Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-08-24
SERMONS OF THE DAY
"writine In Dust' the Subject-A Denun.
ciation OF Hypocrisy-Thc Inju-tice q
Conde,nning in Woman Sins That Ars
Overlooked in Man.


Conde,nning in Woman Sins That Arr
Overlooked In Man.
TEXT: Jesus stopped down and witt
His fingers wrote on the ground."-JohI
viii, 6.
You must take your shoes of and pui
on the especial slippers provided ut the
door II you would enter the Mohammedar
mosque, which stands now where once
stood Herods temple, the scene ofmy text
Solomon's temple had stood there, hui
Nebuchadnezzar had thundered it down
Zeruobabers temple had stood there, but
| had been prostrated. Now we take ouI
places in tenn pie that Herod built, because
he was fond OF great architecture, and he
wanted the preceding temples to seem in.
significant. Put eight or ten modern ca.
thedrals together, and they would moi
equal that structure. 1t covered nineteen
acres. There were marble pillars support
ing roofs of cedar, and silver tables, on
which stood golden cups, and there were
carvings exquisite, and Inscriptions re-
| splendent, glittering balustrades and orna.
mented gateways.
In that stupendous pile OF pomp and
magniflcence sat Christ, and listening
throng stood about Him when wild dis
turbance took place. A group of men are
pulling and pushing along a woman who
When they have brought her in front OF
Christ, they ask that He sentence her tc
death by stoning. They are a 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 completely with wickedneSs. Which
ever way He does, they would howl at Him.
Then occurs n 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 foreflnger 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
they might themselves begin the woman's
assassination IL the complainant who had
never done anything wrong himself would
! open the fire. go ahead, but be sure tbet
the man who filings the first missile is i'm
macuIate." Then He resumed writing
with His finger nail in the dust of the floor,
word after word. Instead of looking over
His shoulder to see what He had written,
the scoundrels skulked away. Finally, the
whole place Is clear of pursuers, antag-
onists 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 prose-
cutting attorney having cleared out. Christ
Is victor, and He says to the woman:
"Wbere are the prosecutors In this case?
are they all gone? Then discharge you;
go and sin no more" 1 have wondered
what Christ wrote on the ground. For do
| you realize that this is the only time that
| He ever wrote at all? 1 know that Eusebius
says that Christ once wrote letter to
Abgarus, the King OF Edessa, but there is
no good evidence of such correspond
ence. The wisest Being the world ever
saw, and the One who had more to say
| than anyone whoever lived, never writing
book or chapter or paragraph or a
| word on parchment. Nothing but the lit
eratuIe of the dust, and one sweep OF n
brush or one breath Of wind obliterated
| II forever.
Among all the ro}as of the volumes of the
lrst Hbrar- tcupdosi at Thebes there was
not one scroll OF Christ. AmJhg the books
of the Alexandrian Library, which, by the
Infamous decree of Caliph Omar, were used
as fuel to heat the 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. All that He ever wrote He wrote
In dust, uncertain, shifting dust.
My text says He stopped down ani wrote
on the ground. Standing straight up a
! but if with His fingers He would write in
the dust He must bend clear over. Ave, He
must get at least on one knee, or He can
not write on the ground. Be not surprised
that He stopped down, His whole life was n
stooping down. Stooping down from castle
to barn. STOPPING down from celestial
| homage to monocratic jeer. From resi-
dence above the stars to where n 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 to writing on
the ground in the dust which the feet in
the crowd had left in Herods temple.
Christ came down from the highest
Heaven to the broiling of fish for His own
breakfast, on the banks OF the lake. From
emblazoned chariots of eternity to the
saddle of a mules back. From the hom-
age cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, to the
paying of sixty-two and half cents Of tax
to Cesar. From the deathless country to
a tomb built to hide human dissolution.
The uplifted wave of Galilee was high, but
He had to come down before, with His feet,
He could touch 1t, and the whirlwind that
arose above the billow was higher yet, but
He had to come down before with His lip
He could kiss it into quiet. Bethlehem a
stopping down. Nazareth a STOPPING down.
Death between two burglars a STOPPING
down. Yes, it was In consonance with
humiliations that went before and self
abnegations that came after when on that
memorable day in Herod's temple He
| stopped down and wrote on the ground.
Whether the words He was writing were
in Greek or Latin or Hebrew, cannot say,
for He knew all those languages. But He
is still STOPPING down, and with His finger
writing on the ground; in the winter in
letters of crystals, in the spring in letters
of flowers in summer in golden letters OF
harvest in autumn In letters of fire or fall
! uA,x GUa ar n n N
enrich and emblazon this world, could we
see Christ's caligraphy all over it. This
world was not flung out into space thou
sands of years ago, and then left to look out
for itself 1t is still under the Divine care.
Ci rist never for half second takes His
hand off of it. or it would soon be a ship
wrecked world, a defunct world, an obso-
lete world an abandoned world, q dead
world. Let there be light" was said nj
the beginning. And Christ stands under
the wintry skies and says, let there be snow
flakes to enrich the earth; and under the
SONS and make redolent the orchards; and
In September dips the branches in the vat
of beautiful colors, and swings them into
the hazy air No wh'-c IT mine l. this
without Him was not anything made that
was made" Christ writing on the ground
If you could see His hand in all the pass.
ing seasons, how it would illumine the
world All verdure and foliage would be
allegoric, and again we wouli hear Hin
say, as OF old, "Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow" and we would moi
hear the whistle OF quail or the cawing o
a raven or the roundelay of a brown
tbresher, without saying, ''Behold the fowl:
Of the air, they gather not in barns, yet
your Heavenly Father feedeth them;" and
a Dominic hen of the barnyard could moi
ciuck for her brood, but we would heal
Christ saving, as of old, How often would
have gathered thy children together, ever
as hen gathereth her chickens under hel
WINGS" and through the redolent hedge:
we would hear Christ saying, 81 am the
rose of Sharon we could not dip the sea
soning from ths salt-cellar without think
ing Of the divine suggestion, Eye are th'
salt Of the earth, but If the salt hath los
its SAVIOR, 1t is fit for nothing but to be cas-
out and trodden under foot OF mea.
Bnt when Christ stopped down and
wrote on the ground, what did He write
The Pharisees did not stop to examine