the disciple who denied him, and the magistrate who, against his own convictions, condemned him to death, is marked by the same magnanimity.

Whether Jesus was perfectly acquainted with the character and destiny of Judas in the first instance, may admit of a doubt. I cannot believe, as it sometimes seems to be supposed, that this wretched man was chosen as a disciple for the express purpose of doing what he did. I should prefer to conjecture, in the absence of direct testimony, that Jesus cherished the hope of exerting a beneficial influence upon Judas. One thing, however, is clear, that he, who knew what was in man, could not long have remained ignorant of the besetting sin of his traitorous adherent. His crime, great as it was, was not unaccountable. That he was not devoid of sensibility, his awful fate, revealing the poignancy of his remorse, proves plainly. It was the common vice of avarice that was his ruin. And it was probably by expectations awakened by the love of money, that he was induced to adhere to Jesus. He was exasperated, because this low craving, so far from being gratified, was continually rebuked by the words and spirit of his Master. The waste of that costly ointment, which was poured upon the person of Jesus by Mary, appears to have been the proximate cause of that treacherous bargain which he made with the priests. Possibly he flattered himself that, if Jesus were really the Messiah, he would suffer no harm, and if he were not, then it would be an honourable service to deliver him over to punishment and death. But we are interested now in observing how he was treated by him he used so basely.

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At the Last Supper, as recorded in the thirteenth chapter of John, the feelings of Jesus towards the traitor are incidentally and most touchingly disclosed. That the confidence which his disciples cherished in him might not be shaken; that they might, after his death, know that nothing had befallen him for which he had not been prepared, he deems it right and necessary to tell them, what then certainly he had perfect knowledge of, namely, that one of them would deliver him into the power of his enemies. At that moment, his popularity was so great that the priests did not dare to attempt to seize him in public. They gladly availed themselves of the assistance of one of his followers, who knew the places to which he was accustomed to retire. Of the plot which had been laid Jesus was fully aware through his extraordinary knowledge; and, as I have just said, he makes known his acquaintance with it to his disciples, that they may afterwards perceive that he was not taken by surprise. But he communicates to them no more than was barely necessary to produce this effect. He does not taunt Judas. He takes no pleasure in showing that he was aware of his treachery. On the contrary, he approaches the subject with most evident reluctance. He alludes to it twice very obscurely, once when he was washing the feet of his disciples, when he said, "And ye are clean, but not all," and again, a few moments afterwards, observing, "I speak not of you all. I know those I have chosen." And at last, when he explicitly declares that one of them would betray him, saying outright, "One of you shall betray me,' he is "troubled in spirit," agitated, distressed. When

they severally exclaim, in answer to this last observation, "Is it I? Is it I?" he answers not; only to his favourite disciple John, who, in accordance with the reclining posture in which it was customary then to sit at table, leaned on the bosom of Jesus, does he designate the individual to whom he referred. Even to John it appears that he must have spoken in a whisper, for none of the rest heard him. And to John he did not breathe the name of Judas. It would seem that he knew he was watched, by Peter especially, who had beckoned to John to ask to whom Jesus alluded. He therefore adopts a sign, and directs John to observe to whom he was just about to give the morsel which he had dipped into the dish. He knew the excitable nature of Peter and the rest, and he avoided stirring up their wrath against the traitor. When Judas, stung with mortification and rage, left the place, Jesus did not take the opportunity of his departure, to disclose the name and purpose of the traitor, but he shows the elevation of his mind by that burst of mingled sublimity and pathos, to which the Scriptures themselves scarcely afford a parallel. He seems instantly to forget the treacherous disciple. The departing steps of Judas, going to consummate his base purpose, sound in his ears like the approaching steps of his own fate. The end was now beginning. His death he felt was then close at hand, but as it drew nigh, it shone with a celestial glory. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." From the contemplation of the glory that awaited him in that sublime, self-sacrificing death of the cross, he

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turns to his disciples with words of melting tenderness. My children!" * says he, "in a little while I must leave you, and, as I said to the Jews, I now say to you, whither I go ye cannot come. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." With what exquisite truth did he, under the circumstances, call this a new commandment! The thought of his death, brought vividly home to him by the departure of Judas, brings along with it the thought that he was about to be separated from his friends, and instantly his heart overflows with tenderness. It seems as if, at that moment, the strength of his affection for them was laid bare to his own eyes. So deep was the love of which he was then conscious, that it seemed to him like a new feeling, and as if he had never before commanded his disciples to love one another. In order to perceive the fine working of nature revealed in that phrase 'a new commandment,' the reader has only to reflect, how often in his own experience, the most familiar thoughts, the strongest affections, have been suddenly brought over him with such force, that they seemed altogether new.

I beg the reader to study again and again this most remarkable chapter, the thirteenth of John. The writer shows himself utterly unconscious of any design

* In the Common Version it is, "Little children," which is a literal, but not the true translation. The word in the original is evidently a term of endearment, and should be rendered by a term of corresponding import. When moved by tenderness towards one or a number of our friends, we say, My child" or, "My children !" not "Little child," or, " Little children."

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but to state, with all directness and brevity, what took place on the occasion specified. He stops to make only one or two brief comments. He says nothing of the extraordinary moral beauty which he depicts. And yet everything is in the profoundest harmony with the greatness and tenderness of the character of Jesus. If all the rest of the history were pronounced false and fabulous, here, on this portion of it, we discern the deepest impress of life and nature. How wonderfully natural that remark of John's"After the sop Satan entered into him." John knew not until that moment the traitorous design of Judas, whose whole appearance and expression, even if he did not betray his malignant passions in his features, must have been instantaneously changed in the eyes of John. John then saw the demon in his countenance, and in perfect accordance with nature, says, that after Judas had received the morsel from Jesus, Satan entered into him.

We perceive the same nobleness of mind in the bearing of Jesus towards Peter. Jesus was apprehended at night in the garden, and carried thence to the house of the Jewish High Priest. There, after a hurried examination and a pretence of judgment, the high council of the nation declared him worthy of death. The council then broke up, leaving Jesus in the hall of the High Priest's house, in the custody of an unfeeling crowd, who immediately began to offer every indignity to his person, spitting upon him, blindfolding him, and then striking him suddenly with the palms of their hands, and in mockery bidding him use his extraordinary knowledge and tell which it was that