the coarse lust of covetousness, as the kindred passion and lower expression of that

other form of selfishness. When the Messianic faith of Judas gave place to utter

disappointment, the moral and spiritual character of Christ's Teaching would affect him,

not sympathetically but antipathetically. Thus, that which s hould have opened the door

of his heart, only closed and double -barred it. His attachment to the Person of Jesus

would give place to actual hatred, though only of a temporary character; and the wild

intenseness of his Eastern nature would set it all in fla me. Thus, when Judas had lost

his slender foothold, or, rather, when it had slipped from under him, he fell down, down

the eternal abyss. The only hold to which he could cling was the passion of his soul. As

he laid hands on it, it gave way, and fell with him into fathomless depths. We, each of

us, have also some master -passion; and if, which God forbid! we should lose our

foothold, we also would grasp this master-passion, and it would give way, and carry us

with it into the eternal dark and deep.

On that spring day, in the restfulness of Bethany, when the Master was taking His sad

and solemn Farewell of sky and earth, of friends and disciples, and told them what was

to happen only two days later at the Passover, it was all settled in the soul of Judas.

'Satan entered' it. Christ would be crucified; this was quite certain. In the general

cataclysm let Judas have at least something. And so, on that sunny afternoon, he left

them out there, to seek speech of them that were gathered, not in their ordinary

meeting-place, but in the High-Priest's Palace. Even this indicates that it was an

informal meeting, consultative rather than judicial. For, it was one of the principles of

Jewish Law that, in criminal cases, sentence must be spoken in the regular meeting -

place of the Sanhedrin.21 The same inference is conveyed by the circumstance, that the

captain of the Temple -guard and his immediate subordinates seem to have been taken

into the council,22 no doubt to concert the measures for the actual arrest of Jesus. There

had previously been a similar gathering and consultation, when the report of the raising

of Lazarus reached the authorities of Jerusalem.23 The practical resolution adopted at

that meeting had apparently been, that a strict watch should henceforth be kept on

Christ's movements, and that every one of them, as well as the names of His friends,

and the places of His secret retirement, should be communicated to the authorities, with

the view to His arrest at the proper moment.24

It was probably in professed obedience to this direction, that the traitor presented

himself that afternoon in the Palace of the High-Priest Caiaphas.25 Those assembled

there were the 'chiefs' of the Priesthood - no doubt, the Temple -officials, heads of the

course of Priests, and connections of the High-Priestly family, who constituted what

both Josephus and the Talmud designate as the Priestly Council.26 All connected with

the Temple, its ritual, administration, order, and laws, would be in their hands.

Moreover, it was but natural, that the High-Priest and his council should be the regular

official medium between the Roman authorities and the people. In matters which