Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-05-06
CONSCIENCE PRICKS.
GRAPHIC STORY OF CHRIST BEFORE
GOVERNOR PLATE.

Rev. DIR. Talmage Holds an Audience Spell
bound by Eis EIatchless EIoquence-Poyy-
er and Eject of the "StilI, Small Voice.
Divine Mercy.
NEW YORK, May 5.-Rarely does any
discourse hold an audience with such in
tense interest as did that which Rev DR.
Talmage delivered this afternoon in tie
Academy Of Music. He chose for his
subject Conscience, - the text selected
being Matthew xvii, "a: fHe took wa
ter and washed his hands before the
multitude, saying: am innocent of the
blood Of this just person. See ye to it. -
At about z 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 splendors of
color and between snOwbanks of white
and glistening sculpture, passes a poor,
pale, sick young man of 33, already con-
demned to death, ON his way to be con-
demned again. Jesus of Nazareth is his
name.
Coming out to meet him on this teS-
sellated pavement is an INSCRIPTIONS
compromising, timeserving cowardly
fair dealing left i'll his composition
Governor Pontius PLATE. Did ever such
Upposites meet? Luxury and pain, self
ishness and generosity, arrogance and
humility, sin and holiness, midnight and
midnOon.
Christ Before PLATE.
The bloated Tipped governor takes the
cushioned seat, but the prisoner stands,
his wrists manacled. In semicircle
around the prisoner are the sanhedrists
with flashing eyes and brandished fists,
prosecuting this case in the name of re-
ligion, for the bitterest prosecutions
have been religious prosecutions, and
when satan takes hold of good man he
makes up by intensity for brevity of Oc-
cupation. If you have never seen an &c
clesiastical court trying a man, then you
have no idea of the foaming infernalism
of these old religious sanhedrists. Gov
ernor 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 in
audible. 1t is a 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 conscience, 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 equinoctial
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 commits suicide.
So Governor POntius Plate compromises
the matter and proposes that Christ be
whipped instead of aSsassinated. So the
prisoner is fastened to 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 himself from the scOurging with
flushed cheek and torn and quivering
and mangled flesh, presenting a specta
Gle of suffering in which Rubens, the
painter, found the theme for his greatest
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
all this merciful hesitation, surrenders
to the demOniacal cry of &C Cruelty him ~
But the governor sends for something.
He sends a slave out to get something.
the constables are in haste to
take the prisoner to execution and the
mob outside are impatient to glare upon
their victim, q pause in neceSSltated.
YOnder it cOmeS-a wash basin. Some
pure, bright water is poured into it, and
then Governor PLATE puts his white, deli
cate hands into the water and rubs them
together and then lifts them dripping
for the towel fastened at the slaves CIR
die, while he practically says: 81 wash
my hands of this whole homicidal trans
action. I 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 wash
ed his hands before the multitude, say
ing am innocent of the blood Of this
just person See We to it
HypocriticaI Additions.
Behold in this that ceremony amounts
to nothing if there are not in it CORE
spondencies of heart and life. 1t is a
good thing TO wash the hands. God
created three quarters of the world wa
ter and in that commanded cleanliness,