Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-02-18
LITERATURE OF DUST.
DOOM OF HYPOCRISY AND FORGIVENESS
FOR ALL SINS
Natural and Revealed ReligiOn-Ths Crime Of
Man and the Crime Of Woman, Treat Them
Ahke-The Rev. Dr.. Talmage's
Eloquent Discourse.
Special telegram to he Register.

Jesus stopped down and wrote on thE
ground"
A Mohammedsn mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text SolomOn's temple had
stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar thun.
dered it down. RorababePs temple had
stood there, but that had bsen prOstrstei.
Now We take our places in temple that
Herod built because he was fond of great
architecture and he wanted the preceding
temples to seem insight cant. Pat eight
or ten modern cathedIals together and
they would not equal that structure. II
covered nineteen Ecrts. There were mar
bic pillars supporting roofs Of cedar and
silver tables ON which stood golden caps,
and there were carvings exquisite and in
scnptions resplendent, glit.ering ballus-
trades and oTnamented gateways. The
building of this temple kept ten thousand
Workmen busy forty-six years.
A CRITICAL, MERcmEss CROWD.
In that stupendOus pile of pomp and
magnifcenCe sat Christ, and a listening
thrOng stood about Him, when a wild dis
turbance took place. A group of men are
pulling and pushing along woman who
had committed the worst crime against 80
ciety. When they have brought her in
front of Christ, they ask that He sentence
her to death by stOning. They are a criti-
cal, merciless, disingenuous crowd. They
want to get Christ into controversy and
public apprehension. If He say ''Let
her die, " they will charge Him with cruel.
ty. II He let her 20, they will charge Him
with being in completely with wickedness.
Whichever way He doss, they would howl
at HIM. Then occurs a scene which has
not been sufficiently regarded. He leaves
the lounge or bench on which He was sit
ting and goes down on one knee, or
both knees, and with the fOrefnger OF
his right haud be begins to write 10
the dust of the floor, word after word.
But they were not to be diverted or him
dered. They kept on demanding that He
settle this case of transgressiOn until He
looked mp and told them that they might
themselves begin the woman's as5assina.
tiou, if the complainant who hsd never
done anything wrong himself would open
the fire go ahead, but b3 sure that the
man who filings the first missile ID immsc-
ulate - Then He resumed writing with
His finger in the dust Of tie floor, word
after word. Iastead Of looking over His
shoulder to see what He had written the
scoundrels skulked away. Finally, the
whole place is clear Of puIsners, ant5gO-
nists and plaintiffs, and when Christ has
finished this strange chirOgrapby in the
dust, He looks up and fluids the woman all
alone. The prisoner is the only one of the
cOuIt room left, the judges, the police, the
prosecuting attorneys having cleared ont.
Christ is victor, and He says to the wO
man: "Where are the prosecutors in this
case? Are they all gone? Then l dis
charge you; 90 and sin no more
HE WROTE IN THE DUST.
I have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that is the ouly time he ever wrote at al ?
know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote letter to Abgarus, the king
of Edeasa, but there is no good evididence
of such a correspondence. The wisest b.
| ing the world ever saw and the one who
had more TO say than any one who ever
lived, never writing a book or a chapter,
or a page or q paragraph, or a word on
parchment. Nothing but this Literature
of the dust, aud one sweep of brush OF
one breath of a wind obliterated that for
ever. Among ell the rolls of the volumes
of the first library founded at Thebes,
there was not one scroll OF Christ. Among
the seven hundred thousand books OF the
Alexsndrian library, which, by the infa.
nous decree of Caliph Omar, we're used q;
fuel to heat the four thousand baths Of the
city. not one sentence had Christ psnned
Among all the infinitude of volumes now
standing in the libraries Of Edinburgh,
the British museum, or Berlin or Vienna,
or the learned repositories Of all nations,
not one word written directly by the finger
of Christ. All that He ever wrote He
wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting, vanish
ing dust.
UNDER DIVINE CARE.
Whether the words he was writing were
in Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, cannot
say. for He knew all those languages But
He is still stopping down and with his fin
ger writing on the ground; in the winter IN
! letters of crystals, in the spring IN Letters
Of flowers, in summer in golden letters oi
harvest, in autumn ia letters Of fire on
fallen leaves. How it would sweeten up
and enrich and emblsz)n this world could
we see Christ's caliAgrspHy all over 1t.
This world was not hung out into space
thousands of years ago aud then left g
look ont for itself. II is still under the Di-
vine care. Christ never for half second
takes His hand of Of 1t, or 1t would soon
be a shipwIecked world, an abandoned
world. dead world. Let there be light
was said at the beginning And Christ
stands under the wintry skies and says,
Let there be snOw6akts to enrich tbs
earth: and under the clouds of spring and
saws Come We blossoms aud make redolent
the orchards; aud in September dips the
branches into this vat of beautiful color
and swings them in the hszy air. No
whim of mine is this. Without Him
wss not anything made that wes made. "
Christ writing on the ground. Ii We could
see His hand in all the passing seasons how
il would illumine the world.
NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION.
In a picture gallery of Europe, there il
on the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but
people having to look strsight up, 1t
wearied and dizzied them, and bent theiI
neeks almost beyond endurance, so a great
looking glass was put Dear the floor and
now visitors only need to look easily
down into this mirror and they see the
frescO at their feet Aud so much ofsll
tbe heaven of Gods truth is reflected in
this world as in mirror, aud the thing,
tbat are above are copied by things al
aroupd MS. 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 CON
tains the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament SC
well they discard the Old Testament
Shall we like the New Testament and ih'
Old Testament so we'll as to depTeciate the
oldest; namely, that which was written
before Moses was put atioat on thS
boat of leaves which was calked with
asphaltum; or reject the Genesis and
the Revelation that we're written cen
turies before Adam lost rib and gained
WIFI No. no: when Deity siOops dowr
and writes on the ground, let US read it
I would have no less appreciation OF the
Bible on paper that comes out on the
paper mill, but would urge appreciation
of the Bible in the grass, the Bible in The
sand hill, the Bible in the geranium, the
Bible in the asphOdel, the Bible in the
dust. Some one asked an ancient kinl
whether he hsd seen the eclipse of the sun
mo- said he, 81 have so much to do on
/ - I hara M time fn lnok nj heaven y