The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-02-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on Christ's Writing In
the Dust.
The Significance Of the Immortal Sentence
Rendered MoSe ForcIble by the Rar.
lily Of HS wrltlng-The 'Lit-
erature of the Dust"

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
sermon at Brooklyn Tabernacle. took for
his subject THE Literature of the Dust. .
His text was:
Jesus stopped down and wrote on the ground
John viii s.:
A Mohamp,edan mosque stands now
Where opte stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text. Solomon's temple had
stood there, but ACKNOWLEDGMENT thun.
Gered 1t down. Zorobabers temple had
stood there, but that had been Frustrated
Now we take our places in temple that
derod built because he was fond of great
architecture and he wanted the proceed.
ing temples to seem insignificant. Put
eight or ten modern cathedrals together
ana they would not equal that structure,
IL covered nineteen acres. There were
marble pillars supporting roofs of cedar
and silver tables on which stood golden
cups, and there were carvings exquisite
and inscriptions Respondent, glittering
oalustrades and ornamented gateways.
Inc building of this temple kept ten
thousand workmen busy for forty-six
years. In that stupendous pile of pomp
ana magnihcence sat Christ and listen
ing throng stood about Him, when a wild
disturbance 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 He
sentence her to death by stoning. They
are critical, merciless, disingenuous
crowd. They want to get Christ into con-
uoversy and public apprehension. If he
say LET her die" they will charge Him
Ia -, Al.
charge Him with being in completely with
wlckedness. Whichever way He does, they
would howl at Him. Then occurs scene
which has not been Sufficiently regarded
de leaves the lounge or bench ON which
he was sitting and goes down on one
knee, or both knees, and with the fore
finger OF His right hand He begins to
write in the dust of the floor word
after word. But they we're not to
be diverted or hindered. They kept
ON demanding that he settle this
case of trangression until he looked
up and told them that they might
themselves begin the woman's assassina-
ton, ii the complainant who had never
done any thing wrong himself would open
the fire. go ahead, but be sure that the
man who filings the first missile is immac-
ulate." Then He resumed writing with his
finger in the dust of the floor, word after
word. Instead of looking over His Shout
der to see what He had written the scoun-
drels skulked away. Finally, the whole
place is clear Of pursuers, 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 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 wom-
an: where are the prosecutors in this
casef Are they all gone! Then discharge
you; go and sin no more"
l have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that is the only time that He ever wrote at
alIE know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote letter to Abgarus, the King
OF Odessa, but there is no good evidence
OF such correspondence. The wisest be-
ing the world ever saw, and the one who
mad more to say than any one who ever
hVed, never writing book or a chapter,
or page, or paragraph, or word on
parchment. Nothing but this 10 Great
ure on dust, and one sweep of brush or
one breath of wind obliterated that for
ever. 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 books of the
AlexanGrian library, which by the in
FAMOUS decree of Caliph Omar were used
as tuel to heat the four thousand baths of
tne city, not one sentence had Christ
penned. Among all the infinitude Of vol
unes now standing in the libraries Of Ed
lnpurg, the British Museum or Berlin or
vienna, or the learned repositories of all
nauons, not one word written directly by
the npger OF Christ. All that He ever
wroae He wrote in dust, uncertain, shift
ing vanishing dust.
MY text says He stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up a
man might write on the ground with a
stan, 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 can not write on the ground. Be not
surprised that He stopped down. Stoop-
ing down hom castle to barn. STOPPING
down from celestial homage to mobocratic
leer. From residence above the stars to
where 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 at Heaven, to writing on the ground
In the lust, which the feet of the crowd
had lett In Herod's temple. If in January
you have ever stepped out of Princes
conservatory that had Mexican cactus
and maguolias in full bloom, into the
outside air ten degrees 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 Haven to first Heaven-down
swifter than meteors ever fell-down
amidst stellar splendors that Himself
bclipsed-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 broiling of fish for his own
breakfast, on the banks of the lake. From
emblazoned chariots of eternity to the
saddle of a mules back. The homage
cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, ia
the paying of sixty-two and q half
cents of tax to Caesar. From the death
less country to a tomb built to hide hui
man dissolution. The uplifted wave OF
Galilee was high, but He had to come
down before with His feet He could toncb
it,; and the wlhirlwind that rose above the
billow was higher yet; but He had to come
down before-with His lip He could kiss
1t into quiet. Bethlehem a-stooping down
Nazareth a-staQping down. Death be.
tween two bdfglars a-stoopiup down