The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-15
A DISTURBING FORCE.
REV DR. 7aLMAeE'S ELOQUENT SER
MON ON THE CONSCIENCE.

MON ON CSiNSSi% NV
Christ Before pilate--The rover Oh ''ie
..stjll Small voice'--Fhe True Conversion
i, Yy,sb In the Glorious Gospe! Larer.
PardoninS Mercy.
New YORK, May 5.-Rarety does
any discourse hold an audience with
such intense interest as did that which
Rev. DR.. Talmage delivered this after
noon in the Academy Of Music. He
chose for his subject Conscience, )"
the text selected being Matthew 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 toit.
Atabout 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-
dors of color, and between snowbanks
of white and gIistening sculpture
passes a poor, pale, sick young man OF
SO, already. condemned to death, on
his way to be condemnedag again. Jesus
of Nazareth is his name.
Coming out to meet him on TINS tes-
sellated pavement is an INSCRIPTIONS,
compromising, timeserving, cowardly
man, with few traces Of sympathy
and fair dealing left in his composition
Governor Pontius Plate. Did ever
such opposites meet2 Luxury and
pain, selfshness and generosity; AFRO
gance and humility, sin and holiness,
midnight and midnoon.
The bloated Tipped governor takes
the cushioned seat, but the prisoner
stands. his wrists manacled. In aseml-
circle around the prisoner are the san
hedrists, with flashing eyes and bran
dishedfsts, prosecuting this case IN the
name of religion, for the bltterest per-
secutions have been religious persecu-
tons, and when satan takes hold OF a
good man he makes up by intensity for
breyity 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 tinds
right away he is innocent and wants
to let him 90. His caution is also in
creased 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 inau-
dible. 1t is message from Claudia
Procula. his wife, who has had dream
about the innocence of this prisoner
and about the danger of executing him
and she awakens from this morning
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 con-
science, and the entire failure 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
report 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 suspicion in regard
to Plate and that suspicion does not
cease until Plate is banished and COM
mits suicide. So Governor Pontius
Plate compromises the matter and pro-
poses that Christ be whipped instead
of assassinated. So the prisoner is fas-
tened to a low pillar, 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 HIM
self from the scourging, with flushed
cheek and torn and quivering and
mangled flesh, presenting spectacle
of suffering in which Rubens, the
painter, found the theme for his great
est 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, al
ter all this mercifui hesitation, surren-
ders to the demoniacal cry of Cruelty
himm But the governor sends for
something. He sends slave out to
get something. Although the consta-
bles are in haste to take the prisoner
to execution and the mob outside are
impatient to glare upon their victim, a
pause isnecessitated Yonder it comes,
wash basin. Some pure, bright
water is poured into it, and then Gov
ernor 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 practically says: Il
wash my hands Of this whole homicid-
al transaction. wash my hands of
this 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 before the
multitude, saying: ] am innocent 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 correspondencies of heart and life.
It is good thing to wash the hands.
God created three-quarters of the world
water, and in that commanded clean
illness, 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 wrists in
water, and the palm Of the hand must
be rubbed with the closed fist of the
other. AL that well enough for a
symbol h11t here in the tayt iS q man