The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-05-10

| Gothic arches, II the prayers be as
genuine as the aroma is sweet. Moth
ing against Epiphany, or Lent, or Ash
Wednesday, or Easter, or Good Friday,
or Whitsuntide, or Palm Sunday, if
these symbols have behind them gen.
uine repentance, and holy reminis-
/ cence, and Christian conservation.
But ceremony is only the sheath to
the sword, it is only the shell to the
kernel, it is only the lamp to the flame,
it is only the body to the spirit. The
outward must be symbolical of the in
ward Wash the hands by all means,
but more than all, wash the heart.
Behold, also, as you see Gov. Pontius
Plate thrust his hand into this wash
basin, the power of conscience. He
had an idea there was blood on his
hand-the blood of an innocent person,
whom he might have acquitted if he
only had the courage. Poor Plate!
His conscience was after him, and he
knew the stain would never be washed
| from the right hand or the left hand,
and until the day of his death, though
he might wash in all the LAYERS of the
Roman empire, there would be still
eight fingers and two thumbs red at
the tips.
Oh, the power of conscience when it
is fully aroused! With whip of scor-
pions over bed of spikes in pitch of
midnight it chases guilt. Are there
ghosts? Yes, not of the graveyard,
but of ones mind not at rest.
And thus, Brutus, amid his slumbering host,
Startled with Caesars stalwart ghost"
Macbeth looked at his hand after the
midnight assassination, and he says:
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this
blood
Clean from my hand No; this my hand will
rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red"
For every sin, great or small, con-
science, which is the voice of God. has
reproof, more or less emphatic.
Charles IN, responsible for the st.
Bartholomew massacre, was chased by
bitter memories, and in his dying mo-
ment said to the doctor, Ambrose
Parry: Doctor, dont't know what's
the matter with me; l am in fever of
body and mind, and have been for a
long while. Oh, if l had only
spared the innocent and the i'm
beetle and the crippler' Rousseau
declared in his old age that a
sin he committed in his youth still
gave him sleepless nights Charles IL.
of France could not sleep unless he had
in the room a confessor and two friars.
Cataline had such bitter memories he
was startled at the least sound. Cardi-
nal Beaufort, having slain the duke of
Gloucester, often in the night would
say: Away! away! why do you look
at me?' Richard I'LL, having slain
his two nephews, would sometimes in
the night shout from his couch and
clutch for his sword. fighting appari-
tions. DR.. Webster, having slain Park
man in Boston, and while awaiting for
his doom, complained to the jailer that
the prisoners on the other side of the
wall all night long kept charging him
with his crime, when there were no
prisoners on the other side of the wall.
1t was the voice of his own conscience
From what did Adam and Eve try to
hide when they had all the world to
themselves? From their own con-
science. What made Gains punish
ment greater than he could bear? His
conscience. What made Ahab cry out
to the prophet, Hast thou found me,
o mine enemy?" What made the great
Felix tremble before the little mis-
sionary? Conscience. What made
BelshaZzar's teeth chatter with chill
when he saw finger come out of the
black sleeve of the midnight and write
on the plastering? Conscience, con-
sciencel
Why is it that that man in this audi
ence, with all the marks of worldly
prosperity upon him is agitated while
speak, and is Row flushed and is now
pale, and then the breath is uneven,
and then beads of perspiration on the
forehead, and then the look of unrest
comes to a look of horror and despair?
1 know not, but he knows, and God
knows. 1t may be that he despoiled a
fair young life and turned innocence
into waif, and the smile of hope into
the brazen laugh of despair. Or it
may be that he has in his posses
sion the property of others, and by
some stratagem he keeps it &C
cording to law, and yet he knows it
is not his own, and that if his
heart should stop beating at this mo-
ment he would be in hell forever. Or
it may be he is responsible for great
mystery, the disappearance of some
one who was never heard of, aud the
detectives were baffied and the tracks
were all covered up, and the swift
horse or the rail train took him out of
reach, and there are only two persons
in the universe who know of it-God
and himself. God present at the time
of the tragedy, and present at the ret
rospection, and conscience-conscience
with stings, conscience with pincers,
conscience with fails, conscience with
furnaces, is upon him; and until a
mans conscience rouses him he does
not repent. What made that farmer
converted to God 60 to his infidal neigh
Dor and say: ''Neighbor, have four of
your sheep. They came over into my
fold six years ago. They had your
mark upon them and changed it to
my mark. l want you to have those
sheep and l want you to have the in
terest on the money, and want you
to have the increase of the fold; if you
want to send me to prison, shall make
no complaint?" The infdel heard of
the mans conversion and he said:
Now, now, if you have got them
sheep you are welcome to them.
don't want nothing of those things at
all You must go away from me.
Something has got hold of you that l
don't understand. 1 heard you were
down at those religious meetings -
| But the cnnrerted man would not al