The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-05-24

OF DhldnceS WHICH NtlSH pilhCipiCS,
weigh churches, weigh men, weigh ma
tions and weigh words. "Whatl" you
say, ais 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-
layasand Mount Washington and all the
cities 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 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
De 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 its 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
nifcent 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 1t 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 l not enlarged the boulevards? |?
Did / not kindle the glories of the
Champs Elysees? Have l not 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, 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 selfshness, that
mans goddess ambition. This last
came down, and all the briliiancy 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. do not think that
way. What would you think of a hunter
who should go to the Adirondacks to
shoot deer in the abstract? All, MOI
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
the Lord, we must take sure aim and
fire. Not in the abstract are we to treat
things in religious discussions. If
physician 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
them in the abstract. The fact is, YOU
and have a malady which, if uncured
by grace, will kill us forever. Where is
the balm? Where is the physician?
People say there is day of judgment
coming. My friends, every day is a day
of judgment, and you and to-day are
being canyassed, 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. lie is one of the most up
right 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 / say:
What is that bundle you have along
with you?" "0h," he says, that is my
reputation for goodness and Kindness
and charity and generosity and llindli-
ness generally" "0h, my brother, we
cannot weigh that; we are going to
weigh you-you. Now stan9, in the
scales-you, the moralist. Paid your
debts?" "Yes," you say, paid all my
debts" "Have you acted in an upright
way in the community" "Yes, yes"
Have you been kind to the poor? 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 ques-
tions. Have your thoughts always been
right?" NO" you say; "no." Put
down one mark. Have you loved the
Lord with all your heart and soul and
mind and strength ?' NO" you say.
Make another mark. Come, now, be
frank, and confess that in ten thou
sar-l things you have come short-have
you not?" "Yes." Make ten thousand
marks. Come, now, get me a book
large enough to make the record of the