The Newtown bee., 1895-03-29


 Have not chosen you twelve, and one or you IS a dev1l?"
 The name of Judas has been the by- ward of the human race. It has become the compact synonym of all that is Greacherous and vile. It has been band fed from mouth to mouth, from lip to lip, as thing of loathing and seorn. The deed of Arnold, selling the liberties of the country whose cause he had so bravely defended, for commission in the British Army, has been judged the deed of patriot compared with the act of the one, who, in Cnrist's own speech, is called ''the son of perdition." The Italian poet Dante, in his Vision of Hell, has consigned Judas to the lowest circle of the damned, as the sole sharer with Satan himself of the very uttermost pun ishment; and the judgment of mankind, with scarce an exception, has joined in the poets verdict.
 But all this being true, does this char acter utterly defy explanation? Must he stand forever to us as a sort of mon- strosity, more than man in the sense that he was nearest to devil? Does he wholly lack our comprehension and our sympathy? We think not. A fearful outburst of wickedness does not stand as an isolated fact in any mans life. Often sturdy tree, it's circumference measuring many feet round, that has stood the blasts of many generations, suddenly topples over through the beat ing of a moderate storm; and, as it's giant form lies prostrate, almost calling forth our pity, we discover that worms l had eaten away the heart of the tree, 1 and decay had left but the outer shell. | 50 it is with character. A good man never falls with one stroke of evil passion from thorough consecration to God into | utter devotion to Satan. There's can- | ker at the root that for years has been silently eating it's way through good | mortals, until all that is excellent is gone, and the tyrannical passion has full control.
 LET US BRIEFLY SKETCH
 the life of this man whose fall was so awful and so complete and sec if we can not find proof of the thought we have uttered. Judas Iscariot he was called, I. e., he was Judas, "the man of Kerioth,' small village in southern Judaa. He was thorough Jew. He
 was the only one of the chosen twelve
 who came from Judah. The rest were of Galilee. They were of mixed peo- l ple-Galilee was the ''circle of the Gen tlles,' it's people were freer, more open TO new and strange ideas than the peo- pie of Judaa. They were of kindred blood and faith. But Judas was devoted co the Israel of the past, his hopes were l bound up with the Israel of promise, in which, as the mistress of the nations, | all tribes should be blessed. The very | air about his southern home was filled with the ancient traditions of his people. It's scenes were consecrated by their k,so oron, the fathers of his race, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had dwelt, and here, too, in the rock-hewn sepulchre, their | bones were buried. There, in the noun tain village of Bethlehem, Ruth, the Moabitess, coming out of her native land with Naomi, had gleaned in the fields of BoaZ and to him, as her husband, had borne the progenitor of David, the ideal prince of the Jewish people. Thes e stories coloI ed the dreams of his youth and brIghtened the hopes of his man. | hood. In his southern home Judas broods over the problems of his race; he thinks of the glorious promise made to | Abraham and it's miserable historic fail ure-the nation one of the weakest prov inces in the mighty Roman Empire, the hated Roman cohorts an everyday sight upon the streets of the Holy City. But still he believes in the destiny of his peo- pie and dares to confess that, though he pays tribute to Caesar, the Jewish Mes siah is his king. Filled with these hopes and fears, one day, at Jerusalem, he meets Jesus.
 THE ONE HAS COME
 south from Nazareth, the other north from Kerioth. He hears Jesus, sees Him drive the money-changers from the Temple and do works that seem to prove Him teacher come from God. His hopes appear to be finding their realiza- | tion. He believes Jesus the expected Messiah; but his belief is always in a Messiah cast in his own mould, one who should set up great temporal power that would make the Roman eagles cow CT at His feet, and in which there would be places of political honor for all the disciples. He follows Jesus into Cali lee. He is pleased with the miracles that are wrought, the converting of the water into wine, the feeding five thous- and on the slopes that rise from Genesa- ret. All seems to be going well. His ideal is fast changing into actual shape.
 But the crisis. Tie minimizing popu- lace, charmed with the wonders per formed at Christ's hands, regard Him as miracle-w orker alone. They drea m that with such leader for their armies who, at a glance, at beck of his hand, could provision starving thousands, though marching over desert sands, and heal with single word the wounds made by the carnage of war, how easily the world could be brought to do honor to them. They are eager to make Him king. But to Jesus their appreciation is unwelcome. He sees how wofully they have misinterpreted sHis true mission, seeking the loaves and the fishes instead of the bread and water of life. From that moment change comes over Judas. This attitude of the Master is total sur prise to him. It means a complete up- turning Of his plans. He now follows Christ and His Apostles, but it is with spiritless, half-hearted zeal. He looks every whit disappointed man. Jesus, at times growing weary of mingling with the noisy crowds that ever are thronging His footsteps. retires to some quiet spot and speaks of the coming visit to Jerusa- lem and His bitter sufferings and death. The words fall almost meaningless on the ears of all the disciples. Was that to be the issue of their hopes, defeat, dis death? Thomas catches a faint hint of their meaning and declares his readiness even to die with Christ. | Impetuous Peter positively asserts that | though all should be offended because of | Christ, yet would not he. Judas shows | his fierce dissatisfaction by his harsh | criticism upon the waste of the precious ointment that is poured upon the Savior's | feet by Mary at the house of Simon the leper.
 And so the rivalry of feeling goes on, the wonderful attractiveness of Christ's | love pulling one way, ard he worship of Mammon and the lust for earthly power pulling the other. Over hem all the great heart of Christ tri-