a hue especially black from the circumstance that his avarice was gratified at the price of his Master's death. The love of money is the root of all evils, indeed avarice is a sin only paralleled in intensity by the vice of drinking, and Judas by slow degrees having learned to steal and lie, let his crime obtain a mastery over him which at last a SAVIOUR's death alone could satisfy. And here let us dismiss at once the Calvinistic theory that Judas was ordained to betray CHRIST, a special instrument to work out GOD's designs, and look on the man as one of like passions with ourselves, lest we fall into the dangerous mistake of thinking we have nothing in common either with the sinners or saints of holy writ. Every one of us is capable of a sin like that of Judas, every one of us is capable of a fidelity equal to that of his great opposite, S. John, and it is not true reverence which prompts us to look on the Bible, at all times, as a book by itself. Indeed it is well sometimes to divest our minds of preconceived ideas, before reading the Scriptures, and try to read them as we would another book, since they are eminently capable of being studied critically as well as devotionally, and though doubtless the latter is as a rule the best way, the former is not without spiritual advantage.

The betrayal, like the crucifixion, was prophesied long before it took place, but the instrument had to be found. The SAVIOUR tells us that He was to be betrayed, but oh! how long, how earnestly the Son of Man wrestled with the tempter to save His chosen Apostle. Judas Iscariot had been elected with the other eleven to preach the Gospel, there must have been in him great capabilities of good to warrant his being chosen, nor was his fall sudden one. It is quite possible that Judas was in communication with the chief Priests more often than is recorded, since the astuteness of Caiaphas and his accomplices must soon have discovered when they watched CHRIST daily, the venality and avarice of Iscariot. The LORD Himself told the twelve, after His address on the Eucharist at Capernaum, that one of them was a devil, so that even then the poison was at work, possibly the treachery was already planned and Judas was but waiting for an opportunity to carry out his fell design. There are however two great difficulties in the story of Judas' crime. The first is the apparent inadequacy of the motive for the treachery, the other, the utter want of anything like hesitation on the part of the traitor when he knew that JESUS was aware of his intentions. The Calvinist of course has little difficulty in explaining these points, inasmuch as he can always fall back on predestination, and regard

Judas as a helpless tool in the hands of Satan, while as we all know, the rationalistic party have got over the difficulty by explaining with their usual disregard of recorded facts, that Judas was a great and patriotic though (they generously concede) mistaken Apostle, and meant to spur our LORD on to the necessity of asserting His power by throwing Him into the hands of His enemies.

Of these two theories the Calvinistic is less absurd, but more painful than the other. If Judas could not help sinning our blessed LORD'S solemn warnings were futile, and Judas' ultimate fate was undeserved, while the fact that GOD sets at nought or turns to His own ends the wicked acts of men does not prove that He wishes men to do wrong, but that He is able to turn all things to good. It is strange that Calvinism should have had so much success even among genuine Christians, but I suppose it can be accounted for by the well known subjectiveness of the English mind, and the tendency which is so prevalent to regard our own advantage as more important than the honour of GOD, as if GOD and Heaven were for us, not we for them.

The rationalistic theory is beneath contempt. Not a single recorded fact supports it save the bare one, which after all is an assumption, that Judas must have been a man of high character to be an Apostle at all, and this assumption is terribly weakened when brought to bear on his subsequent treachery, because Judas actually took a reward for the betrayal of CHRIST. Nor do the words of Judas after our LORD'S condemnation help the rationalists, he does not say "I was deceived. I thought this had been He Who should have delivered us," but merely, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." I fear indeed that the gross theory I have mentioned is but part of that tendency to call evil good, so common among free-thinkers, to attack and vilify even common decency and to extol everything unnatural and godless, which by the bye always hides itself under the guise of charity, leading us to exclaim, "Oh charity, how many crimes are committed in thy name."

That the inadequacy of the motive is a difficulty I will not deny, but it is not an insuperable one. The history of countless misers tells us what an invincible passion avarice is, and Judas is as much an example of avarice as of treachery. Misers, it is known, love money, not money's worth, the very coin is adored by them, and they will stoop to any depths of degradation either to gain or save a single piece of money. Whatever capabilities for good Judas may have had, it must not be

forgotten that he was probably, nay, I may say certainly a very poor man, to whom even the bribe offered by the chief Priests appeared a large sum, and that we are fairly warranted in believing that Judas' feelings towards CHRIST had undergone a radical change. Remember I am not speaking of his character, but of the temper in which he regarded the SAVIOUR, by Whom he had been publicly rebuked more than once, and here it may be noticed that there are some natures capable of committing most horrible wickedness in revenge for a trifling offence. Such a character is Iago in Shakespeare's terrible play, who, for treachery and unbending purpose may be called the Judas of the drama. Judas Iscariot is and will be an enigma while time shall last, but there are certain facts the Scriptures give us, and out of these we learn two startling things, the first is, that Judas was elected not for an evil purpose, but to preach the Gospel, and the other that this very Apostle, turning away from his high calling, and reverting to the low semi-bestial ideas he had been nourished in, sold CHRIST for a sum of money, and accomplished his diabolical treachery with a fixity of purpose and a brutal hypocrisy such as we might search the annals of crime in vain to match.

Conceding that Judas had resigned himself to be the tool of Satan, even his wretched purpose must have quailed, one would think, before the presence of his Master at the last passover, but no, his heart was swept and garnished, waiting, hoping, desiring the full presence of Satan. "After supper," the devil entered into Judas Iscariot, not but what the traitor had already arranged his plan with the hirelings of Caiaphas to seize CHRIST in the garden, but inasmuch as grace rejected becomes a potent weapon against the sinner who refuses it, so Judas having partaken (as S. Luke implies, if he does not actually state it as a fact) of the Eucharist, having war in his heart devoted himself to the fiend. The SAVIOUR's last effort to save Judas, His fearful warning of coming woe, His sad foreboding, all these failed, and the LORD bade His recreant apostle depart. "That thou doest, do quickly," and with the echo of these words in his ears, Iscariot stole out into the night, of a truth, the outer darkness.

When next the traitor appears, the scene has changed. The Agony is over, and JESUS rouses His slumbering Apostles to the truth that the hour is at hand, that hour so often spoken of during the three years' ministry.

That Judas in common with the other Apostles had not fully grasped

the fact of CHRIST's divinity is apparent from his directions to the apparitors of the chief priests, "take Him and lead Him away safely," directions that would have been worse than futile had Judas been aware of the SAVIOUR's power, but Judas did not fully realize what he was about, so blinded were his eyes by avarice. S. Luke tells us that the traitor led on the officers of Caiaphas into the garden of Gethsemane, and bore down straight on his victim. No hesitation apparently, no pause did Satan permit to his now almost hopeless thrall, Judas went up to CHRIST and kissed Him, a refinement of diabolical spite and fearful profanation such as never before was seen or heard of, or shall be while time shall last. Then the SAVIOUR seems to have made one last effort to withdraw the Apostle from the abyss of perdition, one last word, as a SAVIOUR, came from JESUS' lips, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss ?"

Rightly does good Bishop Hall of Norwich express his wonder that Malchus, rather than Judas felt the edge of S. Peter's good sword, when the lion-like Apostle sprang forward against the armed multitude in defence of his Master, but it may well be conjectured that the traitor had shrunk back among the crowd, else had he doubtless paid the forfeit of his treachery with his life, the sword that flashed out so readily in the moonlight against the hired apparitor, had surely smitten with no uncertain aim the foul traitor, and it must be remembered that S. Peter knew what Judas designed, having heard of his purposed treachery from S. John.

CHRIST in the hands of His enemies, Judas' black treachery was done, the prophecy accomplished, no power could recall the past or remove from Iscariot's brow the brand of the traitor; standing among the crowd, Judas saw his old companions scatter and fly across the moonlit garden, saw the apparitors close round his Master, saw the Hands which had been extended daily in works of love, fastened together with cords in fulfilment of his own direction that they should hold the captive fast, saw the multitude march from the garden with the bound SAVIOUR in the midst, and what then became of Judas we know not. Tradition tells us he wandered all the night tormented by remorse, but the Scriptures relate that he was present at the meeting of the Sanhedrim, for S. Matthew tells us, that Judas "when he saw that He was condemned repented himself," leaving it open to conjecture that possibly the traitor remained in the palace of the chief Priest during that awful night, and saw all that took place, but it seems more probable that

Judas went home with his spoils, and returning to know his Master's fate, met the Jewish apparitors leading the SAVIOUR with His hands bound to the bar of Pilate, and then the significance of that movement flashed upon him, and he fully realized that CHRIST was condemned, and realized then also for the first time his own dire guilt. Satan indeed loves to blind his victims until they cannot escape, and then to exaggerate if possible the heinousness of their crimes, so as to hurl them from guilt to despair, and persuade them that there is no hope of pardon. Homilies and tracts have been preached and written in abundance, to show the distinction between Judas' remorse and S. Peter's repentance, and far be it from me to deny that a great gulf intervenes between the two feelings, but was Judas' avowal only the fruit of remorse? We see two parts of repentance distinctly shown by Judas, confession of sin and satisfaction made as far as then was in his power to make it. Judas freely confessed his guilt, and returned the price of blood to his mocking seducers, and then departed and went and hanged himself, as unworthy to gaze again on the light of the sun, as unable to face his fellow-creatures, no cries, no prayers could now undo the past, or stay the malice of the Jews against the victim he had delivered to them. But there was hope till the last mad step. All manner of sin against the Son of Man was by His own word, capable of being pardoned, but Judas did not seek it, he rushed from the world to hide his shame in Hades.

It would be impious to speculate further on the possibility of those words of agony, "I have sinned," having gained for the wretched traitor forgiveness, indeed his subsequent act went far to neutralize his repentance: let us rather contemplate this most awful story of crime in fear and self-judgment, lest even in the slightest degree we approach to the guilt of Judas. "He that denies Me before men, him will I deny before My FATHER which is in Heaven." Of how much sorer judgment shall the betrayer of CHRIST be worthy, for there is a fearful difference between weak denial and determined betrayal. The one may be passive, the other must be active; the one may be for our safety from suffering or ridicule, the other must be for our worldly advantage; the one may simply hold us back from saying a word, or doing an act for CHRIST, or His Church, the other must be committing a positive injury to Him. And we must needs beware, for it is easier to betray CHRIST than we think; to gain a benefit from any unchristian undertaking, to seek to realize fortunes in the public funds of countries sworn to aid