[WE MIGHT ALL ACKNOWLEDGE WORSHIPING GODS OF SILVER AND GOLD]

A Summary by Herself of a Sermon Delivered in Paris by ELIZA PAUL GURNEY, from a Letter of Eliza Paul Gurney to Hannah C. Backhouse, Dated Paris, 5th Month 12th, 1843.
Mott, Richard F., ed. Memoir and Correspondence of Eliza P. Gurney. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1884.

This is The Quaker Homiletics Online Anthology, Part Three: The 19th Century.

I must just add a line or two to tell thee about an evening which we all felt to be a most weighty occasion. For my own part, I may truly say, my heart was like lead all day, under the apprehension that I should have to declare some plain truths to a company of Protestants and Catholics, which it seemed to me it would be impossible to utter.

However, the rooms soon filled, and after dear Joseph had addressed them very interestingly, I repeated the blessing that was pronounced on the children of Israel in the sixth of Numbers: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee," etc.; then observed that whilst I had desired the best of blessings might descend on every individual in that company, even the blessing that makes truly rich and to which no sorrow is added, I had to remember the solemn words which were addressed to King Belshazzar: "Because thou hast not humbled thy heart but hast lifted up thyself against the God of Heaven, and hast praised the gods of silver, of gold, of brass, of wood, and of stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting: God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it;" and while I desired this solemn sentence might never go forth against any of us, I thought we might all acknowledge that, in one way or other, we too had been praising the gods of silver and gold, etc., and had not sufficiently glorified Him whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and whose dominion is from generation to generation. Yet our God is a jealous God. He will not give His glory to another, nor His praise to any graven image; He calls for the whole heart, quoting His answer to the young man who inquired, What must I do to inherit eternal life? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and then directing all sin-sick souls to Him as the only Saviour, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, for "there is yet balm in Gilead, there is yet a physician there." My sister Fry followed very sweetly, confirming what I had said of giving Him the undivided heart, and Joseph finished in solemn supplication. I did not know how the Catholics would receive the doctrine; but to my comfort, several of them took me warmly by the hand and expressed their great satisfaction in what they had heard. Lafayette's daughter, who is one of the serious among them, seemed full of love, and said, "We have had a blessed evening." I cannot say the weight that was taken off my soul by being faithful, but it was no small effort, as thou mayst suppose. We had two of the ladies in waiting on the queen, the Baron Mallet and all his family, Lafavelle, Count Pelet, etc., amounting in all, I should think, to seventy persons or more.