B. We see how they are walking through hard ways, and weary themselves in the way of iniquity (Wisdom v.). If we work for Jesus Christ as they work for their master, Satan, we shall be saints.

C. That by subtlety they might apprehend Jesus.

Ever since our Saviour began to draw the people to Him by His preaching and miracles, these jealous men have been plotting against His life, and many times they have made a determined effort to get Him into their power and to make away with Him by stoning or some other form of murder. In vain our Saviour expostulates with them and says: Many good works I have shown to you from My Father; for which of those works do you stone Me? (St. John x.). He has always failed to soften them. And, as we have seen, the raising of Lazarus doubled and trebled their mad envy. From that day they have been labouring with untiring activity to procure His death. We have seen how the whole of yesterday they were bringing forward their ablest men from all the different sects of Jerusalem to catch Him in His speech, that they might give Him up to the Roman Governor. They failed utterly. His hour was not come.

But here they are again to-day-maddened more than ever by the victories our Lord won yesterday-with that persevering will which our Blessed Saviour so much wishes to find in His own followers, holding a Council, and meditating vain things against the Lord and against His Christ. And now they can think of no other plan but trickery. By subtlety they are to apprehend Him and put Him to death. By trickery Pilate is to be won to their side. By trickery they are to persuade the Governor that their one aim is to be loyal to Rome. By trickery they are to draw Jesus to some spot where they can safely surround Him and seize Him without provoking a rising of the people.

In the Talmud a detailed narrative is given of the way in which certain astute Jews pretended to be disciples of Jesus, and drew Him to Jerusalem where He was seized

and killed. That was the Jewish fiction; but it was true as far as this, that His enemies trusted to subtlety.

D. But it was not to be as they willed. Neither their force nor their subtlety was to prevail against Jesus. He was offered because it was His own will (Isaias liii.). He was to become their prisoner and victim in the hour when He willed it, in the place He had chosen, after the manner approved by Himself. For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God? (Psalm xvii.). They have intended evils against Thee; they have devised counsels which they have not been able to establish (Psalm xx.).

"Teach us, O compassionate Lord Jesus, ever to say with Thy Holy Patriarch Joseph: Can we resist the will of God?" (Genesis 1.).

E. By subtlety.

We must never forget that Satan carries on his war much more by subtlety than by force. Hence the lament of his dupes throughout eternity is, We fools. The serpent deceived me.

"From the snares of the devil deliver us, O Lord." "Lead us not into temptation."

STATION II.

But they said, Not on the festival-day, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people (St. Matt. xxvi. 5).

A. Unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they laboured who built it (Psalm cxxvi.).

These blinded Rulers have passed two decrees.

(1) That Jesus is to be destroyed by subtlety. God's decree is "not by subtlety," and God prevails.

But

(2) They decree, Not on the festival-day; but God's decree is, Yes, on the festival-day, and on no other day, shall the Lamb of God be slain.

"O wise God, O good God, O God our Father, may Thy most just and most holy will be always done on earth as in Heaven."

B. All their wisdom, all their subtlety is baffled and quite powerless. Our Blessed Saviour clearly foretold a week ago near Jericho how the end was to be brought about: The Son of Man shall be betrayed to the Chief Priests (St. Mark x.). The avowed and raging enemies can do nothing till a traitor appears to help them. A traitor, that is, a secret enemy disguised as a friend, a wolf in sheep's clothing; one of His own, who uses the knowledge he has acquired while a disciple, His own familiar, must come to be guide and leader to His enemies.

If My enemy had reviled Me, our Lord said by His Psalmist, I would perhaps have hidden Myself from him; but thou, a man of one mind with Me, My guide and My familiar (Psalm liv.).

C. Mark well how much more powerful for evil a traitor is than open enemies. Apostate priests and bishops were the founders and apostles of the great heresies. Traitors have ever been Satan's chosen allies and disciples, his twelve, and his seventy-two, whom, in mocking travesty of our Lord's holy methods, he sent before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come (St. Luke x.).

The traitor is within the fortress, and can in the moment of danger open the doors and let in the enemy. Our Blessed Saviour has more reason to say than any one else, "Save me from My friends"; from weak friends, half-hearted friends, friends without a will, treacherous friends, who when the battle is raging turn false and spread ruin. What can a general do when in the critical moment one of his trusted officers leads his men away to the enemy and jeopardises the whole army?

“The enemies of a man are those of his own household" (St. Matt. x.). We are now those of our Lord's household. We must be either thorough and faithful friends, or, if traitors, His worst enemies.

D. The Priests and Scribes and Pharisees found not what to do to Him (St. Luke xix.), till the traitor came to

help and guide.

They found not what to do to Him, for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. They were helpless till the traitor came to their assistance. For some time past, as we have seen, the Chief Priests and Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where He was, they should tell, that they might apprehend Him (St. John xi.). But all in vain. He came and went as He pleased, and eluded their search till the traitor offered his service. A man of one mind with Me; My guide and My familiar. One of His own Twelve.

E. Even then, our Divine Lord could, of course, had it so pleased Him, have baffled the treachery of Judas as easily as He rendered void all the subtlety of the Rulers. But, from the inspired words of the Psalm, it would seem as if the bruised Heart of our Saviour did not wish to make any further resistance, as soon as His own chosen disciple became the leader of His enemies. If My enemy had reviled Me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he had spoken great things against Me, I would perhaps have hidden Myself from him. But thou, a man of one mind, My guide and My familiar: who did take sweet meats together with Me: in the house of God we walked with consent. From my enemy I would perhaps have hidden Myself, but when My own chosen disciple comes against Me, I resist no more.

Judas was His guide and His familiar in the sense that he was allowed to manage for Him temporal concerns, and, no doubt, our Lord in many things followed his

advice.

In literature we are told how Julius Cæsar, when his own trusted friend, Brutus, stabbed him with his sword, covered his face with his mantle and struggled no more.

SCENE XVIII.

THE ROAD FROM MOUNT OLIVET SOUTHWARD, TO THE HILL OF EVIL COUNSEL. WEDNESDAY EVENING.

STATION I.

And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And he went and discoursed with the Chief Priests and the magistrates how he might betray Him to them (St. Luke xxii. 3, 4).

A. Satan entered into Judas. Not now for the first time. Long before our Blessed Saviour said: One of you is a devil (St. John vi.). But as occasion offered, Satan induced his wretched dupe to commit new sins, and thus became more and more master of this miserable soul.

One of the curses pronounced in the 108th Psalm against this most unhappy man is, Set thou the sinner over him, and may the devil stand at his right hand, to lead and guide to ruin the fallen child of Heaven who has freely elected to be Satan's slave.

"Lead us not into temptation, O Lord, but deliver us from evil. May Thy Kingdom come, more and more."

B. At the supper in Bethany, as we have seen, the avaricious heart of Judas was goaded to madness because Magdalen's alms did not come into his dishonest keeping. Ever since that hour he has been meditating how to regain as much as he has lost.

C. Now he hears our Lord say that after two days He shall be delivered up. If so, no time is to be lost. Some one else may turn traitor and win the prize before him.

D. He finds, therefore, some excuse for leaving the company round our Lord, and bends his steps towards Jerusalem.

E. Contemplate Judas as he walks alone towards the city, his person, his secret thoughts, his words, his actions. The Psalmist prays: Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth,