Evening journal., 1916-01-22
Judas IscaFi0f
Preached Table rnnco Last Evening By Lyon

There is q great multitude who are
guilty under the first Indictment.
They are the atheists, blasphemers,
the promoters of dens of vice and in
fanny, who are warning against faith
and virtue and purity, striving TO
dethrone God and righteousness and
TO enthrone wickedness. and cOrrup-
ton and crime. From their mouths
How the vile oaths of blasphemy, of
sneers and scOrn and curses and rid
lcule. BY all manner of falsehoods
ana fabrications, by ingeniously and
devilish invented lies they are fight
ing TO oppose such a work as this,
that mas, as its object the advance
ment of the kingdom of God. If the
demons in hell can be any worse
than some of their preparatory stu
dents doing their work on this earth
they go beyond the limits Of human
imagination
Then there are others who are
guilty Of treason against Christ. who
are not as open and avowed antag-
onists-they are not atheistic and
vicious. In a sense they are be-
levers and have some interest in
Christian work. but they put Christ
and His service subordinate to other
things. They are willing to be
Christians to q certain extent, in so
far as it does not interfere with their
pursuit of pleasure or gain their in
dulgence in appetite and nmuse-
ment. II is as if a man would
say to his wife. Il am willing to
spend one evening a week at home
with you" but he is spending the
larger share Of his time in the COM
pany Of and lavishing his affection
upon other women. That man may
not curse his wife. abuse her. or
starve her, and yet he is certainly a
traitor to her. Unles you are giving
Jesus first place in your life you
stand condemned for treason against
him.
Then there are many others who
also could not be branded as positive
ly wicked and vicious and criminal,
yet are guilty of treason on account
of the sin Of indifference. Suppose
an aged woman is walking down the
street, and a band of hoodlums are
hurting vile epithets at her. picking
up clods Of earth and handfuls OF
mud and throwing at her; you speak
to a well dressed young man and say
to him. who is that woman?" He re-
! plies. "She is my mother" "Why do
you not defend her and drive of that
| crowd of ruiiins?" He replies. 81 am
! not throwing stones or mud at her.
/ am taking no part in their villiany."
but that is not the question, what
! are you doing to defend her?" So
! the battle is on here in this city now
! between faith and doubt, between
virtue and vice. between purity,
righteousness, honesty and Godli-
ness on the one hand, and impurity.
lust, dishonesty and sin on the other
You cannot he neutral in this battle
To do so gives comfort and encour-
agement to the enemy. Every one
that believes in Jesus Christ as Son
of God regardless Of denomination OF
| church affiliations, is asked to take
| part in this crusade. These coming
days will determine very largely the
| moral and spiritual destiny of this
city for a generation I do not fear
the opposition of the openly wicked
and vicious. because Christianity wal
never permanently injured by hostil
ity-the foe we have to fight is apa
thy and Indifference. To try to re
main neutral under such conditions
is to bring You under the indictment
Of treason against our Saviour.
Why did Judas betray his Lord
There are some that think it was OF
account Of anger. You will recall
that when Mary anointed the head o.
Jesus with the precious spikenard
as he reclined at the feast, that Ju
das grumbled and said. "Why wa.
this waste Of the anOintment made p
There are many like Judas today
who grumble at the cost OF this tab
ernacle and the expense of thi
campaign. and other funds used fol
the promotion of Christian work
When the men were building the tab
ernacle in one city, a saloon keepe
passed back and forth to his meals
by the building, and would swear a
the workmen and say they were fool
TO put all that money into that biz
' shed when there were so many poo
people in the town that needed it. HI
did not consider the tens of thou
sands Of dollars that every year wer
worse than wasted in the liquor tina
became very much wrought up owe
the amount that was being spent 70
the evangelistic campaign Their
are Judas Iscariots on every hand
/, We are told that Jesus turned and re
buked Judas Some say that it wa
this that made Judas angry, and fror
the motive of revenge he went {
Christ's enemies and plotted for hi
betrayal But this motive does nc
! : seem sufficient. for the anger of Ju
das had time TO cool, and we ca
hardly believe it was strong enoug
to cause him to resort to this extrem
81 measure.
Then there are others who thin
that it was covetousness that cause
Z Judas to betray Christ. This is tn
usually accepted idea. But the e,
I planation likewise does not see
: sufficient; for Judas was a shrew
. financier, and at almost any time h
: could have flched more than thir
= pieces of silver from the commo
7 treasury II would have been II
: climax OF folly and OF short-sighteC
q ness to have cut off all hopes Of fl
!. ture gains by plotting his Master
I. destruction. IF il was the love
money that caused the betrayal. I
!, has certainly many followers at II
u present day.
d If, in our analysis Of the charact
:; i Of Judas, we are TO find the secret
u disloyalty. we must dig deeper tha
- this. II was due to self-will and r
= bellion. He was unwilling to acce