The Penn's Grove record., 1889-03-09
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
The Literature Of the Dust.

udu otoOu thctcs put cDuCflduleLLd
Numbered it down. Zerubbabel's tenn
pie had stood there, but that had beel
Frustrated. Now we take our place
in a temple that Herod built, becaus
he was fond Of great architecture, an,
he wanted the preceding temples t,
seem insignificant. Put eight or tel
modern cathedrals together and the,
would not equal that structure. L
covered nineteen acres. There wer,
marble pillars supporting roofs of cedar
and silver tables on which stood colder
cups, and there were carvings exquisit,
and inscriptions respondent, glitterini
balustrades and ornamented gateways
The building of this temple kept tel
thousand workmen busy forty-six years
In that s%tupendous pile Of pomp ani
m~agniicence sat Christ, and u listening
throng stood about Him, when
WILD DISTURBANCE
took place. A group of men are pull.
ing and pushing along a woman who
had 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 a critical, merciless, disingenuous
crowd. They want to get Christ into
controversy and public apprehension.
If He say "Let her die" they will
charge Him with cruelty. II He let
her 60, they Will charge Him with be-
ing in completely with w~ickedness.
Whichever way He does, they would
howl at Him. Then occur a scene
which has not been sufficiently regard
ed. 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 rot To he diverted or hinder
ed. They kept on demanding that He
settle this case OF transgression. until
lie looked up and told them that they
might themselves begin the woman's
assassination, if the complainant who
had eve done anything wrong him
self would open the fire. "Go ahead,
but be sure that the man who filings the
first missile is immaculate" Then He
resumed writing with his finger in the
dust Of the floor, word after word. In
stead of looking over his shoulder to
see what He had written the %sc0undrels
skulked away. Finally, the whole place
is clear of pursuers, antagonists and
when Christ has finished this strange
chirography in the dust. He looks up
and finds the woman all alone. The
prisoner Is the only n 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 prosecu-
tors in this casep Are they all gomez
Then 1 discharge you; go, and sin no
more" / have wondered
WHAT CHRIST WROTE
on the ground. For do you realize that
is the only time that He ever wrote at
allp l know that Eusebius says that
Christ once wrote a letter to Abgarus.
the king. of Odessa, but there is no
sidence Of such a correspondence.
The wlsest being the world ever saw, and
the one who had more to say than any
one who ever lived, never writing o
book or a chapter OF a page or a para
graph or a word on parchment. Moth
ing but the literature of the dust, and
one sweep Of a brush or n breath Of a
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 books of the
Alexandrian library, which by the in
famous decree of Caliph Omar were
used as fuel to heat the four thousand
baths Of the city, not n sentence had
Christ penned. Among all the infini-
tude 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 Christ. All that He ever wrote He
wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting dust.
My text says He stopped down and
wrote on the ground. Standing straight
up a man might write on the ground
with a staff, but II 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 cannot write on the
ground. Be not surprised that
HE STOPPED DOWN
His whole life was a STOPPING down.
STOPPING down from castle to barn.
STOPPING down from celestial homage
to mobocratlc jeer. From residence
above the stars to where a star had to
fall to designate his landing-place.
From heavens front door to 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
Tierodis temple. If in January you
have ever stepped out of a princes con-
servatory that had Mexican cactus and
magnolias In full bloom, into the out
side air ten degrees below zero, you
may get some idea Of Christ's change
of atmosphere from celestial to terres-
trial. How many heavens there are l
know not, but there are at least three,
for Paul was s'caught up into the third
heaven" Christ came
DOWN FROM HIGHEST HEAVEN
to the second heaven, and down from
second heaven to first heaven, down
swifter than meteors aver fell, down
amidst stehar ~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, to the 7broiling OF
fish for his own breakfast, on the banks
of the lake. From emblaz0ned char
lots of eternity to tile saddle OF a mules
back. The homage cherubic, seraphic,
to the paying of sixty-two and a half
cents Of tax to Cesar. From the death
less country to a tomb built to hide hui
man 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 could kiss 1t into quiet. Bethle-
hem a STOPPING down. Nazareth a
STOPPING down. Death between two
burglars a STOPPING down. Yes. 1t was
in consonance with humiliations that
had gone before, and with self abnega-
tions that came after, when on that
memorable day in Herod's temple He
stopped down and wrote on the ground.
Whether the words He was writing
were in Greek OF Latin or Hebrew, !