Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-08-01
THE HAND OF CHRIST
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT 1T WROTE
IN THE DUST.


Woman Sins That Are Overlooked In
Man-Christ's Judgment of the Outcast.
copyright. 1895, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, July 31.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage gives heroic treat
ment Ct q delicate subject, and applies
to modern society the lesson taught by
Christ On q memorable occasion; text,
John viii, 6, "Jesus stopped down and
witL his finger wrote ON the ground"
You must take your shoes off and put
ON the especial slippers provided at the
door if you would enter the Mohammed
an mosque which stands now where
once stood Herod's temple, the scene of
my text. Solomon's temple had stood
there, but Nebuchadnezzar had thun-
dered it down. ZerubbabeI's temple had
stood there, but that had been prostrat
ed. Now we take Our places in a tenn
pie that Herod built, because he was
fond of great architecture, and he want
ed the preceding temples to seem insig-
nificant. Put eight or ten modern cathe-
drals together, and they would not
equal that structure. It covered 10
acres. There We're marble pillars sup
on which stood golden cups, and there
We're carvings exquisite and inscriptions
respondent, glittering balustrades and
ornamented gateways. The building of
this temple kept 10. 900 workmen busy
46 years.
In that stupendous pile CT pomp and
magnifcence sat Christ, and a listening
throng stood about him when wild
disturbance took place. A group of men
are pulling and pushing along 4 woman
who had committed crime against So
ciety. When they have brought her in
front Of Christ, they ask that he sen
tence her to death by stoning. They are
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. If he let her go, they
will charge him with being in compile
ity with wickedness. Whichever way
he does they would howl at him.
Christ's Judgment.
Il. Then occurs 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
his right hand he begins to write in the
dust of the floor word after word. But
they were not to be diverted Or hinder
ed. They kept on demanding that he
settle this case of transgressiOn until be
looked up and told them they might
themselves begin the woman's assas-
sination # the complainant who had
never dcre anything wrong himself
would open the fire. eco ahead; but be
sure that the man who filings the first
missile is immaculate 50 Then he re
sumed 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 scoundrels
.skulked away. Finally the whole place
lis 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
courtroom left, the judges, the police,
the prosecuting attorney, having cleared
out. Christ is victor, and\he says to the
woman: where are the prosecutors in
this case? Are they all gone? Then
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 all?
know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote letter to Abgarus, the king
of Odessa, 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 a book or a
chapter or a paragraph or a word on
parchment. Nothing but the literature
Of the dust, and one sweep Of brush
Or one breath Of q wind oblitcrated it
forever.
Among all the rolls of the volumes OF
the first library founded at Thebes
there was not one scroll Of Christ.
Among the 700, 900 books CT the Alex
andrian library, which, by the infa-
nous decree 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 Edin
burgh, the British museum or Der
lin CT Vienna or the learned reposi-
tories Of all the nations not one word
written directly by the finger Of Christ.
All that he ever wrote he wrote III dust,
uncertain, shifting dust.
STOPPING Down.
My text says he stopped down and
wrote Oh 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 cannot write on the
ground. Be not surprised that he stopped
down; his whole life was q STOPPING
down. STOPPING down from castle to