The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-04-24
The text-"Thou art weighed In the
balances, and art found wanting"
Daniel, 5th chapter, 25th verse.

Speaking on '"Tne Ten Command
ments," Sunday, night, Rev w. A.
Sunday said:
1 think it was DR.. Talmadge who
once said that Bible pictures are a
good deal like the works of the old
masters. They improve with age. Da-
Vinci's Last Supper" Rapheaps MA
DONNA" they are worth more today
than when they were spread on can
vas.
Night was about to come down upon
the famous city of Babylon, and the
shadows of her two hundred towers;
and the river Euphrates rolled on,
touched by the fiery splendor of the
setting sun. The gates of brass open
ed and closed like doors of flame The
hanging gardens were wet and heavy
with dew and then began to pour from
star-lit flowers a fragrance that went
for miles around.
The streets in the square were
alight for dance, and for promenade,
and for frolic. And the theatres, and
the galleries of amusement they in
vited the wealth and pomp and the
grandeur of the day.
And scenes of moral riot and god
less mirth and outrageous excess for
every indulgence ensued, for they had
come to the palace that night to do
their mightiest deeds of violence A
royal feast had been proclaimed by
the king, and rushing up to the gates
were chariots, upholstered in precious
cloth and drawn by fiery-eyed steeds,
held and driven by strong-armed
characters. The lords and ladies dis
mounted, and women were gowned in
all the splendor and the grandeur of
that Syrian age. They opened wide
the gates and the guests came in, and
the cup bearers were all ready.
Bunch Of Hign-RoIIers
Went to Feast.
Hark, / hear the call of music. l
hear the rustic of silks. Their jewels
are all ablaze and lifted up with ban
ners. Cups are filled with wine and
they clap their cymbals and let night
pass with song. Let palsied be that
Babylonian tongue that does not
shout, 20, live forever, Belshazzar!"
My friends, that wac no common
lager-beer. pretzel, weiner-wurst,
blowout: that was a bunch of high
rollers that went TO that feast.
The signal was given and the ladies
and the lords and the mighty men and
women swarned around the banquet
'dOit anu AIeS pOuI6u Uul the WINE.
They let II foam and bubble and kiss
the rim, and they hoist every man his
cup and they drink to the toast, "Oh,
Belshazzar. live forever"
Again, and still again they drain
them dry. Away with this care; tear
royal dignity to shreds. Pour out
more booze and give more light, and
step on her and open her wide
Wilder the music. Then comes the
obscene songs, and the drunken hic-
cough, and the slavering lip, and the
guffaw, and the idiotic laugh bursting
from lips of princesses and kings who
reel and stagger with blood-shot eyes.
Somebody has said, "If you love
drama, read the Bible, for 1t is the
most dramatic book ever written"
II Is striking in its situation and
startling and furious; graphic In its
deIineation of character.
BelshaZzar was not supreme in ruler
ship of the kingdom at this time. He
was associated with his father While
his father was away on a military ex-
petition, the army of the Modes and
Persians came up and surrounded the
city, shouting his father out, and Bel
shazzar was the only pebble on the
beach at this time. Belshazzar was
supreme in command.
SeiShaZZar Puffed Up
Over Power.
There was a time when a higher
critic sneeringly said that the char
acter of Daniel was mythical, and yet
they have brought tablets of stone
written in Daniels day telling of him.
From that day to this, haven't heard
one of them peep and sheer and say
that Daniel was not a real, historic
character
BelshaZzar was puffed up over his
newly begotten power, and he pro-
claimed a feast in the palace. There
were seats for a thosuand ladies' and
lords at the banqueting table A strange
conceit seems to have entered Bel
shazzar's head and he calls for his
chief and whispers in his ear. He
leaves the banqueting hall and pretty
soon they re-enter, carrying in their
arms the vessels of gold and silver
that his grandfather, observation-disclosures
had. These vessels were used in the
worship of God and in order to show
his hatred of God, Belshazzar orders
these vessels filled with Babylonian
wine and passed around.
The hllarity grows more and more
boisterous. Faster and faster fit the
feet of the lewd and nude dancing
women as they wriggle and worm their
bodies up and down the halls between
the tables. Suddenly a hush like
death falls over the licentious, drunk
en- crew. and they gaze in silence up-
on the frieze of the banqueting hall.
because the hand of the Lord had
written there, and terror seized them.
! read in the Bible that Belshazzar
countenance was changed, his thoughts
troubled him. the joints of his Ioins
and his knees smote one against the
other. and old Belshazzar was about
all in
Doesn't Want to
Show White Feather
BY and by he kind of pulls him.
self together. because he doesn't
want to show the white feather to
that crowd. So, he calls for the
soothsayers. or the astrologists, or the
old spiritualists, particular mediums.
Enter the Magi-no doubt of their abiI-
ity to decipher the strange hieroglyph-
les written upon the banQueting hall
and further enrich themselves through
the emoluments of their treachery and
deceit. But they had never seen writ
ing like that and they couldn't read
II and then terror seized that drunken
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