The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-08-27
PULPIT UTTERANCES.
a LESSON FOR ALL CHRISTIANS.
Sermon by Rev. Alexander MacLaren. ID.
d., on the Responsibility Of Sin.

10 ubl bbt LnOu w luht.
al am innocent of the blood OF this just por-
son. See ye to it."-Hdtt. "a; 4, "a.
80 what the priests said to Judas, PLATE
said to the priests. They contemptuously
babe their wretched instrument bear the
burden of his own treachery. They had
condescended to use his services, but he
had presumed too far II he thought that
that gave him claim upon their SYM
pathies.
The tools of more respectable and bolder
sinners are thrown aside when they are
done with. What were the agonies or the
tears of a hundred such as he to these high
faced and heartless trargressorsS Priests
though they were, and, therefore, bound
by their office to help any poor creature
that was struggling with wounded con-
science, they had nothing better to say to
him than this scornful gibe: "What is
that to uSY See thou to that"
Plate, on the other hand, metes to them
the measures which they meted TO Judas.
He tries to shove off his responsibility
upon them, and they are quite willing to
take 1t. Fanatical hatred which thinks
itself influenced by religious motives Is
the blindest and cruelest of all passions,
knowing no touch OF conjunction and ut
terly uuperceptive of the purity and
beauty of its victim.
And so these three groups, Judas, the
priests, PLATE, with the singular verbal
correspondence of the words in the two
clauses, suggest TO us, | think, three.
fold way in which conscience is pervert-
ed. That three-fold way is a descending
way in the matter Of sensibility. Judas
represents the agony of conscience, PLATE
represents the shuttln sophistications of
aLalf-awakened conscience, and those per-
sors represent the au lac,ous torpor Of an
altog' th II miSlreated conscience.
l. Ju iaS-the agony of consciencs. 81
hav1 sinncd in that have betrayed the
innocsn =" We do no. neld to enter at
any length upon the difficult que 'tionS as
10 wIaJ were the motives of Judas in his
treach ,ry. For my part | do not see that
there is anything in the Scripture narra.
tive, simply interpreted, to bear out the
hypothesis that his motives were misdi.
rected zeal and affection to Christ; AMI a
desire to force Him TO the avowal of His
Mes iahship. One can scarcely suppose
him TO be SO strangely perverted as to be-
gin by betrayal, and II the object was to
make our Lord speak out His claims the
means adopted were singulerly ill.chosen.
The story, as 1t stands, naturally suggests
a much less far.fetched explanation.
Judas was simply man of low earthly
nnfura usbp harau,a a f,1lnwar pf rhrfst
thinking that He was to prove a Messiah
Of the vulgar type, another Judas Mac.
cabgus. He was not attracted by Chrisps
character and teaching As the true ma.
ture of Chrisps work AMI kingdom beclm,
more obvious, h became more weary of
Him and IT, The closest proximity 10
Jesus Christ made eleven enthusiastic dis.
ciples, but It made one traitor. No man
could live near Him II He did not love
Him. Then, as ever, lie was set for the
fall and for the rise Of many. He was the
Saviour Of life unto death, or Of death unto
life
But be this as it may, wo have here to
do with the sudden revulsion Of feeling
which followed upon the accomplished
act. This burst of confession does not
sound like the words of a man who had
been actuated by motives of mistaken af.
fec ion. He knows himself traitor, and
that 'air, perfect characyer rises bef1rs
him, in purity, as he had never seen it
before-to rebuk5 and confoull him.
SO this exclamation OF his puts into
vivid shape, which may help it to stick in
our memories and hearts, this thought
what an awful difference there is in the
look Of a sin before you do IL and after
wards! Before | do 1. the thing 10 be
gain ID seems so attractive, and the trans.
greSsiOn tha gains it seems so comDnra.
lively insi igniilcant. Yes! AMI when
have done it the two al or places; th,
thing that | win by 1t seems so contempt.
BILE. Thirty pieces Of silverl Pitch them
over the Temple enclosure and get rid of
them! The thing that win by it seems
so Insignificant, and the thing that | did
10 win them dilates into such awful mag.
nitude.
For instance, suppose you or do any.
thing that we know to be wrong, tempted
to II by a momentary indulgence of some
mere animal impulse. By the very nature
of the case, that dies In its satisfaction
and the desire dies along with 1t. We do
not want II any more when once we have
got II. II lasts but a moment and is past
Then we are left alone with the thought Of
the thing that we have done. When we
get the prize Of our wrong. doing we flDl
out that it is not as all.satisfying as we ex.
pected IL would be. Most of our earthly
aims are like that. The chase is great
deal more than the hare. Or, as George
Herbert has it; "Nothing between two
Dishes" A splendid service of silver.
plate, and when you take tho cover of
there is nothing in it. "Such are the
pleasures here"
But universally, dear friend, this Is true,
that sooner or later, when the delirium Of
the passion and the rush Of the temptation
are over, and we wake to consciousness, we
find that we are none the richer for the
thing gained, and oh so infinitely poorer
for the means by which we gained IL. It
Is that old story Of the Yelled Prophet that
woed and won the hearts Of foolish maid.
ems, and when he had them in his power in
the inner chamber removed the silver veil
that they had looked upon with love and
showed hideous features that struck do
spair into their hearts. Every mans sin
does that for him. And to you come now
with this message; every wrong that you
do, big or little, will be like some Of those
hollow images Of the gods that one hears
Of in barbarous temples, looked at In the