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

Ing When be is weighed IN coos BAL
ances if he will only let the cross of
Jesus Christ be placed in the scale op-
posite to that which is piled high with
his past sins.
The entrance into BelshazZar'S ban
quet hall of sin is not one of unalloyed
joy. The poet tried to describe the
wild exultation of that feast when he
imaginatively wrote these words:
Oh, ne'er in Babylon did blaze a sight
More richly grand, magnificently bright;
Bearing his crown and dressed in robe Of
state,
! High on his throne of gold BelshazZar
safe;
In shining robes and stretching far away,
Like pillows quivering meath the sunset
ray,
! Chiefs, mobiles, stood, the red lamps float
| ing O er
The golden chains and purple robes they
! wore.
! The Lesson of the Feast.
But in all that vast throng there was
many a sad heart, many hopeless
despair. To me Belshazzars feast is
better described by the artist by whom
1 saw it pictured at Buffalo, N. Y, in
the worlds fair of 1901. Ushered into
a dark room, we sat there awhile in
total darkness. Then, by the magical
effects of lights, it slowly became
brighter and brighter, until, upon the
side of the wall, we could see dim fig
ures begin to form themselves. They
looked at first like hideous phantoms.
Then, as it became lighter and lighter
until the whole room glowed with
light, we saw the inside of huge
palace. There were the broad stairs
leading upward. There were the
bodies of men and women lying pros
trate upon the floor, amid overturned
tables and spilled decanters and
broken furniture. 1t was scene OF
grandeur, but also a scene OF filthy
bestialities. In the center Of the STAIR
case stood the Mortified king, with
strained eyes looking at the letters OF
fire burning themselves into the wall,
while off in the distance could be seen
the Persian soldiers with drawn
swords, ready to dilute the spilled wine
with human gore and to change the
floor into a reservoir of blood. Then
the lights of the room began to dim,
and it grew darker and darker and
blacker and blacker until at last il
seemed as though we were incarcer-
ated in the dungeons of the eternally
J lost and the destroyed.
} So when the would be sinner would
enter the banquet hall of sin he al
, WAYS goes there at first like one crop
ing about in the darkness, as fearing
that he may be walking upon the edge
of precipice. He enters with horror
and trembling, in terror and with tears
, Then in the midnight hour of the car
nival the banqueter in the hall of sill
sees that fatal handwriting upon thu
t wall You, o sinner, today see 1t
e You see it with Mortified eyes, as Bel
, shazzar saw it; you see it written b.
the dead fingers of those who hay
S lifted the same cup of death to thei
t lips that you are lifting at the presen
r time. Then, as in the room where
b saw the picture at the worlds fail
o you feel that it begins to grow darke
and darker. The light in the reveler'
eyes can no longer keep your courag
e up. Already in that darkness you ca
s see the advancing messengers of COD
# vengeance. 1t is horror at the openin
# of the banquet; it is horror in the mic
Il die of the banquet; it will be unuttel
U able horror at it's close when God sha
finally say to you, o sinner, Thou al
o. weighed in the balances and art foun
t. wanting"
d So. in closing, as plead with you
d fee from the banquet hall of sin,
toto nfh
n quet hall where Christ the Diyir
~ Bridegroom is to be married to til
If church. his bride. l would invite yO
~ into that banquet hall, which is file
r. with the great multitudes of the r
g deemed l would earnestly invite yo
L. to come, because there is vacal
# place at that gospel banquet tab
10 which. I am sure, has been reserve
n. for you. 1t is in the center of q gror
th of your loved ones 1t is right next
in your sainted mother and father al
wife and sister and child, and by tt
- looks of your loved ones | think thu
- are waiting for you. o sinaer, a
70 YOU ready today to leave the revele
70 OF sin and to quaff the water of LII
&c which will fit you for entrance amor
oS -, :
N the sainted hosts, or shall you, as a l
10 suit of this spurned gospel invitatio
- be weighed in the balances and ft
- ever found wanting? God is even no
- holding high the balances. May eve
-, one of us, by the power of the Ho
~ Spirit decide how the balances of O.
:, shall be moved! May we, one and
- decide that the scale of sin, throu
the countereailing weight of the cro
- shall go up and not go down!
IN ICopyright. 1902 Louis Klopsch, N. Y.
~
~ Not Color Blind.
ry r. ,. ,,,s+ hoon d;Soovored nresu
- ably by a French scientist, that