Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-10-31

closed the mouths of the hungry wild |
beasts when his servant was thrown
into the lions den. Daniel, at the time |
of which l speak, was about eighty |
years of age. He could have testified |
and in all probability did testify to |
Belshazzar how the love of the true |
God had cared for his believing child, |
now for nearly fOurscore years. So |
the word written on the wall of that |
banquet hall was the record of a test.
Belshazzar's opportunities of leading a
godly life had been placed in one scale, !
and when the evil effects of the life
he did lead were put in the other scale
it had gone down like a fash. That
was the inevitable result. He had been
weighed in the balances and found
wanting.
My brother and sister, are you ready
to let God hold aloft the same balances
with which he weighed Belshazzars
life in the royal banquet hall Of Baby
Ion? Are you ready to let him weigh
the results Of your life? "Oh, no."
you answer; my life is nothing to
what it ought to be, when l think of
my past religious bringing up. No one
had a better and more consecrated
Christian mother than | have had. No
one today has a more cOnsecrated pray
ing wife than / have. Every night
even my little children pray for me
and yet I am unwilling to pray for
myself or do what ought to do" If
all this be true, then, my brother how
are you to escape the doom of him
who sat in Babylon's banquet hall!
You are being weighed in the balances
and found wanting.
The Influence of Prayer.
1t is an awful and heartrending sight
to see a man stand up and confess that
he has crushed out of his heart the re-
ligious influences which surrounded his
early life. l once heard Of an old man
who arose in a great religious meeting
and, facing the audience, said sub
stantially this: "Oh, my friends, / beg
Of you not to fight against the infu-
ences of the prayers that have been
uttered in your behalf. If you do, you
will live to regret it, as l have done.
l was brought up in a Christian home.
L
grew so rapidly that | drifted away
from church and from the Bible and
the family altar. / had little daugh-
| ter who was the idol Of my life. She
was at that time accustomed almost
every evening to go to neighbor's
| house. / reprOved her two OF three
times and at last whipped her for 60
/ -l,n 4sRl clio
and when she was flushed with the fe-
yer she called me to her side and said:
Papa, don't think l did wrong be-
| cause l wished to go over to Mr.. So
and-so's house. l went there for you.
You used to have family prayers, but
somehow you are too busy now to have
them, and my little schoolmate's papa
always has family prayers" said the
old man, with tears streaming down
his cheeks. my little daughter had
to tell that to me, who had once been
rocked in Christian cradle and reared
in q Christian home. She had to tell
that to me, a sinful man, when she
herself was about to take the long
Journey over the river Of death, from
which no traveller ever returns" II
you, 0 sinful man, fight against the
religious influences of your past life
you, like the aged, broken hearted par
ent, will live to regret it. When Coo
holds high his balances, he is going t
, weigh us in reference to our religious
opportunities. as he did when he weigh
! ed the sinful life of Belshazzar, the
! king of the Chaldeans.
r Gods balances weigh every individ
ual life irrespective Of the conduct o
! other people. 1t was no availing ex
cuse for Belshazzar to say that h
ought not to be weighed in Gods bal
ances and found wanting while Their
! were a thousand other drunken lord
? of the BabylOnish capital intOXicatet
n in the royal banquet hall. 1t was n
! legitimate excuse for the eastern rule
to raise, that his immoral, infamou
ways did not call for more severe col
> demnatlon than those of hundreds Q
eastern royal aristOcrats who wer
a loathsome with the same cameron
If sins. And yet there are thousands c
h fragrant sinners today who foolishl
!. think that God will overlook and pa
n don their evil practices merely becaus
y they are no worse than their next doc
# neighbors, no worse than the poop
a with whom they come in daily col
q tact They act as if they expected
- universal pardon for unrepentant sil
Is in spite of the fact that the Bible d
at rectly and emphatically declares. 'E
10 cry man shall die for his own sin
10 Human justice makes example Of CO.
ie spicuous criminals like John Wilk,
of Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz and the a
70 sassin Of President Carnot. each
to them perishing for his own crime, N
for the crimes of others, just as "
ot must perish. if you die impenitent, +
#. the sins you have individually col
he mitted, regardless Of what others ha'
ed done.
nd You Must BE Weighed.
no Gods balances weigh every indiVi