PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Weighed and Wanting: Addresses on the Ten Commandments
Moody, Dwight Lyman, 1837-1899 · 32,362 words · 85 reading sections
Part 1
Produced by Keith G Richardson Weighed and Wanting Addresses on the Ten Commandments…
13 wordsSECTION 2D. L. MOODY
"Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Fleming H. Revell Company Chicago : New York : Toronto Publishers of Evangelical Literature _Copyright, 1898, by The Bible Institute Colportage Association_. Contents The Ten Commandments Weighed in the Balances The First Commandment The Second …
73 wordsSECTION 3_EXODUS 20: 3-17_.
I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing 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 Go…
352 wordsSECTION 4THE EASTERN FEAST.
We are told that he made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before them. In those days a feast would sometimes last for six months in Eastern countries. How long this feast had been going on we are not told, but in the midst of it, he "commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his fat…
879 wordsSECTION 5Part 5
Some people have their own balances. A great many are making balances to be weighed in. But after all we must be weighed in God's balances, the balances of the sanctuary. It is a favorite thing with infidels to set their own standard, to measure themselves by other people. But that will not do in the Day of Judgment. N…
120 wordsSECTION 6GOD'S HANDWRITING.
Let me call your attention to the fact that God wrote on the tables of stone at Sinai as well as on the wall of Belshazzar's palace. These are the only messages to men that God has written with His own hand. He wrote the commandments out twice, and spoke them aloud in the hearing of Israel. If it were known that God …
453 wordsSECTION 7AN INFIDEL'S TESTIMONY.
It is related of a clever infidel that he sought an acquaintance with the truths of the Bible, and began to read at the books of Moses. He had been in the habit of sneering at the Bible, and in order to be able to refute arguments brought by Christian men, he made up his mind, as he knew nothing about it, to read the B…
683 wordsSECTION 8BINDING TO-DAY.
Some people seem to think we have got beyond the commandments. What did Christ say? "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be ful…
881 wordsSECTION 9Part 9
My friend, are you ready to be weighed against this commandment? Have you fulfilled, or are you willing to fulfil, all the requirements of this law? Put it into one of the scales, and step into the other. Is your heart set upon God alone? Have you no other God? Do you love Him above father or mother, the wife of your b…
99 wordsSECTION 10FEELING AFTER GOD.
Philosophers are agreed that even the most primitive races of mankind reach out beyond the world of matter to a superior Being. It is as natural for man to feel after God as it is for the ivy to feel after a support. Hunger and thirst drive him to seek for food, and there is a hunger of the soul that needs satisfying, …
490 wordsSECTION 11THE ISRAELITES WERE EXPOSED TO DANGER.
Remember to whom this commandment was given, and we shall see further how necessary it was. The forefathers of the Israelites had worshipped idols, not many generations back. They had recently been delivered out of Egypt, a land of many gods. The Egyptians worshipped the sun, the moon, insects, animals, etc. The ten pl…
161 wordsSECTION 12NO COMPROMISE.
This is one matter in which no toleration can be shown. Religious liberty is a good thing, within certain limits. But it is one thing to show toleration to those who agree on essentials, and another, to those who differ on fundamental beliefs. They were willing to admit any god to the Roman Pantheon. One reason why the…
216 wordsSECTION 13GOD'S PRUNING-KNIFE.
"Thou shalt not" is the pruning-knife that God uses. From beginning to end, the Bible calls for wholehearted allegiance to Him. There is to be no compromise with other gods. It took long years for God to impress this lesson upon the Israelites. He called them to be a chosen nation. He made them a peculiar people. But …
298 wordsSECTION 14FALSE GODS IN AMERICA TO-DAY.
You don't have to go to heathen lands to-day to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you make most of is your god. Whatever you love more than God is your idol. Many a mans heart is like some Kaffirs' huts, so full of idols that there is hardly room to turn around. Rich and poor, learned and unlearned, al…
554 wordsSECTION 15MOSES' FAREWELL MESSAGE.
Let me call your attention to a verse in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy, thirty-first verse: "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." These words were uttered by Moses, in his farewell address to Israel. He had been with them forty years. He was their leader and instruct…
597 wordsSECTION 16NO CONSOLATION EXCEPT IN GOD.
No. There is no satisfaction for the soul except in the God of the Bible. We come back to Paul's words, and get consolation for time and eternity:--"We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there …
138 wordsSECTION 17WHOLE-HEARTED ALLEGIANCE.
God will not accept a divided heart. He must be absolute monarch. There is not room in your heart for two thrones. Christ said: "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." Mark you, He did not …
884 wordsSECTION 18A QUESTION.
The question at once arises--is this commandment intended to forbid the use of drawings and pictures of created things altogether? Some contend that it does. They point to the Jews and the Mohammedans as a proof. The Jews have never been much given to art. The Mohammedans to this day do not use designs of animals, etc.…
421 wordsSECTION 19THE FOLLY OF IMAGES.
Think for a moment, and you will see how idle it is to try to make any representation of God. Christians have tried to paint the Trinity, but how can you depict the Invisible? Can you draw a picture of your own soul or spirit or will? Moses impressed it upon Israel that when God spake to them out of the midst of the fi…
361 wordsSECTION 20PICTURES AND IMAGES.
But some one says--"I find pictures are a great help to me, and images. I know that they are not themselves sacred, but they help me in my devotions to fix my thoughts on God." When Dr. Trumbull was in Northfield, he used an illustration that is a good answer to this. He said, "Suppose a young man were watching from a…
764 wordsSECTION 21THE INDWELLING CHRIST.
No one can say that we have nowadays any need of such things. "Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." If Christ is in our hearts, why need we set Him before our eyes? "Where two or three are gathered together in …
688 wordsSECTION 22USING GOD'S NAME IRREVERENTLY.
I think it is shocking to use God's name with so little reverence as is common nowadays, even among professing Christians. We are told that the Jews held it so sacred that the covenant name of God was never mentioned amongst them except once a year by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, when he went into the holy …
170 wordsSECTION 23USING GOD'S NAME PROFANELY.
But though there is far too much of this frivolous, familiar use of God's name, the commandment is broken a great deal more by profanity. Taking the name of God in vain is blasphemy. Is there a swearing man who reads this? What would you do if you were put into the balances of the sanctuary, if you had to step in oppos…
374 wordsSECTION 24A SENSELESS HABIT.
The habit of swearing is condemned by all sensible persons. It has been called "the most gratuitous of all sins," because no one gains by it; it is "not only sinful, but useless." An old writer said that when the accusing angel, who records men's words, flies up to heaven with an oath, he blushes as he hands it in. Wh…
196 wordsSECTION 25HOW TO KEEP FROM SWEARING.
Men often ask: "How can I keep from swearing?" I will tell you. If God puts His love into your heart, you will have no desire to curse Him. If you have much regard for God, you will no more think of cursing Him than you would think of speaking lightly or disparagingly of a mother whom you love. But the natural man is a…
1,004 wordsSECTION 26Part 26
"My friends, you know all about me. If God can save a wretch like me, I want to have you pray for my salvation." That was thirty odd years ago. Sometime ago I was back in that town, and did not see him; but when I was in California, a man asked me to take dinner with him. I told him that I could not do so, for I had a…
706 wordsSECTION 27HOW TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH.
"Sabbath" means "rest," and the meaning of the word gives a hint as to the true way to observe the day. God rested after creation, and ordained the sabbath as a rest for man. He blessed it and hallowed it. "Remember _the rest-day_ to keep it _holy_." It is the day when the body may be refreshed and strengthened after s…
94 wordsSECTION 28I.--CESSATION FROM SECULAR WORK.
A man ought to turn aside from his ordinary employment one day in seven. There are many whose occupation will not permit them to observe Sunday, but they should observe some other day as a sabbath. Saturday is my day of rest because I generally preach on Sunday, and I look forward to it as a boy does to a holiday. God …
199 wordsSECTION 29WORKS OF NECESSITY AND OF EMERGENCY.
In judging whether any work may or may not be lawfully done on the sabbath, find out the reason and object for doing it. Exceptions are to be made for works of necessity and works of emergency. By "_works of necessity_" I mean those acts that Christ justified when He approved of leading one's ox or ass to water. Watchm…
249 wordsSECTION 30SABBATH TRAVELING.
Take, for instance, the question of sabbath traveling. I believe we are breaking God's laws by using the cars on Sunday and depriving conductors and others of their sabbath. Remember the fourth commandment expressly refers to "the stranger that is within thy gates." Doesn't that touch sabbath travel? But you ask, "Wha…
232 wordsSECTION 31SABBATH TRADING.
There are many who are inclined to use the sabbath in order to make money faster. This is no new sin. The prophet Amos hurled his invectives against oppressors who said, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" Covetous men have always chafed under the rest…
207 wordsSECTION 32NECESSARY AND BENEFICIAL.
The good effect on a nation's health and happiness produced by the return of the sabbath, with its cessation from work, cannot be overestimated. It is needed to repair and restore the body after six days of work. It is proved that a man can do more in six days than in seven. Lord Beaconsfield. said: "Of all divine inst…
305 wordsSECTION 33II.--RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.
But "rest" does not mean idleness. No man enjoys idleness for any length of time. When one goes on a vacation, one does not lie around doing nothing all the time. Hard work at tennis, hunting, and other pursuits fills the hours. A healthy mind must find something to do. Hence the sabbath rest does not mean inactivity.…
257 wordsSECTION 34PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Make the sabbath a day of religious activity. First of all, of course, is attendance at public worship. "There is a discrepancy," says John McNeill, "between our creed about the sabbath day and our actual conduct. In many families, at ten o'clock on the sabbath, attendance at church is still an open question. There is …
204 wordsSECTION 35A REMINISCENCE.
I remember blaming my mother for sending me to church on the sabbath. On one occasion the preacher had to send some one into the gallery to wake me up. I thought it was hard to have to work in the field all the week, and then to be obliged to go to church and hear a sermon I didn't understand. I thought I wouldn't go t…
402 wordsSECTION 36HOME OBSERVANCE.
Jeremiah classified godless families with the heathen: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate." Many mothers have written to me at one time or another to…
275 wordsSECTION 37PRIVATE OBSERVANCE.
Apart from public and family observance, the individual ought to devote a portion of the time to his own edification. Prayer, meditation, reading, ought not to be forgotten. Think of men devoting six days a week to their body, which will soon pass away, and begrudging one day to the soul which will live on and on forev…
209 wordsSECTION 38SABBATH DESECRATION.
Men seem to think they have a right to change the holy day into a _holiday_. The young have more temptations to break the sabbath than we had forty years ago. There are three great temptations: first, the trolley car, that will take you off into the country for a nickel to have a day of recreation; second, the bicycle,…
171 wordsSECTION 39THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.
With regard to the Sunday newspaper, I know all the arguments that are brought in its favor--that the work on it is done during the week, that it is the Monday paper that causes Sunday work, and so on. But there are two hundred thousand newsboys selling the paper on Sunday. Would you like to have your boy one of them? …
591 wordsSECTION 40PUNISHMENT OR BLESSING?
No nation has ever prospered that has trampled the sabbath in the dust. Show me a nation that has done this, and I will show you a nation that has got in it the seeds of ruin and decay. I believe that sabbath desecration will carry a nation down quicker than anything else. Adam brought marriage and the sabbath with him…
388 wordsSECTION 41A FIRM STAND.
We have a fighting chance to save this nation, and what we want is men and women who have moral courage to stand up and say: "No, I will not touch the Sunday paper, and all the influence I have I will throw dead against it. I will not go away on Saturday evening if I have to travel on Sunday to get back. I will not do…
541 wordsSECTION 42BEGIN IN THE HOME.
The first four commandments deal with our relations to God. They tell us how to worship and when to worship; they forbid irreverence and impiety in word and act. Now God turns to our relations with each other, and isn't it significant that He deals first with family life? "God is going to show us our duty to our neighb…
365 wordsSECTION 43HONOR THY MOTHER.
It has been pointed out as worthy of notice that this commandment enjoins honor for _the mother_, and yet in eastern countries to the present day woman is held of little account. When I was in Palestine a few years ago, the prettiest girl in Jericho was sold by her father in exchange for a donkey. In many ancient natio…
182 wordsSECTION 44TEMPORAL BLESSING OR CURSE.
I believe it to be literally true that our temporal condition depends on the way we act upon this commandment. "Honor thy father and mother, (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth." "Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God h…
384 wordsSECTION 45A MOTHER'S LOVE.
Let your mind go back to the time when you were ill. Did your mother neglect you? When a neighbor came in and said, "Now, mother, you go and lie down; you have been up for a week; I will take your place for a night"--did she do it? No; and if the poor worn body forced her to it at last, she lay watching, and if she hea…
175 wordsSECTION 46FILIAL INGRATITUDE.
When I was in England, I read of a man who professed to be a Christian, who was brought before the magistrate for not supporting his aged father. He had let him go to the workhouse. My friends, I'd rather be content with a crust of bread and a drink of water than let my father or mother go to the workhouse. The idea of…
461 wordsSECTION 47A BRIGHTER PICTURE.
Some years ago I heard of a poor woman who sent her boy to school and college. When he was to graduate, he wrote his mother to come, but she sent back word that she could not because her only skirt had already been turned once. She was so shabby that she was afraid he would be ashamed of her. He wrote back that he didn…
600 wordsSECTION 48AN EXHORTATION.
Young man, if your parents are still living treat them kindly. Do all you can to make their declining years sweet and happy. Bear in mind that this is the only commandment that you may not always be able to obey. As long as you live, you will be able to serve God, to keep the sabbath, to obey all the other commandments…
879 wordsSECTION 49THE VALUE OF A MAN.
Let me give you a passage from H. L. Hastings: "A friend of mine visited the Fiji Islands in 1844, and what do you suppose an infidel was worth there then? You could buy a man for a musket, or if you paid money, for seven dollars, and after you had bought him you could feed him, starve him, work him, whip him, or eat h…
216 wordsSECTION 50SUICIDE.
There is that other kind of murder that is increasing at an appalling rate among us--suicide. There have been infidels in all ages who have advocated it as a justifiable means of release from trial and difficulty; yet thinking men, as far back as Aristotle, have generally condemned it as cowardly and unjustifiable unde…
164 wordsSECTION 51OTHER KINDS OF MURDER.
But I want to speak of other classes of murderers that are very numerous in this country, although they are not classified as murderers. The man who is the cause of the death of another through criminal carelessness is guilty. The man who sells diseased meat; the saloon-keeper whose drink has maddened the brain of a cr…
462 wordsSECTION 52THE WORDS OF CHRIST.
Let us look once again at the Sermon on the Mount, that men think so much of, and see what Christ had to say: "Ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a…
400 wordsSECTION 53PLAIN SPEAKING.
I would to God I could pass over this commandment, but I feel that the time has come to cry aloud and spare not. Plain speaking about it is not very fashionable nowadays. "Teachers of religion have by common consent banished from their public teaching all advice, warning or allusion in regard to love between the sexes,…
451 wordsSECTION 54MARRIAGE AND THE HOME.
This commandment is God's bulwark around marriage and the home. Marriage is one of the institutions that existed in Eden; it is older than the fall. It is the most sacred relationship that can exist between human beings, taking precedence even of the relationship of the parent and child. Some one has pointed out that a…
249 wordsSECTION 55THE DEVIL'S COUNTERFEIT.
Lust is the devil's counterfeit of love. There is nothing more beautiful on earth than a pure love, and there is nothing so blighting as lust. I do not know of a quicker, shorter way down to hell than by adultery and the kindred sins condemned by this commandment. The Bible says that with the heart man believeth unto r…
281 wordsSECTION 56THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER.
I think that the most infernal thing the sun shines on in America is the way woman is treated after she has been ruined by a man, often under fair promises of marriage. Some one said that when the prodigal son came home he had the best robe and the fatted calf, but what does the prodigal daughter get? Although she may …
426 wordsSECTION 57GOD'S COMING JUDGMENT.
God has appointed a day when this matter will be set right. "Be not deceived: God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." He will render to every man according to his deeds. You may walk down the aisle of the church and take your seat, thinking that no one knows of your sin. But God is on the …
193 wordsSECTION 58AN EVIL HARVEST.
Even in this life adultery and uncleanness bring their awful results, both physical and mental. The pleasure and excitement that lead so many astray at the beginning soon pass away, and only the evil remains. Vice carries a sting in its tail, like the scorpion. The body is sinned against, and the body sooner or later s…
449 wordsSECTION 59ARE YOU GUILTY?
Young man, young woman, are you guilty, even in thought? Bear in mind what Christ said: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." How many would repen…
887 wordsSECTION 60WHERE THE STREAM STARTS.
The stream generally starts at home and in the school. Parents are woefully lax in their condemnation and punishment of the sin of stealing. The child begins by taking sugar, it may be. The mother makes light of it at first, and the child's conscience is violated without any sense of wrong. By and by it is not an easy …
219 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.