July 29

Mounded in the house of my friends. — ZECH. xiii. 6.

Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. — MARK xiv. 18.

WE are appalled at the sin of Judas. Yet, as when Jesus said this word the other disciples asked, "Lord, is it I?" we may well consider whether we ourselves are not in danger of such sin.

It is not, indeed, wise to exaggerate our faults as though every failure were a betrayal. Some who followed Jesus after awhile "went back, and walked no more with him," and some in his hour of trial "forsook him and fled," and Peter "denied" him; but only Judas betrayed him.

When one called a Christian lives in such open sin as to bring dishonor upon Christ, so that "the name of God is blasphemed through" him, is it not betraying Christ? Or if one misleads and perverts those younger, "offending the little ones which believe" in Jesus, of which sort of offenders our Lord said, "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea," is not this to betray Christ?

Seeing that such sins have not ceased, let us fear, and pray that no temptation without, or weakness within, may make us false to the Lord at whose table we have eaten.

Andrew Longacre

Oh, to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart; oh, take and seal it,

Seal it for thy courts above.

ROBERT ROBINSON.