Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-04-09
CHRIST NOT A WRIFER.

One of the most remarkable facts in
the history of Christ is, that he left no
writings behind him, and the only re-
cord there is of his writing anything is
in the case where che stopped down and
with his finger 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
! question, whether the woman taken in
tie act of adultery should be stoned
l"He that is without sin among you, let
him cast stone at her" Hearer, did
this fact ever recur to you; that the grea-
test reformer that ever liyed-profess-
edly the divine teacher sent of God tore
veal his truth to the world-whose teach
ings have. survived the wreck of ages,
and now command the crodence, the re-
spect, and the most profound admiration
of the enlightened world; and who is
claimed as the .sauthor and fnisher'', of
great system of faith and practice, has
left behind him no sentence of his wri-
ting, and those unknown characters
written with his finger in the sand con-
stitute the sum total of all his writings
of which there is any account. ,--..s
Is there, or has there even been, since
the invention ofletters, or even rude 'hier-
oglyphics and such thing as 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
Pouranas, their Ramayan, apd their
Laws and Institutes of Menu, and; these
are all written and preserved with the
utmost care The Chinese have their books
of Fohi, their founder, as opened and
Iexpounded by their great Confueiens.-
The Parsians have their Zendeyesta at
tributed to their leader Zoroaster CON
tanning the doctrine and laws Of their
religion. The Jews have their sacret
books, and Moses and the Prophets, and
David and Solomon, put their teachings
in writings, that they might be preser-
we'd. .s-e-S~ -s
Plato and Ptyhagoras, and Cicero, and
Demosthenes, wrote much. Mahomet
wrote the Koran and gave it to the faith
full as their guide. The writings of Swe-
denbUrg are e~eluminous, and in our -tla ys,
even the Mormon imposter wrote his
book of mormon. But here comes one
who claims precedence even moses and
Abraham, and especially claims; that a
greater than Solomon is in his own per-
son, and announcing himself as a her
aid of new dispensation from God,
which is to elst Moses and the Proph-
cts in the shade, and praVails oyer all
other systems, and subdue our entire
race, and yet this great teacher wrote
never a word save only the characters in
the sand which the next breath of wind
might obliterate. VIII it comport at all
with the idea that he was an fmposter?
Did ever an imposter pursue a course
like this? Never And it seems to US
that in the simple fact to which we have
alluded, there ist he impress of truth,
and proof that his mission is all diSine.
He stands out before us as one who knows
that his mission is from God, and that
it can stand upon its merits. So conf
dent is he of its power, that he is con-
tent to breathe it out in Gods air, land
leave it to live by its own inherent and
self-perpcuating immortality, or notTlive
atall. And so he goes about doing good,
now teaching in the synagogue and tenn
pie, now talking to his disciples as he
sits at Olivet, or by the sea of Gahlee,
and now dropping a word as he walks
by the way. And there is not mani
tested the slightest apprehension that
what he says will be lost. He writes it
not on stone or parchment. Nay, he
writes it not at all. He seeks only TO
give it lodgment in the hearts of the
few disciples that followed him-to make
them comprehend it and feel its pow
er, 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 impress himself; and they, for the
love they bore him, wrote the meagre
sketch VIC have of his life and teachings.