The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-15

by al means, but. more than all, wash
.he heart.
Behold, also, as you see Governor
Pontius Plate thrust his hand into this
wash BASIN the power Of conscience.
He had an idea there was blood on his
haads-the blood of an innocent per.
son, whom he might have acquitted II
he only had the courage. Poor Plate.
His conscience was after him. and ne
knew the stain would never be washed
from the right hand or the left hand,
and until the day of his death, though
he might wash in the all the LAYERS OF
the Roman empire, there would be Stlll
eight fingers and two thumbs reo at
the tips. ;.
Oh. the power of conscience when 1t
is fully aroused. With whip OF scorp-
ions over bed of spikes in the pltch
of midnightit chases guilt. Are there
ghosts? Yes, not of the graveyard,
but of ones mind not at rest.
Ard thrs, Blutus, amid his siumbering
Started with CeSar's s'alwaIt ghost.
Macbeth looked at his hand after the
midnight assassination, he says:
Will all great Neptune's o:ean wash this
bi,oG
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand
Wiz rather
TIE uultitudincus seas incanadine,
Making the green ore red.
For every sin. great or small, con-
science. which is thevoice of God, has
a reproof, more or less emphatic.
CharlesIX, responsible for st. Bartho-
lomew massacre, was chased by the
bitter memories, and in his dying mo-
ment said to his doctor. Ambrose Par
ry: Doctor. Idon't know what's the
matter with me; I am in fever of
body and mind and have been for a
long while. Oh, if I had only spared the
innocent, and the imbecile, and the
cripple" Rousseau declared in old age
that sin he committed in his youth
still gave him sleepless nights. Charles
II of Spain could not sleep unless he
had in the room a confessor and two
friars. Catiline had such bitter memo.
ries he was startled at the least sound.
Cardinal Beaufort, having slain the
Duke of Gloucester, often in the night
would say: Away, away! Why dc
you look at me-" Richard III, having
Slain his two nephews, would some,
times in the night shout from his
couch and cluth his sword, fighting
apparitions. DR.. Webster, having slain
Parkman in Boston, and while wait.
ing for his doom, complained to the
jailer that prisoners on the other side
of the wall all night long kept charg.
ing him with his crime when there
We're no prisoners on the other side OF
the wall. It was the voice of his own
conscience
From what did Adam and Eve try
to hide when they had all the world
to themselves? From their own con-
science. What made Gains punish
ment crater than he could bear. His
conscience. What made Ahab cry out
to the prophet, Hast thou found me,
0 mine enemy" What made the
great Felix trelnble before the little
missionary? Conscience. What made
Belshazzar's teeth chatter with a chill
when he saw a finger come out of the
black sleeve of the midnight and write
on the plastering? Conscience, con,
science.
Why is it that man in this audience,
with all the marks of worldly pros.
perity upon him, is agitated while I
speak and is now flushed and is.now
pale, and then the breath IS un-
even, and then beads of perspiration
on the forehead, and then the look of
unrest comes to look of horror and
despair: I know not. But heknows,
and God knows. 1t may be that he
despoiled fair young life and turned
innocence into waif, and the smile
of hope into the brazen laughter of
despair. Or It may be that he has in
his possession the property of others,
and by some strategem he keeps it &C
cording to law, and yet he knows it is
not his own, and that ifhis heart
should stop beating this moment he
would be in hell forever. Or it may
be he is responsible for great mys-
terry, the disappearance of some one
who was never heard of, and the de-
tectives were bafied, and the tracks
were all covered up, and the swift
horse or the rail train took him out of
reach, and there are only two persons
in the universe who know of it-God
and himself. God present at the time
of the tragedy and present at the re-
trospection and conscience-conscience
with stings, conscience pinchers, con-
science with fails, conscience with
furnaces upon him, and until a
mans conscience rouses him he does
not repent. What made that farmer
converted to God go to his infdel
neighbor and say: ''Neighbor, have
four of your sheep. They came over
into my fold six yearsago. They had
your mark upon them, and I changed
it to my mark. I want you to have
those sheep, and I want you to have
the interest on the money, and | want
you to have the increase of the fold.
If you want to send me to prison, I
shall make no complaint" The inf
del heard of the mans conversion and
he said: Now, now, if you have got
them sheep, you are welcome to them.
I don't want nothing of those things
at all. You just 60 away from me.
has got hold of you that I
don't understand. I heard you were
down at those religious meetings" "
But the converted man would not al
low things to stand in that way, and
so the infdel said: well, now, you
can pay me the value of the sheep, and
6 per cent interest from that time to
this, and I shan't say anything more
about it. Just go eSay from me. "
What was the matter With thet far
mers! In the one case a convicted con-
science leading him to honesty, and in
the other case a convicted conscience
warning against infdelity.
Thomas Oliver was one of John
Wesley's y'spreachers. The early part of
his life had heen f1171 Of rocl-1essnesS