p. 16 | Casting the First Stone

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 39.

Casting the First Stone.

—“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” Thus Christ spoke to the scribes and Pharisees when they brought to him the woman taken in adultery; and thus would he say to-day to all attempts of men to punish for sin. And this clearly shows that it is wholly outside the province of the civil authority, or of any authority that men possess, to inflict penalties for the transgression of the law of God. God never leaves it for sinners to punish for sin. The apostle Paul exclaims, “Is God righteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?” Rom. 3: 5, 6. Judgment or condemnation, and its execution, must be in righteousness, and therefore can never be done by sinners; for all sinners are equally worthy of death. And he who assumes authority to cast a stone at the sinner, thereby claims to be without sin.