“’TEKEL: Thou art weighed in the balances and
art found wanting. DANIEL. 5:27.’
“One of the scales into which I would have every man put himself, at least once in his life— I say at least once, because, if not, Heaven is to him a place, the gates of which are shut forever— I would have every man put himself into the scales of the divine law. There stands the law of God. This law is a balance which will turn, even were there but a grain of sand in it. It is true to a hair. It moves upon the diamond of God’s eternal, immutable truth. I put but one weight into the scale; it is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,” and I invite any man who thinks himself to be of the right stamp, and flatters himself that he has no need of mercy, no need of washing in the blood of Jesus Christ, no need of any atonement— I invite him to put himself into the scales, and see whether he be full weight, when there be but so much as this one commandment in the other scale. Oh! my friend, if we did but try ourselves by the very first commandment of the law, we must acknowledge that we are guilty. But when we drop in weight after weight, till the whole sacred ten are there, there is not a man under the cope of heaven who has one grain of wit left, but must confess that he is short of the mark,— that he falls below the standard which the law of God requires. Mrs. Too-good has often declared that she herself has done all her duty, and perhaps a little more; that she has been even more kind to the poor than there was any occasion for; that she has gone to church more frequently than even her religion requireth; that she has been more attentive to the sacraments than the best of her neighbors, and if she does not enter Heaven she does not know who will. ‘If I have not a portion amongst the saints, who can possibly hope to see God’s face in light?’ Nay, madam, but I am sorry for thee; thou art light as a feather when thou goest into the scales. In these wooden balances of thine own ceremonies thou mayest, perhaps, be found right enough; but in those eternal scales, with those tremendous weights the ten commandments of the law the declaration is suspended over thy poor foolish head, ” Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.’
“There may, perhaps, in congregations like this, be some extremely respectable body who has from his youth up, as he imagine, kept God’s law; his country, family, or associates can bring no charge against him, and so he wraps himself up and considers that he really is the man, and that when he appears at the gate of Heaven, he will be received as a rightful owner and proprietor of the reward of the righteous. Ah! my friend, if thou wouldst take the trouble just to sit down and weigh thyself in the scales of the law— if thou wouldst take but one command, the one in which thou thinkest thyself least guilty, the one thou imaginest thou hast kept best, and really look at its intent and spirit, and view it in all its length and breadth, in truth I know thou wouldst keep out of the scale and say, ‘Alas! when I hoped to have gone down with a sound of congratulation, I find myself hurled up, light as the dust of the balance, while the tremendous law of God comes sounding down and shakes the house.’ Let each man do this, and every one of us must retire from this place saying, ‘I am weighed in the balances and am found wanting.’
“Ah ! how many people are really afraid to look their religion in the face ! They know it to be so bad, they dare not examine it. They are like bankrupts that keep no books. They would be very glad for a fire to consume their books, if they ever kept any, for they know the balance is all on the wrong side. They are losing, breaking up, and they would not wish to keep an account of their losses or villanies. A man who is afraid to examine himself may rest assured that his ship is rotten, and that it will not be long before it founders in the sea, to his eternal shipwreck. Call up conscience; put yourself in the scale, and God help you, that the verdict may not be against you—that it may not be said of you, ‘Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.’ “ —Charles H. Spurgeon.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Oct. 28, 1873