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I. Let us place in the balances the MERE MORALIST, and bring his pretensions to the test. It will be seen on examination that these matters which are considered as a whole, or at least as the principal part of duty, are regarded in but a secondary and subordinate light, by Him who holds in His hands the scales of divine justice, and truly estimates the weight and worth of whatever is placed in them. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart," He asserts to be "the first and great commandment." To that of loving our neighbour as ourselves He assigns only a secondary place, calling it "the second commandment," and observing concerning it that that it is "like unto the first." What, then, if weighed in the balances, is to become of the man who lays it down as a principle, and acts upon it as the maxim of his life, that there is no religion and no Divine requirement, beyond feeling and performing justice and mercy to our fellow-men? If. Another candidate for Heaven is the religious FORMALIST. He tells us that he is punctiliously religious. But Jehovah long ago weighed characters of this description and pronounced them wanting. Heartless forms, without heartfelt experience, will not answer. Thus too, boasted the Laodicean Church, in reference to her fair but superficial exterior. "I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing." And with similar fidelity the Searcher of hearts prostrated her pride by the allegation, "Thou art poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked, and ignorant for thou knowest it not." Thus must all who have "a form of godliness," but "deny" or dislike "the power," expect, when "weighed in the balances" to be "found wanting."

III. That large class, in the third place, who call themselves THE SINCERE, the candid, and the charitable. Give me but the fact, says the individual ranged under this classification, that my neighbour, is sincere in his belief, and I ask no more. I enquire not what that belief is, I am satisfied he is on the road to Heaven. But if sincerity be all that is necessary to render a man's religion right, how ridiculous a part was acted by Saul of Tarsus, in exchanging his Judaism for Christianity. And now it may be that some are ready to ask, "Who, then, can be saved?" If all are to be weighed in the scales of Divine justice, and found wanting, where shall we all appear? There is one character — only one that will be able to meet the ordeal. That person is the evangelical believer, he who besides exercising "repentance towards God," also exhibits "faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ." How ample and various are the testimonies on this point. Among them the following constitute but a few. "He that believeth shall be saved." "Whosoever believeth on Him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."

(B. M. PaImer, D.D.)

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KJV: TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

WEB: TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.