of our Lord's chosen apostles. He followed our Lord during the whole course of His ministry. He forsook all for Christ's sake. He heard Christ preach and saw Christ's miracles. He preached himself. He spoke like the other apostles. There was nothing about him to distinguish him from Peter, James, and John. He was never suspected of being unsound at heart. And yet this man turns out at length a hypocrite, betrays his Master, helps his enemies to deliver Him up to death, and dies himself a " son of perdition." (John xvii. 12.) These are fearful things. But they are true.
Let the recollection of Judas Iscariot constrain every professing Christian to pray much for humility. Let us often say, " Search me, 0 God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts." (Psa. cxxxix. 23.) At best we have but a faint conception of the deceitfulness of our hearts. The lengths to which men may go in religion, and yet be without grace, is far greater than we suppose.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, the enormous potoer of the love of money. We are told that when Judas went to the chief priests and offered to betray his Master, they ** covenanted to give him money." That little sentence reveals the secret of this wretched man's fall. He was fond of money. He had doubtless heard our Lord's solemn warning, "Take heed and beware of covetous- ness." (Luke xii. 16.) But he had either forgotten it, or given it no heed. Covetousness was the rock on which he made shipwreck. Covetousness was the ruin of his soul.
We need not wonder that St. Paul called the love of money "the root of all evil." (1 Tim. vi. 10.) The history of the church is full of mournful proofs, that it is one of