The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1898-08-06

lEssSSSs&sS.2sS1sD,
would 500. be shipwrecked world, de-
funct world, an obsolete world, an aban-
doned world, a dead world LET there
be light" was said at the beginning, and
Christ stands under the wintry skies and
says, Let there be snowfakes to enrich
| the earth, and under the clouds of spring
and says, Come, We blossoms, 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 whim of mine is 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. Ill verdure and foliage would be
| allegoric, and again we would hear him
say, as of old, Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow" and we would not
hear in the whistle of q quail or the cav
| ing of a raven or the roundelay of a
brown thrasher without saying: Behold
the fowls of the air. They gather not in
barns, vet your Heavenly Father feedeth
them,'' and Dominic hen of the barn
yard could not cluck for her brood but we
would hear Christ saying, as of old, How
often would | have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings" and through
| the redoent hedges we would hear Christ
saying, Il am the rose of Sharon" We
could not dip the seasoning from the salt
cellar without thinking of the divine sug-
gestion, "1e are the salt of the earth, but
| If the salt hath lost its SAVIOR it is fit for
nothing but TO be cast out and trodden
under foot Of men,
What right have We to throw away one
of Gods Bibles aye, the first Bible he
ever gave the race: We talk about the
Old Testament and the New Testament
but the oldest testament contains the les
sons of the natural world. Some people
like the New Testament so we'll they dis
card the Old Testament. Shall we like
the New Testament and the Old Tesla
mCnt so we'll as to deprcCiate the oldest
namely, that which was written before
!, Moses was put afloat on the boat of
leaves which was calhed with asphaltum
, or reject the Genesis that was written
, centuries before Adam lost a rib and
gained Il wife: No, no, When Deity
stoops down and writes on the ground
let US read it,
The Bible In Nature.
| would have no less appreciation of the
Bible on paper that comes out Of the pa
per mill, but | would urge appreciation of
the Bible in the grass, the Bible in the
sand hill, the Bible in the g,ranium, the
Bible in the asphodcl, the Bible in the
dust. Some one asked an ancient king
whether he had seen the eclipse of the
sun. No said he. Il have SO mach Ia
study on earth | have no time TO look at
heaven And if our faculties were all
awake in the study Of God we would not
have time to 90 much farther than the
first grass blade. ! have no fear that nat
, ural religion will ever contradict what we
call revealed religion. | have no Sympa-
( thy with the followers of Aristotle. who
after the telescope was invented would
not look through it lest it contradict some
of the theories Of their great master
shall he glad to put against one lid OF
the Bible the microscope and against the
other lid Of the Bible the telescope
But when Christ stopped down and
wrote on the ground what did he write
The Pharisccs did not stop to examine
The towards, whipped of their own con
sciences, fled pcllmell. Nothing will Hay
4 man like an aroused conscience. Dr
Stevens. in his History OF Mcthodism. "
W y
oilrn times was preaching he exclaimed
For aught l know there maybe a muir
dercr in this house" And Il man rose
. from the assemblagr and started for the
door and hawled aloud, ConfcSsing to Il
murder he had committed fifteen years
before And no wonder these Pharisccs
reminded Of their sins. took to their heels
But what did Christ write on the
ground: The Bible does not state. vet
, as Christ never wrote anything except
that once YOU cannot blame us for want
ing to know what he really did write. lut
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
circumstances. He might have written
other things. hut, knecling there in the
temple. surrounded 10y pack Of hypo-
critics who were a self appointed constub-
ulary and having in his presence persc-
cutcd woman, who evidently was very
ppnitcnt for her sins. | am sure he wrote
two words, both of them graphic and ire
mcndouS and rpvcrherating, and the one
word was Hypocrisy" and the other
word was ''foTCiycncSs.'
From the way these pharisccs and
scrihcs vacated the premises and cot ont
{ INTO Iilt tltSi tll dN ' uIlSl. WIN IlSi one
ironical sentence. unmaskcd them | know
they were frst-claSs hypocriteS II was
then as it is now. The more faults and
Inconsistencies people have Of their own
the more severe and ccuSorious are they
about the faults of others Here they
are. twenty stout men grr"stiug and ar
raigning one weak woman. Magnificent
! husiness to he engaged in, They wanted
the fun of seeing her faint away under Il
! heavy judicial sentence from Christ. and
! then. after she had been taken outside Of
/ the city and fastened ut the foot Of the
PrcCipiCc, the scrihcS and nhariSccS want
ed the satisfaction of each coming and
| dropping 4 big stone on her head. for that
was the style Of capital punishment that
they asked for. Some people have taken
the responsibility of saying that Christ
never laughed. but | think ~ he saw
those men drop everything. chagriued,
mortified. exposed. and 90 out quicker
! than they came in he must have laughed.
At any rate. il makes me laugh to read it,
| All Of those llbcrtincS dyduatiZing indig-
nation against impurity, Blind bats lee
| turing on optics, \ flock Of crows on
| their way up from n carcass dcnouucing
carrion,
/ RebukinE Hypocrisy.
Yes, think that one word written on
the ground that day hy the finger Of
Christ was the awful word hypocrisy
| What pretcu>jouS - Sanctity are tn" part
Of those hyq"critical rharisees, When
the fox begins to pray. book out for Your
chickens. puc of the cruel magnaIcS of
olden times was going L. eNrnnmuuicate
one Of the martyrs. and he began in the
usual form-"ln the name of God. Amen"
Stop" says the martyr. 'Dou't say in
the name Of God" Yet how many out
RACES are practjcrd under the garh of re-
liGion and Sauctity. When in syNodS and
conferences ministers of the gospel are
about to say something uubrothcriy and
unkind about a member, they almost al
. ways begin by being osteutatously piouS,