earth shall eat." That is to say, the lofty and proud have to come down to the level of the lowly, and take their places at the table along with the poor and the starving, which, being turned into plain English, is just this-the main things that hinder a man from partaking of the fulness of Christ's satisfying grace is self-sufficiency, and the absence of a sense of need. They that "hunger and thirst after righteous. ness shall be filled"; and they that come, knowing themselves to be poor and needy, and humbly consenting to accept a gratuitous feast of charity-they, and only they, do get the rich provisions.

You are shut out because you shut yourselves out. They that do not know themselves to be hungry have no ears for the dinner-bell. They that feel the pangs of starvation and know that their own cupboards are empty are those who will turn to the table that is spread in the wilderness, and there find a feast of fat things.

And so, dear friends, when He calls, do not let us make excuses, but rather listen to that voice that says to us, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? . . Incline your ear unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live."

ΧΧΙΧ.

The Dismissal of Judas.

"THEN said Jesus unto Judas, That thou doest, do quickly.”— JOHN xiii. 27.

HEN our Lord gave the morsel, dipped in the dish, to Judas, only John knew the significance of the act. But, if we supplement the narrative here with

that given by Matthew, we shall find that, accompanying the gift of the sop, was a brief dialogue in which the betrayer, with unabashed front, hypocritically said, "Lord! is it I?" and heard the solemn, sad answer, "Thou sayest!" Two things, then, appealed to him at the moment: one, the conviction that he was discovered; the other, the wonderful assurance that he was still loved. For the gift of the morsel was a token of friendliness. He shut his heart against them both; and as he shut his heart against Christ he opened it to the devil. "So after the sop Satan entered into him." At that moment a soul committed suicide; and none of those that sat by, with the exception of Christ and the "disciple whom He loved," so much as dreamed of the tragedy going on before their eyes.

I know not that there are anywhere words more

weighty and wonderful than those of our text.

And

I wish to try now if I can at all make you feel as I feel their solemn signification and force. "That thou doest, do quickly."

I. I hear in them, first, the voice of despairing love abandoning the conflict.

If I have rightly construed the meaning of the incident, this is its plain significance. And you will observe that the Revised Version, more accurately and closely rendering the words of our text, begins with a "therefore." "Therefore said Jesus unto him." Because the die was cast; because the will of Judas had conclusively welcomed Satan, and conclusively rejected Christ; therefore, knowing that remonstrance was vain, knowing that the deed was, in effect, done, Jesus Christ, that Incarnate Charity which "believeth all things, and hopeth all things," abandoned the man to himself and said, "There, then, if thou wilt thou must. I have done all I can; my last arrow is shot, and it has missed the target. That thou doest, do quickly."

There is a world of solemn meaning in that one little word "doest." It teaches us the old lesson, which sense is so apt to forget, that the true actor in man's deeds is the hidden man of the heart, and that, when it has acted, it matters comparatively little whether the mere tools and instruments of the hands or of the other organs have carried out the behest. A thing is done before it is done, when a man has resolved, with a fixed will, to do it. The betrayal was as good as in process, though no step beyond the introductory ones, which could easily have been cancelled, had yet been accomplished. Because there was

a fixed purpose which could not be altered by anything now, therefore Jesus Christ regards the act as completed. What we think in our hearts, that we are; and our fixed determinations, our inclinations of will, are far more truly our doings than the mere consequences of these, embodied in actuality. It is but a poor estimate of a man that judges by the test of what he has done. What he has wanted to do is the true man; what he has attempted to do. "It was well that it was in thine heart!" said God to the king who thought of building the Temple which he was never allowed to rear. "It is ill that it is in thine heart," says He by whom actions are weighed, to the sinner in purpose, though his clean hands lie idly in his lap. These hidden movements of desire and will that never come to the surface are our true selves. Look after them, and the deeds will take care of themselves. Serpents' eggs have serpents in them. And he that has determined upon a sin has done the sin, whether his hands have been put to it

or no.

ness.

But, then, turn for a moment to the other thought that is suggested here that solemn picture of a soul left to do as it will, because Divine love has no other restraints which it can impose, and is bankrupt of motives that it can adduce to prevent it from its madNow I do not believe, for my part, that any man in this world is so utterly "sold unto sin" as that the seeking love of God gives him up as irreclaimable. I do not believe that there are any people concerning whom it is true that it is impossible for the grace of God to find some chink and cranny in their souls, through which it can enter and change

them. There are no hopeless cases as long as men

are here.

But, then, though there may not be so, in regard of the whole sweep of the man's nature, yet every one of us over and over again has known what it is to come exactly into that position, in regard to some single evil or other, concerning which we have so set our teeth and planted our feet at such an angle of resistance as that God gives up dealing with us and leaves us, as He did with Balaam, when he opposed his covetous inclinations to all the remonstrances of Heaven. God said at last to him "Go!" because it was the best way to teach him what a fool he had been in wishing to go. Thus, when we determine to set ourselves against the pleadings and the beseechings of Divine love, the truest kindness is to fling the reins upon our necks. and let us gallop ourselves into sweat and weariness, and then we shall be more amenable to the touch of the bit thereafter.

Are there any people here now whom God is teaching obedience to His light touch, by letting them run their course after some one specific sin? Perhaps there are. At all events, let us remember that that sad fate of being allowed to do as we like is one to which we all tend, in the measure in which we indulge our inclinations, and shut our hearts against God's pleadings. There is such a thing as a conscience seared as with a hot iron. They used to say that there were witches' marks in the body; places where, if you shoved a pin in, there was no feeling. Men cover themselves all over with marks of that sort, which are not sensitive even to the prick of Divine remonstrance, rebuke, or retri