edient;
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.

QUESTIONS.--What was the handwriting on the wall
at Belshazzar's feast? Does God weigh our bodies?
What does He weigh? Against what was Belshazzar
weighed? What are we weighed against? Are we
weighed against each commandment separately? Can a
person who has sworn be weighed against the third
commandment? Is the use of by-words swearing?