The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-28
nTHE KISS OF JUDAS"
THE TEXT FOR A SERMON
Rev. J. Cumming Smith Interests
Large Congregation at the
Tabernacle Church.
PROCESS OF REASONING

Rev. j. Cumming Smith at the Tabernacle
Presbyterian Church yesterday morning.
HIS text was Matthew xiv. IS. In part. he
said:
Judas had never forgiven the Master for
q singing criticism at a banquet. More
than once the dark-hearted disciple had
received an arrow OF disapproval from
Jesus. and these CALLING corrections. COM
bined with his msers lust for gold,
prompted him TO the base betrayal of the
Lord. Vengeance is too sweet TO our hu-
be.
'sIn itself the act is base in the extreme
as you pick IL 10 pieces. Ii involves the vto-
laticn OF every known principle OF recti-
tuce. and therefore its immortality OF tur-
pitucc can TO degree be accounted Tor
Still IL Is remarkable that the apostles have
thrown gentle mantle of oblivion over the
apostates treachery. They fain would
cover IL from sight and no doubt their own
desertion OF the Master in the lone. dark
hour OF His lie reminded them OF GER
tain share in the crime.
The second part, however, Is the critical
fact. We read that in agony OF re-
morse Judas took his own life What does
this involve? Does IL prove a quick rush
OF repentance? A suicide may be explained
by sheer desperation. or b. a daring de-
nance and rebellion against nature. or by
a slow-oozing melancholy, and upon them
all God OF love must look down with a
sparing Digy. Nevertheless an act or SELF
obstruction does not necessarily carry with
Il the element OF repentance But We nope
that In the traitorous soul there was mar
bored some such genuine motive, pro-
found sorrow for his dastardly outrage in
plotting with q band OF midnight assassins
and By kiss betraying the loveliest soul
of history.
Judas was not dead as a stone, after
all In the most depraved human there
are elements that If touched viii respond
to life. Down beneath the ash-pile or
wrongs and nameless crimes there are en-
bers which have not been quenched, and
If the grace of God can fan them into a
flame the mans soul is recovered 1t be-
gins 10 recover at least. We believe in
depravity as a universal fact, but far pro-
founder IS the fact that men are retr1ev-
able The loss can be regained. The prod
igal can be reinstated. The slave can be
made free. The error can be revamped.
There are laws, TO be sure, 10 be followed
In order TO atone restoration, but restora-
ton of any willing soul lying in the low
est ditch OF evil IS our undylng nope ana
agreeable 10 the fatherhood OF God In
Christ The third fact We find In the stint
ed statement of the Bible is that Judas
went to his own place, and this statement
sheds very little light. When We say that
a man goes TO his own room In the hotel
state very little and certainly no one
can infer from the bare phrase whether his
room is on the lowest floor or the sixth or
where the Scripture carefully guards the
secrets of the future from our pry1ng curl
osity. This much. however Is clear, that
there is place for a man and a man Tor
a place in the future schedule of things.
Every soul finds its due haunt. The eagle
to the crag, the wild duck to the ricebeds,
corn field, the humming bird to the flower
bed-all birds find their cline and con-
genial environment. Amid the necessary
mystery overhangfng the mighty oceans or
time before us, IL is satisfactory to believe
on the highest authority that as this world
is orderly. rhythmical, cosmical, so the Sc
quent world is laid out on the basis OF I'M
erring law and fitness and progress.
1T sounds. after this picture OF regu-
lated and harmonious future, like Earring
discord when we venture the hope that Ju-
das felt a spark of repentance before ms
CHASTITY suicide, and was, therefore, car
ried forward into what is called heaven.
Ii would appear TO make the future heaven
the rendezvous OF a rabble, the meeting
point OF characters utterly at variance with
each other.
so il seems. But we must. to some
tent, reorganize our theory of heaven.
Pictures OF fountains and golden streets
and tuneful singing birds are sweetly suit
able for the nursery, but as men make
Roadway in knowledge and earnestness on
the issues of life they must probe down
10 the real facts under all these symbolic
figures.
s'By heaven we mean the condition of
the heart looking upward. Wherever
there is love, if ever so faint, wherever
there is the desire for obedience 10 God
If ever so lame, there is heaven in its germ
and degree. The mere spot on the map is
little or nothing. 1t Is not locality, but
character. that is critical in determination
The sunbeam may light on rose bank or
dung heap. may pierce the window of
loving home of home eaten with broils
and hate, may rest the snowy summit
or on the sterile desert. no matter where
the sunbeam travels IL receives poten-
ton and communicates its own pure ray.
SOULS ACCOMPANIMENTS
Now. then. 1T follows that a soul whose
dominant quality is uplook and sincere
pursuit of God may have many accompani-
mcnts CT evil tendencies transmitted from
past days or from ancestral vices Such
soul is intrinsically a saved soul, and is
all the more 10 be admired If, in its lonely
struggle upwards. IL is retarded by weak
weakness is suddenly and magically elm
mated from our nature is surely not con-
formable with science or Scripture. All
the teachings OF Scripture are based on
the law Of gradualness. The parallels of
Jesus are eloquent with the idea of pa
cuts but little figure in the intrinsic his
tory of a soul. The stream passes under
the gloom OF the tunnel. but issues on the
stream. The bird in flight fits through
the darkness of the wood but passes out
again into the sunny spaces the same bird.
Ths eradication or vital and Intrinsic quail
ity is a very serious process. Judas if
repentant at the last moment was
received b. God. So was the thief on the
cross. / admit that repentance at the last
hour carries faint of meanness. But far
meaner would be the doctrine that God
could shut the door In any seekers face.
J. for one. will never limit Gods love save
by one fact, and that Is mans free choice.
He will rot force this grace where a man
will keep the door locked against Him. But
that is the only exception the over
whelming influence OF the fatherhood of
God overreacning all the ages of time and
eternity.
Now. then. if death does not
necessarily and Immediately whiten
and purify soul then there
venture 10 term a Protestant purgatory,
that is not midway sphere of torture and
abysms Of fire and sensuous pain but a
provision In the iliimitable heavens for
all degrees of sincerity from Judas and
the thief up to the star-crowned Paul and
Sturgeon and Brooks; that there will be
levels there as here; some high some
trembling the lower rungs of the eternal
ladder; but al looking upward and work
ing upward. This Is heaven universal
KNOWLEDGE OF HEAVEN.
Most assurcdly this view can be es-
tab,ished 1ane there are some mufied
scriptures for IT'D. heaven will cease TO be- SC
artificial and unhuman. The trouble lies
Just here. The creeds of some have swung
10 one extreme OF purgatOry and sensuous
representation (and perhaps touched souls
thereby and the creeds Of Professionalism
have swung over 10 the opposite extrem,
OF austerity and risidity: perhaps there
Is room for the worlds thought TO stop nj
some sane point between these extremes
" IL can 10 will do more 10 bridge the
chasm between two great cOmmunions