by the price of treachery. But he had forgotten his manhood. He had forgotten that man has a conRcience, and that a guilty conscience is like the raging sea, which cannot bo stillml. He had shut his eyes to everything but the reward he coveted. But now the storm is rising. Remorse begins her terrible work. Vain regret, agonizing fear, terrible self-reproach, unbearable shame,-all rush upon his soul, and distract and tear it. 'l'he remembrance, perhaps, of the Lord's goodness; some distinct impressionR of his wonderful love; the recollections, maybe, of some true happiness in his service before the curse of covetousness lit upon him ; flashes of the hope once entertained of the kingdom of heaven, but now turned into despair ;-these move his heart only to make it capable of feeling more bitterly what he now was, and what he must be for ever. His whole existence a curse by his own exceeding wickedness I "Good were it for me if I had not been born ! I have no place to hide in from the terrors of God-the terrors of God's goodness I I am, and must be for ever. And God is, and must be for ever I But I cannot abide God's presence I I cannot abide my own consciousness ! " Such were the .naddeninp: thoughts of the son of perdition-of him whose iniquity had gained its reward. He tries to rush from consciousness, to escape from himself and from God. He flings from him the accursed silver; but he cannot fling away the guilt of blood. And so he takes a halter and hangs himself, and goes to his own place. But let us reckon up his gains and losses. He had gained thirty pieces of silver-the reward of his iniquity. But he had lost his apostleship, the hip:hest office on earth; his throne, the highest place of man in heaven, under Jesus Christ; his peace of mind, his self- respect, his power of enjoying life, the esteem of all good men ; any place among men save that of shame, and ignominy, and disgrace, nod abhorrence. He had lost his own soul-his life; all the pleasures of time, all the joys of eternity. This was "the reward of iniquity," which came upon him by the inevitable justice of God. And this is written for our learning, that we may ponder it and be wise. And we are led to the same conclusion by following up in any other case, and comparing, the twofold rewards of iniquity. The conclusion to which we are inevitably led is- I. That the three things which are necessary to a man's happiness are: 1. The approval of his own conscience. 2. The sense of being approved by God. 3. The esteem of his fellow-men, ar.d of all God's rational creatures. 11. That by iniquity all these three are forfeited, and that the gains or reward of iniquity are as inadequate a compensation for such loss as Esau's mess of pottage was for the loss of his birthright. The gains, the pleasures, the temporal rewards of iniquity, come and go like a dream, like a tale, like a flash of lightning. The eternal reward of iniquity abides; terrible in its undiscovered vastness, awful in its unknown horrors, and in its fixity of tenure: fixity written in the phrase which tells us of Judas that he went "to bis own place." III. We learn that every man has the place in eternity which be made his own in time. A man's own place in the eternal world is that which falls to him by the unchanging laws of God, according to his choice of good or evil in this world. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ has, indeed, opened a way of righteousness to those who had seemed to have lost it for ever; but to those who obstinately love darkness rather than light, and cling to iniquity in the very face of mercy, there remains in the nature of things no other end than that, like Judas, they go each one" to his own place."
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-B.-Ohrist's misswn and ovrs. The introduction to this narrative of" the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" suggests to us truths concerning the mission of our Divine Lord and also concerning our own. I. TnE MISSION OF CHRIST. We gather from the opening words of Lnke that this was fourfold, and may be included under these heads: 1. Miraculous works. He "began to do" (ver. 1). The "mighty works" of Jesus were far from being mere "wonders;" they were (1) deeds of pure beneficence, (2) acts called for by the circum- stances of the hour, making an irresistible appeal to the heart of love and the hand of power, (3) illustrations of the Divine principle~ which he came to establish, as well as 10 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [oH. I, 1-26,