Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-18
THE RECORDS OF HUMAN LIFE.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH

of the Dust" After explaining appropriate
passages of Scripture concerning Christ HI
gave out the hymn:
Oh, could speak the matchless worth,
oh, could sound the glories forth
Which in my Savior shine.
Text: John viii, 6: "Jesus stopped down
and wrote on the ground"
A Mohammedan mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the scene
of my text Solomon's temple had stood
there, but Nebuchadnezzar thundered it
down. Zorobabel's temple had stood there,
but that had been prostrated. Now we take
our places in a temple that Herod built be-
cause 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. 1t covered 10 acres.
There were marble pillars supporting roofs
of cedar, and silver tables on which stood
golden cups, and there were carvings ex-
quisite and inscriptions resplendent, gilt
tering balustrades and ornamented gate
ways. The buSding of this temple kept
10000 workmen bI>< 46 years.
In that stupendous pile of pomp and mag
nifeenee sat Christ, and listening throng
stood about Him, when a wild disturbance
took place. A group of men are pulling
and pushing 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 a critical, merciless, dis
ingenious crowd. They want to get Christ
into controversy and public apprehension
If He say, "Let her die they will charge
Him with cruelty. If He lets her go, they
will charge Him with being in completely
with wickedness. Whichever wav He does,
they will howl at Him. Then occurs a 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 be diverted or hindered. Thev
kept on demanding that he settle this case
of transgression until he looked up and told
them that they might themselves begin the
woman's assassination, if the complainant
who had never done anything wrong him
self would open the fire. GO ahead, but
be sure that the man who filings the first
missile is immaculate" Then 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 writ
ten the scoundrels skulked away. Finally,
the whole place is clear of pursuers, an
tagonists 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 attorneys having cleared
out Christ is victor, and he saws to the |
woman: Where are the prosecutors in this |
case? Are they all gone? Then L dis |
charge you; go and sin no more
have always wondered what Christ wrote |
on the ground. For do you realize that it |
is the only time that he ever wrote at all? / |
know that Eusebius says that Christ once |
wrote a letter to Abgarus, the king of |
Edessa, 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 a paragraph, or a word on parchment. |
Nothing but this literature of the dust, and |
one sweep of a brush or one breath of a
wind obliterated that forever. Among all |
the rolls of the volumes of the first library
founded at Thebes there was
NOT ONE SCROLL OF CHRIST.
Among the 100000 books of the AIexap-
drian library, which by the infamous decree
OF Callph Omar were used as fuel to heat
the 900 baths of the city, not one sentence
had Christ penned Among all the intip-
itude of volumes now standing in the libra
ries Of Edinburgh, the British museum, or
Berlin or Vienna, or the learned reposito-
rleS OF all nations, not one word written d.
rectly 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 ne would write in the
dust, he must bend clear over. Ave. 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 a
STOPPING down. STOPPING down from castle
10 barn. STOPPING down from celestial
homage to mobocratic jeer From residence
above the stars to where star had to fall to
designate his landing place. From heavens
ront door to the worlds back gate. From
writing in round and silvered letters OF con-
tellation and galaxy on the blue scroll of
heaven, to writing on the ground in the ]
lust, which the feet of the crowd had left in
ver stepped out ct princes conservatory ,
hat had Mexican cactus and magnoIias in
un bloom, into the outside air ten
egrees below zero, you may get some
dea of Christ's change of atmosphere
rom celestial to terrestrial. How manv
eavens there are / know not. but 2
here are at least three, for Paul 1
ras caught up into the third heaven" I
,hrist came down from highest heaven to G
he second heaven, and down from second !
eaven to hrst heaven, down swifter than
leteo-s ever fell, down amidst stellar splen- !
ors that himself eclipsed, down through )
londs, through atmospheres, through ap- j
alling space, down to where there was no a
1wer depth. From being waited on at the I
anquet of the skies to the broiling of fish !
1r his own breakfast on the banks of the {
Ike. From emblaZoned chariots of eternity a
D the saddle of a mules back. The homage S
herubic, seraphic, archangelic, to the pay !
lg of 621@ cents of tax to Cesar. From :
THE DEATHLEss COUNTRY {
a tomb built to hide human dissolution. t
he uplifted wave of Galilee was high. but L
e had to come down before, with his feet. I
e could touch it, and the whirlwind thai
1se above the billow was higher yet, but he I
ad to come down before, with his lip. Lz !
Ould kiss it into quiet. Bethlehem a stoot- I
1g down. Nazareth a STOPPING down. Death I
etween two burglars stopping down. Yes, :
was in consonance with humiliations that t
ad gone before, and with self abnegationS v
lat came after, when on that memorable J
ay in Herod's temple he stopped down and =
rote on the ground. v
Whether the words he was writing were i,
Greek or Latin or Hebrew, 1 cannot say. I
II he knew all those languages. But he is p
i'll stoopinp and with his finger writing