The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-05-16

amount to nothing unless your heart
life go into them. When the bronzed
slave took from the presence Of PLATE
that wash basin he carried away none
Of Pilates cruelty, or Pilates wicked
ness, or Pilates guilt. 49,. '..'-
Nothing against creeds; we all have
them, either written OF implied. Moth
against ceremonies; they are Of infin-
lite Importance. Nothing against sac
raments; they are divinely command
ed. Nothing against a rosary, if there
be as many heartfelt prayers as beads
counted. Nothing against incense
floating up from censor amid gothic
arches, If the prayers be as genuine as
the aroma is sweet. Nothing against
Epiphany, or Lent, or Ash Wednes-
day, or Easter, or Good Friday, or
Whitsuntide, or Palm Sunday, If these
symbols have behind them genuine
repentance, and holy "reminiscences,
and Christian conservation. But cere-
mony 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 inward.
Wash the hands, by all means, but,
more than all, wash the heart.
Behold, also, as you see Gov. Pom
thus PLATE thrust his hand into this
washbasin 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 it he
only had the courage. Poor Pilate!
his conscience was after him, and he
knew the stain would never be wash
ed 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 seor-
pions over a bed of spikes in pitch Of
midnight it chases guilt. Are there
ghosts? Yes, not of the grave yard,
but of ones mind not at rest,
And thus, Brutus, amid his slumber-
ing host,
Startled with Caesars stalwart ghost.
Macbeath 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
a reprOOf more or less emphatic.
Charles TX. for st. Bartholomew mas
sacre, was chased by the bitter men,
cries, and in his dying moment said
to the doctor, Ambrose Parry, doctor,
I don't know what's the matter with
me: I am in a fever Of body and mind,
and have been for a long while. Oh.
if l had only spared the innocent, and
the imbecile, and the crippled" Rous-
seau declared in his old age that a sin
he committed in his youth still gave
him sleepless nights. Charles H., Of
Spain, could not sleep unless he had
b is room a confessor and two friars.
Catline had such bitter memories
he was startled at the least sound.
Cardinal Beaufort, having slain the
Duke of Gloucester, often in the night
would say, Away! away! Why do you
look at me?" Richard ILL.,, having slain
his two nephews, would sometimes in
the night shout from his couch and
clutch his sword, fighting apparitions.
DR.. Webster, having slain Parkman
in Boston, and while waiting 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 was
no prisoners on the other side of the
wall. It 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 my enemy?" What made Ehe great
Felix tremble before the little mis-
sionary? Conscience. What made
BelshaZZar's teeth chatter with a chill
when he saw. a finger come out Of the
black sleeve of the midnight and write
on the plastering? Conscience, con-
science!
Conversions amount to nothing un-
less the heart is converted, and the
pocketbook is converted, and the cash
drawer is converted, and the ledger is
converted, and the fre-proof safe is
converted, and the pigeon hole con
tanning the correspondence is convert
ed, and his improvement is noticed
ever by the canary bird that sings in
the narlor, and the cat that ticks the
platter after the meal, and that dog
that comes bounding from the kennel
to greet him. A man half converted
or quarter converted, or a thousandth
part converted, is not converted at all.
What will be the great book in the
day of Judgment? Conscience. Con.
science recalling mislmproved oppo:.
tunities. Conscience recalling unfor-
given sins. Conscience bringing up all
the past. Alas! for this Governor, Pom
thus PLATE. That night after the
court had adjourned and the Sanher-
rists had gone home, and nothing was
heard outside the room but the step of
the sentinel, I see Pontius PLATE arise
from his tapestried and %sleepless
couch, and 90 to the laver and begin to
wash his hands, crying, "Out, out,
crimson spot! Tellest thou to me and