The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-03-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on Christ's Writing In
the Dust
The Significance of the Immortal Sentence
Rendered More Forcible by the Rar-
ity of His Writing-The s'LIt-
erature of the Dust"

MS SUBJECT 'Ihe Literature or the Dust
His text was:
Jesus stopped down and wrote on the ground.
John viii, o:
A Mohammedan mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text. SOlOmon's temple had
stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar thun-
dered it down. Zorobabel's temple had
stood there, but that had been Frustrated.
Now we take our places in a temple that
herod built because he was fond of great
architecture and he wanted the preced-
ing temples to seem insignificant. Put
eight or ten modern cathedrals together
and they would not equal that structure.
1t covered nineteen acres. There were
marble pillars supporting roofs Of cedar
and silver tables on which stood golden
cups, and there were carvings exquisite
and inscriptions resplendent glittering
balustrades and Ornamented gateways.
The building OF this temple kept ten
thousand workmen busy for forty-six
years. In that stupendous pile Of pomp
and magnifcence sat Christ, and a listen
ing throng stood about Him, when a wild
disturbance took place. A group of men
are pulling and pushing along q woman
/ who had committed the worst crime
against society. When they have brought
/ her in front of Christ they ask that He
4 sentence her to death by stoning They
crowd They want to get Christ into con-
/ trOversy and public apprehension. If he
/ say "Let her die" they will charge Him
/ with cruelty. If He let her 60, they viii
charge Him with being in completely with
wickedness. Whichever way He does, they
would howl at Him. Then occurs a scene
which has not been sufficiently regarded.
He leaves the lounge or bench on which
be was sitting and goes down on one
knee, or both knees, and with the fore
finger 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 demanding that he settle this
/ case of trangressiOn until he looked
4 up and told them that they might
4 themselves begin the woman's assassina-
/ ton, il the complainant who had never
/ done any thing wrong himself would open
/ the fire. $50 ahead, but be sure that the
\ man who filings the first missile is immac-
ulate." Then He resumed writing with his
! finger in the dust of the floor, word after
word. Instead of looking over His shoul-
der to see what He had written the scoun-
drels skulked 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 up 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 wom-
an: "Where are the prosecutors in this
caseI Are they all gone? Then discharge
youi go and sin no more"
1 have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that is the only time that He ever wrote at
all? know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote a letter to Abgarus, the King
Of Odessa, but there is no good evidence
o. such correspondence. The wisest be-
ing 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 page, or paragraph, or a word on
parchment. Nothing but this little Great
ure on dust, and one sweep of a brush or
one breath of a wind obliterated that for
sver. Among all the rolls of the volumes
Of the first library founded at Hhebes
there was not one scroll of Christ. Among
the seven hundred thousand books of the
AleXanLrian library, which by the in
famous decree of Caliph Omar were used
As fuel to heat the four thousand baths OF
the city, not one sentence had Christ
penned. Among all the infinitude of vol
lmes now standing in the libraries Of Ed
inburg, the British Museum or Berlin OF
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, shift.
, ing, vanishing dust
Ny text says He stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up q
man might write on the ground with G
/ 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 OF
, he can not write on the ground. Be no
surprised that He stopped down. Stoop
ing down from castle 20 bGrn. Stoopinl
down from celestial homage to mObocratit
leer. From residence above the stars t,
) where q star had to fall to designate Hi
landing place. From Heavens from
/ door to the worlds back gate. From
writing in round and silvered letters o
constellation and galaxy on the blut
scroll of Heaven, to writing on the GROUND
In the dust which the feet of the GROVE
had left in HerOd's temple. If in January
you have ever stepped out of a Prince,
conservatory that had Mexican cactus
and magnOlias in full bloom, into tn
outside air ten degrees below zero, yol
may get some idea of Christ's change o
/ atmosphere from celestial to terres trial
How many Heavens there are know
, not, but there are at least three, 70,
Paul was "caught up into the thirt
Heaven"
Christ came down from highest HEAVIER
1 to the second Heaven, and down from
o second Heaven to first Heaven-dow1
= swifter than meteOrs ever fell-dowl
- amidst stellar splendOrs that HimseI
:. sclipsed-down through clouds, through
Rtmospheres, through appalling space
down to where there was no lower depth
From being waited on at the banquet o
the skies to the broiling of fish for his owl
breakfast, on the banks of the lake. Fror
{ emblazoned chariots of eternity to tn
d saddle of a mules back. The homag
d cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, t
= the paying of sixty-two and a hal
n cents Of tax to Caesar. From the death
less country to a tomb built to hide hu
: man dissolution. The uplifted wave @
i Galilee was high, but He had to com
e down before with His feet He could touc
Q L.; and the whirlwind that rose above To
! billow was higher yet; but He had to com
:, down before-with His lip He could ks
it into quiet. Bethlehem a-stooping dowr
Nazareth a-stOOping down. Death be
3 tween two burglars a-stOoping dowr
Y Yes, il was in consOnance with humilia
! tons that had gone before, and with self
= abnegatiOns that come after, when on this
memorable day in HerOd's temple Fl
I stopped down and wrote on the ground.
d whether the words he was writing wer
Q In Greek. or Latin, or Hebrew, 1 can nc
y say, for He knew all those language.
Z But de Is stlll STOPPING down. and wit
His finger writing on the ground; in tn
o winter in letters of crystals, in the sprin
Q in letters of flowers, in summer in golde
: letters of harvest, in autumn in letters {
q fire on fallen leaves. How il woul
q sweeteu up and enrich and emblazon TIL
world could we see Christ's cahgraphy a
over il. This world was not flung out int
a space thousands Of years ago and the
o left to look out for itself. IL is still unde
0 the Divine care. Christ never for ha
second takes His hand of of it, or IL woul
soon be a shipwrecked world, a defunC
= world. an obsolete world, an abandOne