Connecticut western news., 1898-08-04

they about the faults of others. Here they are-20 stout men arresting and ar raigning one weak womanl Magnifi- cent business to be engaged inl They wanted the fun of seeing her faint away under a 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 satis- faction of each coming and dropping a 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 nev CT laughed. But I think as he saw those men drop everything, chagrined. morti- fled, exposed, and go out quicker than they came in, he must have laughed. At any rate it makes me laugh to read of 1t. All of those libertines, dramatiz- ing indignation against impurity Blind bats featuring on opticsl A flock of crows on their way up from carcass, denouncing carrionl
 Jesus Reprook
 Yes, I 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, apd be began in the usual form, "In the name of God, amenp' "Stopi" said the martyr. Don't say in the name of Godp" Yet how many outrages are practiced under the garb of religion and sanctityl When in synods and confer ences ministers of the gospel are about to say something unbrotherly and un- 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 a reputation. they say grace before meal.
 But I am sure there was another word in that dust, From her entire manner I 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 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 dead dog. and one man said, What loath- some object is that dcgp "Yes," said another, "his 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 of his carcass is dreadful. Then Christ, standing there, said, 'tBut pearls cannot equal the whiteness of his teeth" Then the people, moved by the idea that any one could find anything pleasant concerning the dead dog, said, "Why, this must be Jesus of Nazareth P 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. Forgive nessl Word of II letters, 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 1t in dust, than to have our name cut into monumental granite with the letters that the storms of a thousand years cannot obliterate. Bishop Babing ton had 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 purification. That is the whole story. God will abundantly par don.
 Mans Guilt Equal.
 I must not forget to say that as Christ. stepping down. with his finger wrote on the ground 1t is evident that his sympathies are with this penitent woman and that he has no sympathy with her hypocritical pursuers. Just op- posite to that is the worlds habit. Why didn't these unclean Pharisees bring one of their own number to Christ for excoriation and capital punishment? No, no. They overlook that in a man which they damnate in woman. And so the world has had for offending wom- an scourges and objurgation, and for l just one offense she becomes an outcast, while for men whose lives have been sodomic for 20 years the world swings open its 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 | woman's offense with great capitals upon ineffaceable marble
 For foreign lords and princes whose names cannot even be mentioned in re- spectable circles abroad because they are walking lazarettos of abomination | some of our American princesses of for | tune wait and at the first beck sail out with them into the blackness of dark ness forever, and in what are called | higher circles of society there Is now | not only the imitation of foreign dress and foreign manners, but an imitation | of foreign dissoluteness. I like for | eigner, and like an American, but the sickest creature on earth is an American playing the foreigner. Society needs to | be reconstructed on this subject Treat them alike, masculine crime and femi- nine crime. If you cut the one in gran ite, cut them both in granite; If you | write the one in dust, write the other in dust ''No, no, " says the world; "let woman go down and let man go up." What is that hear plashing into the Hudson or Potomac at midnight? And then there is a gurgle as of strangula- tion, and all is still. Never mind. It is only woman too discouraged to live. Let the mills of the cruel world grind | right on.
 Literature of the Dust.
 l But while I speak of Christ of the text, his stepping down writing in the | of do th,,,k r ko %la