Milford chronicle., 1889-02-22
CHRISTS WRITING.
TRACING IN THE DUST THE WORDS
HYPOCRISY AND FORGIVENESS.


TRACING IN THE DUST THE WORDS
/ HYPOCRISY AND FORGIVENESS.
The World Is Still Under the Divine Eye.
Christ's Gentle Treatment of the Erring
woman-An Illustration of the Worlds
Injustice.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Feb. 17.-Dr. Talmage
preached this morning in the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle on the subject, THE Literature of
the Dust" After explaining appropriate
passages Of Scripture concerning Christ he
gave ont the hymn:
oh, could speak the matchless worth,
Oh, could sound the glories forth
Which in my Saviour shinel
Text: John viii, 8: "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 thundered it down. Zorro
babel's temple had stood there, but that had
been prostrated. 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 Insignificant. fut
eight or ten modern cathedrals together and
they would not equal that structure. 1t COW
cred nineteen acres. There were marble pill
lars supporting roofs Of cedar and silver
tables on which stood golden cups, and there
were carvings exquisite and inscriptions re-
plendent, glittering balustrades and orna-
mented gateways. The building of this tenn
pie kept ten thousand woTkmen busy forty-six
years. In that stupendous pile Of pomp and
magnihcence 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 a woman who
had committed the worst crime against
society. When they have brought her
in front Of Christ, they ask that de SEN
tence her to death by Stoning. They are
a critical, merciless, disingenuous crowd.
They want to get Christ into controversy and
public reprehensiop. If he say, Let her
de- they will charge bim with cruelty. If
he let her go, they viii charge him with
being in completely with wickedness.
Whichever way he does, 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 sitting ana
goes down on one knee OF both knees, and
with the forefinger of his right hand he
begins to write in the dust of the hoor,
word after word. But they were not to be
diverted or hindered. They kept on demand
ing that he settle this case of transgression,
until he looked up and told them that they
might themselves begin the woman's assassi-
nation, if the complainant who had never
done anything wrong himself 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. In
stead of looking over his shoulder to see what
he had written, the scoundrel skulked away.
Finally the whole place is clear Of pursuers,
antagonists and accusers, 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 says to the woman,
"Where are tho prosecutors in this case' Are
they all gone. Then l discharge you. 60
and sin no more.n
CHRIST WROTE IN SHIFTING AND VANISHING
DUST.
Ihave always wondered what Christ wrote
on the ground For do you realize that is the
only time that he ever wrote at allf know
that Eusebius says that Christ once wrote a
letter to Abgarus, the king Of Edessa, but
there is no good evidence Of such corre-
spondence. 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 a chapter, or page or paragraph
OF word on parchment. Nothing but this
literature of the dust, and one sweep of
brush or one breath of wind obliterated
that forever. Among all the rolls of the vol
,e 10 Hrscf lfht.unstr founded at IloDng
there was not one scroll Of Christ. Among
the seven hundred thousand books Of the Al
exandrian 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 Paris, or the learned repOsi-
tories of all nations, not one word written di-
rectly by the fingers Of Christ. All that he
ever wrote, he wrote in dust; uncertain,
shifting, vanishing dust.
Nv text says he stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up 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. Bo not surprised that he stopped
down His whole life was a STOPPING down.
STOPPING down from castle to barn. Stoop-
ing down from celestial homage to mobo-
cratic jeer. From residence above the stars
to where a star had to fall to designate his
landing place. From heavens front door to
the worlds back gate. From writing in
round and silvered letters Of constellation
and galaxy on the blue scroll OF heaven, to
writing on the ground in the dust, which the
feet of the crowd had left in Herods temple
II in January you have ever stepped out of a
princes conservatory that had Mexican cac-
tus and magnolias in full bloom, into the
outside air 20 degs below zero, you may get
some idea of Christ's change of atmosphere
from celestial to terrestrial. How many
heavens there are know not, but there are
at least three, for Paul was ''caught up into
the third heaven Christ came down from
; highest heaven to the second heaven and down
from second heaven TO third heaven, down
swifter than meteors ever fell, down amidst
stellar splendors that himself eclipsed, down
through clouds, through atmospheres, through
appalling space, down to where there was no
lower depth. From being waited on at the
/ banquet Of the skies to the broihng of fish for
/ his own breakfast on the banks Of the lake.
! From emblazoned chariots Of eternity TO the
saddle of a mules back. From homage
| cherubic, seraphic, archangelc, to the pay
I ing Of sixty-fve and half cents Of tax to
4 Caesar. From the deathless country to
tomb built to hide human dissolution. The
/ uplifted wave Of Galilee was high, but he had
! to come down, before with his feet, he could
/ touch it, and the whirlwind that rose above
/ the billow was higher yet, but he had to come
I down, before with his lip he could kiss it into
I quiet Bethlehem a STOPPING down. Nazareth
I a etooninp down Death between two burg
/ lars a stopping down. Yes, it was in conson-
( ance with humiliations that had gone before
/ and with self abnegations that came after,
/ when on that memorable day in Judea's
temple he stopped down and wrote on the