The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-11
WEIGHED In THE BALANCE.
DR.. rALMAee breaches IN OMAHA.
Churches Should Exist For the Sole Pur-
pose OF Saving Souls and Not For
Artistic Erect-The Ser
mon in Full.

to an immense congregation. His text
was: "Thou art weighed in the balances
and art found wanting. Daniel V, 81.
The preacher said
Babylon was the paradise of architec-
ture, and driven out from thence the
grandest buildings of modern times are
the only evidence OF her fall. The site
having been selected for the city 100000
men were employed in the rearing of her
walls and the building of her works 1t
was a city sixty miles in circumference.
There was a trench all around the city
from which the material for the building
of the city had been dug.
There were twenty-five gates on each
side the city; between every two gates a
tower OF defense sprlnglng into the skies !;
from each gate on the one side street
running straight through to the CORE
spending street on the other side, SO that
there were fifty streets fifteen miles long
Through the city ran branch of the river
Euphrates. This river sometimes over
flowed 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 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 this
Euphrates there was a palace-the one
palace mile and half around, the other
seven and half miles around.
The wife of ACKNOWLEDGMENT had been
born and brought up in the country, and
in mountainous region, and she could
not bear this fiat district of Babylon; and
so, to please his wife, Nebuchadnezzar
built in the midst of the city mountain
400 feet high. This 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 a layer of reeds
and bitumen, on the top of that two layers
OF brick, closely cemented, on the top of
that heavy sheet of lead, and on 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 gar
den, as it was called, so that there were
fountains spouting into the sky.
Standing below and looking up to it
must have seemed as if the clouds were in
blossom, or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder of a cedar. All of this Ne
buChadnezzar did to please his wife. Well,
she ought to have been 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 mile high, in which there was an OBJ
seryatory where astronomers talked to the
stars. There was in that temple an image,
Just one image, which would cost what
would be our S52,000,000.
o, what cityl The earth never saw
anything 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 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 a great future.
A thousand lords reel intoxicated. The
king, seated upon a chair, with vacant
loOk-as intoxicated men will-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
at the same point on the wall. And
then there drops a darkness into the room
and puts out the blaze of the golden plate,
and out of the sleeve of the darkness there
comes a finger-a finger of fiery terror,
circling around and circling around. as
though it would write; and then it comes
up and with sharp tip of flame it inscribes
on the plastering of the wall the doom of
the king: weighed in the balances and
found wanting" The bang of heavy fists
against the gates of the palace are followed
bV the breaking in of the doors. A thou
sand cleaning knives strike into thou
sand quivering hearts. Now death is
king, and he is seated on a throne of
corpses. In that hall there is a balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side of the
balance are put Belshazzar's opportunities
and on the other side of the balance are
put Beshazzar's sins. The sins come
down. His opportunities 60 up. Weighed
in the balances-found wanting.
There has been a great deal of cheating
in our country with false weights and
measures and balances, and the govern
ment, to change that state of things, APP
pointed commissioners whose business 1T
was to stamp weights and measures and
balances, and a great deal of the wrong
has been corrected. But still, after all,
there is no such thing as perfect balance
on earth. The chain may break, or some
of the metal may be clipped, or in some
way the equipose may be little disturbed.
You cannot always depend upon earthly
balances. A pound is not always pound,
and you may pay for one thing and get
another; but in the balance which is sus-
pended to the throne of God pound is a
pound, and right is right, and wrong is
wrong, and soul is soul, and eternity is
eternity. God has perfect bushel and
perfect peck and perfect gallon. When
merchants weigh their goods in the wrong
way, then the Lord weighs the
goods again. If from the i'm
perfect measure the merchant pours
out what pretends to be a gallon of
oil and there is less than a gallon, God
knows it, and He calls upon His record
ing 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 measure. God recognizes
it: He says to the recording angel: Mark
down so many apples too few-an imper-
feet 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 boyhood at school is cor
rect; that twenty hundred weight make
ton, and I20 solid feet make a cord of
wood. No more, no less, ana religion
which does not take hold of this life as