WEIGHED AND WANTING by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 18, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 42.

"WEIGHED AND WANTING."

By Editor

A Visible Object-Lesson of the Invisible.

GOD is one and unchangeable. His law, ever the same, is the reflection of His own character. As spoken amid the awful glories of Sinai, it prohibits every sin. To him who accepts it in the faith and love of Christ Jesus, each prohibition becomes an enabling act, full of power to work out the righteousness which the law demands.

AT different times God has visited summary, manifest punishment upon the transgressors of that law. He has done this that men may know that He abhors sin, and that just as surely as that sin was met in punishment, so surely every sin will be. God is ever the same in justice as well as mercy. Yet, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Tho a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before Him; but it shall not be well with the wicked." Eccl. 8:11-13.

BELSHAZZAR

Belshazzar is king! Belshazzar is lord! And a thousand dark nobles all bend Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats- Of the wine that man loveth runs redd- Wild dancers are there, and a riot of And the beauty that maddens the pass- And the crowds all shout, till the vast "All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar "Bring forth!" cries the monarch, "the Which my father tore down from the Bring forth, and we'll drink, while the To the gods of bright silver, of gold,

THE apostle Paul puts in other words the same great truth: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life." Gal. 6:7, 8. This is as true in the field of character as in the field of grain. Wild oats sown will reap a harvest of wild oats. Cockle sown will bring forth cockle; wheat will produce wheat. Sow the evil thought in the heart and it will produce an evil act. Sow evil acts and the product is an evil habit. Continue the habit, and it will gather fellows to itself, and form a character for destruction.

BELSHAZZAR of old was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, a king who had learned through chastisement and humility that God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that his homage as a man and king was due to God. (See Daniel 5.) He had recorded the greatest of these lessons in history; he had sent it forth in a royal proclamation. Daniel 4. Every king of Babylon ought to have been familiar with Nebuchadnezzar's experience, and to have profited thereby.

BELSHAZZAR came to the throne in his youth. His father, Nabonadius, wished to devote his time to temple-building, and worship of the gods. Belshazzar was given the civil reins of power. He did wickedly. He forgot God's teaching and power. He ate and drank and lived, not to do good, but to please himself. Daniel had been set aside as prime-minister; in his place were evil advisers. The king thought: The city wall is strong, the moat is deep, Babylon is well provisioned for years, and our soldiers are brave; why take thought of coming doom? He would feast to his own gods and hold high revel in Babylon's glory. He was young; why should he be burdened with care tho the Medes were at the gates of Babylon. He would have a good time.

AND therefore he "made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." Intoxicated with the wine, he dares to do what Nebuchadnezzar in his haughtiest pride had never presumed to do; he commands that the sacred vessels of gold and silver from Jehovah's temple shall be used by his lords, his wives, his concubines, in the drunken revelry. They were brought, and the revellers drank wine in them, and "praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."

BUT while they defied God in their mad mirth, a living, shining hand was seen writing in letters, which burned into the heart of the intoxicated king, upon the plaster of the wall where the light from the magnificent chandelier fell full upon it. The king was sobered in an instant. Great rewards were offered to those who could read the supernatural writing. But the wise men could not read the words, tho the frightened king called on them vehemently to know their meaning. The queen dowager is called, and she recalls the forgotten and aged Daniel. The old prophet is brought. He spurns the reward of the king. He refers to God's lesson to Nebuchadnezzar, and how the king learned the lesson. This he contrasts with the course of Belshazzar, who has sinned in the face of all the light. Then he reads the writing— "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, Divided. They mean, said the prophet, as he addressed the terrified king: "God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end." "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." "Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." And "in that night," runs the record, "Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain; and Darius the Mede received the kingdom."

GOD'S long-deferred sentence at last met fulfilment. Babylon and Belshazzar came to the reaping time, and the crop was of their own sowing. Nations to-day, like Babylon of old, are sowing oppression, tyranny, fraud, licentiousness, injustice. They may not see the hand on the wall, but they are writing it in their own moral fiber, and sooner or later the number of their days will be filled up, and they, found weighed in the impartial scales of divine justice, will be found wanting. Young men are sowing to lust, to licentiousness, to greed, to pleasure, to selfishness. They will reap what they have sown. They can not continue and escape the consequences. They may call lust love, but it is lust still, and its crop will be corruption, degradation, and death. O soul, turn and 'sow to righteousness' before it is forever too late. God would change your feasts of selfish pleasure into holy, effectual prayer and benisons of praise to Him.