The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-03-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly DISCOURSE Of The Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject; The sl.itcr0turc of
the Dust.'

A Mohammedan mosque stands now where
once stood Herod's temple, the scene OF my
text Solomon's temple had stood there, but
NebuchadneZzar thunderei il down. Zorro
babels temple had stood there but that had
been Frustrated. Now wa take our places
in temple that Herod built because he was
fond of great architecture and he wanted the
preceding temples to seem Insignificant Put
eight or ten catheirals. together and they
would not equal that structure. II 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.siS years.
In that stupendous pile of pomp and mag
niticence sat Christ, and listening throng
took place, group of men are pulling and
pushing along 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 critical, merci-
to get Christ into controversy and
public apprehension. II He say; "Let
her die" they will charge Him with cruelty.
II lie let her go, they will charge Him with
being, in completely with wickedness.
Whichever way He does, they would howl
at Him. Then occurs scene which has
not been sufficiently regarded. He leaves
the lounge or bench on which He was
sitting and goes down on one knee, or
both knees, and with the forefnger 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 womans assassination, II 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 immaculaten 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-
sners, antagonists and plaintiffs, and when
Christ has finished this strange chirography
In the dust He looks up and finds tho
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 Ho says to
fhe woman: where are the prosecutors in
this casei Are they all gomez Then dis
charge you; go and sin no more"
have always wondered what Christ wrote
! on the ground. For do You realize that is
the ~ time that He ever wrote at aill |
know that Fusebus says that Christ once
wrote a letter to Abgsrus the King OF
Odessa, but there is no good evidence of such
q correspondence. Tho wisest being the
world ever saw and the one who
had more to say than any one who ever
lived, never writing a book or chapter, or
. page or paragraph, or word on parch-
ment Nothing but this literature of the
dust, and one sweep of brush or one
breath of wind obliterated that forever.
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
Aexandrian library, which by the infamous
decree of Caliph Omar were used as fuel
to heat the four thousand baths of
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
ne wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting, van
shing dust.
My text says He stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up a man
might write on the ground with staff,
but if with his fingers he would
write in the dust, he must bend clear
over o - Aye, he must get at least
ground. Be no. surprised that He
stopped down. His whole life was a
stopping down. STOPPING down from
castle. to barn. STOPPING. down from
celestial homage to mobocratic jeer
From residence above tile stars to where a
star had to fall to designate His landing place.
From heavens front door to the world back
gate. From writing in round and silvered
letters of constellation and galaxy on
the blue scroll of heaven, to writing on the
ground in the dust, which the fe5t of the
crowd had left in Herod's temple.
| I n 10 x,nr1 ha,-a
out Of a princes conservatory that
had Mexican cactus and magno-
las in full bloom, into the outside air ten de.
grees below zero, you may get some idea OF
Christs 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 Vi
Christ came down from highest heaven to
the second heaven, and down from second
heaven to first heaven, down swifter than
meteors ever fell, down amidst stellar spen.
doris that Himself eclipsed, down through
clouds, through atmospheres through appall-
ing space, down to where there was no lower
depth. From being waited on at the ban
quet 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
to the paying of sixty-two and half cents
Of tax to Cesar. From the deathles,
country to tomb built to hide human
dissolution. The uplifted wave Of Galilee
was high, but He had to come down before
with His feet, He could touch it. and the
whirlwind that rose above the billow
was higher yet, but He had to come
down before, with HIS lip, He coulc
kiss 1t into quiet Bethlehem STOPPING
down. Nazareth a STOPPING down. Deatf
between two burglars a STOPPING down
Yes, it was in consonance with bumiliation
that had gone before and with self abnega
lions that came after, when on that memoir
able day in Herod's temple He stopped dowr
and wrote on the ground.
Whether the words He was writing were il
Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, l cannot say
for He knew all those languages. But He i.
still STOPPING down and with His finger writ
ing on the ground in the winter in letters
Of crystals, in the spring in letters Of
flowers, in summer in golden letters o.
harvest, In autumn in letters of fire on faller
leaves How 1t would sweeten up and en-
rich and emblazon this world could we SCI
Christ's caligraphy all over it. This worlc
was not flung out into space thousands o.
years ago and then left to look out for it
self 1t is still under the divine care
Christ never for half second takes Hi
hand off of it, or it would soon be a ship
wrecked world, defunct world, an obsolet,
world, an abandoned world a dead world
"Let there be light" was said at the begin
ulHRs Auu SuTlSb SlttHuS unUbT UNe WlntTN
skies and says: Let there be sNorUaKes TO en-
rich the earth and under the ct-ads of spring
and says: Come we blossoms and make re
dolent the orchards, and in September, dip!
the branches into the vat of beautiful co'or:
and swings them in the hazf air. No whin
Of mine is this. without Him was moi
anything made that was made" Chris
writing on the ground. If we could
seo His hand in all the passing
seasons, 0now it would illumine the world
All verdure and foliage would be in allegoric
and again we would hear Him say as OF old
Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow" and we would not hear the whistle
Of quail or the cawing, OF
raven or the roundelay of brown
thresher, without saying: Behold
the fowls of the air. they gather not into
barns. yet your Heavenly Father feedeth
them:' and Dominic hen of the barnyard
could not cluck for her brood. yet we would
hear Christ saying as of old: How often
would have gathered thy children together,
even as hen gathered her chicken.
under her wings:n and through the redoeni
hedges we would hear Christ saying: 81 an
the rose of Sharon" we could not dip the
seasoning from the salt cellar without think
ing Of the Divine suggestion: "Te are tht
salt Of the earth. but if the salt have lost it
SAVIOR, it is fit for nothing but to be
,ost ont and troddel. under fooI