THE KING’S BUSINESS
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ness; His judgment seat that shadows your path? What would you take? How many shekels?;. What smiles of Society? What sales or trades? What theater or tango tickets? What is your price? They say, but it is a lie, that “Every man has his price.” Not all would sell Jesus. “To them that be lieve he is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). To some the “whole world” (Mk. 8:36) seems as paltry a price as those “30 pieces” (Phil. 3:8). Judas closed the bargain and with his Saviour sold his soul. V. T h e F ate of J udas . —27:3-5. 1. His “Repentance.” The Greek implies not penitence but remorse, which burns the .heart but does not melt it. Even restitution in this case gave no ease to the conscience. The wages of .sin are soon discounted; all its- bargains are bad, are ruin at the last. Judas’ punishment was four-fold: (1) Re morse. (2) The shrinkage of his gain to far less than nothing, with all the bitter woe and no remaining mitigation. (3) Physical death, and by his own hand, with most revolting circumstances. Hanged to some anchorage 1. The Night in Which He was Be trayed. Momentous night ! The Almighty bound! the Eternal Word speechless! the Omniscient One betrayed! the Judge of all the earth put in the sweat box ! the Lamb of God led to the slaughter, that we might live ! the noblest of the flock sheared, that we might wear the garment of Salvation ! The last Passover having been slain, a Lamb of “nobler blood,” a sacrifice of an other order is led to the altar;—not “under the Law” but above it and contrary to it ;— not of the prescribed nature, the prescribed priest) nor in the prescribed time or manner, —thé “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,”—not of the Mosaic or J,evitic, but of the Abrahamic order (Gen. 22:2).
it gave way, precipitated his carcass to the rocks below and all his entrails “gushed out” (Acts 1 :18),—the hypocrite was turned inside out. (4) The “second death,” for he, “a devil,” went “to his own place” (Acts 1:25; John 6:70; Matt. 25 :41; Rev. 20:14). VI. T he P otter ’ s F ield .—27:6-10. 1. The Chief Sinners. Judas’s priests gave no absolution for his confession. “What is that to us? See thou to that." Judas saw to i t ! But .his co-conspirators could not so easily escape. It was something to them, more than to him! Think not that Judas was the arch-sinner. He repudiated the blood-money they, appropriated it as such in the name of charity. . His conscience writhed under the guilt, theirs were “seared as with a hot iron.” Hypocrites in the pew are not quite such devils as hypocrites in the priesthood. Like Judas’ their proposal was “not that they cared for the poor.” 2. The Monument of Jew and Judas. Such is the “Potter’s Field” in every grave yard, a name perpetuating the memory of the direst deed of time. 2. The Betrayal. Judas from the supper (John 13:30) went to the priests and re turned with the officers to take the Lord but He was, gone. Familiar with His ways (Luke 22:39) he led them, with the soldiers, the temple-watch, and the assembled rabble, to Gethsemane. Jesus stood forth from the shadows in the calm Paschal moonlight, and Judas approaching cried (aloud), “Hail, Master; and kissed him (profusely,— Gr’k.).” It is no uncommon thing with men to cry, All hail; with all hell at their heels; to bear curses in their hearts with kisses on their lips. So Joab (2 Sam. 20:9, 10) cried. “Art thou in health, my brother?” and stabbed Amasa under the ribs, “To say the truth, so Judas kiss’d his Master, And cried,—All hail! whereas he m eant all harm .”
LESSON V.—November L a -A rrest and T rial of TESusB-Matt 26; 47-68. G olden T ext .— As a lamb that is led to the slaughter , and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. —Isa. 53:7. I. T h e B etrayal and A rrest .— 47-57.
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