Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-10-27

done
You Must BE Weighed.
Gods balances weigh every individ-
ual at the times when he feels indie
pendent of God as well as when he
feels dependent upon the divine mercy.
Never in all his life did Belshazzar
consider himself more independent Of
his enemies than on the occasion of
this sinful feast. The capital of Baby
lon was stocked with provisions enough
to supply the city for many years. The
battering rams CT the besieging army
had made no impression at all upon
the bronzed gates. The walls were too
high to scale. For two long years the
Persian hosts had been conducting a
futile siege. But history tells that on
the night Of this famous feast, while
the king and his princes and thousand
aristocratic lords Of his kingdom were
drinking themselves drunk, Cyrus, see-
| ing his opportunity, turned aside the
course of the river Euphrates and in
| the early hours of the morning marched
along that river bed, under the great
bronze gates and along the great boule-
wards, until at last his soldiers, with
drawn swords, broke into that banquet
hall and changed the wassail of wine
into carnival of blood. So, my broth
er, at the very time when you feel you
are most secure and can sin with the
greatest safety, God is watching your
secret sin and he is decreeing that you
must die. Oh, man of sinful habit,
hearing tonight of Belshazzar's ban
quet hall, do you not feel that you can
never escape the scrutiny of Gods all
seeing eye, never be independent of
his memorable scales?
While we live Gods balances are
never put away. His all seeing eye is
never shut. Just before the battle of
Sorr, Frederick the Great gave an en-
phatic order that every light should be
put out and that no soldier should even
have a candle lighted in his tent. That
night the great Prussian general, as
was his custom, went prowling around
his camps to verify with his own eyes
whether his orders were obeyed. See
ing a light in a soldiers tent, he crept
up and looked in. There he saw sol
der with a lighted candle hidden be-
meath his knapsack writing a letter.
All that Frederick the Great said was
this: Young man, add postscript to
that letter which you have just writ
ten. Say: 'Goodby forever. l have
disobeyed my kings commands in or
der to write this letter. and by the or
der of King Frederick l shall be sho,
tomorrow" AS Frederick the Great
always kept his eye on his troops
Gods all seeing eye is always watch
ing us, even in the most secret Of
places. He watches us in the mos
sacred places of our chambers, in TIT
office, when we go down the street
wherever we may be. No sin is a sc
cret sin to God. He knows all and see
all. The same divine scales tina
weighed the sinful life of Belshazza
in the banquet hall of the Babylonisl
, capital are continually weighing us, n
matter where we may be.
Sins Balanced by Atonement.
But, though Gods balances may
condemning scales for the BelshaZZar
of sin, they may also become scales G
avails itself of Christ's atOnement.
. is not now question of how man
:. sins may be piled into the right scale
but rather OF whether we are willin
to place the atoning cross in the lief
l Though the sins of Gods waywar
: children may be mountains high an
T seas deep, yet that cross is able to on
[ weigh them all. In the Philadelphia
mint can be seen a pair of scales S
G perfectly adjusted that if speck {
, dirt falls into one of the scales or f
(, walks across the balancing bar owe
: hanging it that scale will sink. God
|: scales are perfectly adjusted spiritua
: ly. No matter how many or how gre;
, our sins may be, if we once place Il
i. cross of Jesus Christ into the scale o
1t posite to that which is piled high Wi
e our sins, we shall then be weighed
Il the balances and not found wanting.
K What q blessed and transporti1
Il thought this should be, that we CO
~ have all our sins outweighed! "
~ would not dare for one instant
~ preach a sermon upon Gods balanc
"a at Belshazzar's feast unless we cou
IL place the greatest emphasis upon tl
u idea. 1t would be appalling to DEPT
IL the horror of a sinners eternity, unle
IL at the same time we could offer pa
ie don for all sins to all people if th
& would only all be willing to be cleans
~ of their sins in the blood of the Lam
~ l once read of dramatic scene whe
u there was not enough physical saly
Us ton to go around. 1t was on the de
u of the United States man-ofwar TIRE
NC ton during the famous cyclone in t
Samoan harbor few years ago. Eve
W. officer and sailor had Invested hims,
u of all his outer garments because eve
moment they expected the huge 81
~ to go down, as many of the other "
o. sells had already been engulfed
=, fore their eyes. But though every m
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