been good for that man if he had not been born." It is as true of those who kill themselves, as of those who kill their neighbors, that "no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

The aggravations of the sin of betraying Christ were many and great. The traitor was eminent in place, in gifts, in office, in profession; a guide to others, and one whose example was likely to influence many, and if evil, to give great occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully. His sin had for its object the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an attack on God himself.

This sin admitted of no reparation, no restitution. It was against mercies, against convictions of conscience, against frequent and recent admonitions, against his ordination vows, against his own preaching, against all the rules of friendship, against all the bonds of discipleship. It was committed deliberately, willfully, knowingly, presumptuously, impudently, maliciously. It was perpetrated just after the most solemn and tender interview on record, just after being engaged in the most solemn rites of religion. It was of a scarlet dye and of a crimson hue.

Taking his own life was but adding iniquity to iniquity. He may have justified himself in his suicide, and thought that he had a right to do as he pleased with his earthly existence. Perhaps he thought also that hell itself could not be more intolerable than his present anguish. Miserable man! why wilt thou place the seal of immutability on thy own perdition, making thy doom irreversible, and putting thy soul beyond the reach of even the mercy of God? Oh! what a fiend is man without the grace of God! No natural amiability, no faithful instructions, no power of working miracles, no solemn sacraments, no tears and warnings can save any man from the vilest sins and the hottest hell. God's free, sovereign, eternal love can alone save any soul.

This subject is full of instruction, and teaches many salutary lessons. Let us not so far separate ourselves from Judas as to suppose that we are naturally better than he, or that if left to ourselves we will not prove that we are ready for any deed of wickedness. A monster of depravity was he. But all sin is horrible. And God would have us learn wisdom from the fall of the worst men in the world. Thus we may profit by the overthrow of the most infamous. The lessons taught us by the life and end of Judas are such as these.

Though wicked men do not so intend, yet in all cases they shall certainly glorify God by all their misdeeds. "Surely the wrath of men shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." (Ps. 76: 10.) The wickedness of Judas was by God overruled to bring about the most important event in man's salvation. Let the wicked never forget that their unbelief, impenitence, profaneness and persecution of the godly, all their sins of heart and life and tongue, shall in spite of themselves glorify God,

though it be at the fearful loss of their own souls. The wicked now hate God but they can not defeat him. If they will not be vessels to honor, they shall be vessels to dishonor. If they refuse to be useful in a cheerful service, they shall be useful in their own destruction. (Ezek. 15: 1-8.)

Nor shall God's unfailing purpose to bring good out of evil abate aught of the guilt of those, who work iniquity. Judas' treason was all foretold and of course it was predetermined. Yet his accountability for his wickedness was unimpaired; for he acted freely in all he did. Men may clamorously assert, but they never can prove, that the divine purpose so interferes with moral agency as to impair human obligation to do right. "It is wonderful that thinking and studious men do not see, that the whole system of prophecy is a direct and full confutation of all objections, on this ground, against the doctrine of predestination. The predicted events can not possibly fail of accomplishment: they must therefore either be absolutely decreed by the all-wise God, or there must be some necessity which can not be overcome even by the Deity himself. The first is Christian predestination, the latter is heathen fatalism; but neither interferes with man's free agency and accountableness; for he still acts voluntarily, according to the prevailing inclinations of his heart." Judas acted with perfect freedom. He could not have had more liberty. Therefore his guilt remained. That which was true of the betrayer, was also true of the murderers of our Lord. (Acts 2: 23 and 4:27, 28.)

From the history of Judas we also learn, that when a man is once fairly started in a career of wickedness, it is impossible to tell where he will stop. God's grace may arrest one in the maddest career, as it did Saul of Tarsus. But left to himself, man will dig into hell. The good providence of God mercifully restrains even the wicked, else existence on earth would not be desirable. Scenes of violence and blood, deeds of outrage and atrocity, words of hatred and blasphemy, and looks of fierceness and terror would appall us every hour, but that God lays his almighty hand upon the hearts of men and commands them to be still. Unrestrained, every heart would show its possessor a monster of wickedness. Passions, which now lie smothered, would, if let loose, rage and sweep every thing before them. Natural affection, the voice of conscience, public opinion, regard to reputation, and fear of the law, are happily employed by providence to hold men back. "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will." (Prov. 21: 1.) Even in this life many a poor sinner has been affrighted at the lengths which he had gone in crime and debasement, and has cried out in sore amazement: 'And have I come to this?' In the next world surprise awaits all the impenitent. "When they

shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thess. 5: 3.)

All men should especially beware of covetousness.

"The love

of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6: 10.) Of the truth of this teaching Judas was a fearful witness. No tongue, no pen can describe the sorrows which rolled over his soul. When men are eagerly heaping up riches, they are doing work for bitter repentance in this world, or in that which is to come. Even on earth "the covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty; and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift to be as poor and miserable with a great estate as any man can be without it." Nor can he divine who shall be the gainer by all his toils. "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." (Ps. 39: 6.) God has specially set himself to punish covetousness. It is idolatry. It is as true of this sin as of drunkenness, that in the end it biteth like the serpent, and stingeth like the adder.

Did men but know how bitter would be the end of transgression, they would at least pause before they plunge into all evil. Seneca said: "Malice drinks half its own poison." The same is true of all evil passions. The madness of men in rebelling against God is beyond a parallel in human history. They delight in iniquity, they roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongues, they risk all for it, and they lose all by it. Their hearts are fully set in them to do evil. Oh! that men would hear the warning words of Richard Baxter: "Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you; it is your murderer and the murderer of the world. Use it, therefore, as a murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you; and though it kill your bodies, it shall not be able to kill your souls; and though it bring you to the grave, as it did your Head, it shall not be able to keep you there." James says: "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1: 15.) Yet no man, without the grace of God, sees the evil of sin till it is too late. Folly is bound up in the soul of man, till God drives it away by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness.

In Judas' pretended regard for the poor, we see what foul wickedness may be covered with the most plausible pretenses. The same thing is seen in every age. By false names every virtue is depressed and every vice exalted. Pascal says: "One of the greatest artifices the devil uses to engage men in vice and debauchery is to fasten the names of contempt on certain virtues, and thus to fill weak souls with a foolish fear of passing for scrupulous should they desire to put them in practice." The man

who beggars widows and orphans, and holds back the wages of the hireling, and lives by the distresses he brings on others, would fain persuade himself and his neighbors that he is prudent. Indeed, any pretext will satisfy a blind, stupid conscience. The great concern of the masses is to justify themselves before men. They little regard the tribunal of God. Yet the investigations of the last day will tear off all false pretenses, and sweep away every refuge of lies.

Nor should we forget that character may as well be learned from small as from great things. Judas' petty larceny was as good an index to his character as his treason. A straw will show which way the wind blows. Human character is not made up of a few great acts, but of a multitude of little things. Every-day conduct shows the man. Great events, in which we are actors, will fearfully expose us, if in small affairs we are unable to behave well. "He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little." (Ecclus. 19: 1.) The failure of our virtue on great occasions is but an announcement to the world that we have been habitually coming short in our more private behavior. Little rills form the greatest rivers. The ocean itself is made up of drops of rain or particles of mist. A man is what his habits make him. He who can not resist a slight temptation will never gain the mastery over a grievous one. "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5.)

It is also manifest that bad men may for a long time appear well. To do so may cost them trouble, but may still be practicable. Through life they may have such a fear of exposure, and be so studious of appearances, as to deceive all around them. Even suspicion may not soil their fair name, and yet they may be in the gall of bitterness. Eschewing the vices of the debauched, they may practice the sins of devils. It is true that this class of transgressors have a hard task. They are always like one who has a rent in his garment, which he finds difficult to conceal. Truth is one and simple. Falsehood is multiform and complex. An honest blunderer is to be preferred before the most cunning knave on earth. A life of deception is full of hardship and uncertainty; and at its close, when amendment is impossible, the truth comes out, and in a moment damnation flashes in the face, and the poor soul enters on an existence full of misery. When God tears away the mask, disguise is no longer possible.

And yet bad men might know the truth concerning themselves if they did not hate it. Judas well knew his own theft, yet he refused to consider it a sin to be repented of. He had before his mind the clear evidence of his own hypocrisy, but he was not dis

posed to give it its just weight. He hated the light, and did not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. When will men learn that concealment is not innocence? We may hide our sins from our own eyes, but until God casts them all behind his back they may rise up at any moment and overwhelm us. If men were not as unwise as they are wicked, they would not go to the bar of God with a lie in their right hand.

How small a temptation to sin will at last prevail over a vicious mind. For less than twenty dollars, Judas sold his Lord and Master. Those temptations commonly esteemed great are not the most sure to prevail. The ribaldry of the Philistines did not move Samson from his fidelity; but the blandishments of Delilah overcame him. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Many a man consents to lose a friend for his wit, yea, to lose his soul for a quibble. Men may sin until the mere force of habit, without any apparent inducement, seems sufficient to impel them to great enormities.

Nothing prepares a man for destruction faster than hypocrisy or formality in actions of a religious nature. The three years which Judas spent in the family of our Lord probably exceeded all the rest of his life in ripening him for destruction. So many, so solemn, so impressive truths were presented to his mind, that he must have become very rapidly hardened. "I have peace

offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows," (Prov. 7: 14,) said one who was now ready for the worst deeds. The reason why, other things being equal, apostates are so much more wicked than others, is that they have learned how to resist all good influences. They have tried the remedy, but first learned to render it ineffectual.

It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment. The judg ment of God, it shall stand; it is righteous, it is always according to truth. Man judges of the heart by appearances. God judges of appearances by the heart, and he judges of the heart by itself. The tribunal, from which there lies no appeal, will reverse a vast number of the decisions made by the tribunals of earth. Public opinion often errs. Individual judgments are as often erroneous. If men condemn and God approves, all is well. But if men acquit and God condemns, all is lost. He that judgeth us is the Lord.

We should never forget that official character is one thing, and moral character another thing. All official characters may be sustained without any real grace in the heart. Balaam's prophecies were as true and as sublime as those of Moses or Isaiah. So far as we know, Judas' performance of the duties of his apostolic mission was as acceptable and as useful as that of the majority of his brethren. Even success in preaching is not proof of piety. It is the message, not the messenger; the truth preached, and not