CHAPTER II.

THE TRAITOR.

QUITTING the city, Jesus went up the slope of the Mount of Olives, and sat down there over against the Temple, looking across upon its marble walls and golden pinnacles. It was evening; and the setting sun touched it with level rays, whilst the valley beneath lay in deep shadow and gloom. It seems as if He could not turn away from it, though He had left it for ever. It was now a den of thieves, the house of hypocrisy, not His Father's house. The disciples sat apart from Him, distressed and discouraged. It had been altogether an agitating day. Their Master had had opportunities again and again of proclaiming His Messiahship, and had neglected or avoided them. His last vehement denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees had probably given as much offence to the people of Judea as His answer about the tribute money had done to the Galileans. He seemed bent upon alienating His followers, and upon thrusting back the greatness offered to Him.

At length Peter and Andrew, with James and John, came to Him privately to ask when these things that He had spoken of should come to pass. He spoke to them in terms so clear of the immediate future that they could no longer hope to see Him ascend an earthly throne, such as they had been dreaming of. He foretold sorrows such as had not been from the beginning of the creation. But He distinctly declared Himself to be that Judge and King before whom all nations should be finally gathered for judgment and for separation. As He finished His long and sorrowful discourse He said to these four favourite disciples, 'Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.'

This was probably the first word they had heard of treachery, and it could not but have shocked and troubled them greatly. Who among His friends, those who were trusted with the secret of His hiding-places, could be base enough to turn traitor? It was a terrible thought. A spy was among them who was about to betray their Lord. Who could it be? Hastily they would run over the list of His nearest and most trusted followers, but they could not fix upon any one. Yet from that moment there was no rest for them from suspicion and dread of the unknown betrayer, from whom their Master could not be secured.

The next day, Wednesday, and most of Thursday, seems to have been a time of rest and peaceful retirement

for Jesus. Probably He passed the hours chiefly with His disciples and His mother, in quiet conversation, or in silent thought, concerning all He had done and taught, and all they were to do when He was gone. Somewhere on the Mount of Olives, perhaps in the house of Lazarus, the solemn hours glided by, neither wholly sorrowful, nor wholly glad. Their Lord was still with them, and it was hard to believe that days of mourning were about to dawn. They could not see the coming sorrow, whilst their eyes still caught the light of His tender smile. They could not hear the murmur of the gathering storm, whilst they were listening to His gracious words. A happy, sorrowful, solemn time, such as never was so spent on earth, before or since. His loved ones were around Him, those whom His Father had given to Him, and none of them were lost, save one.

That lost one was not with them the whole of the day. Judas, the purse-bearer, had business to do in Jerusalem; so he left the friends and the Master, with whom he had ate and drunk and wandered to and fro for twelve months, knowing them more intimately than many a man knows his brothers. He was weary of it all, and yesterday he had seen every vision of wealth fade away into a too certain prospect of persecution as a follower of the Prophet of Nazareth. The purse at his side felt empty; it would always be empty unless he took care to fill it for himself. Probably, on his way to the city, he had to pass by a field he had set his mind on, and which

he had perhaps partly purchased. It was not his yet, and it did not seem likely it would ever become his whilst he served his present Master. He entered Jerusalem with his mind made up. He knew one way by which he could get money to buy that field.

A council of the Great Sanhedrim was being held in the palace of the high-priest. The important question laid before the seventy-one chief men of the nation was how Jesus might be taken by craft and killed. Not on the feast day, lest there should be an uproar among the people it must be done by subtlety, in the absence of the multitude. But when was Jesus alone? Where did He conceal Himself when He left the city at nightfall? There were thousands of tents and booths erected round the city by the pilgrims, who could find no lodging-place within the walls; and it would be impossible to find Him. They needed some one to betray Him.

This need was met in Judas. They had not even to seek him, for he came voluntarily to bargain with them how much they should give him for delivering his Master to them. They were glad, and promised to give him thirty pieces of silver, to be paid when they had their prey in their hands. Possibly, Judas felt in a measure justified by his knowledge of the miraculous powers of Christ, if He only chose to use them for escaping from His enemies, or even for destroying them. He, who could call Lazarus from the dead, had but to speak the word, and no foe could stand before Him. And if Jesus were

bent upon death, it was but prudent to secure himself, and make some provision for the dreary future, in place of that which he had forsaken to follow Him.

Did Judas go back in the fall of the evening to the tranquil company on Olivet, and take his place among them, with a smile upon his face, and news from the city on his lips? Did he sit down with them to their simple, homely supper, listening to catch up what arrangements had been made for the night; where his Master should sleep, and who would be nearest to Him, within hearing? Did he see the worn, anxious face of Mary, smiling only when she met the eyes of her son, who had lived with her so many peaceful years under their lowly roof at Nazareth? Did he join in the evening hymn sung before they separated for the night, the last they would thus spend together? We must suppose that he did something like this; that he was still their comrade and fellow-apostle, Judas; and that none guessed the business that had taken him to Jerusalem, nor the bargain he had made there.