The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-02

ances, and 1 will give you the advant-
age-I will let o hav all the creeds,
all h church records, all the Christian
conventions that were ever held, all the
communion tables hat were ever built,
on your side the balances. On the other
side the balances I must put what God
says I must put there. I put this 1,OOO,-
600 pound weight on the other side the
balances, Having the form of godli-
ness, ut denying the power thereof"
Weighed n found wanting!
TWO GREAT QUESTIONS.
Still the balances are suspended. Are
weighed or who will be weighed? Yes;
here comes a wording. He gets into
the scales. l can very easily see what
his whole life is made up of. Stocks,
dividends, percentages, buyer ten
days." buyer thirty days" Get in,
my friend, get into these balances and
be weighed-weighed for this life and
weighed for the life to come" He gets
in. I find that the two great questions
in his life are, How cheaply can I buy
these goods?" and How dearly can I
sell them?" 1 find he admires heaven
because it as a land Of golo, and money
Il be easy" 1 find, from talking
with him, that religion and the Sab
bath are an interruption, a vulgar in
terruption, and he hopes on the way to
church to drum up a new customer!
ALI the week he has been weighing
fruits, weighing meats, weighing ice,
weighing Goals, weighing CONNECTIONS,
weighing worldly and perishable com
modities, not realizing the fact that he
himself has been. weighed. ION your
side the balances, 0 wording! I will
give you full advantage. I put on your
side all the banking houses, all the
storehouses, all the cargOes, all the in
Surance companies, all the factories, all
the silver, all the gold, all the money
vaults, all the safe deposits-all on
your side. But it does not add one
ounce, for at the very moment We are
congratulating you on your fine house
and upon your princely income God and
the angels are writing in regard to
your. soul, Weighed and found want
ing!'"
But 1 must go faster and speak Of
the final scrutiny. The fact, is, my
friends. we are moving on amid aston
ishing realities. These pulses which
now are drumming the march of life
may, after awhile, call a halt. We walk
on a hair hung bridge over chasms. All
around us are dangers lurking, ready
to spring on us from ambush. We lie
down at night, not knowing whether
we shall arise in the morning. We start
our for u occupations, not knowing
whether we shall come back. Crowns
being FURNISHED for thy brow or bolts
forged for thy prison. Angels of light
ready to shout at thy d~eliverance or
fiends Of darkness stretching out skele-
ton hands to pull thee down into ruin
cOnSummate!
BEFORE THE JUDGE.
Suddenly the judgment will be here.
The angel with one foot on the sea and
n other foot ON the land will swear by
Him that fiveth forever and ever that
time shall be no longer: Behold, He
cometh with clouds, and every eye shall
see Him." Hark to the EARRING of the
mountains. Why, that is the setting
down of the scales, the balances. And
then there is a flash as If from a cloud,
but it is the glitter of the shining bal
ances, and they are hoisted, and all ma
lions are to be weighed. The unforgiven
! get in on this side the balances. They
may have weighed themselves and pro-
nounced a fiattetring decision. The
world may have weighed them and pro-
them moral. Now they are
being weighed in Gods balances-the
balances that can make no mistake. AL
the property gone, all the titles of dis
tinction gone. all the worldly successes
gone. There is a soul, absolutely moth
ing put a SOU, an immortal soul. a new
er dying soul. a soul stripped of all
worldly advantages, a soul on one side
the scales. On the other side the bal
ances are wasted Sabbaths, disregarded
sermons, 10000 opportunities Of mercy
n pardon that were cast aside. They
are on the other side the scales, and
there God stands, and in the presence
of men and devils, cherubim and arch
angel He announces, while groaning
earthquake and cracking conflagration
and judgment trumpet and everlasting
storm repeat it, weighed and found
wanting"
IN THE SCALES.
But, say some who are Christians:
Certainly you on mean to say that
we will have to get into the balances?
Our sins are all pardoned, our title to
heaven is secure. Certainly you are not
going to put us in the oalances?"
Yes, my brother. We must all appear
before the judgment seat Of Christ. and
ON that day o are going to be weigh
ed. Oh, follower of Christi you get into
h balances. The bell Of the Judgment
is ringing. You must get into the bal
ances. You get in On this side. On the
other side the balances We will place all
the opportunities OF good which you did
not improve, all the attainments in
piety which you might have had, but
which you refused to take. We place
them all on the other side. They go
You cannot weigh against all those i'm
' perfectons. Well, then, we must give