be offered up; the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought a good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith"? Why should He say, instead of that, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death"? Because He was bowed down by the burden of the sin of the world. 3. We find that this shrinking is mastered by His fixed and firm resolve. He died of His own free will. Knowing all things that should come upon Him, He nevertheless set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. He not only endured the sufferings that were by the way, but every step was as it were an agony. It was said of Wellington, "The long self-sacrifice of life is o'er;" but this is true strictly of Christ, and of Christ alone, for His life was a continual going forth to the Cross. If He pleased, He might have escaped it. He did not need to go to Jerusalem; but He went there, and everything that He could do He did to draw attention to Him. He might have averted enmity by silence; but instead of that, He loads His words more and more heavily with denunciation and rebuke. He might have struck His enemies to the ground, or rather kept . 66 them on the ground when they fell after coming forward to seize Him. A very slight concession to popular clamor would have saved His life. Nay, even after He had been nailed to the Cross, He might have lived had He pleased. They bound Him," says Jeremy Taylor, "with cords, but He was bound fast by bonds of His own." He was held by His Father's will, by love of the Father, by love of the world, by ancient prophecies and mysteries of love. Even at the last His death is voluntary; for He cries with a loud voice, -not gasping out words for the strained ear of affection amid the awful silence,-and says, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit," and sends away the spirit, death being obedient to Him even when He is obedient to death. The processes of His mind are strikingly illustrated by John, who describes Greek proselytes coming from a distance asking to see Him. They were strangers to the apostles, and were a testimony of how far and how deep His word had gone. He saw in them the first-fruits of a great harvest, but along with it the augury which it gives of His own death, and comforts Himself by saying, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." After He said that, His soul was troubled with the dread of death. But a voice from heaven strengthened Him, and He reasserted the glorious results of His suffering. He was to become the plague of death, and the destruction of the grave, by dying. His death was to be the casting out of the prince of the world, and therefore He set His face steadfastly to go to the Cross. CHAPTER XVI. Judas Iscariot. "Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed Him.” "Judas, dost thou betray me with a kiss? GEORGE HERBERT. THE character of Judas, and our Lord's choice THE of him as an apostle, form one of the most difficult problems of the gospel history. Without professing to solve it, we shall endeavor to gather the scattered lights, and to learn some of the lessons of this man's life. He He was of Kerioth, the only Judean amongst the apostles, all the rest being Galileans. might thus look more than they to a temporal kingdom, and the anticipation of a temporal reward would no doubt be a powerful factor in bringing him to the side of Christ. But, besides this, there must have been in him something that was touched by Christ-an emotional element in his nature which the words of Christ reached and moved. Christ would choose those as His apostles who showed outwardly the greatest aptitude in absorbing and teaching the truth of His kingdom, and Judas was in all likelihood previously a disciple of John, and had thus made considerable progress. This impression is confirmed by the behavior of the disciples. At first Judas was pleased with Jesus. The early ministry in Galilee, the multitudes, and the miracles satisfied him. All seemed working towards that end which he most desired; all was harmony and content in the little company, and Judas was made custodian of the small means which all would be expecting soon and greatly to increase. No doubt Judas had this probable increase in view when he sought and accepted the office. So far all fared well. Judas was never true at heart, but as yet he had not admitted to himself that he was a traitor. All were deceived except Jesus. From the very beginning He knew that Judas had not the root of the matter in him. There was no visible sign of this; and as often an appearance of good-will is maintained between men, who are separated in reality by a sense of moral antagonism, though the rift was |