March 7

And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.—Matthew 14:10.

IN the transaction stated in this passage, we have a sad exhibition of the depravity of human nature, and the total callousness of the heart of man. Here are three distinctions of character placed before us. I.—There is Jesus, the subject of this betrayal; a person, whose life was of the most open and public description; who did nothing in secret; who might be found every day delivering his doctrines in the streets of their city; a person who had exhibited a perfectly holy and spotless life; who had conferred unnumbered blessings on the people; whose miracles proclaimed him the expected Messiah — the true Son of God; against whom no tongue could speak truly and lay anything to his charge. II.— There are the Chief Priests. — Men whose office was of a sacred character: men who ought to be distinguished for integrity, for candour, for goodness, and for compassion. Yet these men are secretly conspiring to take away the life of Jesus; and ready to purchase the precious blood of the Lord's anointed. III. — Then there is Judas.— One of the twelve apostles of Christ's kingdom; who had received one of the highest offices from Christ that man ever held; who had been with Christ, as his disciple, as his friend: who had heard his heavenly discourses, witnessed his holy life and blessed temper: and who had seen his splendid acts of miraculous power and unbounded benevolence. Yet this individual is found with the chief priests, covenanting for thirty pieces of silver— £3, 15s. — the price of a slave, to sell unto them his friend and Lord. What a dreadful transaction! How dearly were those pieces of silver earned! It was a bargain which cost him all his heart's peace; which cost him the overwhelming horror of

1 total despair; which cost him unutterable and intolerable anguish and agony of soul, and a dreadful eternity. How reflection upon it, should lead us to cultivate a holy jealousy over our own hearts, that we rest not in a mere profession of religion, but that we possess within us the life and power of true godliness. How carefully, too, we should guard against covetousness—the cursed soul-destroying love of gold: a lust which induced Judas to sell his Saviour, and risk his soul's eternal welfare. It may be just added, that the psalmist had given a striking prediction of it, and thus this is one of the many proofs that Jesus was the Christ, to whom gave all the prophets witness.