The national leader., 1889-03-02

ant. And will you allow me to say
that think
IKNOw WHAT lie WROTE
on the ground? l judge from the cir
cumstances. He might have written
other things, but kneeling there in the
temple, surrounded by pack of hypo
critics, who were a self-appointed con-
stabulary, and having in His presence
| prosecuted woman, who evidently
was very penitent for her sins, l am
sure He wrote two words, both of them
graphic and tremendous and reverber-
ating. And the one word was Hypro-
crisy. and the other word was Forgive
ness.
From the way these Pharisees and
Scribes vacated the premises and got
out into the fresh air, as Christ, with
just one ironical sentence, unmasked
them, l know they were frst-class hypo-
critics. 1t was then as it is now. The
more faults and inconsistencies people
have of their own, the more severe and
censorlous are they about the faults of
others. Here they are-twenty stout
men arresting and arraigning one weak
engaged inl They wanted the fun of
seeing her faint away under heavy
judicial sentence from Christ, and then
after she had been taken outside the
city and fastened at the foot or a pre-
cipice, the Scribes and Pharisees want
ed the satisfaction Of each coming and
dropping big stone on her head, for
that was the style of capital punish
ment that they asked for. Some people
have taken The responsibility of saying
that Christ never laughed. But l
think as he saw those men drop every
thing, chagrined, mortified, exposed,
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 libertines, drama
tizing Indignation against impurity!
Blind bats lecturing on optics! A flock
OF crows on their way up from carcass,
denouncing carrion! Yes, 1 think that
one word written on the ground that
day by the finger of Christ was the
awful word Hypocrisy. But I am sure
there was another word in that dust.
From her entire manner am sure that
arraigned woman was repentent. 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 i'm
perial word Forgiveness.
When on Sinai God wrote the law,
He wrote it with finger Of lightning on
tables of stone, each word cut as by a
chisel into the hard granite surface.
But when He writes the offence of this
woman He writes 1t in dust so that it
can be easily rubbed out; and when she
repents of 1t, oh, He was merciful
Christ! was reading of
ALEGEND
that is told in the far east about Him.
He was walking through the streets of
city and He saw a crowd around a
dead dog. And one man said: "What
loathsome object is that dog!" eyes"
said another, This ears are mauled and
bleeding" eyes" said another, "even
his hide would not be of any use to
the tanner" "Yes," said another,
''the odor Of his carcass is dreadful. :"
Then Christ, standing there, said {:
"But pearls cannot equal the whiteness
of his teeth" Then the people, moved
by the idea that any one could find any
thing pleasant concerning dead dog,
said: ''Why, this must be Jesus of
Nazareth" Reproved and convicted,
they went away. Surely this legend of
Christ is good enough to be true. Kind
ness in all His words and ways and
habits. Forgiveness! Word of eleven
letters, and some of them thrones, and
some of them palm branches. Better
have Christ write close to our names
that one word, though He write it in
dust, than to have our name cut into
monumental granite with the letters
that the storms of a thousand years can
not obliterate. Bishop Babington had
book of only three leaves. The first
leaf was black, the second leaf red, the
third leaf white. The black leaf sug-
gested sin; the red leaf atonement; the
white leaf publication. That is the
whole story. God will abundantly par
don.
SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT.
l must not forget to say that as Christ,
oUOOpluS uOHIs WlUIL AAAo lAhSCL W1OU0
on the ground, it is evident that His
syApathies are with this penitent
woman, and that He has no sympathy
with her hypocritical pursuers. Just
opposite to that is the worlds habit.
Why didn't these unclean Pharisees
bring one Of their own number to
Christ for excoriation and capital pun
ishment? No, no; they overlook that in
a man which they damnate in a woman.
And so the world has had for offending
women scourges and objurgation, and
for just one offence she bee Jmes an out
cast, while for men whose lives have
been sodomic for twenty years, the
world swings open its doors of brilliant
welcome; and they may sit in leglsIa-
lures and senateS and parlaments. or on
thrones. Unlike the Christ of my text,
the world writes mans misdemeanor
in dust, but chisels woman's offence
with great capitals upon ineffdceabIe
marble.
For foreign lords and princes, whose
names cannot even be mentioned in re-.
spectacle circles abroad because they are
walking laZarettos of abomination, our
American princess of fortune wait, and