Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1889-02-24
CIIRISTS WRITING.
TRACING IN THE DUST THE WORDS
HYPOCRISY AND FORGIVENESS.

"FFSSnior NNO FOhSIVtNeoS,
The world Is stiII U.der the Divine Kys.
Christ's Gentle Treatment Of the Erri.x
wow.n-An Illustration OF the Worlds
Injustice.
BROOKLYN, Feb 17.-Dr. Talmage
preached this morning in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle on the subject: The
Literature of the Dust" After ex-
planning appropriate passages of Scrip
ture concerning Christ he gave out
the hymn:
Oh, could speak the matchless worth,
Oh, could sound the glories forth
Which in my Saviour shine
Text; John viii, 6: Jesus stopped
down and wrote on the ground"
A Mohammedan mosque stands now
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text. Solomon's temple
had stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar
thundered il down. Zorobabel's tenn
pie had stood there, but that had been
prostrated. Now we take our places
in a temple that Herod built because
he was fond OF great architecture and
he wanted the preceding temples 10
seem Insignificant. Put eight or ten
modern cathedrals together and they
would not equal that structure. II
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 tenn
pie kept ten thousand workmen busy
forty-six years. In that stupendous
pile of pomp and magnificenoe sat
Christ, and a listening throng
stood about him, when a wild disturb
ance took place. A group of men are
pulling 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, marci-
less, disingenuous crowd. They want
10 get Christ into controversy and
public apprehension. II he say let
her die" they will charge him with
cruelty. IL lie let her 90, they will
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 he was
sitting and goes down on one knee, or
both knees, and with the foreiinger 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 hindered. They kept ON de-
manding that he settle this case
of transgression until he looked
up and told them that they
might themselves begin the womans
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 first missile is immaculate. Then
he resumed writing with his finger in
the dust of the floor, word after word.
Instead Of looking over his shoulder 10
BEE what he had written the scoundrels
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 at
torneys having cleared out Christ is
victor, and he says TO the woman:
"Where are the prosecutors in this
casea Are they all comet Then ] dis
charge you; 60 and sin no more"
CHRIST WROTE IN SHIFTING, VANISHING
DUST.
Ihave always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you
realize that is the only time that
he ever wrote at alll i know that
Eusebius says that Christ once wrote o
letter TO Ahgarus, the king Of Odessa,
but there is no good evidence OF such
q correspondence. The wisest being
the world ever saw and the one who
had more TO say than any one who
ever lived, never writing book or q
chapter, or O page or paragraph, or a
word on parchment Nothing but this
literature Of the dust, and one sweep
of a brush or one breath Of a wind
obliterated that forever Among
all the rolls of the volumes OF
the first library founded at The
bes there was not one scroll OF
Christ. Among the seven hundred
thousand books Of the Alexandrian
library, which by the infamous decree
of Caliph Omar were used as fuel 10
heat the four thousand baths Of the
city, not one sentence had Christ
penned. Among all tho inlinitude OF
volumes now standing in the libraries
OF Edinburgh, the British museum, or
Berlin or Vienna, or the learned re-
positories 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. 6tandingstraight
up man might write ON the ground
with a staff, but II with his fingers be
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 Lo
stopped down. His whole life was a
STOPPING down. STOPPING lovn IRON
castle 20 barn. 6tooping down from
celestial homage 10 mobocratic yeer.
From residence above = !, The he I.:,,.se sssss .