The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-02
CANNOT CHEAT GOD.
HE WILL WEIGH Qua ACTS WITH
PERFECT BALANCES.
Opportunities shall be Measured
Against Sins-Dr. Talmags says We
Shall BE Held Personally RESPONSE
bic for Our shortcomings.

Copyright, LOUIS hlOpScn, 1881
In these days of moral awakening
this pointed sermon by DIR. Talmage
on personal responsibility before God
will be read with a deep and solemn
interest: text, Daniel V, q, Thou 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,
1000, 900 men were employed in the
rearing OF her walls and the building
of her works. 1t was a 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 70 gates on
each side OF the city; between every
two gates a tower OF defense sprlng1ng
into the skies; from each gate on the
one side, a. street running tralgn
through to the corresponding gate on
the other side, 50 that there were 30
streets Is miles long. Through the city
ran a branch of the river Euphrates.
This river sometimes overlooked its
banks, and, to keep it 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 the Euphrates there was a palace
the one palace a mile and a half
around, the other palace seven and a
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 nat district Of
Babylon, and SO, to please his wife,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS built in the midst of
the city a 400 feet high. This
mountain was built out into terraces
supported on arches. On the top of
these arches a layer of fla stones, on
the top of that a layer of reeds and
bitumen, on the top of that two layers
of bricks closely cemented, on the top
of that a heavy sheet OF lead, and OH
the top Of that the SOIL ~pfaced-the soil
so deep that a Lebanon cedar had room
to anchor it's roots. There were pumps
worked by mighty machinery, fetching
up the water from the EuphrateS to
InlS HdISltlS SdTueu, d. II was CdlISu,
so that there were fountains SpOutlng
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 a
cedar. All this Nebuchadnezzar did to
please his wife. Well, she ought to
have been pleased. 1 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 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 $780, 600, 900.
FOUND WANTING.
Oh. what a city. The earth never
saw anything like it, never will see
anything like it, and yet / AVE 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 flu
ture! A thousand lords reel Intoxicated.
The king seated upon a 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 IN affrighted look,
and all the princes begin to look and
wonder what is the matter, and they
look at the same point or 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-a
finger of fiery terror circling around
and circling around as though it woul
write, and Their it comes up and with
sharp tip of flame 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 a thousand quivering
hearts. Now death is king, and he is
seated on a throne of corpses. In that
hall there is a 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
Belshazzar's sins. The sins come Town.
His opportunities go UP. Weighed in
the balances-found wanting.
NO PERFECT BALANCE.
There has been a great deal of cheat
ing in our country with false weights
and measures n 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 nc such
thing as a perfect break or some Of
the metal may he clipped or in some
way the equipoise may be disturbed.
You cannot always depend upon earth
ly balances. A pound is not always a
pound, and you may pay for one thing
and get another, but in the balance
which is suspended to the throne Of
God, a pound is a pound, and right is
right and wrong is wrong and a soul
is a soul and eternity is eternity. God
has a perfect bushel n a perfect peck
and 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 mer-
chant pours out what pretends to be a
gallon of oil, and there is less than a
gallon, God knows it, and He calls upon
His recording angel to mark it, Sc
much wanting in that Measure of OIL
The farmer comes in from the country
he has apples to sell. He has an i'm
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