The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-05-17
@CONSCIENCE.Di
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on
the STILL Small Voice
That Relentlessly Pursues Those Who
Commit Sin - Pilates Hypocrit-
cal Addition an Evidence OF
the Power of Conscience.

h
music, New York city. 1t was base
on the text:
He took water and washed his hands befor
the multitude, saying. 1 am innocent Of th
blood OF this just person; see We to it-Mat
thew-xxvii, "a
At about seven o'clock in the morn
ing, up the marble stairs of palac
and across the floors of richest mosaic
and under ceilings dyed with all tn
aplendors of color, and between snow
banks of white and glistening sculp
ture, passes a poor, pale. sick young
man of thirty-three, already con
demned to death, on his way to be con
demned again. Jesus of Nazareth il
his name.
Coming out to meet him on this ties
sellated pavement is an inscriptions,
compromising, time-serving cowardly
man, with a few traces of sympathy
and fair dealing left in his composition
Gov. Pontius Plate. Did ever such
opposites meet? Luxury and pain, self
ishness and generosity, arrogance and
humility, sin and holiness, midnight
and midnoon.
The bloated-lipped governor takes
the cushioned seat, but the prisoner
stands, his wrists manacled In a
semi-circle around the prisoner are the
Sanhedrists, with flashing eyes and
brandished fists, prosecuting this case
In the name of religion, for the bitter
est prosecutions have been religious
prosecutions; and when Satan takes
hold of good man he makes
up by intensity for brevity Of
occupation. If you have never seen an
ecclesiastical court trying man, then
you have no idea of the foaning in
fernalism of these old religious San
hedrists. Gov. Plate cross-questions
the prisoner, and finds right away he
Is innocent, and wants to let him CO.
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 has had a dream about the
innocence of this prisoner and about
The danger ofexecuting him, and she
awakens from this morning dream in
time to send the message to her hus-
band, then on the judicial bench. And
what with the protest of his wife, and
the voice of his own conscience, and
The entire failure of the Sanhedrists to
make out their case, Gov. Plate re-
solves to discharge the prisoner from
But the intimation Of such thing
brings upon the governor an equinoc-
ial storm of Indignation. They will re-
,ort him to the emperor at Rome. They
will have him recalled. They will
end him up home, and he will be
hanged for treason, for the emperor at
ZONE has already a suspicion in re-
ard to PLATE, and that suspicion does |
ot cease until PLATE is banished and |
ommits suicide. So Gov. Pontius |
'ilate compromises the matter, and
that Christ be whipped in
tead of assassinated. So the pris- |
ner is fastened to low pillar, |
nd on his bent and barred back |
ONE the thongs of leather, with |
ieces of lead and bone intertwined, |
o that every stroke shall be the more |
wful. Christ lifts himself from the |
with flushed cheeks and
orn and mangled and quivering flesh,
spectacle of suffering in
vhich Rubens, the painter, found the
heme for his greatest masterpiece.
But the Sanhedrists are not yet sat
,fied. They have had some of his
erves lacerated; they want them all
They have had some blood
he'd; they want all of it, down to the
lst corpuscle. So Gov. Pontius PLATE,
fter all this merciful hesitation, sur
anders to the demoniacal cry of
Cruelty him!" But the governor sends
,r something. He sends a slave out
, get something. Although the
,nstables are in haste to take
ne prisoner to execution and the
Job outside are impatient to glare
pom their victim, a pause is neces-
tated. Yonder it comes, q wash
asin. Some pure, bright water is
oured into il, and then Gov. PLATE
ats his white, delicate hands into the
ater and rubs them together, and
len lifts them dripping, for the towel
Istened at the slaves girdle, while he
says: 'I wash my hands
the whole homicidal transaction.
ash my hands of this entiresresponsi-
Ility; You will have to bear it." That
the meaning of my text when 1t
lys: "He took water and washed his
ands before the multitude, saying. 1
N innocent of the blood of this just
,rson; see We to it."
Behold, in this. that ceremony
TO nothing IL there are not in
correspondencies of heart and life.
is a good thing to wash the hsndA