Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-10-31


the results of your life? "oh, no."
you answer; "my life is nothing TO
what IL ought to be. when i think or
my past religious bringing up. No one
had better and more consecrated
Christian mother than l 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 ! am unwilling to pray for
myself or do what ought 20 do" If
all this be true, then. my brother, how
are you to escape the doom OF him
who sat I'm 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. l beg
OF you not to fight against the infiu-
ences of the prayers that have been
uttered in your behalf. If you do, you
will live to regret IL, as l have done.
l was brought up in Christian home.
After | came to the city my business
grew SO rapidly that l 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 80 to u neighbours
house. reproved her two or three
times and Mt last whipped her for go-
ing. That hight she was taken sick.
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 a 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. o sinful man, fight against the
religious influences of your past life,
you. like the aged, broken hearted par
ent, will live to regret IL. When God
holds high bis balances, he is going to
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.
Gods balances weigh every individ-
ual life irrespective Of the conduct OF
other people. 1t was no awaiting ex-
cuse for Belshazzar TO say that he
ought not 10 be weighed In Gods bal
ances and found wanting while there
were n thousand other drunken lords
OF tie Babylonish capital intoxicated
in the royal banquet hall. 1t was no
legitimate excuse for the eastern ruler
to raise, that his immoral, Infamous
ways did not call for more severe con-
demnation than those OF hundreds Of
eastern royal aristocrats who were
loathsome with the same cancerous
sins. And yet there are thousands OF
fragrant sinners today who foolishly
don their evil practices merely because
they are no worse than their next door
neighbors. no worse than the people
with whom they come In daily con-
tact. They act as IL they expected a
universal pardon for unrepentant sin,
in spite OF the fact that the Bible d.
rectly and emphatically declares, "Ev-
cry man shall die for his own SIM"
Human justice makes example OF con-
spicuols criminals like John Wilkes
Booth, Gulteau. Czol-osz and the as
sassin OF President Carnot. each OF
them perishIng for his own crime not
for the crimes OF others. just as you
must perish. if you die impenltent. for
the sins you have individually COM
mitted, regardless OF what others have
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
Ion was stocked with provisions enough
to supply the city for many years. The
battering rams OF the besieging army
had made no impression at all upon
the bronzed gates. The walls were too
nigh TO scale. For two long years the
PERSIAN hosts had been conducting
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, ut 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 Belshazxar'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 eve 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 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 light in soldiers tent, he crept
up and looked in. There he saw q SOL
dier with lighted candle hidden be-
meath his knapsack writing a letter.
All that Frederick the Great said was
THIS: Young man, add a postscript TO
that letter which you have Just writ
ten. Say: 'Goodby forever. I have
Nc.Nl. ~a1 IA.