The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-23

edge such ueDaucneTleSs every Hldls N0- man and child sitting in sound of her vouce would have looked upon her as a moral leper to be summed as much as the eastern lepers, who with fsticks and stones are driven forth from the habita- tions of man and quarantined by them selves as menaees 10 the public safety.
 Deal Justly With Bring
 The highest compliment which in ehv- alric times could be given about a father was. His daughters were all yrtuous and his sons were all brave" But why should not the sons be virtuous as well as the daughters? And yet, man-O bit- ter man, censorious and guilty man thou art ready to condemn thy sister when thou art not ready to condemn thy self Joseph Parker in one of his great addresses, describes brother minister who had driven an erring and yet repent ant daughter away from his home Jo- seph Parker pleaded and prayed with the angy father to take her back. But she has disgraced my home" said he T cannot, l will not take her back But man." said Joseph Parker in your younger days have not you yourself also been guilty of sin?' Yes" said the ia ther, but I am a man and she is a woman. The world judges mans sins differently from a womans sins" That IS SO, Sdlu 1dIhti- ndH JuuBtS man sins differently from womans sins, but Christ judges both the sins the same. He that Is without sin among you let him first cast a stone al her.
 Another characteristic of the divine law is that 1t recognizes 10 distinction of rank or station. As the divine law makes no distinction between sexes, 1t also makes no distinction between the sins of the upper and the lower social aIn mo ba, code for the palace and another for the hut. It does not have one for the wealthy Wall street financier who ma nipulates the railroad stock and waters" it and cheats thousands of small invest ors out of their all and another for the groceryman who has false weights and never sends a full pound of coffee or tea or sugar to his customers when they pay for full pound. It does not have one set of rules for the wife of the million aire who hides her diamonds and watches and jewelry in her dress to escape the scrutiny of the New York custom house officials which jewelry she is bringing to her American friends after a European trip, an another set of rules for the news boy who steals a loaf of bread out of the bakery wagon when the driver is away selling his goods at a kitchen door. In other words what the divine law con demns in homespun 1t condemns in broadcloth When it says Thou shalt not to the plebeian, 1t also says "Thou shalt not" to the aristocrat. What it denounces in the heart of the serf it also denounces in the heart of the ruler sitting upon the kings throne or of the judge sitting upon the chief justices bench of the supreme court or of the premier governing in state craft as Joseph did in Egypt, or as Bis marck did in Germany or as Gladstone did in the British parliament.
 No Distinction Between Classes.
 Do you believe God discriminates be- tween the sins of the social classes? If you do let me by the scene of my text disabuse your mind of that surmise. Come let us push our way through the mutitudes crowding in the temple and find out who compose that group. Who are those strong. fine looking men stand ing in front of Christ? They are not in- significant clerks They are not laborers or farmers who have come into town with dust begrimed clothes. They are not hirelings or beggars or men and women who from perpetual moyings have become tramps and vagabonds. Most of that group just in front of Christ have keen intellectual faces. They have in their physical movements the actions of sue cessful men. They have in the glance of their eyes the searching power which be- speaks command. Those men," wrote Dr. Strong, were the scrbes. They were the doctors of the law and the interpret CTS of the Scripture These other men are the Pharisees. They were so particu- lar to keep themselves outwardly un- spotted from heather customs that they carried extracts from the Hebrew law about with them in little boxes or phy- factories. They had these boxes strapped to their scIeheads that all men might see them. But when these men, these leaders of Jerusalem, were standing there condemning a poor outcast woman for her sins Christ in silence was making figures upon the ground with his fin- gers in which they might read their own condemnation
 What Jesus Christ was writing upon the ground Is not recorded; but, although we may never know on earth those ex
 act words, l have a good deal of sym pathy with that evangelist who said that Christ was writing the evil history of each scribe and Pharisee while they were speaking against the sobbing cul- prit. No sooner did the first scribe begin to talk than Christ began to write, as though he had set down these words.
 Lawyer, you are not living with your wife. She has left you on account of your dissouteness. She is now gone back 10 her IdIitf x ubille Y UT what hiN 3ph condemning this woman? for your own sin?" No sooner did the lawyer look down on the ground and see what Jesus was writing than he turned and departed.
 When the next speaker, Pharisee, be- gan to talk Christ began to write again.
 Rich man, you have never committed the crime of which this woman was guilty, but you own the house in which she lives and carries on her Vile trafflc The rent you get from that house IS blood money Why are you speaking agalnst your tenant? You are partner with her in crime" When the Pharisee capitalist saw what Christ was writing and that all the people were laughing at him he also disappeared. So Christ went through the list of different accusers. But whether Christ was writing the history Of those accusers on the ground or no we care not, for one fact we do know-by his silence as well as later by his spoken words l Christ was teaching the sweeping les- son that d rich mans sins, prominent lawyers or physicians or statesman sins or a minister's sins are just as severely condemned in the sight of God as the poor mans sins The divine law discriminates not between the sins of the upper and lower social classes but be- tween sin and righteousness The sin of the broadcloth is the same black sin which sometimes nests under the rough woolens of the laborer and the mechanic. Sin is sin wherever found.
 No Immunity Given.
 But I find in the next place another trenchant lesson. The divine law does not accept zeal in bringing others to justice as ground for absolving the proseeu- tor of his own wrongdong. The scribes and Pharisees cannot atone for their sins