Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-02-28
WROTE ON THE GROUND.
DR.. Tsimage on the Literature of
the Dust.
The Erring Woman and the Saviour's
Wonderful Judgment-The Only Writ
Ing of Our Lord-Ihe Whole
World a Parable.

In a recent sermon at Brooklyn Rev. T.
O. De Witt Talmage preached on the subject
THE Literature of the Dust" His text
was from John viii. 6: "Jesus stopped
down and wrote on the ground" He said
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 1t down. Zorobabels temple had
stood there, but that had bsen prostrated.
NOW we take our places in temple that
Herod built because he was fond of great
architecture and he wanted the preceding
temples to seem Insignificant. Put eight
or ten modern cathedrals together and
they would not equal that structure. 1t
covered nineteen acres There were mar
bic pillars supporting roofs of cedar and
silver tables on which stood golden cups,
and there were carvings exquisite and in
scriptions resplendent, glittering balus-
trades and ornamental gateways The
building of this temple kept ten thousand
workmen busy for forty-six years. In
that stupendous pile of pomp and magnifi-
cence sat Christ, and listening throng
stood about him, then a wild disturbance
took place. A group of men are pulling
and pushing along a woman who had
committed the worst crime against So
ciety. When they have brought her in
! front of Christ they ask that he sentence
her to death by stoning. They are crit
lcal, 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. If
he let her go 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 forefinger 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 trans
gression until he looked up and told them
that they might themselves begin the
woman's assassination, if the complain
ant who had never done any thing wrong
himself would open the fire. Go ahead,
but be sure the man who Aings the first
missile is immaculate" Then he resumed
|
floor, word after word. Instead of look
ing over his shoulder to see what he had
written the scoundrels skulked away. FL
nally, the whole place is clear of pursuers,
antagonists and plaintiffs, and when
Christ had finished this strange chirog-
raphy 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 hav-
| ing cleared out. Christ is victor, and he
| says to the woman: sWhere are the pros
ecutors in this case? Are they all gone?
| Then l discharge you; go and sin no
more.
l have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that is the only time he ever wrote at all?
l know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote letter to Abgarus, the King
of Edessa, 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
book, or chapter, or page, or para
graph, or word on parchment. Nothing
but this literature of the dust and one
sweep of q bru sh or one breath of a wind
obliterated that forever. Among all the
rolls of the volumes of the first library
founded at Thebss there was not one scroll
of Christ. Among the 100000 books of the
Alexandrian library, which by the in
famous decree of Caliph Omar were used
as fuel to heat the l. 900 baths of the city,
not one sentence had Christ penned.
Among all the infinitude 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 wr tten directly by the
finger of Christ. All he wrote he wrote III
dust uncertain, shifting, vanishing dust.
My text says he stopped down and wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up
man might write on the ground with
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
he can not write on the ground. Be not
surprised that he stopped down. Stoop-
ing down from caatle to barn. STOPPING
down from celestial homage to mobocratic
jeer From residence above the stars to
where 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
W nIlJlHS Ou InO SlOuAu III JHO uuSI W ulCH
the feet of the crowd had left in Herod's
temple. If in January you have ever
stepped out of a Princes conservatory
that had Mexican cactus and maguolias
in full bloom into the outside air ten de-
grees below zero, you may get some idea
of Christ's change of atmosphere from
celestial to terrestrial. How many
Heavens there are l know not, but there
are at least three for Paul was caught up
into the third Heaven" Christ came down
from the highest Heaven to the Sec
ond Heaven, and down from second
Heaven to first Heaven, down swiGter than
meteors fell, down amidst stellar splendors
that himself eclipsed, down through
clouds, through atmospheres, through ap-
palling space, down to where there was no
lower depth. From being waited on at the
lanquet of the skies to the broiling of fish
for his own breakfast on the banks of the
lake. From emblazoned chariots of eter-
nity to the saddle of a mules back. The
homage cherubic, seraphic, archangelic,
to the paying of 60 - cents of tax to Caesar
From the deathless country to a tomb
built to hide human dissolution. The up
lifted wave of (ialilee was high, but He
had to come down before with His feet He
could touch it and the whirlwind that
rose above the billows higher yet, but He
had to come down before with His lip He
could kiss it into quiet Bethlehem
STOPPING down. Nazareth a STOPPING
down. Death between two burglars a
STOPPING down. Yes, it was in consonance
with humiliations that had gone before
and with abnegations that came after
when on that memorable day in Herod's
temple He stopped and wrote on the
ground.