Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-08-01

be glad to put against one lid of the
Bible the microscope and against the
other lid of the Bible the telescope.
Graphic Words.
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 con-
sciences, tied pellmeH. Nothing will
Say man like an aroused conscience.
DR.. Stevens in his s'History Of Metho-
lism, says that when Rev. Benjamin
Abbott, of olden times, was preaching
ne exclaimed, 'For aught [ know there
may be a murderer in this house." And
man rose from the assemblage and
started for the door and bawled aloud
confessing to murder he had commit
ted Is 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 cannot blame us for want
ing to know what he really did write.
But am certain he wrote nothing triv-
ial or nothing unimportant. And will
what he wrote on the ground? I judge
from the circumstances. He might have
written other things, but, kneeling there
in the temple, surrounded by pack of
hypocrites who were a self appointed
consta bulary and having in his presence
a prosecuted woman, who evidently was
very penitent for her sins, am sure he
wrote two words, both of them graphic
and tremendous and reverberating.> And
the one word was Hypocrisy" 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 first class hypocrites. It
was then as it is now. The more faults
and inconsistencies people have of their
own the more severe and censorious are
they about the faults of others. Here
they are-20 stout men arresting and ar
raigning one weak woman! Magnifi-
cent business to be engaged in! They
wanted the fun of seeing her faint
away under heavy judicial sentence
from Christ, and then, after she had
been taken outside of the city and fas-
tened at the foot of the precipice, the
scribes and Pharisees wanted the salts
faction of each coming and dropping
big stone Oh her head, for that was the
style of capital punishment that they
asked for. Some people have taken the
responsibility of saying that Christ new
er laughed. But think as he saw those
men drop everything, chagrined, morti-
fed, exposed, and go out quicker than
they came in, he must have laughed.
At any rate it makes me laugh to read
of it. All of those libertines, dramatic
ing indignation against impurity! Blind
bats lecturing on optics! A flock of
crows on their way up from a carcass,
denouncing carrion!
Jesus Reproof.
Yes, [ think that one word written
on the ground that day by the finger of
Christ was the awful word hypocrisy.
What pretensions to sanctity are the
part of those hypocritical Pharisees!
When the fox begins to pray, look out
for your chickens. One of the cruel
magnates of olden times was going to
excommunicate one of the martyrs, and
he began in the usual form, ''In the
name Of God, amen!" ''Stop!' said the
martyr, Don't say lin the name of
God = T" Yet how many outrages are
practiced under the garb of religion and
sanctity! When in synods and confer
ences ministers of the gospel are about
to say something unbrotherly and I'M
kind about member, they almost al
ways begin by being ostentatiously
pious, the venom Of their assault CORE
spending to the heavenly flavor of the
prelude. About to devour reputation,
they say grace before meal.
But I am sure 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 nowise belittled her sin. But
her supplicatory behavior and her tears
moved him, and when he stopped down
to write on the ground he wrote that
mighty, that imperial word forgiveness.
When on Sinai God wrote the law,
he wrote it with finger of lightning on
tables of stone each word cut as by a
chisel into the hard granite surface.
But when he writes the offense Of this
woman he writes it in dust SO that it
can be easily rubbed out, and when she
repents of it-oh, he was a merciful
Christ! I was reading of a legend that
is told in the far east about him. He
was walking through the streets of
city and he saw a crowd around dead
dog. and one man said, "What loath-
some object is that dog" EYES," said
another, ''his ears are mauled and
bleeding eyes" said another, "even
his hide would not be of any use to the
tanner. eyes," said another, "the
odor of his carcass is dreadful. Then
Christ, standing there, said, "But
pearls cannot equal the whiteness of his
teeth. - Then the people, moved by the