Year: 1877

AT THE TABERNACLE, APRIL 70.


You will find my text to-day in the
fifth chapter of Daniel and the twenty
seventh verse:


"Tekel, thou art weighed in the bal
ances and art found wanting"


This short chapter of Daniel tells us
all that we know about this wicked
king. He blazes out for one night and
then he passes away, and that is the
last that we hear of him. We are told
that he gave great feast, and that he
had 900 of his lords and noblemen
there, and they were eating and drink
ing and praising the gods of silver, and
of gold, and brass, and wood, and of
iron, and out of the vessels that they
had brought from the temple ut Jerusa-
lem. | don't know how long it lasted,
but their feasts in those days used to
last long time. 1t might have been
going on for Il month. And while this
feast was going on Darius WAS besieg-
ing the city and trying to take posses
sion of it. He was like good many
of the ungodly and the unsaved, he
thought he was safe enough. He trust
ed in his army and in his walls and in
the great wealth of the nation. Here
we find him in the midst of this festival,
and us they were eating and drinking
out of these vessels of gold and silver
taken from the temple of Cod don't
know but it was Il midnight feast and
th..t this was the midnight hour-there
came forth the fingers of Il strange hand
and began to write his condemnation
upon the walls of the hall. He turns
deathly pale, he trembles from head to
foot and he calls his wise men to come
together and read the writing upon the
wall. They try to read the writing but
there is not one of them that can read
Belshazzar's condemnation. He offers
a great prize to any one that can read
it. He will make him third ruler i'll his
kingdom aud clOthe him in scarlet and
place a gold chain about his neck. But
not one of them could read that writ
ing. The same finger that wrote that
wrote the law at Mount Sinai.


AT LAST ONE WAS SPOKEN OF


who could interpret dreams, and who
had interpreted the dreams of his
father, NebuchadneZzar, and he could
read the secret thoughts of this un-
known God, for in the days of Nebu-
chadnezzar the wise men could not in
terpret his dreams, but this man was
| able to do what the wise men could
not, and so Daniel was sent for, and the
moment his eyes rested upon 1T he was
able to read it. He was familiar with
the handwriting of the Master, and he
read it: "Mene, meme, tekel upharsIn.'
The king cries: "What does it mean n
And Daniel read it: "'Mene:' God
hath numbered thy kingdom and fin
ished it : :tekel > thou art weighed in
the balance and found wanting; 'peres ::
thy kingdom is divided and given to
the Medes and Persians.'" The trial is
over, the verdict is rendered, and the
sentence brought out. That very night
the king was hurled from his throne.
That very night the army of Darius
came tearing down the streets, and you
might have heard the clash of arms,
shouts of war, and have seen the kings
blood mingling with the wine in that
banquet hall. Now, | want to call
your attention to that word ''tekel :
ave are weighed in the balance
"Wby, you amt going to compare me
to that wicked king, are you?' Well,
you may he as bad as he is. and good
deal worse. That king did not live i'll
the light of Calvary he did not have a
praying, gOdly minister or mother as
many of you have, and yet we find that
God punished him on account of his
sins. | want to say right here that a
great many ale weighing themselves in
their own scales instead of in the bal
ance of God. 1t will be altogether diff
ferent when we are weighed in Gods
scales. Suppose the sentence should
come down from heaven upon every
man and woman in this TaberpTcle


TO BE WEIGHED IN THE BALI aCE


tonight, how would it be with you
Come, my friends, are you ready to be
weighed tonight? Not in our own
scales, but in Gods balance. Suppose
the scales were dropped now from the
kingdom of God are you ready to step
into the balance and be weighed. Are
you willing to be weighed by the law
Now | want to take these Ten Com
mandments and use them as weights
and weigh you to-day and see if you
can bring down these ten weights.
think there are good many of you
that will he as light as a feather; that
you will go way up by the weight that
is put against you. Now what is this
first commandment? .'Thou shalt have
no other gods before me-" Are you
ready to be weighed by this command
ment ? Are you ready to step into the
scales if that weight is put IN against
you9 Think for moment if you have
any other god but the God of heaven
Is your heart set upon Him to-day
Have you no other idol Z? Do you love
Him better than you do your children
We might go off to other ages or othel
lands, and we can find people wh'
worship idols, but we have none here
But how many idols have we in ou
J hearts? Many man says, "Give m'