Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-08-05
THE HAND OF CHRIST
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT 1T WROTE
IN THE DUST.


Woman Sins That Are Overlooked In
Man Christ's judgment of the Outcast
Copyright. 1895 by American Press Asso-
ciatiOnl
WASHINGTON, July 3l.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage gives heroic treat
ment Of a delicate subject, and applies
to modern society the lesson taught by
Christ on a memorable occasion; text,
John viii, 6, Jesus stopped down and
with his finger wrote ON the ground" "
You must take your shoes off and put
On the especial slippers provided at the
door if You would enter the MOhammed-
an mosque which stands now where
once stood H6rod' 5 temple, the scene Of
my text. Solomon's temple had stood
there, but Nebuchadnezzar had thun-
dered it down. Zerubbabel's temple had
stood there, but that had been prostrat-
ed. Now we take our places in a tenn
pie that Herod built, because he was
fond of great architecture, and he want
ed the preceding temples to seem insig-
nifcant. Put eight or ten modern cathe-
drals together, and they would not
equal that structure. 1t covered l9
acres. There were marble pillars sup
porting roofs of cedar and silver tables,
on which stood golden cups and there
were carvings exquisite and inscriptions
resplendent glittering balustrades and
ornamented gateways. The building Of
this temple kept 10000 workmen busy
As years.
In that stupendous pile Of pomp and
magnifcence sat Christ, and listening
throng stood about him when a wild
disturbance took place. \ group Of men
are pulling and pushing along a woman
who had committed crime against So
ciety. When they have brought her in
front Of Christ, they ask that be SEN
teuce her to death by stoning. They are
critical, merciless, disingenuous
crowd They want 10 get Christ into
controversy ana public apprehension. If
be say, Let her die, " they will charge
him with cruelty. If he let her 20, they
will charge him with being in compile
ity with wickcdness. Whichever way
he does they would howl at him.
Christ's Judgment.
Then occurs a 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 forefneger Of
his right hand he begins to write i'll the
dust Of the floor word after word. But
they were not to be diverted or hinder
ed They kept on demanding that he
settle this case Of transgression until he
looked up and told them they might
themselves begin the wOman's aSsas-
sination if the complainant who had
never done anything wrong himself
would open the fire go ahead, but be
sure that the man who filings the first
missile is immaculate. Then he re-
sumed writing with his finger III the
dust Of the floor word after word. In
stead of looking over his shoulder TO see
what he had written the scoundrels
skulked away. Finally the whole place
is clear Of pursuers, antagonists 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
courtroom left, the judges, the police,
the prosecuting attorney, having cleared
out Christ is victor, and he says to the
woman; Where are the prosecutors in
this case? Are they all gone? Then l
discharge YOU Go and sin no more.
have wondered what Christ wrote on
the ground, for do you realize that Is
the only time that he ever wrote at all:
l know that Eusebius says that Christ
once wrote letter to Abgarus, the king
Of Edessa, but there is no good evidence
of such a correspondence The wisest
being the world ever saw and the one
who had more to say than any one who
ever lived never writing a book or a
chapter or paragraph or a word on
parchment Nothing but the literature
of the dust, and one sweep Of brush
or one breath of a wind oblitorated it
forever.
Among all the rolls Of the volumes Of
the first library founded at Thebes
there was not one scroll of Christ.
Among the 700, 600 books Of the Alex
andrian library, which, by the infa-
nous decree of Caliph Omar, were used
as fuel to heat the 1000 baths Of the
city, not one sentence had Christ penned.
Among all the infnitude Of volumes
now standing in the Libraries Of Edin-
burgh, the British museum or Ber-
lin or Vienna or the learned reposi-
tories Of all the nations not one word
written directly by the finger Of Christ.
All that he ever wrote he wrote in dust,
uncertain, shifting dust.
STOPPING Down.
Nv text says he stopped down and
wrote on the ground. Standing straight
up man might write on the ground
with a staff, but if with his fingers he
would write in the dust he must bend
clear over Aye, he must get at least
on one knee, or he cannot write on the
ground. BE not surprised that he stopped
down; his whole life was STOPPING
down STOPPING down from castle 70
barn. STOPPING down from celestial
homage to monocratic jeer. From resi-
dence above the stars to where a 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 constel-
lation and galaxy on the blue scroll OF
heaven to writing on the ground IN the
dust which the feet of the crowd had
left in Herods temple. II in January
you have ever stepped out of princes
conservatory that had Mexican cactus
and magnolias in full bloom into the
outside air, 10 degrees below Zero you
may yet some idea Of Christ's change
of atmosphere from celestial to terres-
trial. How many heavens there are
know not, but there are at least three,
for Paul was caught up into the third
heaven. "