The Penn's Grove record., 1889-03-09
cannot say, for He knew oil those Ian.
guages. But
HE IS STILL sroopINa DOWN.

and with HIS nnger writing on u
ground; In the winter In letters Of cry
tails, in the srring in letters OF flower
in summer in golden letters Of harvest
in autumn In letters Of FIRE on falle
leaves. How it would sweeten up an
enrich and emblazon this world, coul
we see Christ's caligraphy all oye Il
This world was not flung out int
space thousands Of years ago, and the
left to look out fer itself. 1t IS sti
under the divine care. Christ neye
for a half second takes His hand off Q
1t, OF it would soon be a shipwrecke
word, q defunct world. an obsolet
We an abandoned world, a dea
world. "Let there be light" was sal
at the beginning. And Christ stand
under the wintry skies and says, LIE
there be snowf1akes 10 enrich the earth
and under the clouds Of spring an
says, Come We blossoms and make re
dolent the orchards; and in September
dips the branches In the vat of beautiful
colors, and swings them into the haz
air. No within of mine is this. "WIth
out Him was not anything made tina
| was made" Christ writing on tn
ground.
If we could see His hand in all tn
passing seasons, how it would illumin'
the world All verdure and foliag,
would be allegoric, and again we woul,
hear Him say as Of old, "Consider tn,
lilies of the field, how they grow;'
and we would not hear the whistle of ,
quail or the cawing Of a raven or thu
~roundelay of a brown-thresher, with
out saying, Behold the fowls of thu
air, they gather not into barns, ye'
your heavenly Father feedeth them;'
and a Dominic hen Of the barnyart
could not cluck for her brood, yet We
would hear Christ saying as Of old,
''How often would l have gathered THY
children together, even as o hen gathered
her chickens under her WINGS" and
through the redolent hedges we would
hear Christ saying, II am the rose o.
Sharon" we could not dip the season
ing from the salt-cellar without think
ing Of the divine suggestion, Eye are
the salt of the earth, but il the sal
have lost its SAVIOR, it is fit for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden under
foot of men,"
Let us wake up from our stupidity
and take
THE WHOLE WORLD AS A PARABLE.
Then, If with gun and pack Of hounds
w start off before dawn, and see the
morning coming down off the hills to
meet us, we would cry out with the
evangelist, The day spring from on
high hath visited us; or, caught in a
snow-storm, while struggling home.
eyebrows and beard and apparel all
covered with the whirling fakes. we
would cry out with David, "Wash me,
and / shall be whittier than snow" In
a plcture-gallery of Europe there is on
the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but PEG
pie having to look straight up, it weari-
ed and dizzied them, and bent their
necks almost beyond endurance; so a
great looking-glass was put rear the
floor, and now visitors only need to
look easily down into this mirror, and
they see the fresco at their feet. And
so, much of all the heaven of Gods
truth is reflected in this world IS in a
mirror. and the things that are above
are copied by things around us.
What right have we 10 throw away
one of Gods Bibles, aye, the first Bible
He ever gave the racer We talk about
the Old Testament and the New Testa-
ment, but the Oldest Testament con-
tains the lessons Of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament
SO well they discard the Old Testa-
ment. Shall we like the New Te,ta-
mept and the Old Testament 80 well as
to d~epreciate the Oldest; namely, that
which was written before Moses was
put afloat on the boat of leaves which
was calked with asphaltum; or reject
the Genesis and the Revelation that
were written centuries before Adam
lost a rib and gained a wifep No, no;
when Deity stOOps down and writes on
the ground, let VS. read 1t. / would
have no less appreciation of the Bible
on paper that comes out of the paper
mill, but l would urge appreciation Of
THE BIBLE IN THE GRASS.
the Bible in the sand hill, the Bible in
the geranium, the Bible in the aspho-
del, the Bible in the dust. Some one
asked an ancient king whether he had
seen the eclipse of the sur. "NO,n
said he, 81 have so much to do on
earth. I have no time to look at
heaven" And If our faculties were all
awake in the study of God, we would
not have time to go much further than
the first grass blade. l have no fear
that natural religion will ever CONTRA
diet what We call revealed religion. !
have no sympathy with the followers OF
Aristotle, who, after the telescope was
invented, would not look through it,
lest 1t contradict some of the theories
of their great master. l shall be glad
to put against one lid of the Bible the
microscope, and against the other lid of
the Bible the telescope.
But when Christ stopped down and
wrote on the ground, what did He
write? The Pharisees did not stop to
examine. The towards, whipped of
their own consclences, fed psll-mell.
Nothing will fay a man like an aroused
conscience. DR.. Stevens, in his His
tory Of Methodism." says that when
Rev. Benjamin Abbott Of olden times
vas preaching, he exclaimed; "For
aught l know there may be q murderer
In this house." and q man rose in the
assemblage and started for the door,
and bawled aloud. confessing to a muir.
der he had committed fifteen years be-
fore. And no wonder these Pharisees,
reminded of their sins, took to then
heels. But what did Christ write on
the ground? The Bible does not state.
let, as Christ never wrote anything
except that once, you cannot blame us
for wanting to know what He really
did write. But l am certain He wrote
nothing trivial, or nothing unimport
ant. And will you allow me to say
that I think
KNOW WHAT HE WROTE
on the groundp / judge from the cir.
cumstances. He might have written
other things, but kneeling there in the
temple, surrounded by a pack of hypo.
critics, who were a self-appointed con-
stabulary. and having in His presence
a prosecuted woman, who evidently
vas very penitent for her sins, / 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 n ironical sentence, unmasked
them, ! know they were irst-class hypo.
critics. 1t was then as 1t Is now. The
more faults and Inconsistencies people
have OF their own, the more severe and