The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-02-23
WROTE ON H o U
DR.. Talmage on the Literature of
the Dust.
The Erring Woman and the S~avlour's
wonderful Judgment-Ths Only Writ
ing of Our Lord-Ihe Whole
World u Parable.

A Mohammedan mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text. Solomon's temple had
stood there, but Northumberland thun-
dered 1t down. Zorobabel's temple had
stood there, but that had b1en FRUSTRATED.
NOW we take our places in u temple that
Herod built because he was fond of great
architecture and he wanted the preceding
temples TO seem insignificant. Put eight
or ten modern cathedrals together and
they would not equal that structure. 1t
covered nineteen acres. There were mar
Die pillars supporting roofs of cedar and
silver tables on which stood golden cups,
and there were carvings exquisite and in
scriptlons Respondent, glittering baius-
trades and ornamental gateways. The
building of this temple kept ten thousand
workmen busy for forty-six years. In
that stupendous pile OF pomp and magnif-
cence sat Christ, and a listening throng
stood about him, then a wild disturbance
took place. A group of men are pulling
and pushing along d woman who had
committed the worst crime against So
ciety. When they have brought her in
front of Christ they ask that he sentence
her to death by stoning. They are a crit
ical, merciless, disingenuous crowd. They
want to get Christ into controversy and
fAD'S IL no soy AON hOA
die" they will charge him with cruelty. II
he let her go they will charge him with
being in completely with wickedness.
Whichever way he does they would how
at him.
Then occurs a 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 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 hiudered. They kept on de-
handing hat he settle this case of trans
gression until he looked up and told them
that they might themselves begin the
woman's assassination, IL the complain
ant who had never done any thing wrong
himself would open the fire. go ahead,
but DO sure. the man who filings the first
missile il immaculate" Then he resumed
writing with his finger in the dust of the
floor, word af er word. Instead of look
ing over his shoulder to see what he had
written the scoundrels kulked away. FL
nally, the whole place is clear of pursuers,
Antagonists and plaintiffs, and when
Christ had finished this strange chirog-
raphy in'the dust, he looks up and fluids
the woman all alone. The prisoner Is the
only one OF the court room left, the judges,
the police, the prosecuting attorneys hav-
ing cleared out. Christ is victor, and he
says to the woman 'Where are the pros
ecutors in this case? Are they all gomez
Then l discharge you; go and sin no
more.
i hav always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that isthe only time he ever wrote at all?
! know that Eusebius says that Christ
$500. 49,. T. -. - ~
OF E1essa, but there is no good
evidence of such a correspondence.
The 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 a chat ter, or a page, or q para
graph, or n word on parchment. Nothing
but this literature of the dust, and one
sweep OF a bru IN or one breath of a wind
obliterated hat forever. Among all the
rolls of the volumes of the first library
founded at Thebes tbera was not one scroll
of Christ. Among the 700. 900 books of the
Alexandrian library, which by the in
famous decree of Cal Pr Omar were used
as fuel to g the 400 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 item directly by the
finger Of Christ. All he wrote he wrote in
dust, uncertain, shifting, vanishing dust.
Ny text says he stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up u
man might write on the ground with a
staff, but IL 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 dow from castle to barn. STOPPING
down from celestial homage to mobocratic
jeer. From esidsnce above the stars to
where a star had to fall to designate his
landing place. From Heavens front door
Il the worlds 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 feet Of the crowd had left in Herod's
temple. If in January o have ever
stepped out of a Prince conservatory
that had Mexican cactus and magnolias
in full bloom into the outside air ten de-
grees 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 mt least three. for Paul was caught uT
into the third Heaven" Oh 1T came down
from the highest Heaven to the Sec
ond Heaven, and down from second
Heaven to first Heaven, down Swilter than
meteors fell, down amidst stellar splendors
that himself eclipsed, down through
clouds, through ai~mospheres, through ap.
palling space, down to where there was ne
lower depth. From being waited on at the
Lanquet of the skies to the broiling of fish
for his own breakfast on the banks of The
uA- n,r,h1a 1O,al Oh - ~ 80 nka-
nity to the saddle of a mules back, Thu
homage cherubic, seraphic, archangelic
to the pnyin : OF 62K cents of tax to Cesar
From the denthless country to a toni
built to hide human dissolution. The up.
lifted wave of Galilee was high, but II
had to come down before with His feet II,
could touch il, and the whir wind tia
rose above the pillows higher yet, but HI
had to come down b fore with His lip HI
could kiss it into quiet. Bethlehem
stoopire down. Nazareth a STOPPING
down. Death between two burglars
s~tooping Down. Yes. it was in consonanc
with humiliations that had gone be- or
and with nbnegations that came afte
when on that memorable day ia Herod'
temple He stopped and wrote on til
ground.
Whether the words He was writing wer
In Greek. or Latin, or HEBREW, L can no
say, for He knew all these languages. Bu
He Is still stopping down and with Hi
finger writing on the ground; in Ia wintt
in letters of crystals. IN the spring In LEI
ters of flowers, in summer in golden lei
ters of harvest, in autumn in letters
fire on fallen leaves. How 1t would swee
On up and enrich and emblaZon this worl
could we see Christ's ealigraphy oil oV'
1t, This world was not flung ont I'M
space thousands Of years ago and the
left to look out for itself. 1t is still und'
the divine care. Christ never. for a ha
SECOND takes His hand off 1t, or it woul
soon be a shipwrecked word, a deiun'
world, a dead world. Lot there be light,
was said in the beg ming. And Chrl
stands unter the wIhtry skies ana say
Let there be snowflakes to enrich u
earth; and under the clouds of spring an
says, Come ye blossoms aud makeredol,l
the orchards; and in September Dip u
branches into the vatof beautiful colors al
swings them In the hazy air. No whln
mine In this. ''Without Him was not an
thing made that was made" Christ wrl'
ing on the ground. IL we could see IA
hand In all the passing seasons, no"
would ilumine the world? All yer dul
and foliage would be allegoric. and agar
we would hear Him say as of old, "Cou
slider the lille of the field, how they grow;
and we would not hear the whistle OIL
quail or the cawing Of n raven OF I'll
r~oundelay of n brown thresher wltho'
saving, behold the fowls of the air, the
gather not into barns, yet your heaven
Father feadeth them;" aud n Domlnl ne
of the barnyard could not cluck for m
brood, yet we would hear Christ saying
" .TV .-z-1I I hnua nninRIg