DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
‘Ihe Literature of the Dust,
“Jesus stooped down and . . . . wrote on the
ground.” John §: 6,
A MOHAMMEDAN mosque standsnow
where once stood Herod's temple, the
scene of my text. Solomon's temple
had stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar
thundered it down. Zerubbabel’s tem-
pla had stood there, but that hud been
prostrated, Now we take our places
in a temple that Herod built, because
he was fond of great architecture, and
he wanted the preceding tempies to
seem insignificant, I’ut eight or ten
modern cathedrals together and they
would not equal that structure. It
sovered nineteen acres, There were
warble pillars supporting roofs of cedar,
and silver tables on which stood golden
sups, and there were caryings exquisite
and inscriptions resplendent, glittering
balustrades and ornamented gateways.
The building of this temple kept ten
thousand workmen busy forty-six years.
In that stupendous pile of pomp and
magnificence sat Chist, and a listening
throng stood about Him, when
A WILD DISTURBANCE
took place, A group of men are pull-
ing and pushing along a woman who
had committed the worst crime against
society. When they have brouglit her
in front of Christ, they ask that He
sentence her to death by stoning. They
are a critical, merciless, disingenuous
crowd. They want to get Christ into
controversy and public reprebension.
If He say “Let her die,’ they will
sharge Him with cruelty. If lle let
her go, they will charge Him with be-
ing in complicity with wickedness.
Whichever way He does, they would
how! at Him, Then occurs a scene
which has not been sufficiently regard.
ad. He leaves the lounge or bench on
which He was sitting and goes down
on one knee, or both knees, and with
the forefinger of His right hand He
begins
TO WRITE IN TLE DUST
of the floor, word after word. But
they were rot to be diverted or hinder-
ed. They kept on demauding that He
settle this case of transgression, until
He looked up and told them that they
might themselves begin the woman's
assassination, if the complainant who
had never done anything wrong him-
self would open the fire, “Go aGead,
but be sure that the man who flings the
first missile is immaculate.” Then He
resumed writing with his finger in the
dust of the floor, word after word. Ine
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
when Christ has finished this strange
chirography in the dust. Xe looks up
and finds the woman all alone, The
prisoner is the only one of the court
room left, the judges, the police, the
prosecuting attorneys having cleared
out, Chnst is victor, and He says to
the woman: **Where are the prosecu-
tors in this case? Are they all gone?
Then I discharge you; zo, and sin no
more,” I have wondered
WHAT CHRIST WROTE
on the ground. For do you realize that
is the only time that He ever wrote at
all? I know that Eusebius says that
Christ once wrote a 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 a page or a para-
graph or a word on parchment. Noth-
ing but the literature of the dust, and
one sweep of a brush or one breath of a
wind obliterated that forever. Among
all the rolls of the volumes of the first
library founded at Thebes there was
not one scroll of Christ, Among the
seven hundred thousand books of the
famous decree of Caliph Omar were
used as fuel to heat the four thousand
baths of the city, not one sentence had
Christ petned, Among all the intini-
tude of volumes now standing in the
libraries of Edinburgh, the British
Museum, or Berlin or Vienna, or the
learned repositories of all nations, not
one word written directly by the finger
of Christ, All that He ever wrote He
wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting dust,
My text says He stooped down and
wrote on the ground, Standing straight
up a man might wrile 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
IE STOOPED DOWN
His whole life was a stooping down,
Stooping down from castle to barn,
Stooping down {rom celestial homage
to mobocratic jeer, From residence
above the stars to where a star had to
fall ‘to designate his landing-place,
From heaven's Yront door to the world's
back gate. From writing in round and
silvered letters of constellation 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
Herod's temple. If in January you
have ever stepped out of a prince’s con-
servatory that had Mexican cactus and
magnolias mm full bloom, into the out~
side air ten degices below wero, you
may get some idea of Christ’s change
of atwosphere fiom celestial to terres.
trial. How muauy heavens there are I
know not, but there are at least three,
tor Paul was “caught up into, the third
heaven,” Christ came
DOWN FROM HIGHEST HEAVEN
«0 the second heaven, and down from
second heaven to first heaven, down
Switler than meteors ever fell, down
amidst stellar splendors that ‘himself
th through
gs y
was no er
= 40 w h' Ll
thie waily
hu, usb
ITé had to come down before with His
lip he could kiss it into quiet, Bethle-
hem a stooping down. Nazareth a
stooping down, Death between two
burglirs a stooping down, Yes, it was
in consonance with humiliations that
had gone before, and with self abnega-
tions that came after, when on that
memorable day in Herod’s temple ie
stooped down and wrote on the ground,
Whether the words He was writing
were In Greek or Latin or Hebrew, 1
:annot say, for He knew all those lan-
guages, Dut
HE IS STILL STOOFPING DOWN,
and with His finger writing on the
ground; In the winter in letters of crys.
tals, in the spring in letters of flowers,
in summer in golden letters of harvest,
in autumn in letters of fire on fallen
leaves. How it would sweeten up and
enrich and emblazon this world, could
we see Christ's caligraphy all over it
This world was not flung out into
space thousands of years ago, ani then
left to look cut for itself. It is still
under the divine care. Christ never
for a half second takes Ilis hand off of
it, or it would soon be a shipwrecked
world, a defunct world, an obsolel?
world, an abandoped world, a deal |
world. “Let there be light,” was said
at the beginning. And Christ stands
under the wintry skies and says, Let
there be snowflakes to enrich the earth;
and under the clouds of spring and
gays, Come ye blossoms and make re-
dolent the orchards; and in September,
dips the branches in the vat of beautiful
colors, and swings them into the hazy
alr,’ No whim of mine is this, *“With-
out Him was not anything made that
was made,” Christ’ writing on the
ground,
It we could see His hand in all the
passing seasons, how it would illumine
the world! All verdure and foliage
would beallegorie, and again we would
tear Him say as of old, “Consider the
lilies of the field, bow they grow;"
and we would not hear the whistle of a
quail or the cawing of a raven or the
roundelay of a brown-thresher, with-
out saying, ‘‘Behold the fowls of the |
air, they gather not into barns, yet |
your heavenly Father feedeth them; |
and a Dominic hen of the barnyard
could not cl for her brood, yet we
would hear Cuiist saying as of old,
“How often wou d I have gathered thy |
children together, even asa hen gathered
her chickens under her wings,” and
through the redolent hedges we would |
hear Christ saying, **I am the rose of |
Sharon; we could not dip the season- |
ing from the salt-cellar without think. |
ing of the divine suggestion, **Ya are
the salt of the earth, but if the salt
have lost its savor, it is fit for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden under |
foot of men.”
Let us wake up from our stupidity
and take
THE
i
AS A PARABLE, |
WHOLE WORLD
Then, if with gun and pack of hounds
we start off before dawn, and see the
morning coming down off the hills to
meet ns, we would cry out with the |
evangelist, **The day spring from on
high hath visited us; or, caught in a
while struggling home, |
covered with the whirling flakes, we
would cry out with David, *Wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow.” In
a picture-gallery of Europe there is on
the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but peo-
ple having to look straight up, It weari-
ed and dizzied them, an] bent thelr |
great looking-gluss was put near the
floor, and now visitors only need to
look easily down into this mirror, and
they see the fresco at their feet, And
so, much of all the heaven of God's
truth is reflected in this world asina
mirror, and the things that are above |
are copied by things around us,
What right have we to throw away
He ever gave the race? We talk about
the Old Testament and the New Testa- |
ment, but the oldest Testament con- |
the lessons of the natural world,
Some people like the New Testament
go well they discard the Old Testa
ment, Shall we like the New Tela
mel and the Old Testament so well as
to vooreciate the oldest; namely, that
which was written before Modes was
put afloat on the boat of leaves which
was calked with asphaltum; or reject
the Genesis and the Revelation that
were written centuries before Adam
lost a rib and gained a wife? No, no;
when Deity stoops down and writes on
the ground, le* ts read it. I would
have no leas appreciation of the Bible
on paper that comes out of the paper-
mill, but 1 would urge appreciation of
TIE BIBLE IN THE GEASS,
the Bible in the sand hill, the Bible in
the geranium, the Bible in the aspho-
del, the Bible in the dust. Some one
asked an ancient king whether he had
seen the eclipse of the sun. ‘*No,”’
said he, *‘1 have so much to do on
earth, I have no time to look at
heaven.” And if our faculties were all
awake In the study of God, we would
not have time to go much further than
the first grass blade. I have no fear
that natural religion will ever contra-
dict what we call revealed religion. 1
have no sympathy with the followers of
Aristotle, who, after the telescope was
invented, would not look through it,
Jest it contradict some of the theories
of their gréat master, 1 shall be glad
to put against one lid of the Bible the
microscope, and against the other lid of
the Bible the telescope,
But when Christ stooped down and
wrote on the ground, what did He
write? The Pharisees did not stdp to
examine. Ths cowards, whipped of
their own consciences, fled psil-mell,
Nothing will flay a man like an aroused
consclence, Dr. Stevens, in his * His.
tory of Methodism,” says ha when
Rev, Benjamin AbUbott of olden times
was preaching, he exclaimed: *“*For
aught I know there may be a murderer
In this house,” and a man rose in the
assetb and started for the door,
and bawled aloud, confessing to a mur.
det he had committed fifteen years be-
fore. And no wonder these Pharisees,
reminded of their sins, took to their
heels. Bat what did Christ. write on
the ground? The Bible does not state,
Yet, as Christ never wrote an
except that once, you cannot blame us
for wanting to know what He really
did write. Int I am certain ale wrote
ant. ‘And will yon allow me to say
that I think
I KNOW WHAT IIE WROTE
on the ground? I judge from the cir-
cumstances, He might have written
other things, but kneeling there in the
temple, surrounded by a pack of hypo-
crites, who were a self-appointed con-
stabulary, and having in His presence
a persecuted woman, who evidently
was very penitent for her sins, I am
sure He wrote two words, both of them
graphic and tremendous and reverber.
ating. And the one word was Hypro-
erisy, and the other word was Forgive
HERS,
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, I know they were first-class hypo-
erites. It was then asit is now, The
more faults and Inconsistencies people
have of their own, the more severe and
censorious are they about the fauls of
others, Here they are-—twenty stout
men arresting and arraigning one weak
woman! Magnificent business to be
engaged in! They wanted the fun of
seeing her faint away under a heavy
judieial sentence from Christ, and then
after she had been taken outside the
city and fastened at the foot or a pre-
vipice, the Scribes and Pharisees want-
vd the satisfaction of each coming and
dropping a big stone on her head, for
that was the style of capital punish
ment that they asked for, Bome people
have taken the responsibility of saying
never laughed. But 1!
think as he saw those men drop every- |
thing, chagrined, mortified, exposed, |
and go out quicker than they came in,
HE MUST HAVE LAUGHED,
of it. All of these libertines, drama-
indignation against impurity! |
Blind bats lecturing on optics! A flock
of crows on their way up [roto a carcass,
denouncing carrion! Yes, I think that |
one word written on the ground that
day by the finger of Christ was the |
awful word Hypocr'sy. But I am sure
there was another word in that dust,
From her entire manner [ am sure that
arraigned woman was repentent. She
made no apology, and Christ in no wise
belittled her sin. But her supplicatory
behavior and her tears moved Him, aud
when He stooped down to write on the
perial word Forgiveness,
When on Sinai God wrote the law,
on
chisel into the hard granite surface, |
He writes 1b in dust so that it!
He was nercifal
Christ! I was reading of
A LEGEND
that is told in the far east about IHim,
He was walking through the streets of |
a
dead dog. And one man said: “What |
said another, **his ears are mauled and |
bleeding.” *‘Yesa.” sald another, “even
the tanner.” “Yes” said another, |
‘the odor of his carcass is dreadful,” |
Then Christ, standing there, said :|
“But pearls cannot equal the whiteness |
of his teeth.” Then the people, moved
by the idea that any one could find any-
thing pleasant coacerning a dead dog, |
“Why, this must be Jesus of
Nazareth!” Reproved and convicted,
they went away. Surely this legend of
Christ is good enough to be true, Kind-
ness in all His words and ways and
Forgiveness! Word of eleven
Jelter |
names
that one word, though He write it in
to have our name cut into |
monumental granite with the letters
that the storms of a thousand years can- |
Jishop Habinglon had
a book of only three leaves, The first |
leaf was black, the second leaf red, the
The black leaf sag-
gested sin; the red leal atonement; the
white leaf purification, That is the |
whole story, Gud will abundantly par-
don,
SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT,
1 must not forget to say that as Christ, |
stooping down, with His finger wrote |
on the ground, it is evident that His |
sympathies are with this penitent
woman, and that He has no sympathy |
with her hypocritical pursuers, Just!
opposite to that is the world’s habit. |
Why didn’t these unclean Pharisees |
bring one of their own number to |
Christ for excoriation and capital pun. |
ishment? No, no; they overlook that in
a man which they damnate in a woman,
And so the world has had for offending
women scourges and objurgation, and
for just one offence she bec ymes an out-
cast, while for men whose lives have
been sodomic for twenly vears, the
world swings open its doors of brilliant
welcome; and they may sit in legisla.
tures and senates and parliaments, or on
thrones, Unlike the Christ of my text,
the world writes a man’s misdemeanor
in dust, but chisels a woman's offence
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 lazaretios of abomination, our
American princess of fortune wait, and
at the first beck sail out with them into
the blackness and darkness forever.
And in what are called higher circles of
society there is now not ouly the imita-
tion of foreign dress and foreign mane
ners, but an imitation of foreign disso.
luteness, I like an Englishman, and
1 like an American, but the sickest crea
ture on _eartt is an American playing
the Englishman, Society needs to be
reconstructed on this subject, Treat
them alike, masculine crime and femin-
ine crime. If you cut the one hur faa.
ite, cut them both. in granite, you
write the one in dust, write them both
in dust, No, no, says the world: let
woman go down let man go up.
What is that I bear plashing into the
East River at midnight? and then there
isa of and
nothing trivial, of Dothing uOWPrE
Ra
£
¥ a.
4 Fees Be
of the dust. Tyis the
MOST TREMENDOUS OF ALL
TURE.
It is the greatest of all libraries, When
Layard exhumed Nineveh he was only
opening the door of its mighty dust,
The excavations of Pompell have only
been the unclasping of the lids of a vol.
ume of a nation’s dust, When Admiral
Farragut and his friends, a few years
ago, visited that resurrected elly, the
house of Balbo, who had been cue of its
chief citizens in its prosperous days,
was opened, and a table was el in
that house which eighteen hundred and
ten years had been buried by voleaniec
eruption, and Farragut and his guests
walked over the exquisite mosaics and
under the beautiful fresco, and it almost
seemed like being entertained by those
who eighteen centuries ago had turned
to dust, Oh this mighty literature of
the dust! Where are the remains of
Senpacherib and Attila and Epaminon-
das and Tamerlane and Trojan and
Philip of Macedon and Julius Cmsar?
Dust! Where are the heroes who
fought on both sides at Ch®ronea, at
Hastings, at Marathon, at Cressy, of
the 110,000 men who fought at Agin-
court, of the 230,000 men who faced
death at Jeua, of the 400,000 whose
armor zlittered in the sun at Wagram,
of the 1,000,000 men under Darius at
arbella, of the 2,641,000 men under
Xerxes at Thermopyle? Dust!
Where are the guests who danced the
floors of the Alhambra or the Persian
palaces of Ahasuerus? Dust! Where
are the musicians who played, and the
orators who spoke, and the sculptors
who chiseled, and the architects who
bulit, in all the centuries except our
own? Dust] The greatest library of the
world, that which has the widest
LITER A~
most multitudinous volumes and the
vastest wealth, 18
THE UNDERGROUND LIBRARY,
It is the royal library, the continental
library, the hemispheric livrary, the
planetary library, the library of the
opened, and all these scrolls unrolled,
and all these volumes unclasped; and as
easily as in our library or mine we take
ord of the Resurrection pick up out
of this Hbrary of dust every volume of
the King’s palace, or in the prison
Oh this
mis bhty literature of the dust! It is not
so wonderful, after all, that Christ
chose, instead of an inkstand, the im-
pressionable sand on the floor of an
and wrote the awful
plete forgiveness for repentant sinners,
even Lhe worst,
And now 1 can believe that which 1
A CANDLE IN THE WINDOW
tered. The aged woman said to her,
sald, “Why do you keep that light in
the window?" The aged woman said:
“That is to light my wayward daughter
ten years ago, my hair has turued
white, Folks blame me for worrying
about her, but you see 1 am her mother,
and sometimes, hall a dozen times
your own, Why, how cold and sick
you seem! Oh, my! can it be? Yes, you
are Lizzie, my own lost child! Thauk
again!” And
what a time of rejoicing there was in
that house that night! And Christ again
stooped down, and in the ashes of that
bearth, now lighted up, not more by
the great biazing logs than by the joy of
wrote the sams
He bad written
liberating words that
high enough to let pass through it all
on white horses, nostril to nosin
to flank,
A ————
, Hank
English and American "hrases,
The poorest Englishman has the lux-
ury of burning soft coal, and his parlor
or kitchen open-grate fire, with its
playing flames, is in cheerfulness far
beyond our glowing but flameless
masses, They say over there ‘coals on
sale,’ and not ‘coals for sale.” There
is, in some respects, quite a difference
between the “King's English” and the
“President’s English.” For our *‘liv-
ery stable,” they hang oul “‘cars on
hire.”’ A pilcuer over there isa “jug.”
the word “tumbler” for a glass Is
Greek to them: baggage is “luggage;
a roasting piece of beef Is a “joint,”
and a streetcar isa “tram.” 1 asked
a London “bus” driver once if he was
going to the river, meaning the Thames,
I do not think he had ever heard the
word before as applicable to anything
at or near London. The Thames in
London is “Westminster,” ‘“‘Waler-
loo,” “‘Blackfriars,”’ “London,” or
some other bridge. They have forgot.
ten there thal It ever was a river.
Heo Put a Stop to It
Ladies
=
i
LL tl
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON,
Buspar Marcu 10, 1859,
The Ohild-Lake Spirit.
LESSON TEXT.
Mark 9: 3542. Memory verses, 30-37)
LESSON PLAN.
Moric OF THE QUARTER
Muylty Worker,
GoLpeN TEXT For THE QUARTEL:
Belwve me that I am in the Father, ail
the Futher in me: or else believe me joy
the very works’ sake.—John 14 : 11.
Jesus the
ily.
{ 1. Advancement, va 23.35,
%. Acknowledgm nt. vs, 85.40,
4 Reward, va. 26, 87, 41, 42.
GoLpex Text: Whosoever shall
not receive the kingdom of God as a little
child. he shall not enter therein, —Mark
10 : 15.
Dany Home READINGS:
M.—Mark 9 ; 35-42.
humility,
T.—Matt, 18 :1
of the lowly,
W.—Luke 9 : 46-50,
est?
T.—John 13:
lowlinge 58,
F.— Luke
lowliness,
Matt. 25 :
the lowly.
R-1 Jolin 1 3
with God.
Lesson
Outline:
i
The gain of
€od’s care
: }4,
Who is great-
in
1-17. A Yesson
18 9.14. Pride and
S, 31-40. Rewarding
1-10. Fellow
ship
a a ~
LESSOR ANALYSIS
I. ADVANCEMENT.
L The Aspiring Disciples :
They had disputed one with another
«++» WHO Was greatest
Who then is greatest in
heaven? (Matt, 18: 1).
There arose a reasoning. ....
ald be 0:40
Lovding it over
you i Pel. 5:3).
Who loveth to have the
among them (3 John 9).
Il. The Effective Teacher:
He sat down. and called
oil.
the ki
BI Fel
greatest (1a .
{ J
the charge allotted to
+}
iid
pre-eminence
Lhe twelve:
om
life
443K
{John § : 68).
Never man so spake (Joh
{ 111. The Novel Lesson:
If any man wou
| 1ast of all (33),
| He ths
{4 Ix
;
§ oval
IS grea
servant [) i 23 : 11).
SSE
: 1 g
Luke 0: 4
also oug to wash one i
John 13 : 14).
Ie YOurseives,. ..
you (Jas, 4:10
“When he
od them.
| He that
| same
| Ye
| feet
| Hu
is great of
‘
rhit not
1s
Aik
was in the |
{1} The abode; (2) The
company; (3) The conversation. -—
{1} Privacy
Ww
“ But
Cons
th Jesus,
they held their peace.” (1
that Jesus Knew: (2)
Convinced that they had erred; (3)
Ashamed at their detection,
“Ie sat down, and called
twelve; and be saith unto them.”
The model teacher; (1) Seated in
serenity: (2) Surrounded by p
(3) Expounding the truth,
II. ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
. An Unknown Worker:
We saw one casting out devils in
name {38 ..
Many which
them (Luke 8 : 8).
Others have laboured, and ye
tered into their labour (John 4 : 38),
us
upils;
by
oLhers, ministered unto
with me in the gospel (Phil. 4: 3).
do minister (Heb, 6 : 10).
LIL An Unwarranted Bebake:
We forebade him, because he %ollow-
od not us (33).
My lord Moses,
11 : 281.
Peter took him, and began to rebuke
him (Matt, 16 : 22
Master, rebuke thy
19 : 30)
Rebuke not an elder {1 Tim, 5: 1).
HHL An Unmistakable Eadorsement,
He that 18 nol against us is for us (40).
1 have pot found so great faith, no, not
in Israel (Matt. B : 10).
O woman, great is thy faith
15 : 28).
Well done, good and faithful servant
(Matt. 256 : 2).
Come, ve blessed of my
25 : 34).
wr}
forbid them (Num.
disciples
(Luke
{ Matt,
er; (2) A noble work; (3) A divine
helper.
2. “We forbade him, because he fol
lowed not us,” (Religious intoler-
ance: (1) Quick to detect; (2) Ready
to condemn; (3) Shallow in jusiifi-
sation,
3. “He that is not against us is for
us.’ (1) For, or against, in decds,
(2) For, or against, in destiny,
111 REWARD,
1. Fellowship with the Son:
Whosoever shall receive one of such,
J+ «sTeceiveth me (35%).
He that receiveth you
Matt, 10 : 40),
Whuso shall receive one such little child
«++ «TOCEiveth me (Matt, 18 : 5).
As ye did it unto one of these. ...ye did
it unto me (Matt, 25 : 40),
Our fellowship is with... . his Son Jesus
Christ (1 John 1: 8).
11. Fellowship with the Father:
Whosoever receiveth me, receiveth
«++ «him that sent me (87),
He that receiveth me receiveth him that
receiveth me
3:5
sent me (Matt, 10 : 40),
He that believeth on believeth. ...
on bim that sent me (John 12 : 44).
Ae, will cote inte hitn, and. Jugke our
with him (John 14 : 23),
Our fellowship is with the Father (1
John 1:3).
1H. Superadded Honors:
He shall in no wise lose his reward
(Matt, 6:6).
»
Your reward is great in heaven (Luke
6:23).
If any man serve me, him will the
Father honor (John 12 : 26)
My reward is with me, to render to each
man (Rev. 22 : 12).
1. “Whosoever shall receive one of
such receiveth me,” (1) Recelv-
ing Christ's little ones; (2) Receives
jng Christ bimself.—{1) Little
deeds of kindness; (2) Great doers
of blessing.
2. “A cup of waler to drink.” (1) An
unpretentious gift; (2) A high mo-
tive; (3) A limitless result,
3. “It were better for him,”’ (1; The
deed supposed; (2) The fate prefer-
i red.—(1) The offense; (2) The of-
fender; (3) The penalty.
— iim
LESSON BIBLE READING,
THE GAIN OF THE LOWLY.
They shall be honored (Prov. 18 :
20 128; Mark 9 : 35).
The shall inherit the earth (Matt, 5:5).
They shall possess the kingdom (Matt,
God respects
08 : 2).
God hears them (Psa, 9 : 12:34 : 6).
God lifts them up (Jas, 4:10 ; 1 Pew,
5 +0)
The
Jus, 4
xod dwells with them
Isa 15}.
i ————
12,
|
. hi.
them (Psa 108 :
Wy receive more grace (Prov, 3 : 34;
1 6).
oo
wi
LESSON SURROU
A week afler the eon
Caesarea Philippi the Tran
occurred (Mark 9 : 2.8)
recorded intervening, and
therefore probable that the time
spent in comparative retirement,
{ indeed, as some would bave 1, Mou
| Tabor was the scen bras oral
tion, the week must have been mai
occupled with the comparatively lo:
journey thither, But Mount Hermon
is the probable locality, being
near to Caesarea Philipp
| Gay after that event the lunat
{ was healed, the miracle being
| fully narated by Mark (Mark 9 : 14
i After this there was a journey t}
Galilee, during which there was
j other prediction of the Passion
19: 30-3 Immediately
apernaum, Matthew
which the paytwent of
8 as
Le e of the
nore
al-
Mark
ar
risers
gd: SU-G21, aller the
{ rival at «
| the miracle Ly
he * half-shekel” temple tax was pro-
vided for (Matt, 17 : 24-27). The les-
{ son follows at once (*‘in that hour,”
Matthew),
The place was Capernaum; the time
| probably about two weeks after the
last lesson, in the late summer, or early
| autumn, of the year of Rome 782 (A,
| DD. 20), shortly before the feast of taber-
{ nacles (John 7).
Parallel passage: Matthew 18: 1.6
that evangelist giving, however, a
much longer report of the discourse o;
i that occasion).
i
4
Assen— II A ————
Kleptomania Is Increasing.
A wave of kieptomania is passing
over New York city. Every day the
| advertisements cry aloud for the “lady
and gentleman who took a geld headed
| umbrella’ from one of the theaires, or
for *‘the lady who borrowed a cauary,
i blind in one eve, from a bind shop.
| The dry goods stores wre the scene of
| most of these pillerings.
“Few of them become public,”
| the manager of a leading house,
| we suffer few losses in the end.”
“How do you avoid them?”
“To begin with, almost every reai
| kleptomaniac in the city is known to us,
| Many of them move in the best society.
| We instruct our girls to keep a strict
i watch on them, and if they take any-
thing from the counters, we send a
| bill for it to their friends.”
“Why should pot their friends return
the articles?”
“Someiunes they
however, they pay
about it.”
“Do you
| cases?"
“1 know a lady who in church is
liable to putloin even the ornaments of
| the altar, and another who, at table, if
| she can find nothing more attractive,
| has been seen to fill ber pockets with
{ bread crumbs,”
| “What do Kkleplomaniacs
| steal?’’
{ *“*Anything that glitters. A shining
| object is always the (rst to draw their
said
“and
As
say
do.
and
a rule,
nothing
with
meet any serious
usually
attention. Photographs, toe, have
| much the same influence, We have
| sometimes missed an entire stock of
| some actor or actress, for whom there
{ was no particular demand, and have
| found it long afterwards in the posses.
sion of a kleplomaniac.”
| “Is kleptomania more common av
| one season than another?”
| “We generally look fur it in the fall.
it is like any other form of lunacy.”
“Yes,” said a physician, “it isa kind
| of lunacy, and a much abused kind of
lunacy 10, Epileptics are subject to
(it. Persons with abnormally shaped
bands are subject to it. Some maniacs
who are beyond reproach in their lucid
moments have the impulse 0 secrete
their food or to steal small oljects in
the asylum, I have read of a man who
would not eat unless his food was stol-
en; of a docwor who could not help
stealing from his patients; of a clergy-
man who delighted in purloining bits
of candle, and of a mau who, at the
int of death, stole the snuff box of
1s confessor.’
“Can there be an epidemic of klept-
omania?”’
“Certainly. If you go to an asylum
you will find that one year is neted for
religious madness, another for criminal
madness,