The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-02-22

storm, while struggling home, eyebrows and
beard and apparel all covered with the whirl-
ing flakes, we would cry out with David,
wash me and I shall be whittier than snow"
In a picture gallery Of Europe, there Is on the
an exquisite fresco, but people having
to look straight up, it wearied and dizzied
them, and bent their necks almost beyond
endurance, SO a great looking glass was put
near the floor I'M now visitors only need to
look easily down into this mirror and they see
the fresco at their feet. And 80 much Of all
the heaven of Gods truth Is reflected In this
world as In a mirror and the things that are
above 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 racei We talk about the Old Testament
and the New Testament, but the oldest Tesla
ment contains the lessons Of the natural
world. Some people like the New Test
ament so well, they discard tho Old Testa-
ment. Shall we like the New Testament and
the Old Testament so well as TO depreciate
the Oldest, namely, that which was written
before Moses was put afoat 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 wifef No, no; when Deity
stoops down and writes ON the ground, let US
read it. | would have no less appreciation
of the Bible on paper that comes out of the
paper mill, but l 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 the ancient king whether he had
seen the eclipse of the sun. "No," said he,
81 AVE so much to do on earth, / have no
time to look at heaven" And il our facul-
ties were all awake in the study of God we
would not have time to go much further than
the first grass blade. Ihave nc fear that nat
ural religion will ever contradict what we
call revealed religion. l have no sympathy
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. / shall be
glad to put against one lid OF the Bible the
microscope, and against the other lid of the
Bible the telescope.
THE WORDS CHRIST o HYPOCRISY
n FORGIVENESS"
But when Christ stopped down and wrote
on the ground, what did he writei The
Pharisees did not stop to examine. The
towards, whipped Of their w consciences,
fed pell NELL. Nothing win fay a manslike
an aroused conscience. DR.. Stevens, in his
History of Methodism," says that when Rev.
Benjamin Abbott, of olden times, was preach
ing, he exclaimed: "For aught l know there
may be q murderer in this house. and a man
rose in the assemblage and started for the
door and bawled aloud, confessing to a MUIR
der he had committed fifteen years before.
And no wonder these Pharisees, reminded of
Al..- zs-- ANAl- - AAalr hnalc p,,f xuhn& 1f1
Christ write ON the groundi The Bible does
not state. Yet, as Christ never wrote any
thing except that once, you cannot blame us
for wanting to Know what he really did
write. But l am certain he wrote nothing
trivial, or nothing unimportant. And will
you allow me to say that I think I know
what he wrote on the groundi / judge from
the circumstances he might have written
other things, but kneeling there in the tenn
pie, surrounded by a pack Of hypocrites, who
q self appointed constabulary and having
in his presence a prosecuted woman who, evil
IDENTIFY, was very penitent for her sins, I am
sure he wrote two words, both of them
graphic and tremendous and reverberat-
ing. And the one word was Hypocrisy and
the other word was Forgiveness. From the way
these pharisees and scribes vacated the prem
ises and got out into the fresh air, as Christ,
with Just one ironical sentence, unmasked
them, l know they were first class hypocrites.
It was then as it is now. The more faults
and inconsistencies people have Of their own,
the more severe and censorious are they
about the faults of others. Here they are
twenty stout men arresting and a~rraigning
one weak woman. Magnificent business to be
engaged in. They wanted the fun Of see
ing her faint away under a heavy judicial
sentence from Christ, and then after she had
been taken outside the city and fastened at
the foot of a p~recipice, the Scribes and Phar-
isees wanted the satisfaction of each coming
and dropping a big tone 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 I think as he saw those men
drop everything, ch~agrined, mortified, ex-
posed, and go out quicker than they came in,
he must have laughed. At any rate, it makes
me laugh to read of it. All of these lber-
tines dramatizing indignation against inn
purity. Blind bats lecturing on optics. A
flock of crows on their way up from a car
cass, denouncing carrion. Yes, / think that
one word written on the ground that day by
the finger of Christ was the awful
WOIu IlNpDCIIols Dub L ohA ouAO ~ "e1
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 behavior and her tears moved
him, and when he stopped down to write on
the ground, he wrote that mighty, that inn
perial word Forgiveness. When on Sinai God
wrote the law, he wrote it with finger of
ls-l4x;,- -, &oI1oo - -, aooh nno~1 onk nc
by q chisel into the hard granite surface.
But when he writes the offense of this woman
he writes It in dust, so that it can be easily
rubbed out, and when she repents of it, oh
he was a merciful Christi I was reading OF
a legend that is told in the far east about him.
He was walking through the streets Of a city
and he saw a crowd around a dead dog. And
one man said, "What a loathsome object il
are mauled and bleeding" EYES," said
another, "even his hide would not be OF
any use to the tanner" Eyes" said an,
other, "the odor of his carcass is dreadful. >
Then Christ, standing there, said: "Bui
pearls cannot equal the whiteness of biz
teeth" Then the people, moved by the ides
that any one could find anything pleasant
concerning a dead dog, said: ''Why, thii
ANo oS oOodo - ASNPAoNO1 ohS
convicted they went away. Surely thi.
legend of Christ is good enough to be true
Kindness in all his words and ways anG
habits. Forgiveness Word of eleven letter,
and some of them thrones, and some Of then
palm branches. Better have Christ writ,
close to our names that one word, though b,
write it in dust, than to have our name cut
into monumental granite with the letter.
that the storms Of a thousand years canno
obliterate. Bishop Darlington had a book o.
only three leaves. The first leaf was black
the second leaf red, the third leaf white. The
black leaf suggested sin, the red leaf atone
ment, the white leaf publication. That is thu
whole story. God viii ~abundantly pardon
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE WORLDS MUS
TICE.
1 must not forget to say that as Chris
STOPPING down, with his finger wrote on thu
ground, it is evident that his sympathies ar,
with this penitent woman, and that he ha
no sympathy with her hypocritical pursuers
Just opposite to that Is the worlds habit
Why didn'tt these unclean Pharisees bring on,
of their own number to Christ for excoria
ton and capital punishment No, no; they
overlook that in q man which they damnat,
in a woman. And so the world has had FOL
offending women, scourges and objurgation
and for just one ~offense, she becomes an out
cast, while for men whose lives have been so
donnie for twenty years, the world swing
open its doors of brilliant welcome, ant
they may sit in legislatures and senates and
parliaments or OF thrones. Unlike the Chris
of my text, the world writes a mans mis-
demeanor in dust, but chisels a woman's of
Tense with great capitals upon meffaceabl
marble. For foreign lords and princes, who's
names n even be mentioned in respecta
BILE circles abroad, because they are walking
lazarettoes Of a~bomination, our American
princesses of fortune wait, and at the frs
beck sail out with them into the blackness O
darkness forever. And in what are callet
higher circles of society there isnow not onl,
the imitation Of foreign dress and foreigb
manners, but an imitation of foreign disso
luteness. like an Englishman and ! like al
/ American, but the sickest creature on eartl