The Brookhaven leader., 1889-09-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Weighed in the Balances and Found
Wanting.
Tho Wording and the Hvpocrite Re-
buked--1be CEurchcs Put in the
balances aud Their short
comings Discovered.

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 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 of the city; between every two
gates tower of defense spripging into
the skies; from each gate on the one
side a 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
branch of the River Euphrates.
This river sometimes overhowed its
banks, and to keep it 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
end Of the bridge spanning this Euprates
there was palace-the one palace mile
and a half around, the other palace seven
and half miles around. The wife of
ACKNOWLEDGMENT had been born aud
brought up in the country, and in a
mountainous region, and she could not
bear this fat district of Babylon, and SO,
to please his wife, Observation-Disclosures built
in the midst of the city mountain four
hundred feet high. The 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
I 80
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 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 fount-
aims spouting into the skv.
Standing below and looking up it must
have seemed rs if the clouds were in
blossom, or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder of a cedar. AL 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 Beius, 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 would cost what would
be our fifty two million dollars. O, what
u city! 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 chalces. Drink to the health Of the
King. Drink to the glory OF Babylon.
Drink to great future.
\ 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 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
a darkness into the room and puts ont the
blaze of the golden plate, and out Of the
sleeve of the darkness there comes q
fnger.-a finger Of fiery terror circlng
around and tircliug around as though it
would write; and then it comes up, and
with a sharp tip of flame it inscribes on
the plastering of the wall the doom of
the King: Weighed i'll 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 cleaning knives strike into q
thousand quiveriug hearts. Now Death
is king, and he is seated on a throne OF
\ corpses. In that hall there is q balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side Of the
balance are pat BelshaZzar's opportuni-
ties: on the other side of the balance are
put Belslazzar's sins. The sins come
down. His opportunities go up. Weighed
in the balauce-found wanting.
You can not always depend upon EARTH
ly balances. \ pound is not always a
pound and you may pay for one thing
and get another; but i'll the balances
which is suspended to the throne of God,
pound is a pound. and right is right,
and wrong is wrong, and q soul
is a soul, and eternity is eternity.
God has perfect bushel and a
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 bo a gallon of oil and there
is less than gallon, God knows it, and
ne CdllS upon HIS 4GCOiN4AS UHSCI ~ lnD4 n
it:
so much wanting in that measure OF
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
oguizes 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 DO yhood at school is correct; that
twenty hundred weight make a ton, and
one hundred and twenty solid feet make
n cord of wood. No more, no less, and a
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 ball
ances l am to speak of to-day that is not
the kind of weights and measures. ] am
10 sneak Of that kind Of balances which
can weigh principles, weigh churches,
weigh men, weigh nations and weigh
worlds.
What % you say, sis 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 Ply.
renees, and the Himalayas and Mount
Washington, and all cities of the earth,
they would crush ii. No, no. The time
viii come when God will sit down on the