The morning news., 1889-02-18
CHRIST'S ONLY WRITING.
TALMAGB PREACHEs ON "THE LIT
ERATURE OF THE DUST"

the Dust on the Floor of the Temple.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 1I-Dr. Talmage
preached this morning in the BROOKLYN
Tabernacle on the subject, "The Literature
of the Dust" After explaining appropriate
passages of Scripture concerning Christ he
gave out the hymn:
on, could speak the matchess worth,
ON, could sound the gloreS forth
Which In my Savior shine.
The following is the text: John viii, g.
Jesus stopped down and wrote on the
ground"
A Mohammedan mosque stands nov
where once stood Herod's temple, tho scene
of my text. Solomon's temple had ST. Il
there, but Nebuchadnezzar thundarel it
down. Zorobabel's temple had stood th,r,,
but that had been Frustrated Now We
take our places in temple that Her Il
built because he was fond of great arc n-
lecture, and he wanted the preceding tenn
pies to seem insignificant. Put eight or Icn
modern cathedrals together and they would
not equal that structure. 1t covered nine
teen acres. There were marble pillars sup
porting roofs of cedar, aud silver
tables on which stood golden cuos,
and there were carvings eX-
quisite and inscriptions re5plendeat,
glittering balustrades and ornamentet g O.
ways. The building Of this temple lie It
10000 workmen busy forty y-six years. in
that stupendous pile OF pomp and magnA-
cence sat Christ and a listening thrl
stood about him, when wild di,turba co
took place. A group Of men are uul z
and pushing along a woman who had m.
mitted 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 a cri ical,
| merciless, disingenous crowd. They want
to get Christ into controversy and pubic
| reprehousion If he says Let her de,'
they will charge him with cruelty. II he
let her go, they will charge him with beiag
| III completely with wickedness. Whiche or
way he does, they would howl at him.
| Then occurs a scene which has not baen
| 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 forefngor Of his right hand he begins
to write IN the dust OF the floor word
after word. But they were not TO ba
diverted or hindered They kept on de-
mandlug that he settle this case of trans
gression until he looked up and and told
| them that they might themselves begin tho
woman's assassination, il the complainant
| who had never done anything wrong him
self would open the fire. Go ahead, but be-
sure that the man who filings the fest mis-
| sle is immaculaten Then he resumed
writing with his finger in the dust
of the floor, word after word. Instead of
| looking over his shoulder 30 SEQ
what he had written the scroundrels
skuked away. Finally, the whole place is
clear of pursuers, antagonists and plaintiffs,
and when Christ has finished this strange
chirography in the dust, he looks uD and
| finds the 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 he
| says to the woman: Where are the prOse-
cutors in this casef Are they all gonel Then
| discharge you go and sin no more"
| | have always wondered what Christ
wrote ON the ground. For do you realize
| that is the only time that he ever wrote at
alli ] know tat Eusebus says that Christ
once wrote letter TO Abgarus, the King Of
| Odessa, 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 chapter, or a
| page or "a paragraph, or a word on paroh-
ment. Nothing but this literature Of tho
| dust, and one sweep Of brush or one breath
OF wind oblterated that forever. Among
| ali the rolls of the volumes Of the first liz
brary founded at Thebes there was not ono
scroll Of Christ. Among tho 100000 books
| of the Alexandrian library, which by the
| infamous decree of Caliph Omar were
used as fuel TO heat the 1000 baths OF the
| city, not one sentence had Christ psnned.
Among all the inflnitude OF volumes now
standing in the Libraries Of Edinburgh the
| British museum, or Barlin or Vienna, or
| the learned repositories Of all nations not
one word written directly by the finger Of
| Christ All that he ever wrote he wrote
| In dust, uncertain, shifting vanishing dust.
My text says he stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up a
| ragI.A 4 AZ
| staff but if with his fingers he would write
in the dust, he must bend clear over. Aye,
he must get at least on one knee or helcannot
write on the ground Be not surprised that
| he stopped down. His whole life was a
stopping down. STOPPING down from castle
TO barn. S.ooping down from celestial
homage 10 mubocratic jeer. From
a star had TO fall TO designate
his landing place From heavens
front door TO the worlds back gate. From
| writing n round and silvered letters Z
constellation and galaxy on the blue scroll
| OF heaven, to writing on the ground ia the
dest, which tho feet Of the crowd had left in
| Herod's temple. IL in january you have
ever stepped out ofa princes conservatory
| that had Mexican cactus and maRnolias in
| full bloom, into the outside air 10 degrees
below 10 o, you may get some idea of
Christ's change of atmosphere from celestial
| 70 terrestrial How many heavens there are
know not, but there are at least three, for
Paul was "caught up into the third heaven"
Christ C tme down from hi ghes5 heaven
to the second heaven, and down from second
heaven to first heaven, down swfter than
metoors ever fell, down amidst stellar
splendors that himself eclipsed, down
through clouds, through atmospheres,
through appalling space, down to where
there was no lower depth. From being
waited on at the banquet Of the skies 10 the
brOlling Of fish for his own breakfast on o
banks Of the lake. From embazoned
clari Is Of eternity TO the saddle
Of mules back The homage
Of chorubic, seraphic, archangelic,
TO the paying OF sixty-two aud n
half cents Of tax 10 Cesar. From tho
dcathess country 10 tomb built TO hide
| human dissolution. The uplifted wave Of
Galilce was high, but he had 10 come down,
before, with his feet, he could touch IL, and
| the whirlwin1 that rose above the billow
was higher yet, bat he bad TO come down
before, with his lip, he could kiss il into
| quiet Bethlehem a STOPPING down Nlza-
reth a STOPPING down. Death between two
burglars a STOPPING down. Yes, IL was in
colsonance with humiliations that had
! gone before aud with self abnegations that
camo after, when on that memorable day
In Herod'J temple no stopped down and
wrote on tho ground.
Whether the words he was writing wore