The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-06-29
AND HELPS.
Rev. DR.. TalmaRe Ulss e
the Still, Small voice
That Eelestisssly Pursues Those Who
Commit SIN - Pilates Hypocrit-
cal AblutIon an Evidence OF
the Power OF Conscience.
CSJIv-r.s:st-1 b q,
nor i e n |


The following discourse on Ion
science" was delivered by Rev. I. De-
Witt TRimagc in the Academy OF
music, New York city. 1t was based
Oil the text:
He took water and washed his hands before
the multitude saying. / am innocent OF the
b,otd OF this just person; see We to H-Mat-
the xvii. "a
At about seven o'clock in the morn
ing, 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 snow
banks of white and glistening scuip-
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 is
his name.
Coming out to meet him on this tes-
sellated pavement is an inscriptions,
compromising, time-serving cowardly
man, with few traces of sympathy
and fair dealing left in his composition
Gov. Pontius PLATE. Did ever such
opposites meet2 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 a 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 foaIning 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 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 inaudible. II
| 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 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
| custody.
/ But the intimation of such thing
brings upon the governor an equinoc'
tial storm of indignation. They will re.
port 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 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 assassinated. So the pris
oner is fastened to 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 mangled and quivering flesh
presenting spectacle 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 al
lacerated. They have had some BLOOD
shed; they want all Of it, down to thu
last corpuscle. So Gov. Pontius PLATE
after all this merciful hesitation. sur
renders to the demoniacal cry o
Cruelty him!" But the governor send
for something. He sends a slave GU
to get something. Although tn,
consta bles are in haste to tax,
the prisoner to execution and thu
mob outside are impatient to glare
upon their victim, pause is neces
STATED. Yonder it comes, a wasl
basin. Some pure, bright water i
poured into it, and then Gov. PLAT,
puts his white, delicate hands into th,
water and rubs them together, ant
then lifts them dripping, for the towe
fastened at the slaves girdle, while h
practically says: 81 wash my hand
of the whole homicidal transaction.
wash my hands of this entireeresponsi
bility; you will have to bear it." Tha
is the meaning of my text when. i
says: "He took water and washed hi
hands before the multitude, saying,
am innocent of the blood of this jus
person; see We to it."
Behold, in this, that ceremon.
amounts to nothing if there are not il
it correspondence of heart and life
1t is good thing to wash the hands
God created three-quarters of tn
world water, and in that commando
cleanliness; and when the ancients di
not take the hint He plunged tn
whole world under water and kept
there for some time. Hand-washin
was religious ceremony among tn
Jews. The Jewish Mishna gave PAL
ticular direction show that the hand
must be thrust three times up to tn
wrists in water, and the palm of tn
hand must be rubbed with the close
fist of the other. All that is wei
enough for symbol, but here in tn
text is man who proposes to was
away the guilt of a sin which he doe
not quit and of which he does not max
any repentance. Pilates wash basi