The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-01


conferences. ministers of the Gospel are
about to say something unbrOtherly and
unkind about member, they most all
ways begin by being osteutatiously pious,
the venom OF their assault corresponding
to the heavenly flavor of the prelude.
About to deyOur "a reputation they say
grace before meal
But / am sure there was another word
in that dust. From her entire manner 1
am sure that arraigned woman was re-
pcntant She made no apology, and
Christ in no wise beltted her sin. But
her suppIcatory 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, ne
wrote 1t with finger Of lightning on
tables of stone, each word cut as by
chisel into the hard granite surface. But
when he writes the Offeuse OF this woman
he writes it ia dust so that 1t can be easily
rubbed out. and when she repents of il,
OH ne was a meTciful Christ, / was read
ing of a legend that is told in the far east
about him. He was walking through the
streets OF a city and he saw a crowd
around a dead dog. and one man said:
what a loathsome object is that dog"
eyes" said another, Ibis ears are mauled
and bleeding" Yes" said another, even
his hide would not be of any use to the
tanner" Yes" said another, the odor
&
standing there, said: But pearls cannot
equal the wilderness of his teeth" Then
the people, moved by the idea that any
one could find anything pleasant concern
ing the dead dog, said: why this must
be Jesus Of Nazareth Reproved and
convicted, they went away.
Surely this legend of Christ is good
enough to be true. Kindness in all his
words and ways and habits. Forgiveness!
Word of eleven letter. and some of them
thrones and some of them palm branches.
Better have Christ write close to our
names that one word, though he write il
in dust, than TO have our name cut into
monumental granite with the letters that
the storms of a thousand years cannot OBJ
literate. Bishop Darlington had a book
of only three leaves. The first leaf was
black, the second leaf red the third leaf
white. The black leaf suggested sin; the
red leaf atOnement; the white leaf purifi-
cation. That is the whole story. God
win abundanuy pardon.
l must not forget TO say that as Christ.
STOPPING down, with his finger wrote on
the ground, it is evident that his sympa-
thes are with this penitent woman. and
that he has no sympathy with her hypo-
critical pursuers. Just opposite to that is
the worlds habit. Why didn't these TN
c3ean Pharisees bring one of their own
number 10 Christ for eXcoratiOn and cap
ital punishment? No, no They overlook
that In man which they damnate in
woman. And so the world has had for
offending woman scourges and objurga-
ton, and for just one Offense she becomes
an outcast, while for men whose lives have
been sOdOmic for twenty years the world
swings open it's doors of brilliant welcome;
and they may sit in high places. Unlike
the Christ of my text, the world writes
mans misdemeanor in dust but chisels a
woman's Ofense with great capitals upon
ineffaceable marble.
For foreign lords and princes, whose
names cannot even be mentioned in re-
spectacle circles abroad because they are
walking lazarettos of abominatou, some
of our American princesses of fortune
wait, and ar the first beck sail out with
them into the blackness of darkness for
ever And in what are called higher cir
cles of society there is now not only the
imitation of foreign dress and foreign
manners, but an imitation of foreign dis
solutenees. l like foreigner, and 1 like
an American, but the sickest creature on
earth is an American playing he foreigner.
Society needs TO be reconstructed on this
subject. Treat them alike, masculine
crime and feminine crime. If you cut the
one in granite, cut them both in granite.
If you write the one in dust, write the
other in dust. mo, no." says the world;
''let woman go down and let man go up
What is that l hear FLASHING into The
Hudson or Potomac at midnight? And
then there is a gurgle as of strangulauon,
and all Is still Never mind. 1t is only a
woman too discouraged to live. Lei the
mRls of the cruel world grind right on.
But while | speak of Christ of the text,
his stopping down writing in the dust, do
not think l underrate the literature of The
dust. Ii is the most tremendous of all lii
eraWre. II is the greatest OF all libraries.
! When Layard exhumed NineVeh he was
] no Of m
| The excavations of Pompeii have only been
| the unCiasping of the lids of a volume of
! a nations dust When Admiral Farragut
and his friends visited that resurrected
| city the house of Baibo, who had been one
| of its chief citizens in its prosperous days
was opened. and a table was spread in
! that house Which 1S10 years had been bur
| led by volcanic eruption, and tarragut and
| his guests walked over The exquisite mo-
| sale and under the beautiful fresco, and il
| almost seemed like being entertained by
those who eighteen centuries ago had
| turned 10 dust.
oh! this mighty literature of the dust
Where are the remains of Sennachert
and Attila and Epaminondas and Tanner
lane ana Trajan and Philip of MacedOn and
| julius Caesar? Dust, Where are the he
roos who fought on both sides at Chaer-
onea, at Hastings, at Marathon, at Cres-
sy, of the 10000 men who fought at Agin-
! at Jena of the 100000 whose armor gilt
tered in the sun at Wagram. of the l,000,-
| 600 men under Darius of Arbela, of the >,
| 81 600 men under &erXes at Thermopylae
! Dust! Where are the guests who danced
! the floors OF the Alhambra or the Per
sian palace Of Ahasuerus? Dust Where
are the musicians who played, or the ora
tors who spoke, and the sculptors whC
| chisened. and the architects who built
in all the centuries except our own? Dust
! Where are the most of the books thai
once entranced the world? Dust! Plmy
wrote twenty books of history; all lost
The most OF Menanders writings lost. OF
enc hundred and thirty comedies Of Plau-
tus. all gone but twenty. Euripides wrote
| q hundred dramas, all gone but nineteen
Eschylus sNrote a hundred dramas, all
gone but seven. Narro wrote the labor
ious biographies OF 200 Romans, not a
fragmen& left. Quintiiian wrote his favor
ne book on the corruption of eloquence
ali lost Thirty books of Tacitus lost
Dion Cassus wrote eighty books. only