The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-08-27

went out and hanged himself" had the
thought of nothing but that foul deed glar-
ing there before him. And l pray you to
learn this lesson, you can not think too
much, too blackly, Of your own sins, but
you may think too exclusively of them,
and IL you do they will drive you to mad.
ness of great despair.
My dear friend, there is no penitence or
remorse which is deep enough for the
smallest transgression; but there is no
transgression which is so black but that
forgiveness may come for 1t. And you
and may have it for the asking II we will
The consciousness Of sinfulness is whole
some consciousness. would that every
man and woman listening to me tonight
had it deep in their consciences, and then
would that il might lead us oil to that
one Lord in whom there is true forgiveness
and peace.
Be sure of this, that il Judas Iscariot,
when his "soul hared forth in the dark"
died without hope and without pardon, 1t
was not because his crime was too great
for forgiveness, but because the forgive
ness had never been asked. There is no
objectionable sin except that of refusing
the pardon that avails for all sin.
ii. SO much, then, for this first picture
and the lessons that come out of 1t. Now
u word about each Of the others. In the
next place we take Plate, as for us the
representative of what have ventured to
call the shufilings Of half.awakened con.
science. 81 am innocent of the blood OF
this Just person." says he, "see ye to it."
He is very willing to shuttle off his respon-
sibility upon priests and people, and they
for their part, are quite as willing to ac-
cept it,; but the responsibility can neither
be shufiied off by him nor accepted by
them. His motives were probably moth
ing more than the low and cowardly wish
to humor his turbulent subjects, and so to
secure an easy tenure of office. He had
great contempt for the accusers, which he
is scarcely at the pains to conceal. 1t
breaks out in half.veiled sarcasms, by
which he indemnifies himself for his igno-
BILE yielding to the restraint which they
put upon him. He knows perfectly we'll
that the Roman power has nothing to fear
from this King, whose kingdom rested on
His witness to the truth. He knows per-
fectly well that unavowed motives Of per-
sonal enmity lie at the bottom of the
whole business. In the words Of our text
he acquits Christ, and thereby condemns
himself II PLATE knew that Jesus was
innocent, he knew that he, as the Gov
ernor, was guilty of giving up an inno-
cent man to death in order to save him
self trouble and to conciliate bowling
mob. No washing of his hands will
cleanse them. "All the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten" this hand.
So do not you sophisticate your con-
sciences with the notion of responsibility
being shifted to any other person or thing.
These may diminish or may modify your
responsibility, and God takes all that into
account But after all that has been taken
into account, there is this left, that you
yourselves have done the act, which you
need not have done unless you had liked,
and that having done it, you have to carry
it on your back for evermore. "See thou
to that" was a heartless word, but it was
true one. Every one Of us shall give an
account OF himself to God, and as the old
Book of Proverbs has 1t: "If thou be wise,
thou shalt be wise for thyself, and il thou
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."
Ill. And so, lastly, here we have an
other group still-the priests and people.
They represent for us the torpor and mis-.
direction Of conscience. "Then answered
all the people and said: His blood be on us
and on our children" They were perfectly
ready to take the burden on themselves.
They thought that they were "doing God
service" when they slew Gods Messenger.
They had no perception of the beauty and
gentleness Of Chrisps character. They
believed Him to be a blasphemer, and
they believed 1t to be a solemn religious
duty to slay Him then and there. Were
they to blame because they slew bias.
phemer! According to the Jewish law
mol They were to blame because they had
brought themselves into such a moral coa.
dition that that was all they the lght of
and saw in Jesus Christ! With their
awful works they stand before us, as per-
haps the crowning instance in Scripture
history OF the possible torpor into which
human consciences may fall.
need not dwell, suppose, even for a
moment, upon the thought Of how the
highest and noblest sentiments may be
perverted into becoming the allies of tho
lowest crime. 30 Liberty! what crimes
have been done in thy nameW you re.
member one Of the victims Of the guillo.
tine said, as her last words. Religionl
what crimes have been done in thy name 5
is one Of the lessons to be gathered from
Calvary.
But passing that, to come to the thing
that is Of more consequence to each Of us,
let us take the thought, dear brethren, as
to the awful possibility of conscience
going fast asleep In the midst of the wild.
estBtorm of passion, like that unfaithful 10.
nah, down in the hold of the heather ship.
You can lull your conscience into dead
slumber, you can stile them so as they
shall not speak a word against the worst
Of your evil. You can do II by simply
neglecting them, by habitually refusing
to listen to them. You can do it by gath,
ering round yourself always, and only,
evil associations and deeds. Habit will
lulI conscience almost faster than any.
thing else. We do not know how hot this
chapel is, or how much the air is exhaust
ed, because we have been sitting in it fol
an hour and half. But II we came In from
the outside now we should feel the differ