Connecticut western news., 1899-05-25
CANNOT CHEAT GOD.
HE WILL WEIGH OUR ACTS WITH PER.
 FECT BALANCES.

Opportunities Shall He Measured
 Shall He Held Personally Responsi-
 bIe For Our Shortcomings.
 Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1s9s.1
 WASHINGTON, May 21.-In these days of moral awakening this pointed ser mon by Dr. Talmage on personal re. sronsibility before God will be read with deep and solemn interest; text Daniel V, 27 "Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting"
 Babylon was the paradise of archi. lecture. and driven out from thence the graDdest buildings of modern times are only the evidence of her fall The site having been selected for the city 2,000, 900 men were employed in the rearing of her walls and the building of her works It was city 60 miles in circumference. There was trench all around the city, from which the ma terial for the building of the city had been digged There were a gates on each side of the city; between every two gates tower of defense springing
 
 one side. street running straight through to the corresponding gate on the other side, so that there were 90 streets l 5 miles long. Through the city ran branch of the river Euphrates This river sometimes overfiowed its banks, and. to keep it from running the city, a 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 span ming this Euphrates there was palace the one palace a mile and a half around, the other palace seven and half miles around.
 The wife of Nebuchadnezzar had been born and brought up 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 a mountain 400 feet high. This mountain was built out into terraces supported on arches. On the top of these arches layer of flat stones, on the top of that a layer of reeds and bitumen. on the top of that two layers of bricks closely cemented, on the top of that heavy sheet of lead. and on the top of that the soil placed-the soil 30 deep that Lebanon cedar had room to anchor its ro0tA 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 fountains spouting into the sky. Standing below and look ing up, 1t must have seemed as if the clouds were in blossom, or as though the sky leaned on the shoulder of cedar. All this Nebuchadnezzar did tc please his wife We'll. she ought to have been pleased. I suppose she was 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 observatory where astronomers talked to the stars. There was in that temple an image, just one image, which would cost what would be our $50, 900, ,00O
 Found wanting.
 Oh. what a cityl The earth never saw anything like it. never will see anything like 1t. and yeti have to tell you that it is going to be destroyed The king and his princes are at feast They are all intoxicated. Pour ont the rich wine into the chalicesl Drink to the health of the king Drink to the glory of Babylonl Drinksto a great flu turei A thousand lords reel intoxicated. The king seated upon a chair, with va cant look. as intoxicated men will with vacant look stared at the wall But soon that vacant look takes on in tensity, 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 that puts out the blaze of the golden plate. and out of the sleeve of the darkness there comes a fnger-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 pIastering 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 is followed by the breaking in of the doors A thousand gleaming knives strike into 1000 quivering hearts. Now death Is king. and he is seated on a throne of corpeea In that hall there is balance lifted. God swung it. On one side of the balance are put Belshazzar's oppor- tunities, on the other side of the bal ance are put Belshazzar's sins The sins come down. His opportunities go up Weighed in the balances-found want ing.
 No Perfect Balance.
 There has been a great deal of cheat ing in our country with false weights and measures and balances, and the government, to change that state of things, appointed commissioners whose business 1t was to stamp weights and measures and balances, and great deal of the wrong has been corrected. But still. after all, there is no such thing as a perfect balance on earth. The chain may break or some of the metal may be clipped or in some way the equipoise may be disturbed. You cannot always depend upon earthly balances. A pound is not always a pound, and you may pay for one thing and get another. but in the balance which is suspended to the throne of God. pound is pound and right is right and wrong is wrong and a soul is soul and eternity is eter- nifty. God has perfect bushel and a perfect peck and 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 be 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 that measure of oil. !" The farmer comes in from the country. He has apples to sell.