Weighed and found
wantingl So God estimates nations. How
many times He has put the Spanish monarchy
into the scales, and found it insufficient and
condemned it The French Empire was
placed on one side the scales and God weighed
the French Empire, and Napoleon said:
Have not enlarged the boulevards? Did
not kIndle the glories of the Champs EIvseesp
Have not adorned the Tuileries? Have I
not built the gilded Opera Housa:" Then God
weighed that nation. and he put on one side
OF the scales the Emperor and the boule-
wards, and the Tuileries, and the Champs
Elysees, and the gilded Opera House. and on
the other side he put that mans abomination,
that mans hbertinism. that mans selfishness
that mans goddess ambition. This last came
down, all the brilliancy of the scene van
ished. What is that voice coming up from
Sedan? Weighed and found wanting
But l must become more individual and
more personal in my address. Some people
say they do not think clergymen ought to be
personal in their religious addresses, bat
ought to deal with subjects in the abstract.
do not think that way. What would you
think OF hunter who should go to the Adj
rondacks to shoot deer in the abstract7 Ali
no. He loads the gun, he puts the butt of it
against the breast, he runs his eye along the
barrel, he takes sure aim, and then crash go
the antlers on the rocks. And so, if we want
TO be hunters for the Lord we must take
sure aim and fire. Not in the abstract are
we to treat things in religious discussions If
physician comes into a sick room does he
treat disease in the abstract? No; he feels
the mise alps fbe diaopocir +bar I,a rooI-as