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

his SlQS OIL COuulSSlOu, puI dioo a. ~
what he might have accomplished for
God had he applied himself for his Di-
vine Master as he should have done.
The Scales of God.
When God in this royal banquet hall
of Babylon held high the balances with
which he weighed Belshazzar, the king
of the Chaldeans, God weighed that
life by a standard entirely different
from that with which he would weigh
the life of an ignorant, brutal African
cannibal, taught from the days of his
youth that it was right and honorable
to eat the roasted flesh of his captives
and slaves. God placed in one of the
scales Of his balances all Belshazzar's
infinite opportunities for doing good as
the mighty ruler of the wealthiest cap
ital of the east. God placed in that
one scale all Belshazzar's opportunities
for. knowing and learning about the
true God and his divine love- Bel
shazzar was not, as some suppose, the
heather ruler of heather nation. He
was the grandson Of the Nebuchadnez-
Ear whose famous prime minister was
Daniel, the mighty man of God. In
all probability he had heard from Dan
ieIs own lips the commandments of
the God of the Jews, and how that
God had protected the prophet and
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 test.
Belshazzar's opportunities of leading
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 flash. That
was the inevitable result. He had been
weighed in the balances and found
wanting.
NV brother and sister, are you ready
to let God hold aloft the same balances
with which he weighed Belshazzar's
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 q better and more consecrated
Christian mother than l have had. No
one today has a more consecrated pray
ing wife than l have. Every night
even my little children pray for me
and yet l am unwilling to pray for
myself or do what l ought to do" Ii
all this be true, then, my brother, how
are you to escape the doom of him
who sat in Babylon's banquet hail.
You are being weighed in the balances
and found wanting.
The Influence of Prayer.
, 1t is an awful and heartrending sigh
to see q man stand up and confess thai
he has crushed out of his heart the re
: ligious influences which surrounded hi
, early life. | once heard of an old maj
7 who arose in q great religious meeting
} and. facing the audience. said sub
stantially this: "Oh, my friends, be,
, of you not to fight against the inf1u
2 ences of the prayers that have beer
. uttered in your behalf. If you do, yo'
} will live to regret it, as | have done
, l was brought up in Christian home
g After | came to the city my bushes
grew so rapidly that | drifted ava,
4 from church and from the Bible am
j the family altar. l had a little daugE
b ter who was the idol of my life. Sh
s was at that time accustomed almos
+ every evening to go to neighbor'
), house. l reproved her two or thre
p times and at last whipped her for g
+ ing. That night she was taken sicl
and when she was flushed with the fl
yer she called me to her side and sale
d Papa, don't think l did wrong b.
# cause wished to go over to Mr.. s.
q and-sos house. | went there for yo1
]. You used to have family prayers bl
l. somehow you are too busy now to hay
= them, and my little schoolmate's par
y always has family prayers, said Il
D. old man, with tears streaming dow
d his cheeks. My little daughter ha
ir to tell that to me, who had once be-
ii rocked in Christian cradle and rear'
r. in a Christian home. She had to tt
Dr. that to me. sinful man, when 81
IF herself was about to take the lO1
st Journey over the river of death, fro
ID which no traveller ever returns"
TO you. o sinful man, fight against t
ne religious influences of your past lii
as you. like the aged, broken hearted pc
at ent, will live to regret it. When q
he holds high his balances, he is going
is weigh us in reference to our religio
lis opportunities, as he did when he weie
of ed the sinful life of BelshazZar, t
vo king of the Chaldeans.
to Gods balances weigh every indiv
ual life irrespective of the conduct
at other people. 1t was no availing {
# cuse for Beshazzar to say that
no ought not to be weighed in Gods
ed ances and found wanting while thu
nd were a thousand other drunken lOl