The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-05-27


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-
feet measure. God recognizes it. He
says to the recording angel: MARK
down so many apples too few-an i'm
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 ii will be found out
that what we learned in boyhood ut
school is correct-that 20 hundred
make a ton and 100 solid feet make n
cord of wood. No more, no less. And
religion which does not take hold of
this life MS 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, sis 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-
layas and Mount Washington and all the
cities of the earth they would crush it.
No, no! The time will come when God
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!"
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-
ton 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
nificcnt machinery. a church is built
for one thiEg-to save souls. If it saves
a few souls when it might save u multi
tude of souls, God Will spew it out of
His mouth. Weighed and found want
ing.
So we perceive that God estimates ma
tons. 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:
Have | not enlarged the boulevards?
Did | not kndle the glories of the
Champs Elysces? Have | not adorned
the Tuieries? Have l not built the
gilded opera house?" Then God
weighed the nation, and lie put on one
side the scales the emperor, and the
boulcvards, and the Tuilerics. 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
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 eye
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
fire. Not in the abstract are we to treat
things in religious discussions. If a
physician comes into a 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
them in the abstract. The fact is, you
and / have n malady which, if incurred
by grace, will kill us forever. Where is
the balm? Where is the physician?
Still the balances are suspended. Are
there any others who would like to be
weighed or who will be weighed? Yes;
here comes wording. lie gets into
the scales. | can very easily see what
his whole life is made up of. Stocks,
dividends, percentages, "buyer ten
days." buyer 30 days" Get in my
friend; get into those balances and be
weighcd-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 cheaply can buy
these goods?" and "IIow dearly can |
sell them?" / find he admires Heaven
because it is land of gold and money
must be ''easy." l find, from talking
with him, that religion and the Sabbath
are an interruption, vulgar Interrupt