The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-28

near OF u IN VARIOUS places d eulOgIxe
his memory. and God win say to the as
cending spirit. ITO him that overcometh
will 1 give 80 eat of the tree Of life which
is in the midst Of the paradise Of God"
In the hour OF that souls release and en-
thronement there viii be heavenly accla-
nation, as in the royal balances 'the
Lord weiglleth the spirits"
Other balances may lack precision and
fail in counterpoise. Scales are affected
by conditions OF atmosphere and acid
vapors. After all that the nations nave
done to establish an invariable standard,
perfection has never yet been reached.
and never will be reached. But the royal
balances Of which l speak are the same
in heat and cold, in all weathers, in all
lands and in all the heavens-just and
true to the last point of justice and truth.
The same balance that weighed the
tempted spirit Of Adam under the fruit
tree, and the spirit OF Cain in the first as
sassination, and the spirit of courage in
Joshua during the prolonged daylight,
and the spirit Of cruelty in Jezebel, and
the spirit of grief in Jeremiah's lamenta-
ton, and the spirit of evangelism in
Paul between the road to Damascus,
where he first saw the light, and the road
to Ostia, the place Of his beheadment, is
weighing still and never yet has varied
from the right one milligram, which is
the one-six-thousandth part Of a grain.
The only perfect standard of weights and
measures ever established was established
in the heavens before the world was
made and will continue to do its work
after the world is burned up. To meas
ure the time we have calendars. To
measure the lightning we have the cleo
trometers. To measure the heat we have
the thermometers. To measure the at.
m%ospheric pressure we have the barom-
eters. To measure souls we have the
royal balances. The Lord weigheth the
spirits"
Weighed In Divine Scales.
In the same divine scales the spirit of
nations and civilizations is weighed.
Egyptian civilization did its work, but il
was cruel and superstitious and idolatrous
and defiant of the Almighty. 1t was cast
out and cast down. The tourist finds his
chief interest not in the generation that
now inhabits the regions watered by the
Nile and sprinkled by her cascades, but
IN the temples that are the skeletons of
ancient pride and pomp and power-her
obelisks, her cataconits, her mosques, the
colossus Of Rameses. the dead cities of
Memphis and Thebes, the temples of
Luxor and Karnak, the museum contain.
ing the mummified forms Of the pharaohs.
1t is not the Egypt of today that we sc
to see. but the Egypt of many centuries
ago.. Her spirit has departed. Her
doom was sealed. The Lord weighed he,
spirit.
Now cross over the Dardanelles OF
Hellespont and see Grecian civilization
put in the royal balances. Surely that is
an imperishable spirit. A land that pro-
duced a Pindar and a Homer in poetry, O
Sophocles and an -Eschylus in tragedy, a
Herodotus and Thucydides In history, q
Socrates and Plato in philosophy. a Stra
DO in geography. a Hippocrates in medi.
cine, q Xenophon in literature. q Plu.
tarch in biography. a Miltiades and an
Alexander in battle and could build q
temple of Diana at Ephesus and the
acro-Corinthus at Corinth and could
crown the Acropolis with a Parthenon-
surely such a land. with more genius CON
pressed in small space han in any of the
nations of all the ages, will stand forever
triumphant among surrounding nations.
No. Her pride Of heroics. her pride Of
literature. her pride of architecture, must
be brought down lower and lower. and
humiliation must follow humiliation until
in the latter part of the nineteenth centu-
~ she is compelled to submit to the out.
RACES of q sultan whose hands are red
with the blood Of $4,000 Armenians. Had
Athens prayerfully listened to Paul's ser.
mon on Mars hill and adopted his pre-.
cepts of brotherhood and divine worship
she would have stood in her old power
today, and all Greece would have stood
with her, and that civilization SO long
dead under the carved pillars of her
shrines and under the marble of her pen.
telican mountains would AVE been. per.
haps for all Asia and for much of Eu.
rope, a living civilization. But for her
arrogance she was cast out and cast
down. The Lord weighed her spirit.
Wander along the banks of the Tiber,
and you come to another civilization
which is put in the royal balances-the
Roman civilization. Its capital was the
mistress of the world. Surely here is
something that will last as long as the
earth continues to swing in it's orbit.
Here Caesar reigned and Trajan and Ii.
tus and Constantine brought home their
victorious armies. Here stood glittering
in the sun the Coliseum. combining in it's
architecture the best Doric. Ionic and
Corinthian. $1,000 spectators gazing upon
the gladiators in bloody struggle. Look.
That is Michael Angelo on a scaffold
penciling the facade of a palace. Hear.
That is the voice Of Marcus Tullius Gle
erO in the defense Of Archias. Now lis
ten to the laughter of Terence in iinmor,
tai comedy. What rich aroma: 1t is
waited from the gardens of Saiiust. f:e-
hold the splendor of the Augus.an age.
Hear the rustling of the historical pages
Of Livy and the odes of Horace and Vir.
gil's "Eneid." Behold her system OF
laws. which have been the foundation OF
good laws all the world over! But the
empire was plunged into extravaganza
and dissoluteness and it takes the four
great volumes of Gibbon to describe her
decadence. The Goths. the Huns. the
Tartars. Tamerlane. Attila and Alaric
helped in the demolition. We go there
now to see her ruins. Coliseum in ruins
Forum in ruins. Caesars palace in ruins
Baths OF Titus in ruins. Appian way in
ruins Catacombs in ruins Temple OF
Nopfupo In wilma MouooIoum ~ Ho.