The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-05-08
MANS MENTOR.
Rev. Talmage Talks About the
Uses of Conscience.
An Awakened Conscience is Necessary to
SalvatiOn-Dangers of Sitting the
Inner Voice-LessOns Drawn
from the Condemnation of
Christ by PLATE.

mage's latest sermon, delivered in the
New York Academy of Music, was
Conscience" the text being Matthew
81, xiv: "IIe took water and washed
his hands before the multitude, saying,
/ am innocent of the blood of this just
person; see ye to it."
At about o'clock in the morning, up
the marble stairs of palace and
across the floors of richest mosaic, and
under ceilings dyed with all the splen-
doris of color, and between snowbanks
of white and glistening sculpture,
passes poor, pale, sick young man of
thirty-three, already condemned to
death, on his way to be condemned
again. Jesus of Nazareth is His name.
Coming out to meet Him on this tes
sellated pavement is an unscrupulous,
compromising, time-serving cowardly
man, with few traces of sympathy
and fair dealing left in his composition
Governor Pontius PLATE. Did ever
such opposites meet? Luxury and pain,
selfishness and generosity, arrogance
and humility, sin and holiness, mid
night and mid noon.
The bloated-lipped governor takes
the cushioned seat, but the prisoner
stands, his wrists manacled. In a semi
circle around the prisoner are the San
hedrists with flashing eyes and brand
ished fists, prosecuting this case in the
name of religion, for the bitterest perse-
cutions have been religious persecu-
| tions; and when Satan takes hold of a
good man he makes Mp by intensity for
brevity of occupation. If you have
never seen an ecclesiastical court try
ing man, then you have no idea of
the foaming infernalism of these old
religious Sanhedrists. Governor PLATE
cross-questions the prisoner and finds
right away he is innocent and wants to
let him go. His caution IS also increased
by some one who comes to the governor
and whispers in his ear. The governor
puts his hand behind his ear, so as to
catch the words almost inaudible. 1t
is a message from Claudia Procula, his
wife, who had dream about the inno-
cence of this prisoner and about the
danger of executing him, and she
awalxens from this dream in time to
send the message to her husband, then
on the judicial bench. And what with
the protest of his wife, and the voice of
his own conscience, and the entire fail
ure of the SanhedriSts to make out
their case, Governor PLATE resolves to
discharge the prisoner from custody.
But the intimation of such thing
brings upon the governor an equinoc-
tial storm of indignation. They will re-
port him to the emperor at Rome. They
will have him recalled. They will send
him up home. and he will be hung for
treason, for the emperor at Rome has
already a suspicion in regard to PLATE,
and that suspicion does not cease until
PLATE is banished and commits suicide.
So Governor Pontius PLATE compro-
misses the matter, and proposes that
Christ be whipped instead of assassi-
mated. SO the prisoner is fastened to
low pillow, and on His bent and barred
back come the thongs of leather, with
pieces of lead and bone intertwisted
so that every stroke shall be the more
awful. Christ lifts Himself from the
scourging, with flushed cheek and torn
and quivering and mangled flesh, pre-
senting spectacle of suffering in
which Rubens, the painter, found the
theme for his greatest masterpiece.
But the Sanhedrists are not yet salts
fed. They have had some of his nerves
lacerated; they want them all lacerated.
They have had some of his blood; they
want all of it, down to the last corpus
Gle. So Governor Pontius PLATE, after
this merciful hesitation, surrenders to
the demoniacal cry of Cruelty him"
But the governor sends for something
He sends slave out to get something
Although the constables are in haste to
take the prisoner to execution and the
mob outside are impatient to glare
upon their victim, pause is necessi-
tated. Yonder it comes, a wash basin.
Some pure, bright water is poured into
it, and then Governor Plate puts his
white, delicate hands into the water
and rubs them together, and then lifts
them dripping, for the towel fastened
at the slaves girdle, while he practical
ly says: II wash my hands of this
whole homicidal transaction. | wash
my hands of the entire responsibility;
you will have to bear it," That is the
meaning of my text when it says: "He
took water and washed his hands be-
fore the multitude, saying: am inno-
cent of the blood of this just person; see
ye to it,"
Behold, in this, that ceremony
amounts to nothing, if there are not in
it correspondence of heart and life, 1t
is a good thing to wash the hands, God
created three-quarters of the world
water, and in that commanded cleanli-
ness; and when the ancients did not
take the hint he plunged the whole
world under water and kept it there
for some time Hand washing was a
religious ceremony among the Jews.
The Jewish Mishna gave particular di-
rection how that the hands must be
thrust three times up to the wrist in
water, and the palm of the hand must
be rubbed W wss.- the closed fist of the
other. All that is well enough for a
symbol, but here in the text is man
who proposes to wash away the guilt
of sin which he does not quit and OF
which he does not make any repent
ance. Pilates wash basin was dead
failure.
Ceremonies, however beautiful and
appropriate, may be no more than this
hypocritical ablution. In infancy we
may be sprinkled from the baptismal
j. i