Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-10-27
CHRIST NO WRITER.

| OQo OF LQe nOSC remArkADl6 1aCtS III Lne
history of Christ is, that he left no writings
behind him, and the only record there is of
his writing anything is in the case where "he
stopped down and with his finger wrote upon
the ground" What he wrote then and there
no one knows though perhaps the most
plausible conjecture is that he wrote the an.
swer to the question, whether the woman
taken in the act of adultery should be stoned
"He that is without sin among you, let him
cast stone at her." Hearer, did this strange
fact ever occur to you, that the greatest re.
former that ever lived-professedly the d.
vine teacher sent of God to reveal bis truth
to the world-whose teachings have survived
the wreck of ages, and now command the
credence, the respect and the most profound
amiration of the enlightened world, and who
is claimed as the "author and 6nisher" of
great system of faith and practice, has left
behind him no sentence of his writing, and
those unknown characters written with his
finger in the sand constitute the sum total
of all his writing of which there is any &C.
count?
Is there, or has there ever been, since the
invention of letters, or even rude hieroglyph-
les, any 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
forms?
The Bransbins have their Vedas, the Pou-
rams their Rhmayan, and their laws and insti-
tutes 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 expounded by their great Confu-
cius. The Persians have their Zendevesta,
attributed to their leader, Zoroaster, contain
ing the doctrine and laws of their religion.
The Jews had their sacred books; and Moses
and the prophets, and David, and Solomon,
put their teachings in writing, that they
might be preserved. ..
Psto and Pithagoras, and Cicero and De-
mosttenese, wrote much. Mahomet wrote
the Koran, and gave it to the faithful as their
guide. The writings of Swedenborg are
voluminous; and in our day, even the Nor
mon impostor wrote his books of Mormon.
But here comes one who claims precedence
even to Moses and Abraham, and especially
with claims greater than Solomon in his
own person, and announcing himself, as
herald of new dispensation from God, which
is to cast Moses and the prophets in the
shade, and prevail over all other systems,
and subdue our entire race, and yet this great
teacher wrote never word, save only the
characters in the sand, which the next breath
of wind might obliterate. Who can account
for this procedure? Will it comport at all
with The idea that he was an impostor% Did
ever an impostor pursue course like this?
Never. And it seems to US that in the single
fact to which we have alluded, there is the
impress of truth, and proof that his mission
is from God, and there it can stand upon its
that he is content to breathe it out upon Gods
air, and leave it to live by its own inherent
and selfperpetuating Immortality, or live
not at ALL And so he goes about doing good,
now teaching in the synagogue and temple,
now talking to his disciples as he sits on Oil
vet or by the sea of Galilee, and now drop
ping word as he walks by she way. And
there is not manifested the slightest apprehen-
sion 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 a lodg-
ment in the hearts of the few disciples that
followed him-to make them comprehend it,
and feel its power, and love it; and is willing
to leave it there to produce its fruits, and to
be written by the hand of affection, if it
should be written at all. And on those
hearts he did impress himself; and they, for
the love they bore him, wrote the meagre
sketch we have of his life and teachings
Rev. j. D. WILLIAMSON.