The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1903-01-23
FARMvILLE, va, FRIDAY, JANUARY %, 1903

even my little children pray Tor me
. and yet l am unwilling TO pray for
myself or do what ought 10 do II
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.
1t is an awful and heartrendlng sight
10 see a man stand up and confess that
he has crushed out Of his heart the re-
llgious 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 inhu
ences Of the prayers that have been
uttered in your behalf If you do, you
will live to regret 1t, as | have done.
! was brought up in a Christian home.
After | came to the city my business
grew so rapidly that ! drifted away
from church and from the Bible and
the family altar. / had a 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 or three
times and at last whipped her for go
ing. That night 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 1 wished TO 20 over to Mr.. So
and-sOs house. / 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 |
I his cheeks my little daughter had /
/ TO tell that to me, who had once been |
rocked I'm a Christian cradle and reared /
i'm 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 his balances, he is going to
weigh us I'm reference to our religious
opportunities, as he did when he weigh
ed the sinful life Of Bclshazzar. the
king Of the ChaldrSns.
Gods balances seigh every individ-
ual life irrespective Of the conduct Of
other people. II was no availing ex-
cuse for Belshazzar TO say that he
ought not to be weighed I'm Gods bal
ances and found wanting while there
were n thousand other drunken lords
Of the Babylonish capital intoxicated
in the royal banquet hail.
Gods balances weigh every individ-
ual at the times when he feels inde-
pendent Of God as well as when he
feels dependent upon the divine mercy.
Never i'm 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
10 supply the city for many years. The
battering rams Of the besleging 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 q
futile siege. But history tells that on
the night of this famous feast, while
the king and his princes and a thousand ,
arlstocratic lords Of his kingdom were ;
drinking themselves drunk. Cyrus, see I
ing his opportunity, turned aside the
course Of the river Euphrates and i'm :
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 a 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 decreelng that you
must die. Oh, man Of sinful habit
hearing tonight Of Belshazzars ban I
quet hall, do you not feel that you can q
never escape the scrutiny Of Gods all J
seeing eye, never be independent Of '
his inexOrable scalesy
While we live Gods balances are {
never put away. His all se.ing eye is J
never shut Just before the battle Of q
Sorr. Frederick the Great gave an en- '
phatic order that every light should be {
put out and that no soldier should even S
have candle lighted In his tent. That /
night the great Prussian general, as G
was his custom, went prowling around b
his camps TO verify with his own eyes O
whether his orders were obeyed See :
ing a light i'm soldiers tent. he crept 5
up and looked in. There he saw a sol q
der with a lighted candle hidden be- q
meath his knapsack writing a letter. 5
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. have 4,
ilsobeyed my kings commands in or n
der to write this letter, and by the or o
der OF King Frederick | shall be shot m
As Frederick the Great d
always kept his eye on his troops, c'
Gods all seeing eye is always watch "
Ing us, even in the most secret OF "" ""
places He watches us in the most n
sacred places Of our chambers. In the n
,fIice. when we 90 down the street, o,
wherever we may be. No sin is a Sc te
ret sin to God. he knows all and sees
III. The same divine scales that
weighed the sinful life Of Belshazzsr A
N the banquet hall Of the Babylonish M
,apital are continually weighing us, no
natter where we may be.
But. though Gods balances may be Is
scales for the Belshazzars :.
If sin. they may also become scales Of : II
for every immortal soul that =,
walls itself Of Christs atonement. 1t n