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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
gathered round also read the record of hidden sin inscribed against
these accusers of another.
Then Jesus “lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is with-
out sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he
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stooped down, and wrote on the ground.” The accusers saw that Jesus
not only knew the secrets of their past sins, but was acquainted with
their purpose in bringing this case before him, and had in his matchless
wisdom defeated their deeply laid scheme. They now became fearful
lest Jesus would expose their guilt to all present, and they therefore
“being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, begin-
ning at the eldest, even unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the
woman standing in the midst.”
There was not one of her accusers but was more guilty than the
conscience-stricken woman who stood trembling with shame before
him. After the Pharisees had hastily left the presence of Christ, in their
guilty consternation, he arose and looked upon the woman, saying,
“Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I
condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.”
Jesus did not palliate sin nor lessen the sense of crime; but he came
not to condemn; he came to lead the sinner to eternal life. The world
looked upon this erring woman as one to be slighted and scorned; but
the pure and holy Jesus stooped to address her with words of comfort,
encouraging her to reform her life. Instead of to condemn the guilty, his
work was to reach into the very depths of human woe and degradation,
lift up the debased and sinful, and bid the trembling penitent to “sin
no more.” When the woman stood before Jesus, cowering under the
accusation of the Pharisees and a sense of the enormity of her crime,
she knew that her life was trembling in the balance, and that a word
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from Jesus would add fuel to the indignation of the crowd, so that they
would immediately stone her to death.
Her eyes droop before the calm and searching glance of Christ.
Stricken with shame, she is unable to look upon that holy countenance.
As she thus stands waiting for sentence to be passed upon her, the
words fall upon her astonished ears that not only deliver her from
her accusers, but send them away convicted of greater crimes than
hers. After they are gone, she hears the mournfully solemn words:
“Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.” Her heart melts