Smyrna times., 1857-04-08
Selttt Mlistellanp,
Christ Not a Writer,

One of the most remarkable facts in the his
tory of Christ is, that he left no writings be-
hiud MIN, and the only record there is of his
writing anything is in the case where "he
stopped down and with his fingers wrote upon
the ground" What he wrote then and there
no one knows perhaps the most plausible con.
lecture is that he wrote the answer to The ques.
ton, whether the women taken in the act oi
adultery should be stoned! "He that is with.
out SIN among you, let him cast stone at her. u
ltearer, did this strange fact ever recur to you
that the greatest retormer that ever lived
| Pro;essedly the divine teacher sent of God ia
reveal his truth TO the wnrld-whose teach
lngs have survived the wreck of ages, and now
command the credence, the respect and the
most profound admiration of the enlightened
world; and who is claimed as the "author and
hnlsher" OF a great system of faith and prac-
tce, has left behind him no sentence ofhis wri-
tlng, and those unknown characters written
with his finger in the sand constitutes the sum
total of all his writings of which there is any
account!
Is there, or has there ever been, since the in
ventlOn Of letters, or euen rude hieroglyphcs
any such thing a system of religion, whose
founder did not take special pains to reduce
his teachings to writing, and thus give them
the most exact and permanent form!
The BrahmIns have their Vedas, their Poura-
mas, their Ramayan, and their Laws and Insti-
tutes of Manu-, and these are all written and
preserved with the utmost care. The Chinese
have their books of Foh, their founder, as Ope-
ned and expounded by their great Confucius.
The Persians have their Zendevesta attributed
to their leader Zofcester, containing the doc
trine and laws of their religion. The Jews had
CaPFad La nd fha hot
and David, and Solomon, put their teachings in
writing, that they might be preserved.
Plato and PyIhagoras, and Cicero and De.
mosthenes, wrote much. Mahomet wrote the
Koran and gave it to the faithful as their guide.
The writings of Swedenborg are yoluminous,
and in our days, even tie Mormon imposter
wrote his book Of Mormon. But here comes
one who claims precedence even to Moses and
Abraham, and especially claims that a greater
than Solomon is in his own person, aud an
nOUnclng himself as herald of q new dispen-
satiOn from God, which is TO cast Moses and the
prophets in the shade, and prevail over all other
syslt ms, and subdue our entire race, and vet
this reat teacher wrote never a word save
only The character in the sand which the next
breath of wind might obliterate. Who can ac-
count for this strange procedure! Will it COM
port at all with the idea that he was an impos-
ter! Did ever an imposter pursue course
like his Never. And it seems to us thar in
the simple fact to which we have alluded, there
is the impress of truth, and proof that his mis-
sion is all divine. lie stands out before US as
one no knows that his mission is from God,
and hat it can stand upon its merits So con-
fdel is he of its power, that he is content to
brea he it out in Gods air. and leave it live by
its own inherent and set-perpetuating immor-
tai ", or live not at all And so he goes about
dong good, now teaching in the synagogue
AID temple, now talking TO his disciples as he
site on Olvet, or by the sea OF Galllee, and ntw
dropping word as he walks by the way. And
tn, re is not manifested the slightest apprehen-
sion that what he says will be lost He writes
it OF on stone or parchment. Nay, he writes
it 0t at all. He seeks only to give it lodg-
ment in the hearts OF the few disciples that fol-
IL W him-to make them comprehend it, and
IL ell its power, and love it, and is willing to
leave it there to produce its fruits, and to be
written at all And on these hearts he did i'm
press himself; and they, for the love they bore
him wrote the meagre sketch we have of his
life and teachings.