The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-08-12

! that once, you can not blame us Tor
wanting to know what He really did
write But / am certain lie wrote moth
/ ing trivial or nothing unimportant.
| And will you allow me to say that [
/ think l know what lie wrote on the
ground? / Judge from the circum-
stances. He might have written other
things, but kneeling there in the
/ temple, surrounded by a pack of
hypocrites, who was self-appointed
corlstabulary, and having in his pres
ence prosecuted woman, who evident
ly was very penient for her sins, l am
sure He wrote two wor Is. both Of then
graphic and tremendous and rever-
! berating. And the one woro was
Hypocrisy" and the ether 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, l know they were frst-class
hypocrites. 1t was then as it is now.
The more faults and Inconsistencies
people have of their own, the more Sc
we're and censorious are they about the
| faults of others. Here they are-20
|
one weak womanI Magnificent bust
ness 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 fastened
at the foot of the precipice, the
Scribes and Pharisees wanted the sat-
| isfaetion of each coming and dropping
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 l think as
He saw those men drop everything,
chagrined, mortified, 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, dramatizing indigna-
tion against impurity! Blind bats lee
turing on optics! A flock of crows on
their way up from carcass, denounc-
ing carron!
Yes, think that one word written
on the ground that day by the finger OF
Christ was the awful word hypocrisy.
What pretensions to sancity are the
part of those hypocritical Phariseesl
When the fox begins to pray look ont
for your chickens. One of the cruel
magnates of olden times was going 10
excommunicate one of the martyrs,
and he began in the usual form-''In
the name of God, amen" "Stop!" says
the martyr, don't say in the name of
Godr" Yet how many outrages
are practiced under the garb of
-
synods and conferences, ministers
of the Gospel are about to say som E.
thing unbrotherly and unkind about
member, they almost always begin by
being ostentatiously pious, the venom
of their assault corresponding to the
Heavenly flavor of the prelude. About
to devour a reputation, they say grace
before meal.
But | am sure there was another
word in that dust. From her entire
manner l am sure that arraigned wom-
an was repentant. She made no
apology, and Christ in no wise 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 as by a
chisel into the hard granite surface.
But when He writes the offense of this
woman He writes it in the dust, SO
that it can be easily rubbed out, and
when she repents of it, oh, He was
merciful Christ! l was reading of Il
legend that is told in the far east
| about Him. lie was walking through
the streets of a city and He saw
crowd around a dead dog. And one
man said: "What a loathsOmc object
is that dog!' ''Yes, said another.
''his ears are mauled and bleeding"
"Yes," said another, "even his hide
would not be of any use to the tanner.
''Yess, said another, 1.-The odOr of his
carcass is dreadful" Then Christ,
standing there, said: "But pearls can
not equal the whiteness of his teeth"
Then the people, moved by the idea
that anyone could fnd anything pleas
ant concerning the dead dog, said;
sWhy, this must be Jesus of Nazareth"
Reproved and convicted, they went
away.
And now can believe that which /
read, how that mother kept burning
a candle in the window every night for
ten years, and one night, very late, a
poor waif of the street entered. The
aged woman said to her: ''Sit down
by the fire. and the stranger
said: "Why do you keep that light
in the Window" The aged woman
said: "That is to light my wayward
daughter when she returns. Since she
went away, ten years ago, my hair has
turned white. Folks blame me for
worrying about her, but you see | am
her mother, and sometimes, half a
dozen times a night, l open the door
| and look out into the darkness
and cry: 'Lizzier 'Lizzier But /
must not tell you any more
about my trouble, for l guess from
the way you cry you have trouble
enough Of your own. Why, how cold
and sick you seeml Oh, my, can it be?
Yes, you are Lizzie, my own lost child!
Thank God that you are home agaip!'
And what a time of rejoicing there WAS
| in that house that night. And Christ
again stopped down, and on the ashes
! Of that hearth, now lighted up, not
more by the great blazing logs than by
tire Joy of reunited household, wrote
| tho same liberating words that had
been written more than 1900 years ago
| in the dust of the Jerusalem temple.
Forgiveness! A word broad enough
and high enough to let pass through it
all the armies OF Heaven, million
abreast, on white horses, nostril TO
/ nostril, flank to flank.
The Value of Christ.
Nothing but Christ can satisfy the
! human heart and the human mind