Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-09-12
FOUND WANTING
SERMON BY DR. TALMAGE
The Balance Lifted in the BANQUET.
Hall OF BelshaLzar.

", 81.
Babylon was the paradise Of architecture
and driven out from thence the grandes
buildings Of modern times are only the svi
ldence Of her falh The site having beel
selected for the city, two million men wer
employed in the rearing Of her walls and tn
building Of her works. It was city ixtN
miles inicircumference- There was trencl
all around the city from which, the materia
for the building OF the city had been digged
There were twenty-five gates on each sdl
the city; between every two gates a tower o.
defense springing into the skies; from eacl
gate on the one side, a 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 overfowed its banks, and to keep il
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 a palace-the one palace a 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 a
this fiat district Of Babylon; and SO, to please
his wife, Nebuchadnezzar built in the midst
Of the citya mountain 400 feet high. This
mountain was built out into terraces sup
ported on arches. On the top of these arches
q layer Of fat 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 heavy sheet of lead, and
on the top Of that the soil placed-the soil SO
deep that a Lebanon cedar had room to an
chor 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 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 of
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 fifty
two million dollars.
U what a cityl The earth never saw any,
thing like it, never will see anything like it.
And yet have to tell you that it is going to
be destroyed, The King and his Princes are
at feast. They 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 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 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 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 circing around and
circling around as though it would write;
and tlren it comes up and with sharp tip of
fame it inscribes on the plastering of 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 quivering hearts. Now
Death is King, and he is seated on a throne
OF oorpses. In that hall there is a balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side of the
balance are put Belshazzar's opportunities
on the other side of the balance are put Bel
shazzar's sins The sins come down. His
opportunities go up. Weighed in the bal
wanting.
There has been O great deal Of cheating
In our country with false weights and meas
nres and balances, and the government, to
change that state of things, appointed COM
nissioners 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 a
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, pound is pound, and
right is right, and wrong is wrong, and
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. If from the imper-
feet measure the merchant pours out what
pretends to be gallon of oil and there is less
than q gallon, God knows it. and 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
God recognizes it. He says to the
angel: mark down So many ap-
1les too few-an imperfect measure" We
nay cheat ourselves and we may cheat the
world, but we cannot cheat God, and in
he great day Of judgment it will be found
)ut that what we learned in boyhood at
school is scorrect-that twenty hundred weight
make ton, and one hundred and twenty
'olid 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
o-day; that is not the kind Of weights and
lam to speak Of that kind Of bal
noes which can weigh principles, weigh
weigh men, weigh nations, and
Weigh worlds. "Whatr' you say, rs it pos
ible that our world is to be weighedP'. Yes.
Why, you would think If God put on one
he Alps, and the Pyrenees, and the Hima-
ayas and Mount Washington, and all the
titles Of the earth, they would crush it. No,
10. The time will come when God will sit
lown on the white throne to see the world
Weighed, and on one side will be the worlds
opportunities, and on the other side the
worlds sins. Down will go the sins and away
will go the opportunities, and God will say to
he messengers with the torch: Burn that
world! Weighed and found wantingr'
God will weigh churches. Hetakes great
:hurch. That great church, according to the
worldly estimate must be weighed. He puts
3 on one side the balances, and the minister
md the choir and the building that cost its
aundreds of thousands of dollars. He puts
hem on one side the balances. On the other
ide of that scale He puts what that church
ught to be, what its conservation ought to
,e, what its sympathy for the poor ought to
70, what its devotion to all good ought to be.
That is on one side. That side comes down,
md the church, not being able to stand the
OFT ,.ieas in fha balances Itdnas NOT mako