The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-27
LITERATURE OF THE DUST.
REV. Or. TALMAGE's RECENT SERMON.
Two Tremendous Words, Hypocrisy and
FOrgiveness-The Only Time Recorded
That the Savior Ever Wrote-A scene
From the Life OF Christ.

the sixth verse OF the eighth chapter OF ~.
John, referring to the scene in the temple
where the people brought in the woman
taken in adultery. very large congre-
CATION heard DR.. Talmage say these among
other things:
1 have always wondered what Christ
wrote on the ground. For do you realize
that this is the only time he ever wrote at
all? l know that Eusebius SAYS that
Christ once wrote a letter to Abgarus, the
king of Odessa, but there is no good evil
dence OF such correspondence. The
wisest being the world ever saw and the
one who had more to say than anyone
who ever lived, never writing book or
chapter, or page, or paragraph, or q
word ON parchment. Nothing but this
literature of the dust, and one sweep OF
brush or one breath of wind obliterated
that forever. Among all the roles OF the
volumes of the first library founded at
Thebes there was not one scroll OF Christ.
Among the 100000 books Of the Alexan-
drian library, which by the infamous de-
cree of Caliph Omar were used as fuel to
heat the 1000 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 written directly by the finger OF
Christ. Ali 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 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 cannot write on the ground. Be not
surprised He stopped down. His whole
life was a STOPPING down. STOPPING down
from castle to ba n. 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 world s
back gate Whether the words He was
writing were in Greek or Latin or Hebrew,
] cannot say, tor He knew all those Ian
guages. But He is still STOPPING down,
and with His finger writing on the
ground; in the winter in letters OF
crystal, in the spring in letters of
harvest, in autumn in letters of fire on
fallen leaves. How it would sweeten up
and enrich and embazOn this world could
we see Christ's caigraphy all over it.
This world was not flung out into space
thousands of years ago and then lett to
look out for itself 1t is still under the
divine care. Christ never for a half
second takes his hands off of it, or it would
soon be shipwrecked world. a defunct
world, an obsolete world an abandoned
world, a dead world. But when Christ
stopped down and wrote on the ground
what did he write? The Pharisees did
not stop TO examine. The towards
whipped of their own consciences, fled
pell-mell. Nothing will fay man like
an aroused conscience. DR.. Stevens, in
his History of Methodism," SAYS that
when the Rev. Benjamin Abbott, OF olden
time, was preaching, he exclaimed: "For
aught 1 know there may be a murderer in
this house." and a man rose in the as
semblage and started for the door and
bawied aloud, confessing TO a murder he
committed fifteen years before. And no
wonder these Pharisees, reminded of their
sins, took to their heels. But what did
Christ write on the ground? The Bible
does not state. Yet, as Christ never
wrote anything except that once, you can
not blame US for wanting to know what He
really did write. But l am certain
He wrote nothing trivial or nothing
unimportant. And will YOU allow me TO
say that / think / know what He wrote
on the ground? judge from the circum-
stances. He might have written other
things, but kneeling there in the temple,
surrounded by pack OF hypocrites, who
were self-appointed constabulary, and hav-
ing in His presence a prosecuted woman
who evidently was very penitent for her
sins, am sure lie wrote two words. both
of them graphic and tremendous and re-
verberating. And the one word was hypoc-
risy and the other word was forgiveness.
From the way these Pharisees and scribes
vacated the premises and got out into the
fresh air, as Christ, with Just one ironical
sentence, unmasked them, know they
were frst-class hypocrites. 1t was then
rs 1t Is now. The more faults and incOn-
sistencies people have of their own, the
more severe and ceuSoriOus are thev about
the faults of others. Here they are
twenty stout men arresting and arraign-
ing one weak woman. Magnificent bust
ness to be engaged in. They wanted the
fun OF seeing her faint away under a heavy
judicial sentence from Christ. and then
after she had been taken outside the city
and fastened at the foot of a precipice,
The ScrlDeS and EuarlSeeS wanted the
satisfaction OF each coming and drop
ping a big stone on her head, for
that WAS the style OF capital punishment
that they asked for. Some people have
taken the responsibility of saving that
Christ never laughed. But / think, as He
saw those men drop everything, chaguned,
mortified, exposed, and 20 out quicker
than they came in, He must nave laughed.
At any rate. II makes me laugh 10 read OF
IL. All of these libertines, dramatizing
indignation against impurity. Blind bats
occurring on optics. A flock OF crows on
their way up from carcass, denouncing
carrion. Yes, think that one word writ
ten on the ground that day by the finger
of Christ was the awful word hypocrisy.
But / az re there was another word in
that dust From her entire manner | am
sure that arraigned woman was repentant.
She made no apology, and Christ in no
wise belittled her sin. But her snpplica-
tory behavior and her tears moved Him,
and when He stopped down 20 write on
the ground He wrote that mighty, that inn
perial word forgiveness. When on Sinai
God wrote the law, He wrote it with finger
of lightning on tables OF stone, each word
rs cut IS BY a chisel into the hard
granite surface But when He writes
the ofense of this woman He
writes it in dust so that