Sylvanus Stall

Suggestion:—Objects: A pair of ordinary balances. A very good pair for illustration can easily be made from a piece of wood, a few strings and a couple of little paper boxes.

In the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel we read about a king whose name was Belshazzar, who lived in the great city of Babylon, surrounded by a great wall three hundred feet high and eighty feet broad, and with a hundred gates of brass, twenty-five gates on each side of the city, and a street running from each of the gates upon the one side, straight across the city to each of the corresponding gates upon the opposite side, a distance of some twelve or fifteen miles; and then other streets crossing these first twenty-five streets, running between the gates which were upon the other two sides of the city. God had blessed this king of Babylon and given him great wealth and great power; but he became proud and defied God. One night he made a great feast and invited a thousand of his lords and the generals of his army, and sent for the golden vessels of the Temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought down from Jerusalem, and Belshazzar drank wine out of these sacred vessels of the Temple. And, like men and women when they drink liquor, they lost their reason, and they praised the gods of gold, and of silver, and brass, and iron, and wood, and of stone, and thus dishonored God; and there appeared in the banqueting hall the fingers of a man's hand and wrote on the wall so that all might see and read it, and these were the words which were written before that wicked king: "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." (Daniel v: 27.)

Now you see that God weighs men and women, not for the purpose of telling how many pounds their bodies weigh, but He weighs their character, He weighs their conduct, He weighs their purposes, and He weighs their principles, and so He weighed Belshazzar, and He said of him and to him, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." God weighed Belshazzar as though he were placed in this side of the balance, and on the other side of the balance were placed all his opportunities, privileges and his blessings, and all that God had done for him. When God thus weighed him against all these things Belshazzar was found so light that he did not weigh as much as the privileges and blessings which God had given him, and therefore, God said that he was weighed in the balances and was found wanting.

In just this same way God weighs you and me, in order that we may see whether or not we weigh enough. Suppose we turn to the twentieth chapter of Exodus and there find what God requires of us. You will find that God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

Now suppose I place this requirement in one side of the balance, and then ask you to place your obedience to this requirement in the other side of the balance. I am sure there are a great many grown men and women who could not be weighed against this requirement. If a man loves money, so that he sacrifices his obedience to God, or sacrifices his character, or gives too large an amount of time to money-making, and money-getting; if his love of money is very great, you see how he makes money a sort of a god—that is, that he exalts his love of money above his love of God. In the same way a person can worship pleasure, and ease, and fame in such a way as to exalt these above God. Now any one who has done this, cannot be weighed against this requirement of God's law without being found wanting.

If we take the next Commandment, it reads, "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Now anybody who has ever sworn cannot be weighed against this Commandment. A man who curses and swears is a very wicked man. I hope that none of you, boys or girls, will ever profane God's name and disgrace yourself by swearing.

I want to caution you, also, against the use of by-words. Sometimes boys swear without knowing it; they say "By Jiminy." Now, the word "Gemini" means "Twins," and refers to two heathen gods whose names were "Castor" and "Pollux," and when boys use the expression, "By Jiminy," they are swearing by those two heathen gods. Jesus said, "Swear not at all." (Matt. v: 34.) Then not only those who literally swear, but all those who use God's name without reverence and who make light of sacred things break this Commandment. So you see that many are not able to be weighed against this Commandment.

Then take the next: "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." There are many people who remember the Sabbath Day simply to make it the occasion of visiting, letter writing, and to enjoy a trip into the country, or in the park. They remember the Sabbath Day, but they do not remember it to keep it holy. So you see that you would not be able to be weighed against that requirement.

Now take the next: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." If God were to come into this community and weigh the boys and girls against this Commandment, how many do you think would be found to whom God would turn and say, as He did to Belshazzar: "Thou art weighed and art found wanting"? Any boy or girl who speaks of his father as "The old man," and of his mother as "The old woman"; any boy or girl who is disobedient; any girl who yesterday when mother asked her to dust the furniture, or any boy who when mother asked him yesterday to run upon an errand, grew petulant, and scowled and scolded, perhaps went out of the room and slammed the door behind them, all such boys and girls would be found wanting. You see how, with one after another of these Commandments, if God were to weigh us we would be found wanting.

If we take the other Commandments, "Thou shall not kill," anybody who has hated his brother in his heart; "Thou shall not commit adultery," any one who has harbored lust in his heart; "Thou shall not steal"; "Thou shall not bear false witness"; "Thou shall not covet"; think of each of these and see how many times in your life you have broken them, if not in letter, yet in spirit.

Now, if you cannot be weighed against these different requirements and you have come short of them in the past, how can you expect to stand in the great Day of Judgment, when God shall take into account every idle word that we have ever uttered, every wicked thought; when we shall be weighed in the just balances of an infinite God? When God shall place these requirements upon one side of the balance, and you and I shall step in upon the other side of the balance, there is only one possible way in which we could then be heavy enough, and that is if we could have our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, to step into the balance with us, as He is willing to do, and God should accept the obedience and holiness of His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ in our stead. Unless you and I have Jesus Christ with us when we step into that balance, it will be said, "Thou art found wanting." Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your friend, and are you trying to serve Him? If you have not now made Him your friend, how can you hope to have His friendship then? May God help you to have Jesus as your friend in life, as well as in death; in this life as well as in the life to come, now while being tempted and tried in this world, as well as when being weighed in the next.