The Russellville Democrat., 1889-09-12
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Weighed in the Balances and Found
 Wanting.
The worldling and the Hypocrite Re- buked-1he Churches Put in the Balances and Their short
 comIngs Discovered.


 Thou art weighed in the balances, and art | found wanting. Daniel V, 2.
 Babylon was the paradise of architect
 ure, and driven out from thence, the
 graudest buildings of n5dern times are
 only the evidence of her fall. The site
 having been selected for the city, two
 million men were employed in the rear
 ing of her walls and the building of her
 works. It was city Sixty miles in cir | conference. There was 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 of the city; between every two gates tower of defense springing into
 the skies; from each gate on the one
 side street running straight through to
 the corresponding street on the other
 side, so that there were fifty streets fif-
 teen miles long. Through the city ran
 a branch of the River Euphrates. | This river sometimes overfiowed its
 banks, and to keep il from the ruin of the
 city, lake was constructed. into which the
 surplus water of the river would run dur | ing 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 | | there was palace-the one palace mile
 and half around, the other palace seven
 and half miles around The wife of | Nebuchadnezzar had been born aud brought sp in the country, and in a | mountainous region, and she could not | bear this flat district of Babylon, and so, | to please his wife, Nebuchadnezzar built | in the midst of the city mountain four | hundred feet high. The moupta was | built out into terraces supported on | arches. On the top of these arches 0 | layer of fiat stones, on the top of that | layer of reeds and bitumen, on the top of
 that two layers of bricks closely cement | ed, on the top of that 0 heavy sheet of | lead and on the top of that the soil | plnced-the soil so deep that a Lebanon | cedar had room to anchor it's roots. | There were pumps worked by mighty | machinery fetching mp the water from | the Euphrates to this hanging garden, as | 1t was called, so that there were fount- | aims spou;ing 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 Nebu- l chadnez gar did to please his wife. Well, she ought to have been pleased. l sup | pose she was pleased. If that would not 1 please her nothing would. There was also in that city the temple of Belus, with | towers-one tower the eighth of mile l high. in which there was an observatory | where astronomers talked to the stars. | There was in that temple an image, just | one image, which would cost what would | be our fifty two million dollars. o, what | q cityl The earth never saw any thing | like it, never will see any thing like it. | And yet have to tell you that it is going to be destroyed. The King and his | princes are at a feast. They are all in- | toxicated. 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 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 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 0 fnger.-a finger of fiery terror circling around and circling around as though it would write; and then it comes up and
 with a sharp tip of flame it inscribes on the clustering of the wall the doom of the King: "W eighed in the balance, and found wanting" The bang of heavy fists against the gates of the palace is fol . lowed by the breaking in of the doors. A thousand gleaming knives strike into thousand quivering hearts. Now Death .r1 1-f, a,,I lao tad NP corpses. In that hall there is balance lifted. God swung it. On one side of the balance are put Belshazzar's opportuni- ties; on the other side of the balance are put Belshazzar's sins. The sins come down. His opportunities go up. Weighed in the balance-found wanting.
 You can not always depend upon earth ly balances. A pound is not always a pound, and you may pay for one thing and get another; but in the balances which is suspended to the throne of God, a pound is a pound. and right is right, and wrong is wrong, and soul is a soul, and eternity Is eternity. God has a perfect bushel and perfect peck and a perfect 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 bs gallon of oil and there is less than gallon God knows it, and he calls upon his recording angel to mark it:
 'So much wanting in Ihat measure of oil"
 The farmer comes in froEa the country. He has apples to sell. He has an imper- feet measure. He pours out the apples from this imperfect measure. God rec ognizes it. He says to the recording angel;
 Mark down so many spples too few an impe rfect measure"
 We may cheat ourselves, and we may cheat the world. but we can not cheat God and in the great day of judgment it will be found out that what we learned in bo yhood at school is correct; that twenty hundred weight make ton, and one hundred and twenty solid feet make a cord of wood. No more, no less, and 0 religion that does not take hold of this life to come is no religion at all. But, my friends, that is not the style of bal ances I 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 pr inciples, weigh churches,
 weigh men, weigh nations and weigh worlds.
 What 1" you say, lis it impossible
 that our world Is to be weighed ?" Yes. Why, you would think if God put on on one side the balances suspend ed from the throne the Alps, and the Py-
 renees, and the Himalayas and Mount Washington, and all cities of the earth,
 they would crush it. No, no. The time will come when God will sit down on the white throne to see the world weighed, and on one side will be the worlds op- portunities, and on the other side the worlds sins. Down will go the sins and away will go the opportunities, and God
 will say to the messengers with the torch:
 ''Burn that world weighed and found
 wanting"
 So God will weigh churches. He takes