Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-05-22

WASHINGTON, May 21.-In these days
of moral awakening this pointed SER
mon by DR.. Talmage on personal re-
sponsibility before God will be read
with deep and solemn interest; text,
Daniel V, 81, IfThou art weighed in
the balance and art found wanting.
Babylon was the paradise of archi-
lecture, 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,
2, 200, 600 men were employed in the
rearing of her walls and the building
of her works. 1t was city 60 miles in
circumference There was a trench all
around the city, from which the ma
terial for the building of the city had
been digged. There were 30 gates on
leach side of the city; between every
two gates tower of defense springing
into the skies; from each gate on the
ione side, street running straight
through to the corresponding gate or
the other side, so that there were so
streets / 5 miles long. Through the city
ran branch of the river Euphrates.
This river sometimes overfiowed it's
banks, and, to keep it from running the
city, 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
half miles around
The wife of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS had been
born and brought up in the country,
and in a mountainous region, and she
could not bear this fat district of
Babylon, and so, to please his wife,
Nebuchadnezzar built in the midst of
the city mountain 400 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 a layer of reeds and
lbitumen, on the top of that two layers
Of bricks closely cemented, on the top
of that heavy sheet of lead. and on
the top of that the soil placed-the soil
SO deep that 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, as it was called,
so that there were fountains spouting
into the sky. Standing below and look
ing up, it must have seemed as if the
clouds were in blossom, or as though
the sky leaned on the shoulder of
cedar All this Nebuchadnezzar did to
please his wife Well, she ought to
have been pleased. I suppose 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 mile high, in
which there was an observatory where
astronomers talked to the stars. There
was in that temple an image, just one
Image which would cost what would
be our $50, 600, 900.
Found Wanting.
Oh, what a ethyl The earth never
saw anything like it, 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 feast.
They are all intoxicated. Pour out the
rich wine into the chalicesl Drink to
the health of the kingl Drink to the
glory of Babylonl Drink to great fu
furel A thousand lords reel intoxicated.
The king seated upon chair, with va
cant look, as intoxicated men will
with vacant look stared at the wall
But soon that vacant look takes on in
tensity, 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 finger-a
finger of fiery terror circling around
and circling around as though it would
write, and then it comes up and with
sharp tip of fame it inscribes on the
plastering Of 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
I, 600 quivering hearts Now death is
king, and he is seated on a throne of
corpses- In that hall there is balance
lifted. God swung it. On one side of
the balance are put Belshazzar's oppor-
tnnities, on the other side of the bal
ance are put Belshazzars sins. The sins
come down. His opportunities go up.
Weighed in the balances-found want
ing.
No Perfect Balance.
There has been great deal of cheat
ing in our country with false weights
and measures and balances, and the
government, to change that state of
things, appointed commissioners whose
business it was to stamp weights and
measures and balances, and great deal
of the wrong has been corrected. But