decisive moment. The prediction of Christ, which Judas as well as the others must have

felt to be true, extinguished the last glimmering o f such light of Christ as his soul had

been capable of receiving. In its place flared up the lurid flame of hell. By the open door

out of which he had thrust the dying Christ 'Satan entered into Judas.'15 Yet, even so,

not permanently.  16 It may, indeed, be doubted, whether, since God is in Christ, such can

ever be the case in any human soul, at least on this side eternity. Since our world's

night has been lit up by the promise from Paradise, the rosy hue of its morning has lain

on the edge of the horizon, d eepening into gold, brightening into day, growing into

midday-strength and evening -glory. Since God's Voice wakened earth by its early

Christmas-Hymn, it has never been quite night there, nor can it ever be quite night in

any human soul.17

But it is a terrible night -study, that of Judas. We seem to tread our way over loose

stones of hot molten lava, as we climb to the edge of the crater, and shudderingly look

down its depths. And yet there, near there, have stood not only St. Peter in the night of

his denial, but mostly all of us, save they whose Angels have always looked up into the

Face of our Father in heaven. And yet, in our weakness, we have even wept over them!

There, near there, have we stood, not in the hours of our weakness, but in those of our

sore temptation, when the blast of doubt had almost quenched the flickering light, or the

storm of passion or self -will b roken the bruised reed. But He prayed for us - and through

the night came over desolate moor and stony height the Light of His Presence, and

above the wild storm rose the Voice of Him, Who has come to seek and to save that

which was lost. Yet near to us, close to us, was the dark abyss; and we can never more

forget out last, almost sliding, foothold as we quitted its edge.

A terrible night -study this of Judas, and best to make it here, at once, from its beginning

to its end. We shall indeed, catch sudden glimpse of him again, as the light of the

torches flashes on the traitor-face in Gethsemane; and once more hear his voice in the

assemblage of the haughty, sneering councillors of Israel, when his footfall on the

marble pavement of the Temple -halls; and the clink of those thirty accursed pieces of

silver shall waken the echoes, wake also the dirge of despair in his soul, and he shall

flee from the night of his soul into the night that for ever closes around him. But all this

as rapidly as we may pass from i t, after this present brief study of his character and

We remember, that 'Judas, the man of Kerioth,' was, so far as we know, the only

disciple of Jesus from the province of Judæa. This circumstance; that he carried the

bag, i.e. was treasurer a nd administrator of the small common stock of Christ and His

disciples; and that he was both a hypocrite and a thief18 - this is all that we know for

certain of his history. From the circumstance that he was appointed to such office of

trust in the Apostolic community, we infer that he must have been looked up to by the

others as an able and prudent man, a good administrator. And there is probably no