Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-05-31
SERMONS Of The DAY.
Preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage.
Copyriqht, Louis klopseh 1899

S0Ryft40S, LOUIS Nb0RSCO t0SS
Subject: ''You Can't Cheat God"-He VIII
Weigh Our Acts With Perfect balances
opportunities Measured Against Sins
-Personal Responsibility For Errors.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WARRINGTON, D. C.-In these days OF
moral awakening this pointed sermon by
DR.. Talmage on personal responsibility be-
tore God will be read with deep and SOL
smn interest; text, Daniel ", 27, "Thou
art weighed in the balance and found
wanting"
Babylon was the paradise OF architecture,
and driven out from thence the grandest
buildings OF modern times are only the
evidence Of her fall. The site having been
selected for the city, 1900. 900 men were
employed In the rearing of her walls and
the building Of her works. 1t was a city
sixty miles in circumference. There was a
trench all around the city, from which the
material for the building Of the city had
been digged. There were twenty-five
gates on each side of the city; between
every two gates tower Of defense spring.
ing into the skies; from each gate on
the one side, a street running straight
through to the corresponding gate on the
other side, so that there were fifty streets
fifteen miles long. Through the city ran a
branch of the river Euphrates. This river
sometimes overfiowed its banks. and, to
keep 1t 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 a half miles
around.
Tho ,,isa ~ Nobncbodna7zor boa hoon
born and brought up in the country, and
in a mountainous region, and che could
not bear this fiat district Of Babylon, and
30, to please his wife, Nebuchadnezzar
built in the midst of the city a mountain
900 feet high. This mountain was built out
into terraces supported on arches. On the
top of these arches LAYER OF fiat stones
on the top Of that layer of reeds and BIZ
tumen, on the top of that two layers OF
bricks closely cemented, on the top
of that a heavy sheet of lead, and on
the top Of that the soil placed 1.-The soil
SO deep that a Lebanon cedar had room
to anchor its roots. There were pumps
worked by mighty machinery, fetching
up the water from the Euphrates to
this hanging garden. rs it was called,
so that there were fountains spoutinS into
the sky. Standing below and looking up,
1t must have seemed as II the clouds were
In blossom, or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder Of a cedar. All this Nebuchad-
neZZar did to please his wife. Well, she
ought to have been pleased. Isuppose 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 IA mile high, in which
there was an observatory where astrono-
mers talked to the stars There was in
that temple an image, just one image,
which would cost what would be our $780,
O0O, 600.
oh, what a cityl The earth never saw
anything like 1t. never will see anything
like it, and yet have to tell you that it is
going to be destroyed. The king and his
princes are at a feast. They are all intoxi-
Gated. Pour out the rich wine into the
chalicesl Drink to the health of the king
great futureI Athousand lords reel intoxi-
Gated. The king seated upon a chair, with
vacant look, as intoxicated men will-with
vacant look stared at the wall. Bnt soon
that vacant look takes on intensity, 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 darkness
into the room that puts out the blaze OF
the golden plate, and out OF the sleeve OF
the darkness there comes a iinger-a finger
of the fiery terror circling around and cir
cling around as though it would write, and
then it comes up and with sharp tip OF
flame 1t inscribes on the plastering on 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 cleaning knives
strike into 1000 quiveriDg hearts. Now
death is king, and he is seated on throne
OF corpses. In that hall there is balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side Of the
balance are put Belshazzar's opportunities
on the other side of the balance are put
pol ho1 Tho Gina down
His opportunities go up. Weighed in ths
balances-found wanting.
There has been a great deal of cheating
in our country with false weights ano
measures and balances, and the Govern
ment, to change that state OF things, an
pointed Commissioners, whose business II
was to stamp weights and measures ano
balances, and a great deal of the wrong
has been corrected. hut still, after all
there is no such thing as 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 can
not always depend upon earthly balances.
pound Is not always a pound, and you
may pay for one thing and get another,
but. In the balance which is suspended &c
the throne OF God, pound is a pound and
right is right and wrong is wrong and a
soul is q soul and eternity is eternity.
God has q perfect bushel and a per-
feet peck and q perfect gallon. When
merchants weigh their goods in the
wrong way, then the Lord weighs the
goods again. II from the imperfect
measure the merchant pours out what pre-
tends to be a gallon Of oil, and there is less
than q gallon, God knows 1t, and He calls
upon His recording angel to mark it, CSC
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 imperfect measure. God recognizes
it. He says to the recording angel, "Mark
down so many apples too few-an imper
feet measure" We may cheat ourselves
and we may cheat the world, but we can
not cheat God, and in the great day o
Judgment it will be found out that what
we learned in boyhood at school is correct:
that twenty hundredweiGht makes a ton,
and 100 solid feet make a cord of wood. Nc
more. no less, and n religion which does
not take hold of this life. as we'll as the life
to come, is no religion at all.
But, my friends, that is not the style OF
balances 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 nations and weigh worlds
'Whatp' you say. SIS it possible that ouI
world is to be weighed?" Yes. Why, you
would think II God put on one side of the
balances suspended from the throne the
Alps and the PyreEees and the Himalayas
and Mount washington ana all the citles
OF the earth 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 60 the sins
and away will go the opportunities and
God will say to the messengers with the
torch: "Burn that world Weighed and
found wantingi"
So God will weigh churches. He takes a
great church. That church, great accord
ing to the worldly estimate, must be
| weighed. He puts it on one side the bal
ances and the minister and the choir and
the building that cost its hundreds OF thou
, sands Of dollars. He puts them on one
side the balances. On the other side of the
scale He puts what that church ought tc
| be, what its conservation 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 come
down, and the church, not being able t,
! stand the test, rises In the balances. /