The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-20
THE WORLDS WORST TRAITOR.

liz IntcTIldtIOndI sunday School
Lesson for October 25 is Jesus and
Judas."-Matt. 26:14-25: 1850: 27:
$40.
(By William I. Ellis.)
only a very few names are known
TO all the civilized world; and there
is but n that is the synonym Of
treason, ingratitude and black dis
loyalty. To say Judas is to call up
the worlds one personality whose
name is synonymous with all that hu-
mainly instinctively despises. The
worst adjective that can be applied to
any man today is to call him a
Judas"
Yet Judas. the Traitor was once
Judas the loyal, warm-hearted, as
piring Jewish patriot, seeking to fol-
low the best light he could find. AS
q mother sees her innocent babe in
the face of her murderer son. so we
cannot help recalling the other Judas,
the man who might have been.
OrthOdox-But a Traitor.
Only one of the twelve apostles
came from ultra-orthodox Judea, and
he was Judas. The aristocracy of the
Jewish religion was found in the Pro-
vince of Judea. They counted them
selves a little more loyal to Jehovah
and the law, than their fellow Jews
from other parts. By ancestery and
environment Judas had greater ad-
vantageS than his comrades. He
was n ultra-orthodoX disciple whose
nome was nearest to the temple and
its religious privileges.
III any man is counting on his fam
lily line, or his social and religious
standing to deliver him from disloy-
atty and sin he would better taxi q
long look at the case Of Judas. No
man is SO high that he may not fall
lOW. Church mnmhorcbip 6ooc 80
save one from treason to Christ.
Even activity in religious work is no
guarantee that one may not fall into
grievous sin. The first simple mes
sage Of the Judas story is to be self
~distrustful and modest. LET him
that take heed lest he fall"
zone ship drives East, another drives
West,
the selfsame breezes blow:
lis the set of the sails, and not the
gales.
That bids them where to go.
Like the winds Of h air, are the
vars Of the fates,
AS we journey along through life.
lis the set Of the soul that decides
the goal,
And not the storm or the strife"
My Way, Or Not At All
NO mar knows the h1-r when Ju-
das, the loyal, expectant and trust
Iul disciple, began to change into
judas, the resentful, scheming,
avariclous traitor. Evidently, his
first disloyalty was unwillingness to
trust Christ's plan in common with
the other disciples, he did not ap-
prove of Christ setting up a spiritual
kingdom instead of a temporal. All
ms expectations had been directed
toward the restoration of earthly
power. He had always held in mind
me possibility OF a large place for
himself. Sure Of his own worldly
wisdom he could not agree to what
ne regarded as an anti-climax for
the career of Jesus and his friends.
He represented a large number of us
VINO are willing to serve God, but on
our w terms.
Then Judas was a lover Of money.
Avarice ate into his soul like a gan
creme. The old Church fathers label
ed avar1ce as one of the seven deadly
SINS, and with reason. 1t is not Only
a sin in itself, but it begets a whole
warm of other sins.
Perfectly respectable and law
aDldlng persons are the ones likeliest
to be overwhelmed by this sin Of
avarice. which Stays more souls than
the sin OF murder. We are fond of
calling ii thrift "prudence." "husi-
AA
ness sagacity," when it is nothing
but sheer. stark, ruthless love Of
money. Avaric made Judas a muir
derer and a traitor; even as it has
changed many another G~od-fearing
man into a hard, cruel, suspicious,
money-grabbing oppressor Of his fell
low men. In the black shadow OF the
judas crime may we not forswear
solemnly the beginnings of the deadly
sin of avarice
Running With q New Crowd.
Sweeter, tenderer and more bean
tiful than all the prayer meetings ever
heia was mat which Jesus shared
with his disciples on the last night in
the upper room. The comfort of that
gathering has blessed the world for
nineteen centuries since. Judas shirk-
ed IT. He had no taste for PRAYER
meeungs-a symptom Of his moral
ana spiritual! decline, which h did
not fully realize himcolf IT. S-Ss