The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-02
BY REV. G. L. DEMAREsT, DID.
LESSON FOR OCTOBER 10, 1886.
JESUS BEFORE PLATE.
[John xviii. 28-40.]
PoNT1Us PLATE.

dence at Cesarea, but who dwelt temperate!
at Jerusalem on occasion of the great relig
ious festivals of the Jews, apparently as {
measure of precaution against any popular
outbreak. Though subject to the governor
of Syria, he received his appointment di
rectly from the emperor, and was his imme
date representative in the province, and had
the power of life and death over his subjects.
At the time of the events related in our Les
sons this Office was held by Pontius Plate
who had been appointed by the reigning
emperor Tiberius some four or five years
previous, and who then occupied his palace
at Jerusalem. The character of PLATE may
not be inaccurately drawn from the sketches
of him contained in the New Testament. He
was an easy going man of the world, selfish
and self-indulgent, loving luxury and ease,
governed by policy rather than principle; not
essentially wicked and cruel. but lacking NOR
al courage rather than moral sense. He was
willing to do right, when right doing required
no apparent self-denial, but for what ap-
peared to his own advantage he could do great
wrong. In the case of JESUS, whose fate he
is called to decide, he would willingly have
saved him from the murderous condemna-
ton of the Jews, but to save himself he con-
scented to his death.
He feared tumult. He had no
moral courage. He dared not assume re-
sponsibilities. He possessed neither the
courage of virtue, nor the audacity of shame
less vice. At every interview with JESUS his
better nature awakened, and he resolved to
save the prisoner he dared not condemn. At
every outcry of the clamoring crowd without,
his baser fears vanquished his judgment, and
he resolved to sentence the prisoner he dared
not acquit To save JESUS he resorted
to every expedient, save that which alone could
succeed-courageous manly, decisive action.
A brave man would have called out the cohort
and dispersed the mob; but Plate was not a
brave man. He dallied, temporlzed, argued.
Rev. Lyman Abbott.
He was type of the rich and corrupt Ro-
mans of his age; worldly-mlnded states
man, conscious of no higher wants than those
of this life, yet by no means unmoved by
feelings of Justice and mercy. But all
his better feelings were everpowered by
selfish regard for his own security. He would
not encounter the least hazard of personal
annoyance in behalf of innocence and JUS
tice; the unrighteous condemnation of good
man was trifie in comparison with the fear
of the emperor's frown and the loss of place
and power. His history furnishes
proof that worldliness and want of principle
are sources of crime no less awful than those
which spring from deliberate wickedness.
He was one of that large class of men who
aspire to public offices, not from pure and
lofty desire of benefiting the public and ad-
yancing the good of the world, but from self
ish and personal considerations, from a love
of distinction, from a love of power, from
love of self indulgence; being destitute of
any fixed principles, and having no aim but
office and influence, they act right only by
chance and when convenient, and are wholly
incapable of pursuing consistent course, or
of acting with frmness and self-denial IN
cases in which the preservation of integrity
requires the exercise of these qualities Fl
late was obviously a man of weak, and there
fore, with his temptations, of corrupt charac-
Cyclopoedia, McClintock Strong.
Annas, the ex-high-priest, to whom JESUS
was taken when arrested by the officers of the
Jews, having failed by his questions to ex-
tort an answer upon which an accusation
could be based, sent him, still bound, to the
high-priest, his son-in-law, probably living
in the same or an adjacent house. To the
high-priest's question, JESUS declared himself
to be ''The CHRIST, the Son of the Blessed
Gop." Upon this he was charged with bias
phemy, and on this charge was brought be-
fore the Sanhedrin, who condemned him as
subject to death. The penalty for blasphemy
under the Jewish law was death by stoning
Heviticus xiv. 16). The Jewish mob had
before threatened to stone JESUS because he
called himself the Son of COP (chapter K. 81,
36). Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was
stoned to death by mob, having been
brought before the Jewish council on a charge
of blasphemy. But under the existing ad-
ministretion of the government of Judea as
Roman province, the sentence of the San
hedrin imposing the death penalty probably
could not be legally executed till confirmed
by the Roman governor. For his contirma-
ton of the Judgment of the council, "They
led JESUS from Caiaphas to the palace"
There must be no delay in the business lest
there be a popular upraising to rescue the
prisoner, and 80 they go early in the morn
ing. The Jews could not enter the palace of
the GENTLE governor, because of the ceremo-
NAL uncleanliness they would incur. They
did not wish to disqualify themselves for par
ticipation in the feast of Unleayened Bread.
''They were afraid of leaven, though not
afraid of innocent blood. "-Farrar. An ex-
ample of hypocrisy which JESUS had previ-
ously characterized, as "Straining out the
gnat and swallowing the camel" (Matthew
xiii. pa. They were careful to observe the
ceremonies of their religion, but were care
less in their practice of its virtues. Disposed,
if not, indeed, required by the terms of his
appointment, to respect the Jewish customs,
PLATE went out and inquired, "What accusa-
ton do you bring against the man?" They
had not brought him for trial, but only for
his confirmation of their sentence of death,
or it may be, for his sentence upon their YER
dict of guilt, and hence they answered, "If
he were not an evil doer we would not have
delivered him up to you." Manifestly theiI
language implies condescension on their
part, in having delivered him up" which
PLATE ought to be considerate enough to rec
ognize, and without delay grant their request
But PLATE retorts, "Take and condemn him
according to your lat0." They answer, II
is not lawful for us to put any man to death. ;
But they had, only short time before, at
tempted to stone him to death, and soon af
forwards they did not hesitate to stone Ste
phen till he died, upon the same charge o.
blasphemy. "That the word of JESUS nigh
be fulfilled" says John, 'when he. specified
the manner of his death" (See Chapter xii
33.) When on the way to Jerusalem to at
tend the Passover JESUS had privately tolC
the disciples that the Son of Man should b.
delivered unto the chief priests, and con
demned to death, who should deliver hin