Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-03-02


Today in the wild, joyous feast of
life, conscience slumbers in the
soul and her voice is silent. But
some day there will be hand-writ-
ing on the wall of your life, and
then conscience will wake up,
and in a moment will have gathered
all the sins of your life into, the hall
of your memory. To you it will be
as that moment in Belshazzar's feast.
No matter how drunk with LIES
pleasures you may be now, you will
be sober then; no matter how full OF
pride you are now, you will be hum
BILE then; no matter how much vain
courage you may have now, terror
the most awful will seize upon your
soul then. There are but two hands
with which God ever writes thus up
on life's walls. The one is the finger
of the blessed Spirit, who rOuses con-
science to produce conviction, only
that he may lead to Christ for his
cleansing and forgiveness. The other
is the stern finger of death, which
rouses conscience to gather up all the
evil of life to be ready for the judg-
ment and the eternal doom.
Daniel comes. Belshazzar's worst
fears are realized in the interpreta-
ton he gives. Did it never strike
you as strange that of these three
words written on the wall only the
second should become the common
proverb of life; oft quoted and oft
preached from. Why is this? Only
because we feel instinctively that this
holds in itself a principle of universal
application. We too feel in our own
dealings with men that when we
have trusted to another that which is
very precious and very Important and
that other utterly fails to fulfill the
trust, it is right to take it away, and
! give it to another. Who wants any
better reason for discharging a SER
want than the fact that he has tried
him in every relation of servant and
I found him thoroughly incompetent
: and Enthusiastically.
. But somehow men feel that God
g may not act with them upon the
I same principles of justice and com
:, mon sense, upon which they deaI
;, with each other.
: What is our life, with all its bless
0 ings and opportunities, hut a trus
d from Coda little kingdom Of ou
y own, where God exalts us to TIT
It throne to order and to direct it all
? But not throne and q kingdom t,
IS he used for selfish ends. Its frs
e great end is to glorify the God Q
e heaven by magnifying him as tn
e giver of it all and obeying Him a
king over the kings. Every gift c
y mind and heart, every power an
,r every gift OF worldly wealth, ever
/. social relation and opportunity {
Sc life are only so many talents give
y by which you may excel1 in glorify
a ing God who gives them.
If a man fail here, where God hi
" exalted him to be absolutely kim
9, where he has the power of life an
IN death, so that what desire or habit
or life or trait of character he pleases /
O. kills, and what he wills he keel
alive. If in this kingdom of his oW
of life he fails to establish Gods lay
ty and bring all into willing obedien
i'll to it, and establish here a righteo
~ order, then has he failed in the mo
It. solemn ends of life;in the most sacl
to trust ever committed to man. Frien
o. in this kingdom of your own lii
,r- where you sit absolute king over
ne all, can the charge be brought agair
an you that was so justly brought agair
n Belshazzar? Have you loved ples
he ure, and used your kingly authori
he to crafty that pleasure, and failed
nd glorify the God of heaven, in who
lp- hand thy breath is, and whose are
.ar thy ways. Then you too have be
ad tried in the balances of an actual t,
m and found wanting.
" To me there is something unutt
lat ably and awfully sad in this idea
yet having lived and failed, failed of
ng the true ends of life. To fail he
'rd where the opportunities are so mar
Ear where the grace to help is so abb
"? dant, and so free; and where the en-
In are so gloriously grand, is to sink
icy to deepest dishonor and shame. I
a deepest ambition that burns in I
OF heart today,-the only end that
really worth living for, is to so Ii
dy and rule my own heart and life d
az by day, that when the hour com
- x,,kn,~ Iocaanl;on frov,, y,oxy fhro