The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-06-29
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, JUNE %, 1899.

be clipped, or in some way the eoui-
poise may be disturbed. You cannot al
ways 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 suspended
to the throne of God a pound is a pound,
and right is right, and wrong is wrong,
and soul is a 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: $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 imper-
rect measure. God recognizes it.. He
says to the recording angel: MARK
down SO many apples too few-an inn
perfect measure" We may cheat our
selves, and we may cheat the world, but
we cannot cheat God, and in the great
day OF judgment it will be found out
that what we learned in boyhood at
school is correct-that 20 hundred
make ton and 120 solid feet make a
cord of wood. No more, no less. And
a religion which does not take hold of
this life as well as the life to come is no
religion at all.
But, my friends, that is not the style
OF balances l am to speak of to-day;
that is not the kind of weights and
measures. / am to speak of that kind
OF balances which weigh principles,
weigh churches, weigh men, weigh ma
tions and weigh words. ''What!'' you
say, lis it possible that our world is to
be weighed?" Yes. Why, you would
think if God put on one side of the bal
ances suspended from the throne the
Alps and the Pyrenees and the Hima-
ayasand Mount Washington and all the
cities of the Garth they would crush it.
No, no! The time will come when God
will sit down on the white throne to
see the world weighed, and on one side
will be the worlds opportunities and
on the other side the worlds sins.
Down will go the sins, and away will
go the opportunities, and God will say
to the messengers with the torch:
"Burn that world! Weighed and found
wanting!"
T. - 3 TO-
So God will weigh churches. He takes
great church. That church, great ac-
cording to the worldly estimate, must
be weighed. He puts it on one side the
balances and the minister and the choir
and the building that cost its hundreds
of thousands of dollars. He puts them
on one side the balances. On the other
side of the scale He puts what that
church ought to be, what it's consecra
tion ought to be, what its sympathy for
the poor ought to be, what its devotion
to all good ought to be. That is on
one side. That side comes down, and
the church, not being able to stand the
test, rises in the balance. 1t does not
make any difference about your mag
nificent machinery. A church is built
for one thing-to save souls. If it saves
a few souls when it might save multi
tude of souls, God will spew it out of
His mouth. Weighed and found want
ing!
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!
The French empire was placed on one
side of the scales, and God weighed the
French empire, and Napoleon said:
s'Have l not enlarged the boulevards?
Did not kindle the slories OF the
Champs Elysees? Have / not adorned
the Tuileries? Have 1 not built the
gilded opera house?" Then God
weighed the nation, and He put on cne
side the scales the emperor, and 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 selfishness, that
mans goddess ambition. This last
came down, and all the brilliancy of the
scene vanished. What is that voice
coming up from Sedan? Weighed and
found wanting!
But must become more individual
and more personal in my address. Some
people say they do not think clergymen
ought to be personal in their religious
address, but ought to deal with subjects
in the abstract. I do not think that
way. What would you think of hunter
who should go: to the Adirondacks to
shoot deer in the abstract? All, no!
He loads his 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. If q
physicians comes into sick room, does
he treat disease in the abstract? No:
he feels the pulse, makes 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