St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-06-24
IN GODS BALANCES.
Human Lives and Actions Weighed
in the Divine Scales.
DR.. TalnaEe breaches on Personal
Responsibility, Taking His Text
from the Handwriting ON
the wall ut Babylon.

DR.. TalnaEe breaches ON Personal
Responsibility, Taking His Text
from the Handwriting on
the Wall at Babylon.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopschl
Washington.
In these days of moral awakening
this pointed sermon by DIR. Talmage on
personal responsibility before God viii
be read with a deep and solemn inter
est. Text, Daniel 5:21: Thou arr
weighed in the balances 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, 2.0oo,-
GOO men were employed in the rearing
of her walls and the building of her
works. 1t was city 60 miles in circum-
ference. There was trench all around
the city. from which material for the
building of the city had been digged.
There were 25 gates on each side of the
city, between every two gates tower
of defense springing into the skies,
from each gate on the one side street
running straight through to the CORE
spending gate on the other side, SO that
there were so streets Is miles long.
Through the city ran branch of the
river Euphrates. This river sometimes
overflowed its banks, and to keep it
from running the city lake was con-
strrcted 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 spanning this Euphrates there
| was palace the one palace mile and
half around. the other palace ~
| miles around.
/ The wife of Nebuchadnczzcr had been
born and brought up in the country and
i'm a mountainous region. and she could
not bear this fiat district of Babylon,
| and so. to please his wife, Nebuchadnez-
gar built i'm the midst of the city a
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
| LAYER of reeds and bitumen. on the top
of that two layers of bricks closely cc-
mented, 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 foun-
tains spouting into the sky. Standing
below ard looking up, it must have
seemed as if the clouds were in bios
som or as though the sky leaned on
the shoulder of cedar. All this Neb-
uchadnezzar did to please his wife.
Well, she ought to have been pleased.
I suppose she was pleased. II that
would not please her, nothing would.
There was in that city also the temple
of Bleus, with towers-one tower the
eighth Of a 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 $52,-
DOC, 900.
Oh, what city! The earth never saw
anything like it, never will see any
thing 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 intoxicated. Pour out the
rich wine into the chalices! Drink to
the health of the king. Drink to the
glory of Babylon! Drink to a great fu-
ture! A thousand lords reel intoxi-
Gated The king seated upon chair,
with vacant look. as intoxicated men
will-with vacant look stared at the
wall. But 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 a darkness into
the room that puts out the blaze of
the golden plate, and out of the sleeve
of the darkness there comes a finger
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 thousand
quiyering hearts. Now death is king,
and he is seated upon 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-
tunities: on the other side of the hal
ance are put Belshazzar's sins. The sins
come down. His opportunities 70 up.
Weighed in the balances-found want |
ing.
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 a great deal |
of the wrong has been corrected. But |
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 equi- |
Poise may be disturbed. You cannot al |
ways depend upon earthly balances. |
A pound is not always pound, and you |
may pay for one thing and get another.
but in the balance which is suspended |
to the throne of God pound is pound,
and right is right, and wrong is wrong,
and soul is a soul, and eternity is eter-
nifty. God has a perfect bushel and q
perfect peck ard a perfect gallon.
When merchants weigh their goods in
the wrong way, then the Lord weighs
the goods again. If from the imperfect
measure the merchant pours out what
oretends to be gallon of oil and there
Is less than gallon, God knows it, and
He calls upon His recording angel to
mark it: so 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 imper-