knows Christ, and repels the assertion with oaths and imprecations, thus adding the sin of perjury to his other offences.

Yet it was at this moment that the Lord, touched with the tenderest compassion, cast upon Peter a look of the most affecting love, and caused his grace to descend upon him, and break his heart of stone. Then all that had till that moment been hidden from Peter, flashed at once upon him. His presumption in remaining so long inattentive to the advice of his Master: his ne glecting to pray with him in the garden of Gethsemane, though his Lord had condescended to interrupt his own prayer three several times, that he might bid him watch and pray at the same time with himself: his rashness in exposing himself, weak as he was, to so sore a temptation : his base ingratitude towards his Lord and his God, who had honoured him so far as to place him in the ranks of his apostles: his vile cowardice in denying him so suddenly, so publicly, and so repeatedly, when standing near him;— the remembrance of all this rushed at once to his mind, and in the agony of his repentance, he went out, and wept bitterly.

But why should he have gone out? some may

ask. Was not the spot where the offence was committed the fittest place to seek to repair it? Those who had heard the repeated denials of Peter, ought they not to have been the witnesses of his tears and of his repentance? In not publicly confessing his Master, was he not continuing to deny him?

In answer to this I would first remark, that had it pleased Christ, he could have caused his apostle to make this open avowal of his sin; but it would not have agreed with his design to cure that pride of heart, and that presumption, which had been the cause of all his guilt. He destined him to bear a greater and far more glorious testimony; it was his will that Peter should be brought before the council of the Jews, and that in the very face of those who had conspired against the life of his Lord, he should assert that Christ was risen from the dead, and was seated at the right hand of the Father; and it was also his will to prepare him for this glorious testimony by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

But, besides this, our Saviour has taught us, in the person of his apostle, how carefully we should

D

watch over the first dawnings of affection which we feel towards him. Imprudence may extinguish them, by exposing them to too great a trial. They must be cherished and strengthened before we place them in danger. Nor does this caution show a timidity inconsistent with sincerity of heart and a sound conversion.

IX.

THE DESPAIR OF JUDAS.

"JUDAS, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," Matt. xxvii. 3, 4.

In the repentance of Judas there are many circumstances which are to be found in godly repentance. He confesses his sin; he characterises it as a most odious one; for he owns himself a traitor, who had betrayed a righteous man to death. He accuses himself before the same chief priests who had instigated him to this dreadful deed. He brings them back the money with which they had bought his services. He braves their anger and their violence; and in

this manner he partly removes the scandal he had caused by plotting against the life of his Master. God permitted all this, in order that the innocence of his Son should, on all sides, receive the testimony of unexceptionable witnesses, and that all those who were concerned in his death should declare, in various ways, that it was perfectly unmerited.

Judas himself made restitution of the wages of his guilt. He returned the whole; he did it without the persuasion of any one; he gave it back in the very face of their refusal to receive it; he cast it down publicly in the temple.

What then was wanting to a repentance so public, and to all appearance so humble, and which was not the effect of the fear of death, since he was in the enjoyment of perfect health? There was neither hope nor love in the repentance of this miserable man. He should have hastened to fall down at the feet of his Master, to implore his mercy, and that tender compassion, of which he had received affecting proofs even since his treachery. But he did not for an instant think of acting thus. He could neither bear the contemplation of his crime, the