Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-02-28

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and foliage would be allegoric. and again
we would hear Him say as of old, "Con-
slider the lilies of the field, how they grows"
and we would not hear the whistle of a
quail or the cawing of a raven or the
| roundelay or brown thresher without
saying, Behold the fowls of the air. they
gather not into barns, yet your Heavenly
Father fesdeth them;" and q Dominic hen
Of the barnyard could not cluck for her
brood, yet we would hear Christ saying as
of old, ''How often would have gathered
| thy children together. even as a hen gath
cred her chickens under her Wings" and
| through the redolent hedges We would
hear Christ saying, 81 am the rose of
| Sharon;" we could not dip the seasoning
| from the sait-cellar without thinking of
| the divine suggestion, 'Ye are the salt Of
| the earth, but if the salt have lost its SAVIOR
it is fit for nothing but to be cast out and
trodden under foot of men,"
Let US wake up from the stupidity and
take the whole world as parable. Then
if with gun and pack of hounds we start
off before dawn and see the morning
coming down off the hills to meet US, we
would cry out with the evangelist THE
day spring from on high hath visited
struggling home, eyebrows and beard, and
apparel all covered with the whirlisg
flakes, and we would cry out with David,
Wash me and 1 shall be whittier than
snow" In a picture gallery in Europe
there is on the ceiling an exquisite fresco,
but people having to look straight up, it
wearied and dizzied them, and bent their
necks almost beyond endurance, so great
looking glass was put nesr the floor and
now visitors only need to look easily down
into this mirror and see the fresco at their
feet. And so much of all the Heaven of
Gods truth is reflected as in a mirror, and
the things that are above us are copied by
things all around us. What right have we
to throw away one of Gods Bibles, aye,
the first Bible He ever gave the race?
We talk about the Old Testament and the
New Testament, but the oldest Testament
contains the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament so
well they discard the Old Testament
Shall we like the New Testament and the
Old Testament so we'll as to depreciate the
oldest; namely, that which was written
before Moses was put afioat on the boat of
leaves which was calked with asphaltum;
or reject the Genesis and the Revelation
that were written centuries before Adam
lost a rib and gained a wife? No, no;
when Deity stoops down and writes on
the ground, let US read it. l would have
no less appreciation of the Bible on paper
that comes out of the paper mill, but
would urge appreciation of the Bible in
the geranium, the Bible in the asphodel,
the Bible in the dust. Some one asked an
ancient King whether he had seen the
eclipse of the sun. "No," he said, 81 have
SO much TO do on earth, have no time TO
look at Heaven" And if our faculties were
all awake in the study of God, we would not
have time to go much further than the
first grass blade. l have no fear that
natural religion will ever contradict what
we call revealed religion. 1 have no SYM
pathy with the followers of Aristotle, who
after the telescope was invented, would
not look through it, lest it contradict some
of the theories of their great master. I
shall be glad to put against one lid of the
Bible the microscope, and against the other
lid of the Bible the telescope.
But when Christ stopped down and
wrote on the ground, what did he write?
The PhariSees did not stop to examine.
The towards, whipped of their own con-
sciences, fed pell NELL. Nothing will fay
a man like an aroused conscience. DR..
Stevens, in his ''History of Methodism,"
says that when Rev. Benjamin Abbott of
olden times was preaching, he exclaimed:
For aught L know there may be MUIR
derer in this house" and a man rose in the
assemblage and started for the door
and bawled aloud, confessing to a
murder he had committed fifteen
years before. And no wonder these
Pharisees, reminded of their sins,
took to their heels. But what did Christ
write on the ground? The Bible does not
state. Yet, as Christ never wrote any
thing except that once, you can not blame
US for wanting to know what he really did
write. But L am certain that he wrote
nothing trivial or unimportant. And will
you allow me to say that 1 think l know
what he wrote on the ground? l judge
from the circumstances. He might have
written other things, but kneeiing there in
the temple surrounded by pack of hypO-
critics, who were self appointed constab
ulary, and having in his presence a per-
secuted woman who evidently was very
penitent for her sins, am sure he wrote
two words, both of them graphic and
tremendous and reverbrating. And the
one word was hypocrisy and the other
word was forgiveness. From the way
these Pharisees and Scribes vacated the
premises and got out into fresh air. as
Christ with just one ironical sentence,
unmasked them, L know they were
frst-class hypocrites. 1t was then as
it is now. The more faults and in
consistencies people have of their
own, the more severe and censorioas are
they about the faults of others. Here
they are-twenty stout men arresting and
arraigning one weak woman. Magnificent
business to be engaged in. They wanted
the fun of seeing her faint away under a
heavy judicial sentence from Christ, and
then after she has been taken outside the
city and fastened at the foot of a precipice,
the Scribes and Pharisees wanted the
satisfaction of each coming forth and
dropping big stone on her head, for that
was the style of capital punishment that
they asked for. Some people have taken
the responsibility of saying that Christ
never laughed. But / think as He saw
those men drop every thing chagrined,
mortified, He must have laughed. At any
rate, it makes me laugh to read of it. All
of these libertines, dramatiZing indigna-
tion against impurity. Blind bats lectur-
ing on optics. a flock of crows on their
way up from carcass, ,denouncing carrion.
Yes, l think that one word written on
the ground that day by the finger of
Christ was the awful word hypocrisy. But
am sure there was another word in that
dust. From her entire manner am sure
that arraigned woman was repentant She
made no apology, and Christ in no wise
belittled her sin. But her supplicatory be-
havior and her tears moved Him. and when |
He stopped down to write on the ground, He
wrote that mighty, that imperial, word |
Forgiveness. When on Sinai God wrote |
the law, He wrote it with finger Of light |