News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-23
ALL ABOUT CONSCIENCE.
MIR. TALMAGE GIVES HIS HEARERS
SOMETHING TO THINK OVER.
And Quotes Shakespeare in Order That He
May More Fully Illustrate His subject.

SOMETHING TO THINK OVER.
And Quotes Shakespeare in Order That He
May More Fully Illustrate His subject.
On Sunday Mr.. Talmage's text was
taken from Matthew xvii, "a: "He
took water and washed his hands before
the multitude, saying, Il am innocent of
the blood of this man; see ye to it. ,"
The preacher introduced his discourse
with this picture:
cat about 8 o'clock in the morning,
up the marble steps of palace and
across a floor rich in mosaic setting,
under ceilings dyed in all the spIendor
of colors and between glistening snow
banks of white and glistening sculpture,
passes poor, pale, sick young man OF
| 50, already condemned to death and on
his way to be condemned again. Jesus
OF Nazareth is His name. Coming out
to meet Him on the tesselated floor is an
INSCRIPTIONS, cowardly man, with only
few redeeming traits left in his
character. He is Pontius PLATE, the
Governor. Luxury and poverty, selfish
ness and generosity, arrogance and hu-
mility, sin and holiness, midnight and
midnoon-Pilate and Jesus.
The bloated Governor takes the
cushioned seat, the pale prisoner stands
manacled before him. Then the high
priests argue for His destruction. The
bitterest prosecutions have been those
of the religious kind. If you have never
seen an ecclesiastical court you have no
idea of the Internal bitterness of these
Jewish high priests. PLATE knows that
the prisoner is innocent.
"While he thinks the matter over q
message comes from his wife, Claudia
Perculia. She had had peculiar dream
of the consequences to follow the de-
struction of this Just man, Christ. And
what with the protest of his wife, the
voice of his own conscience, and the en-
tirs.fa ;l;,ss,ns ihssuhigh priests to make
! { R2ate. decides to
-. - 100 question brings
down on MIN very equinoctial storm
of indignation. He would be reported
to the Emperor and hung as traitor.
Toe old Emperor at Rome had already
suspected PLATE, and that suspicion does
not cease till the Governor is banished
and commits suicide. So Plate COM
promises, and Christ is condemned to be
whipped. After that his enemies still
clamor for the last corpuscle of His
blood, and after all his merciful hesita-
ton PLATE surrenders to the demoniacal
cry, Cruelty Him?
But he sends out for something, and
yonder it comes. 1t is a basin filed
with bright, pure water. PLATE shoves
back his sleeves and dips his hands in
the water, while he practically says 81
wash my hands of this homicidal trans
action
"Behold in this, that ceremony
amounts to nothing if there be not cor.
responding purity of heart and life.
Pilates wash-basin was a dead failure
In infancy we may be sprinkled from the
baptismal font and in manhood we may
wade knee-deep through immersion, but
unless we experience moral publication
the form availeth not. All your creeds,
litanies, professions and genufexions
amount to nothing unless your whole
hear. goes into them.
when the slave carried away the basin
he did not carry away Pilates wicked
ness, guilt and responsibility for the
murder of an innocent man. Taere is
nothing against the Gospel, for that is o.
Divine origin; there is nothing agains
iitanies, if they be dictated by sincere
hearts; there is nothing against the
rosary, if there be as many heartfelt
prayers as beads counted. Ceremony il
as the sheath to the sword, the shell t.
the kernel, the candle to the flame, thu
sun to the earth.
behold in this the power of con
science. PLATE had an idea that the
blood of an innocent man was on hi
hands. Poor PLATE? His conscienc,
was after him. To the day of his death
though he might lave in all the water
of the Roman empire, the blood of tn,
innocent Christ was on the tips of hi
eight fingers and two thumbs.
''Are there ghosts ?" asked tn
preacher, and then he illustrated tn
power of conscience by quoting thi
from Macbeth:
How is't with me when every noise appals me
What hands are hereP Hal they plock on
With all great Neptune's ocean wash tins bloo
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand wi
rather
The multitudinous seas incarnardine maxim
the green one red.
And again from Julius Caesar thes
words of BrUtus when the Ghost G
Caesar appears in his tent:
How i'll this taper burns? Ha who come
there?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes.
That shapes this monstrous apparition.
1t comes upon me: Art thou anything?
Art thou some god. some angel, or some devil
That mak'st my blood cold and my hair t.
stand?
Speak to me what thou art.
The doctor acclaimed these extract
with fine effect, and then resumed:
''For every sin, great or small, con
science, which is the voice of God, hal
its punishment. Why is it that tina
man in the audience, with all the mark,
of worldly prosperity about him, fushes
and trembles as / speak? 1 know not
but he and God knows. It may be tina
he has destroyed some innocent young
life, or that he has taken the property
of others; but he knows that if his hear
were to cease beating now he would
burn in hell for all time and eternity.
conscience pursues the guilty man
with pincers, fails and furnaces until il
arouses him to a sense of his guilt
Every year the Government reports
some thousands of dollars to the con
science fund. If all money out of which
the nation has been cheated would bt
returned, the debts of all the States anG
of the nation might be paid the day
after tomorrow.
conscience is after all of us. If yor
say that all your sayings and doings
have been right, say you do not know
yourself. I will take the mild RESPONSE
bihty of saying that you are Pharisee,
a hypocrite, a Pontius PLATE, willing tc
cruelty Christ over again."
In conclusion, the doctor pictured the
saving graces of the Gospel and urged
his hearers to take advantage of them