The proximity of the traitor at such a time troubled His spirit, so that He could no longer repress the awful secret, which for Judas' sake He had kept close to the last. "One of you shall betray Me." All had been guilty of shortcomings, and it was well that they should have some searchings of heart. But such a prediction as that, prefaced too with a solemn assurance, "Verily I say unto you," filled them with sorrow, and they asked, each in bewilderment, "Is it I?" Nothing but tenderness even now, Jesus still withholds the traitor's name, and answers, possibly so that only the nearest could hear, that it is one who had just dipped with Him in the dish. Then, perhaps raising His voice, He pronounced the most awful words that have ever been spoken: "The Son of Man indeed goeth, as it is written of Him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed: good were it for that man if he had never been born." We may search in vain through the pages of history for a more terrible sentence. In every age there have been open and determined sinners, who have perished, like Judas, almost in the very act of sinning-men like Belteshazzar, or the Apostate Julian-and we can hardly bring ourselves to think of them as otherwise than lost, but 66 we cannot tell what unknown and unseen ways of converting the heart, even at the last, God may have, and we dare not set limits to the Divine mercy. In the case of Judas, however, every ray of hope is excluded. He alone of all mankind has received his doom before the Day of Judgment, and as S. Luke tells us, has gone to his own place "—his Acts i. 25. own, not because he was predestined to it, but because by a life of constant, sustained deceit, in spite of the drawings of a more than human love, and at last by an act of unparalleled treachery and baseness, he earned it, appropriated it, and made it "his own." NOTES. 1 According to the Mosaic Law, Exod. xii. 15, this was to be done on the first of the seven days of unleavened bread, i.e. 15th of Nisan, but the Jews had made a point of doing it on the day previously. Lightfoot, Exercit. in Mark xiv. 12. 2 Cf. Pieritz, Gospels from a Rabbinic Point of View. 3 The Feast of Unleavened Bread properly began on the 15th and lasted till the 21st. Probably owing to the importance of "the search for leaven," the day on which it took place came to be reckoned as the first day, and the Feast was said to last eight days instead of seven. If, however, it could be shown that S. Mark wrote in Aramaic, all would be perfectly clear. "On the first day of unleavened bread " means, according to Jewish usage, on the day preceding" it. Cf. Exod. xii. 15, where Rashi explains "the first day" as "the day before." 4 Many names have been suggested,-Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathæa, Mark,—but there is no authority for any of them. 5 The belief that it was a chamber in the Temple is almost impossible. After all that had occurred the Jews could not have granted the followers of Jesus a place of meeting there. 6 That this refers to the great Christian Feast is shown by the rendering of the Syriac Version, "Breaking the Eucharist." 7 It is, in fact, referred in Deut. xvi. 1, 2, 3 to other parts than the Paschal lamb. 8 There are two accounts, one implying that the act was over, ἐμβάψας, the other that it was going on, έμβαπτόμενος. LXIV. The Sacrificial Aspect of the S. MARK XIV. 22-25. 22. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat this is My body. 23. And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them: and they all drank of it. 24. And He said unto them, This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. 25. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. If we follow SS. Mark and Matthew we can have no doubt that Judas had left the Supper-room before our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist, and gave to His Apostles the precious Food of His Body and Blood. S. Luke's Gospel, however, suggests that his departure followed the institution; but there are sufficient grounds for concluding that the order of time is not preserved in this part of his narrative. An instinctive feeling of reverence makes us shrink from the idea that Christ could have tolerated the traitor at the first celebration of a Feast which, throughout all time, was to be a symbol of S. Aug. in Johan. Tr. lxii. 3. Pss. xxxix. love and union. Further, it would seem morally impossible that Judas should be able to remain after realising that his guilty secret was divulged. And yet again S. John furnishes direct evidence that after the sop, which revealed to the disciples who it was that should betray Him, Jesus told him to do the fatal deed "quickly;" and accordingly "he went immediately out." It is difficult to understand how, in the face of this testimony, not a few of the early Fathers, the S. Ambr. in Schoolmen, and the Reformers, should have thought that he was present. Even Bishop Wren,2 at the last revision of the Prayer-Book, was unable to persuade his colleagues to alter the words of the Enar. and de Tobia, xiv. Aquinas, iii. 81. Summ. Pars Exhortation which appeared to favour this view, "lest, after the taking of that Holy Sacrament, the devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas." Taverner, Post. 187. It was then, we believe, in the course of the Last Supper, after the interruption caused by the terrible revelation of Judas's design, that Jesus took a cake of unleavened bread-probably the last that was usually eaten—and invoking upon it a blessing, that it might fulfil the end for which He was setting it apart, proceeded to deliver it to the Eleven, with the declaration, "This is My Body." There was no Paschal lamb on the table for them to partake of, |