Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-03-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tls Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject; 1.-THE Literature Of
the Dust

A Mohammedan mosque stands now where
once stood HsrOd's temple, the scene of my
text Solomon's temple had stood there but
NebuchadnezZar thuudered it down Zorro
babels temple had stood there, but that had
been Frustrated Now we take our places
in a temple that Herod built because he was
fond of great architecture and he wanted the
preceding temples to seem insignificant Put
eight or ten cathedrals together and they
would not equal that structure. lt covered
nineteen acres There were marble pillars
supporting roofs of ceder and silver tables
on which stood golden cups, and there were
carvings exquisite and inscriptions resplen-
dent, glittering balustrades and ornamented
gateways. The building of this temple kept
ten thousand workmen busy forty six years.
In that stupendous pile of pomp and mag
nificence sat Christ, and listening thrOng
stood about him, when a wild disturbance
took place. A group of men are pulling and
pushing along a woman who has 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, merci-
to get Christ into controversy and
public apprehension. If He say: LET
her die" they will charge Him with cruelty.
If He let her go, they will charge Him with
being in completely with wickedness.
Whichever way He does, they would howl
not been sufficiently regarded. He leaves
the lounge or bench on which Hs was
sitting and goes down on one knee, or
both knees, and with the forefinger of
His right hand He begins to write in
the dust of the floor, word after word. But
they were not to be diverted or hindered
They 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. EGO 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
written the scoundrels skulked away
Finally, the whole place is clear Of pur-
eners, antagonists 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 cnly
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 the prosecutors in
this case? Are they all comet Then l dis
charge you; go and sin no more"
have always wondered what Christ wrote
on the ground. For do you realize that is
the only time that He ever wrote at all7 l
know that Eusebius says that Christ ence
wrote letter to Abgarus tine King of
Odessa, but there is no good evidence of such
a correspondence The wisest being tbs
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
q page or paragraph, or a word on parch-
ment. Nothing but this literature of the
dust, and one sweep Of a brush or one
Among all the rolls of the volumes of
the first library founded at Thebes
there was not one scroll of Christ. Among
the seven hundred thousand hooks of the
A'exandrian library, which by the infamous
decree of Ca|iph Omar were used as fuel
to heat the four thousand baths oil
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
Vienna, or the learned repositories of all
nations, not one word written directly by
the finger of Christi All that he ever wrote
he wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting, van.
fishing dust.
My text says He stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up man
might write on the ground with a staff
but If with his fingers he would
write in the dust, he must bend clear
over. Aye, he, must get at leas
ground. Be not surprised that He
stopped down. His whole life was q
STOPPING down. STOPPING down from
castle to barn. STOPPING down from
celestial homage to mobocratic ieer
From residence above the stars to where 6
star had to fall to designate His landing place
From heavens front door to the worlds back
gate. From writing in round and silvereC
letters of constellation and galaxy OF
the blue scroll of heaven, to writing on thu
ground In the dust, which the feet Of thu
crowd had lett in Herod's temple
IF In January haun
out of a princes conservatory thai
had Mexican cactus and magno
las In full bloom, into the outside air ten de
grees below zero, you may get some idea o
Christ's change of atmosphere from celestia
to terrestrial. How many heavens there ar
know not, but there are at least three, TO
Paul was ''caught up into the third heaven.
Christ came down from highest heaven t.
the second heaven, AID down from secont
heaven to first heaven, down swifter thai
meteors ever fell, down amidst stellar spen
doris that Himself eclipsed, down through
clouds, through atmoBphereS through appall
ing space, down to where there was no lowe
depth. From being waited on at the ban
euet of the skies to the broiling of fish 70
His own breakfast on the banks of the lake
From emba2oned chariots of eternit
TO the saddle of a mules back. TIL
homage cherubic, Seraphic, archangeliC
to the paying of sixty-two and half cent
country to a tomb built to hide huma
dissolution The uplifted wave Of Galile
was high, but He had to come down before
with His feet, He could touch it, and tn
whirlwind that rose above the billoN
was higher yet, but He had to com
down before, with HIS lip, He coul
kiss 1t into quiet. Bethlehem a stoopin
down. Nazareth STOPPING down. Deaf
between two burglars a STOPPING down
Yes it was in consonance with humiliation
THAT had gone before and with self abnegf
tions that came after, when on that memol
able day in Herod's temple He stopped dow
and wrote on the ground.
Whether the words He was writing were
Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, l cannot say
for He knew all those languages. But He
still STOPPING down and with His finger wri
ing on the ground; in the winter in letter
OF crystals, in the spring in letters c
flowers, in summer in golden letters {
harvest, in autumn in letters of fire on falle
leaves. How 1t would sweeten up and er
rich and emblaZon this world could we Sc
Christs caligraphy all over it. This worl
was not flung out into space thousands {
years ago and then left to look out for il
self. 1t is still under the divine care
Christ never for half second takes H
hand off of it,, or it would soon be shil
wrecked world, defunct world, an obsolei
world, an abandoned world, dead worlC
'Let there be light" was said at the begir
Ning. And Christ stands under the wintr
skies and says: Let there be snowtakes to En-
rich the earth: and under the clouds of sprin
and says: Come We blossoms end make n
doent the orchards, and in September, DIP
the branches into the vat of beautiful color
and swings them in the hazY air No whir
of mine is this. Without. Him was nc
anything made that was made" Chris
writing on the ground If we coul
see His hand in all the passin
seasons 6now it would illumine the world
All verdure and foliage would be in allegorit
and again we would hear Him say as of ole
"Consider the lilies of the field, how the
grow;n and we would not hear the whist
of quail or the cawing of
raven or the roundelay of a brown
thresher, without SAYING, "Behol