The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-03-01

swings them in the hazy air. No within OF
mine in this. without Him was not any
thing made that was made" Christ writ.
ing on the ground. II We could see His
hand in all the passing seasons, how it
would illumine the world? All verdure
and foliage would be allegoric. and again
we would hear Him say as of old, ''Cou.
slider the lilies of the field, how they grows"
and we would not hear the whistle of a
quail or the cawing Of o raven or the
roundelay of a brown thresher without
saying, Behold the fowls Of the air. they
gather not into barns, yet your Heavenly
Father fesdeth them;" and a Dominic hen
of the barnyard could not cluck for her
brood, yet we would hear Christ saying as
of old, Show 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, II am the rose Of
Sharon;" we could not dip the seasoning
from the sat.cellar without thinking Of
the divine suggestion, Eye are the salt of
the earth, but il 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
IL with gun and pack of bounds we start
off before dawn and see the morning
coming down of the hills to meet US, we
would cry out with the evangelist, 1.-THE
day spring from on high hath visited
U.S." or caught in a snow storm, while
home, eyebrows and beard, and
apparel all covered with the whirling
flakes, and we would cry out with David,
Wash me and I 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 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
the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament so
we'll they discard the Old Testament
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 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 rib and gained wife? No, no;
when Deity stoops down and writes on
the ground. let US read it I 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 geranium, the Bible in the asphodel,
the Bible in the dust. Some one asked an
ancient King whether he bad 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 ths 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. 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
i'd of the Bible the telescope.
But when Christ stopped down and
wrote on the ground, what did he write?
The Pharsees did not stop to examine.
The towards, whipped of their own con.
sciences, fled pell nell. Nothing will fay
, man like an aroused conscience. DIR.
Stevens, in his "History of Methodism,"
'ays that when Rev. Benjamin Abbott of
,lden times was preaching, he exclaimed:
For aught know there may be MUIR
lerer in this house," and q man rose in the
and started for the door
md bawled aloud, confessing to a
murder he had committed fifteen
Tears before. And no wonder these
9harisees, reminded of their sins,
ook to their heels. But what did Christ |
write on the ground? The Bible does not
tate. Yet, as Christ never wrote any
hing except that once, you can not blame |
Is for wanting to know what he really did |
write. But l am certain that he wrote |
lothing trivial or unimportant. And will |
Tou allow me to say that l think l know |
What he wrote on the ground? l Judge |
rom the circumstances. He might have |
written other things, but kneeling there in |
he temple. surrounded by pack of hyPo-
rites, who were a self appointed constab-
llary, and having in his presence q per-
ecuted woman who evidently was very |
,enitent for her sins, am sure he wrote |
wo words, both of them graphic and |
tremendous and reverbrating. And the |
ne word was hypocrisy and the other |
word was forgiveness. From the way
hese Pharisees and Scribes vacated the
PREMISES and got out into fresh air. as
,hrist, with just one ironical sentence,
them, 1 know they We're
irst-class hypocrites. 1t was then as
t is now. The more faults and in
constituencies people have of their
wn, the more severe and censorious are
hey about the faults of others. Here
hey are-twenty stout men arresting and
one weak woman. Magnificent
BUSINESS to be engaged in. They wanted
he fun Of seeing her faint away under a
eavy judicial sentence from Christ, and
hen after she has been taken outside the /
ity and fastened at the foot of a precipice,
he Scribes and Pharisees wanted the
of each coming forth and |
lropping big stone on her head, for that
vas the style of capital punishment that
hey asked for. Some people have taken
he responsibility Of saying that Christ
ever laughed. But l think as He saw
hose men drop every thing, chagrined,
mortified, He must have laughed. At any
ate, it makes me laugh to read Of it. All
# these libertines, dramatizing indigna-
ion against impurity. Blind bats lectur-
ng on optics. A flock of crows ON their
way up from carcass, denouncing carbon.
Yes, think that one word written on
he ground that day by the finger of
,hrist was the awful word hypocrisy. But
am sure there was another word in that
ust From her entire manner am sure
hat arraigned woman was repentant She
nada no apoIogY. and Christ in no wise