The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-09-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Weighed in the Balances and Found
Wanting.
The wording and the Hvpocrite Re-
buI5ed--TIre Churches Put in tho
balances and Their Short
cOmings Discovered.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
following sermon at Omaha, Neb., during
his recent Western trip. His text was:
Thou art weighed in the balances, and art
found wanting v, p.
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, two
million men were employed in the rear
ing Of her walls and the building of her
works. 1t was a city sixty miles in cir
conference. 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 of the city; between every two
gates tower of defense spriRging 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 if
teen miles long. Through the city ran
a branch of the River Euphrates.
This river sometimes OVerhowed its
banks, and to keep it from the ruin of the
city, a 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
3tream down over the city. At either
end of the bridge spanning this Euprates
there was a palace-the one palace mile
and half around, the other palace seven
and half miles around. The wife of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS had been born aud
brought up in the country, and in
mountainous region, and she could not
bear this nat district of Babylon, and SO,
to please his wife, Nebuchadnezzar built
in the midst of the city a mountain four
hundred feet high. The noun tain was
built out into terraces supported on
arches. On the top OF these arches a
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 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
st was called, 50 that there were fount-
aims spouting into the skv.
Standing below and looking mp it must
have seemed as if the clouds were in
blossom, or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder of q cedar. All this Nebu-
| chadnezzar did to please his wife. Well
| she ought to have been pleased. l sup
pose she was pleased. If that would not
please her nothing would. There was
| also in that city the temple OF Belus, with
tOwers-One tower the eighth Of 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 would cost what would
| be our fifty two million dollars. o, what
a ethyl The earth never saw any thing
| like it, never will see any thing like it.
And yet 1 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 q great future.
A thousand lords reel intoxicated. The
King, seated upon a 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 this
| princes begin to look aud 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 i
/ would write; and then it comes up, and
/
| the plastering of the wall the doom o.
the King: weighed in the balance, anC
found wanting" The bang of heavy fist:
against the gates of the palace is fol
| lowed by the breaking in of the doors. A
| thousand cleaning knives strike into q
thousand quivering hearts. Now Dealt
| is king, and he is seated on throne o
! cOrpses. In that hall there is a balanc,
| lifted. God swung it. On one side Of tn,
Tn-T-
ties; on the other side Of the balance arr
| put Belshazzar's sins. The sins com,
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 q
| 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 a soul
is a soul, and eternity is eternity.
God has q perfect bushel and
perfect peck and a perfect gallon
When merchants weigh their goods il
the wrong way, then the Lord weighs the
goods again. If from the imperfec
measure the merchant pours out wha
| pretends to be a gallon of oil and there
is less than gallon, God knows if, anC
he calls upon his recording angel to mari
it:
$50 much wanting in that measure 0!
oil"
The farmer comes in from 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 chea
God, and IN the great day of judgment i
| will be found out that what we learned
| in DO yhood at school is correct; tina
twenty hundred weight make a ton, anC
one hundred and twenty solid feet make
a cord of wood. No more, no less, and ;
religion that does not take hold of thi,
life to come is no religion at all. But
my friends, that is not the style Of bal
ances am to speak Of to-day that is no
the kind of weights and measures. / an
to speak Of that kind Of balances which
can weigh pr incfples, weigh churches
weigh men, weigh nations and weigl
| worlds.
What - you say, 'is it impossible,
that our world is to be weighed 20
Yes. why, you would think if Coo
put on OF one side the balances suspend.
ed from the throne the Alps, and the Ply
renees, and the Himalayas and Noun
Washington, and all cities Of the earth
/ tbaVy Would orush If M no The tim,