The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-05-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
PILATES ABLUTION AND EVIL
DENCE OF THE POWER OF
g.. CONSCIENCE.
with Whip of Scorpions 1t Chascs
Guilt-Visions Of Il Mind Not at
Rest-Conscience Has u ReprOOf
for Every SIM.

VlSCOuISe lNOlu al uuulCuCS Will ouS1l
intense interest as did that which
Rev. DR.. Talmage delivered this after
moor in the academy of music. He
chose for his subject, Conscience"
the text selected being Matt. xvii,
"a: He took water and washed his
hands before the multitude. saying l
am innocent of the blood Of this just
person; see We to it."
At about I o'clock in the morning,
up the marble stairs Of a 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 a poor, pale, sick young man
of 33, already condemned to death, on
his way to be condemned again. Jesus
of Nazareth is his anne
Coming out to meet him on this tes-
Sellated pavement Is an unscrupu-
lous, compromising. time-serving, cow
ardly man, with u few traces fof SYM
pathy and fair dealing left in his COM
position-Gov. Pontius PLATE. Did
ever such opposites meet? Luxury
and pain, s%eltishness and generosity,
arrogance and humility, sin and holt
ness. 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
bitterest prosecutions have been relig-
iOuS prosecutions; and when Satan
takes hold of a good man he makes up
by intensity for brevity of occupation.
If you have never seen an eccleSiaStic-
al court trying a man, then you have
no idea of the foaming in%fernalism of
these old religious Sanhedrists. Gov.
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
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 mes
sage from Claudia Procula, his
wife, who has had a dream
about the innocence of this prisoner,
and about the danger of executing
him, and she awakens from this morn
ing dream in time to send the mes
sage to her husband, then on the judi
cial bench. And what with the protest
Of his wife, and the voice of his own
conscience, and the entire failure Of
the SanhedrlStS to make out their
case, Gov. PLATE resolves to discharge
the prisoner from custody.
But the intimation of such a thing
brings upon the governor an equinoc-
tial storm of indignation. They will
report him to the emperor at Rome.
They will have him recalled. They
will send him up home, and he will
be hanged for treason, for the emperor
at Rome has already a suspicion in re-
gard to PLATE, and that suspicion does
not cease until PLATE is banished and
commits suicide. So Gov. Pontius
PLATE compromises the matter, and
proposes that Christ be whipped in
stead Of a~ssass1nated. So the prisoner
is fastened to a low pillar, and on his
bent and barred back come the thongs
Of leather, with pieces of lead and
bone intertwined, so that every stroke
shall be the more awful. Christ lifts
himself from the scourging, with
flushed cheeks and torn and quivering
n mangled flesh, presenting a spec
tacle Of suffering in which Rubens,
the painter, found the theme for his
greatest masterpiece.
But the Sanhedrists are not yet sat
isfied. They have had some of his
nerves lacerated; they want them all
lacerated. They have had some blood
shed; they want all of it, down to the
last corpuscle So Gov. Pontius PLATE,
after all this merciful hesitation, sur
renders to the demoniacal cry of
"Crucify him!' But the governor
sends for something. He sends a
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, a pause is necessi-
tated. Yonder it comes, a wash basin.
Some pure, bright water is noured
into it, and then Gov. PLATE puts his
white, delicate hands into the water
and rubs them together, and Their lifts
them dripping, for the towel fastened
at the slaves girdle, while he practic-
ally says: II wash my hands of this
whole homicidal transaction. I wash
my hands of this entire r~esponsi-
bility; you will have to bear it,
That is the meaning of my text when
1T says, He took water and washed
his hands before the multitude, say
ing, l am innocent of the blood Of this
just person; see We to it,"
Behold, in this, that ceremon
amounts to nothing, if there are not in
it correspondencies 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
cleanliness; and when the ancients
did not take the hint he plunged the
whole world under water and kept il
there for some time. Hand washing
was a religious ceremony amog the
Jews. The Jewish Mishna gave par.
ticular direction how that the hands
must be thrust three times up to the
wrists in water, and the palm of the
hand must be rubbed with 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 a sin which he does
not quit and Of which he does not
make any repentance. Pilates wash
basin was a dead failure.
Ceremonies, however beautiful and