Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-08

stand the test, rises In the balances. 1t
does not make any difference about your
magnificent machinery A church is built
for one tting-to save souls. If 1t saves
few souls when it might save a multitude
OF souls, God will spew 1t out OF His mouth
Weighed and found wanting
So we perceive that God estimates ma
tions. How many times He has put the
Spanish monarchy into the scales and
found it insufficient and condemned It'll
OF the scales, and God weighed the French
empire, and Napoleon said: Have I not
enlarged the boulevards? Did I not kim
die the glories OF the Champs Elyees? Have
Inot adorned the Tuileries? Have not built
the gilded opera house? Then God weighed
the nation, and He put on one side the
scales the emperor aud the boulevards and
the Tuileries and the Champs Elysees and
the gilded opera house, and on the other
side He puts that mans denominations,
that mans libertinism, that mans selfish
ness, that mans goddess ambition. This
the scene vanished. What is that voice
coming up from Sedan? Weighed ana
found wanting!
But must become more individual and
more personal in my address. Some people
say they do not think clergymen ought tc
be personal In their religious address, but
ought to deal with subjects in the abstract.
/ do not think that way. What would you
think OF hunter who should go to the
Adirondacks to shoot deer in the abstract!
Ah no! He loads the gun; he puts the
butt of it against his breast, he runs his
eve along the barrel he takes sure aim.
and then crash go the antlers on the rocks!
And SO, If we want to be hunters for the
Lord, we must take sure aim and fire. Not
in the abstract are we to treat things In
religious discussions. Ii a physician comes
into n sickroom. does he treat disease in
III kl,4 Loo
takes the diagnosis. then he writes the
prescription. And if we want to heal souls
for this life and the life to come, we do not
want to treat them in the abstract. The
fact is, you and have a malady which. If
uncured by grace, will kill us forever.
Now, I want no abstraction. Where is the
balm? Where is the physician?
People say there is day of judgment
coming. Ny friends, every day is a day of
judgment, and you and to-day are being
canvassed inspected. weighed. Here are the
balances of the sanctuary. They are lifted.
and we must all be weighed Who will
come and be weighed first. Here Is a
moralist who volunteers. He is one of the
most upright men in the country. He
comes. "Well, my brother, get in-get
into the balances now and be weighed"
But as he gets into the balances l say.
'Wbat is that bundle you have along with
you?" "Oh," he says, "that is my reputa.
tion for goodness and kindness and charity
and generosity and kindiness generality
"Oh, my brother, we cannot weigh thatl
We are going to weigh you-you. Now
stand in the scales-you, the moraist
Paid your debts?" Yes you say, paid
all my debts" Have you acted in .1v an
yes" "Have you been kind to the poori
Are you faithful in thousand relations in
life?" "Yes." $50 far so good. But now,
before you get out of this scale want to
ask you two or three questions. Have your
thoughts always been right?" NO." you
you loved the Lord with all your heart and
soul and mind and strength" mo" you
say. Make another mark. Come now, be
frank and confess that in 10, 900 things you
have come short, have you not?" Yes"
Make 10000 marks. Come now, get me
the moralist's deficits. My brother, stand
in the scales, do not fly away from them. /
put on your side the scales all the good
deeds you ever did, all the kind words you
ever uttered. But on the other side the
scales put this weight which God says
must put thereon the other sidet the scales
and opposite to yours put this weight,
"By the deeds of the law shall no flesh liv.
ing be justified" Weighed and found want
Ing!
Still, the balances of the sanctuary are
suspended and we are ready to weigh any
who come. Who shall be the next. Well,
here is a Journalist He comes and he gets
into the balances, and as he gets in see
that all his religion is in genufiection and
in outward observances. AS he gets into
the scales say, "What is that you have in
this pocket?" "Oh" he says, "that is q
Westminster assembly catechism' say,
Every good. What have you in the other
Heidelberg catechism.' VERY good,
What is that you have un der your arm,
standing in this balance Of the sanctuary?'
"Oh!' he says. "that is church record
Very good. What are those books on your
side the balances?" "Oh!" he saws, "those
we are not weighing books, we are weigh.
ing you. 1t cannot be that you are de.
pending for your salvation upon your
orthodoxy. Do you not know that the
creeds and the forms Of religion are merely
the scaffo]ding for the building? You GER.
tainly are not going to mistake the scat
folding for the temple. Do yon not know
that men have gone to perdition with a
catechism in their pocketl" But" says
the man, II cross myself often.' "Ahl
that will not save you" But" says the
man, II am sympathetic for the poor"
THAT will not save you" Says the man,
II sat at the communion table," THAT
will not save YOU But" says the
man, II have had my name on the
church record" "That will not save YOU"
"But 1 have been professor OF religion
forty years." "That will not save you.
Stand there on your side the balances. and
will give you the advantage-I will let
you have all the creeds all the church rec
ords, all the Christian conventions that
we're ever held, all the communion tables
that were ever built, on your side the bal
ances. On the other side the balances
must put what God says l must put there.
put this 1000, 900 pound weight on tho
other side the balances, Having the form
Of godliness, but denying the power there.
Of" Weighed and found wanting!
Still the balances are suspended Are
there any others who would like to be
weighed or who will be weighed? Yes;
here comes worldling. He gets into the
scales. l can very easily see what his
whole life Is made up of. Stocks, dividends,
percentages, buyer ten days" "buyei
thirty days" sect in my friend, get into
these balances and be weighed-weighed
for this life and weighed for the life to
come" He gets in. find that the two
great questions in his life are, "How
eheaply can buy these goods2" and GLOW
dearly can l sell them2" I find ne ad-
mires heaven because it is a land OF gold,
and money must be ''easy." find, from
H.