The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-02-22
CHRISTS WRITING.
TRACING IN THE DUST THE WORDS
HYPOCRISY AND FORGIVENESS.

The World Is stin Under the Divine Eye.
Christ's Gentle Treatment OF the Erring
woman-An Illustration of the Worlds
Injustice.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 17.-Dr. Talmage
preached this morning in the Brook
fyn Tabernacle on the subject: "The
Literature of the Dust" After ex.
planning appropriate passages of Scrip.
ture concerning Christ he gave out
the hymn;
Oh, could speak the matchless worth,
Oh, could sound the glories forth
Which In my Saviour shine.
Text: John viii, g.: "Jesus stopped
down and wrote on the ground"
A Mohammedan mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text Solomons temple
had stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar
Numbered it down. Zorobabel's tenn
pie had stood there, but that had been
Frustrated. Now we take our places
In a temple that Herod built because
he was fond of great architecture and
he wanted the preceding temples to
seem insignificant. Put eight or ten
modern cathedrals together and they
would not equal that structure. It
covered nineteen acres. There were
marble pillars supporting roofs OF
cedar and silver tables on which stood
golden cups, and there were carvings
exquisite and inscriptions resplendent,
differing balustrades and ornamented
gateways. The building of this tenn
pie kept ten thousand workmen busy
forty-six years. In that stupendous
pile of pomp and magnifcence sat
Christ, and listening throng
stood about him, when wild disturb
ance took place. A group of men are
pulling and pushing along woman
who had committed the worst crime
against society. When they have
brought her in front Of Christ, they
ask that he sentence her to death BY
stoning. They are critical merci-
less, disingenuous crowd. They want
to get Christ into controversy and
public reprehension. If he say 'Let
her die" they will charge him with
cruelty. If he let her 60, they will
charge him with being in completely
with wickedness. Whichever way he
does, they would howl at him. Then
occurs scene which has not been
sufficiently regarded. He leaves the
lounge or bench on which he was
sitting and goes down on one knee, or
both knees, and with the forefnger Of
his right hand he begins to write in
the dust of the floor, word after word.
But they were not to be diverted
or hindered. They kept on de-
manding that he settle this case
of transgression until he looked
up and told them that they
might themselves begin the woman's
s11naipation,gifut the complainant who
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he resumed writing with his finger in
the dust of the floor, word after word.
Instead of looking over his shoulder to
see what he had written the scoundrels
skulked away. Finally, the whole
place is clear of pursuers, antagonists
and plaintiffs, and when Christ has
finished this strange chirography in
the dust, he looks up and finds the
woman all alone. The prisoner is the
only one of the court room left, the
Judges, the police, the prosecuting at
torneys having cleared out. Christ is
victor, and he says to the woman:
"Where are the prosecutors in this
case9 Are they all gomez Then l dis
charge you; 20 and sin no more.
CHRIST WROTE IN SHIFTING, VANISHING
DUST.
have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you
realize that is the only time that
he ever wrote at all9 / know that
Eusebius says that Christ once wrotea
letter to Abgarus, the king of Odessa,
but there is no good evidence of such
correspondence The wisest being
the world ever saw and the one who
had more to say than any one who
ever lived, never writing book or
chapter, or page or paragraph, or
word on parchment. Nothing but this
literature of the dust, and one sweep
of brush or one breath of a wind
obliterated that forever. Among
all the rolls of the volumes of
the first library founded at The
bes there was not one scroll of
Christ. Among the seven hundred
thousand books of the Alexandrian
library, which by the infamous decree
of Caliph Omar were used as fuel to
heat the four thousand baths of the
city, not one sentence had Christ
penned. Among all the infinitude of
volumes now standing in the libraries
of Edinburgh, the British museum, or
Berlin or Vienna, or the learned re-
positories of all nations, not one word
written directly by the finger of Christ.
All that he ever wrote he wrote in
dust, uncertain, shifting, vanishing
dust.
My text says he stopped down and
wrote on the ground. Standing straight
up a man might write on the ground
with staff, but if with his fingers he
would write in the dust, he must bend
clear over. Aye, he must get at least
on one knee or he cannot write on the
ground. Be not surprised that he
stopped down. His whole life was q
stopping down. STOPPING down from
castle to barn. STOPPING down from
celestial homage to mobocratic jeer
From residence above the stars to
where a star had to fall to designate
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