The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-02-23

tro dden under foot OF men,"
Let us wake up from the stupidity and
take the whole world as a parable. Then
if with gun and pack of hounds we 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
u.s." or caught in a snow storm, while
struggling home, eyebrows and beard, and
apparel all covered with the whirling
flakes, and we would cry out with David,
Wash me and l shall be whittier than
snow." In a picture gallery in Europe
there is on the ceiling an exquisite ~fresco,
Tut people having to look straight up, 1t
wearied and dizZied them, and bent their
necks almost hey ond endurance, SO great
looking glass was put near the hbor ana
now visitors only need to look easily down
into this mirror and see the fresco at their
feet. And so much of all the Heaven or
Gods truth Is reflected as in a mirror, and
the things that are above us are copied by
things all around us. What right have we
to throw away n OF Gods Bibles, aye,
the first Bible He ever CAV the racer
We talk about the Old Testament and the
New Testament, but the oldest Testament
contains the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament so
Ntll JhbJ uinCdIu Al ofN
Shall we like the New Testament and the
Old Testament so we'll as to depreciate the
oldest; namely, that which was written
before Moses was put afioat 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 wife? No, no;
when Deity stoops down and writes on
the ground. let us read it
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 con-
sciences, fed pell nell. Nothing will fay
a man like an aroused conscience. DIR.
Stevens, in his ''History OF Methodism,"
says that when Rev. Benjamin Abbott of
olden times was preaching, he exclaimed:
"For aught l know there may be a muir
derer in thish house," and a man rose in the
~assemblags and started for the door
and bawled aloud, confessing to a
murder he had committed fifteen
years before. And no wonder these
Pharisees, reminded of their sins,
took to their heels. But what did Christ
write on the ground? The Bible does not
state. Yet, as Christ never wrote any
thing except that once, you can not blame
US for wanting to know what he really did
write. But | am certain that he wrote
nothing trivial or unimportant. And will
you allow me TO say that L think l know
what he wrote on the ground? 1 judge
from the circumstances He might have
written other things, but kneeling there In
the tempe, surrounded by a pack of hypo-
critics, who were a self appointed constab-
ulary, aud having IN his presence a per-
secuted woman who evidently was very
- L.
two words, both of them graphic and
tremendous and reverbrating. And the
one word was hypocrisy and the other
word was forgiveness. From the way
these Pharisees and Scribes vacated the
premises and got out into fresh air, as
Christ, with just one ironical sentence,
unmasked them, 1 know they were
irst-class hypacri, es. 1t vas then as
it is now. Tho more faults and in
constituencies people ave of their
own, the more severe and censorious are
they about the faults of others. Here
they are-twenty stout men arresting and
arraigning one weak woman. Magnificent
business to be engaged in. They wanted
the fun of seeing her faint away unler a
heavy judicial sentence from Chr st, and
then alter she has been taken outside The
kcity and fastened at the foot of a precipice,
the Scribes and Pharisees wanted the
satisfaction of each coming forth and
dropping a big stone on her head, for that
was The style of capital punishment 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,
NORTH d, He must have laughed. AT any
rate, it makes me laugh to read of it.
Vas I tbink that n Nr0rH yuTiIfap nm
the ground that day by the finger of
Christ was the awful word hypocrisy. But
| am sure there was another word in that
lust. From her entire manner l am sure
that a~rraigned WON an was repentanL She
made no apology, aud Christ in no wise
bell tied her sin. But her supplicatory be-
havior and her tears moved Him. and when
He stopped down to write on the ground, He
wrote that mighty, that imperial, word
Forgiveness. When OH Sinai God wrote
the law, He wrote 1t with finger of light
ming on tables of stone, each word cut as
by q chisel into the hard granite surface.
But when He writes the offense of this
woman He writes it in dust so that it can
be easily rubbed out, aud when she repents
of it, o, He was a merciful Christi I was
reading OF a legend that is told in the far
East about Him. He was walking through
the streets of q city AMI He saw a Grove
around a dead dog. And one man said
what a loathsome object is that dog?'
Yes" said another, 'his ears are mauled
and bleeling." 'Yes." said another, sever
his hide would not b. II any use to the tan
uer." "Yes," said another. 'rthe odor o
his carcass is dread ul." Then Chris
standing there, said: But pearls can no
equal the whiteness of his teeth" The
the people, moved by the idea that any on
could find any thing pleasant concerning
a dead dog, said: "Why, this must b
Jesus of Nazareth" Reproved and con
victed they went away. Surely this legen,
OF Christ is good enough to be true. Kind
ness in all His words and ways and habits
Forgiveness, word of eleven letters, an,
some of ttem thrones, and some of Their
palm branches. Better nave Christ writ
close to our names that one word thong
he write it in dust, than to nav our nam,
cut into monumental granite wi h the let
ters that the storms of a thousand year
can not obi iterate Bishop Darlington hal
q book OF only three leaves. The first leo
was black, he second leaf red, the thir
leaf white. Tue black leaf suggested sin
the red leaf atonemsnt; the white lea
publication. That is the whole story
Gud will abundantly pardon.
l must not forget to say that as Chris
STOPPING down, with His finger wrote o
the ground, it is evident that His sym
pathies are with this penitent woman
that He has no sympathy with her hypc
critical p%ursuers. Just opposite to that
the worlds habit. Why d .dn't these IN
clean Pharisees bring one of their ow
number to Christ for excoriation an
capital punishmentf No, no; they ovel
look that in a man which they damnate 1
a woman. And so the world has had fc
offending women scourges and objurga
ion, and for just one offense she become
an o~utcast, while for men whose lives hay
been sodomic for twenty years the worl
swings open its doors OF brilliant welcom
and they ma sit In Legislatures and Ser
, ates and Parliaments or on thrones. UI
like the Christ Of my text, the worI
, writes a mans misdemeanor in dust, bl
I chisels n woman's offense with grei
+ capitals upon ineffaceable marble. For To-
a el9n Lords and Princes, whose names ca
7 not even be mentioned in respectful
circles abroad because they are walkir
lazarsttos of abomination, our America
princesses of fortune wait, and at the fir
beck sail out with them into the bIackne
Il of darkness forever. And in what a
i called higher circles of society there
o now not only the imitation of foreign maj
Il ners, but an imitation of foreign diss,
II l%uteness. / like an Engllshman and / Ill
an American, but the sickest creature
d earth is an American playing the E
%glishman. Society needs to be recol
structed on this subject. Treat the
alike, masculine crime and feminil
crime. If you cut the one in granite, C
Q hem both in granite. If you write Il
d one in dust, write the other In dust. N
It no. says the world; let woman go dow