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These are the closing words of our Lord's discourses. The same Divine lips pronounce both words: everlasting punishment; everlasting life. One is as certain as the other. We have the same warrant for both.

SCENE XVI.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

STATION I.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended all these words, He said to His disciples: You know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to be crucified (St. Matt. xxvi. 1-2).

A. Before entering Jericho, our Blessed Lord foretold all the chief details of the Passion to the Twelve; but, as we read, they understood nothing. Now He once more reveals His awful secret, and probably with something of the same result. They do not realise what is coming so

soon.

Contemplate our Blessed Saviour thus isolated and lonely, carrying about in His Heart this terrible future, and unable to find among His followers one who can enter into His thoughts and sympathise with Him! His Blessed Mother alone can share with Him, but she by sharing with all her Mother's love only doubles His agony.

Many complain of loneliness. How unboundedly grateful the lonely Heart of our Lord would be if they would give up some of those solitary hours, which are a burden to them, to companionship with Him! For His delights are to be with the children of men. How glad He is when we have some little desire to be with Him; yes, some little desire, because He is beyond all precedent or example acquainted and familiar with neglect. My Heart, He says, hath expected misery (Psalm lxviii.). He is, therefore, grateful with an everlasting gratitude whenever He meets with a little sympathy from us.

After two days.

Did our Lord speak these words on Tuesday evening or on Wednesday?

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The Jews, as we know, reckoned the festival from sunset to sunset. If we follow this mode of reckoning, two days before, the Pasch which is to be eaten on Thursday, would be Tuesday evening.

But some careful and learned students of Holy Scripture tell.: us that it is all but certain that as we sometimes reckon from midnight to midnight, and sometimes when we speak of a festivalday mean by the word only from dawn to sunset, so among the Jews, in their common parlance, the Pasch was sometimes spoken of as lasting from sunset to sunset; at other times they calculated, as we do, from midnight to midnight; and sometimes also they spoke of the Pasch or the day of the Pasch, as we might do,*: meaning from daybreak to sunset. If this be correct, our Blessed Saviour might say on Wednesday that the Pasch (Good Friday) would be after two days, and that on that day He would be delivered up to be crucified. Or again, if the Resurrection on Sunday morning can be said to be on the third day, the paschal supper might be said to be after two days, even if He were speaking on Wednesday.

SCENE XVII.

THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE. WEDNESDAY.

STATION I.

Now the feast of the Pasch and of the Azymes was after two days (St. Mark xiv. 1).

Then were gathered together the Chief Priests and Ancients of the people into the Court of the High Priest, who was called Caiphas; and they consulted together that by subtlety they might apprehend Jesus, and put Him to death (St. Matt. xxvi. 3, 4).

A. What a terrible lesson we draw from the constant unflagging perseverance of these wretched dupes of Satan, that God at last, when the hour of mercy is past, gives way to the obdurate will of the sinner! God gave them up to the desires of their heart (Romans i.).

"Ne in furore tuo arguas me (Psalm vi.). Do not, O God, my Creator, chastise me in Thy wrath. Do not give me up to the thoughts and desires of my corrupt heart."

B. We see how they are walking through hard ways, and weary themselves in the way of iniquity (Wisdom v.). If we work for Jesus Christ as they work for their master, Satan, we shall be saints.

C. That by subtlety they might apprehend Jesus.

Ever since our Saviour began to draw the people to Him by His preaching and miracles, these jealous men have been plotting against His life, and many times they have made a determined effort to get Him into their power and to make away with Him by stoning or some other form of murder. In vain our Saviour expostulates with them and says: Many good works I have shown to you from My Father; for which of those works do you stone Me? (St. John x.). He has always failed to soften them. And, as we have seen, the raising of Lazarus doubled and trebled their mad envy. From that day they have been labouring with untiring activity to procure His death. We have seen how the whole of yesterday they were bringing forward their ablest men from all the different sects of Jerusalem to catch Him in His speech, that they might give Him up to the Roman Governor. They failed utterly. His hour was not come.

But here they are again to-day-maddened more than ever by the victories our Lord won yesterday—with that persevering will which our Blessed Saviour so much wishes to find in His own followers, holding a Council, and meditating vain things against the Lord and against His Christ. And now they can think of no other plan but trickery. By subtlety they are to apprehend Him and put Him to death. By trickery Pilate is to be won to their side. By trickery they are to persuade the Governor that their one aim is to be loyal to Rome. By trickery they are to draw Jesus to some spot where they can safely surround Him and seize Him without provoking a rising of the people.

In the Talmud a detailed narrative is given of the way in which certain astute Jews pretended to be disciples of Jesus, and drew Him to Jerusalem where He was seized

and killed. That was the Jewish fiction; but it was true as far as this, that His enemies trusted to subtlety.

D. But it was not to be as they willed. Neither their force nor their subtlety was to prevail against Jesus. He was offered because it was His own will (Isaias liii.). He was to become their prisoner and victim in the hour when He willed it, in the place He had chosen, after the manner approved by Himself. For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God? (Psalm xvii.). They have intended evils against Thee; they have devised counsels which they have not been able to establish (Psalm xx.).

"Teach us, O compassionate Lord Jesus, ever to say with Thy Holy Patriarch Joseph: Can we resist the will of God?" (Genesis 1.).

E. By subtlety.

We must never forget that Satan carries on his war much more by subtlety than by force. Hence the lament of his dupes throughout eternity is, We fools. The serpent deceived me.

"From the snares of the devil deliver us, O Lord." "Lead us not into temptation."

STATION II.

But they said, Not on the festival-day, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people (St. Matt. xxvi. 5).

A. Unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they laboured who built it (Psalm cxxvi.).

These blinded Rulers have passed two decrees.

(1) That Jesus is to be destroyed by subtlety. But God's decree is "not by subtlety," and God prevails.

(2) They decree, Not on the festival-day; but God's decree is, Yes, on the festival-day, and on no other day, shall the Lamb of God be slain.

"O wise God, O good God, O God our Father, may Thy most just and most holy will be always done on earth as in Heaven."

B. All their wisdom, all their subtlety is baffled and quite powerless. Our Blessed Saviour clearly foretold a week ago near Jericho how the end was to be brought about: The Son of Man shall be betrayed to the Chief Priests (St. Mark x.). The avowed and raging enemies can do nothing till a traitor appears to help them. A traitor, that is, a secret enemy disguised as a friend, a wolf in sheep's clothing; one of His own, who uses the knowledge he has acquired while a disciple, His own familiar, must come to be guide and leader to His enemies.

If My enemy had reviled Me, our Lord said by His Psalmist, I would perhaps have hidden Myself from him; but thou, a man of one mind with Me, My guide and My familiar (Psalm liv.).

C. Mark well how much more powerful for evil a traitor is than open enemies. Apostate priests and bishops were the founders and apostles of the great heresies. Traitors have ever been Satan's chosen allies and disciples, his twelve, and his seventy-two, whom, in mocking travesty of our Lord's holy methods, he sent before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come (St. Luke x.).

The traitor is within the fortress, and can in the moment of danger open the doors and let in the enemy. Our Blessed Saviour has more reason to say than any one else, "Save me from My friends"; from weak friends, half-hearted friends, friends without a will, treacherous friends, who when the battle is raging turn false and spread ruin. What can a general do when in the critical moment one of his trusted officers leads his men away to the enemy and jeopardises the whole army?

"The enemies of a man are those of his own household" (St. Matt. x.). We are now those of our Lord's household. We must be either thorough and faithful friends, or, if traitors, His worst enemies.

D. The Priests and Scribes and Pharisees found not what to do to Him (St. Luke xix.), till the traitor came to

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