becomes careless in his watch, and as money flows in he
realizes the fascination of the idea of being a wealthy man. He
becomes increasingly absorbed, until he begins to drift toward a goal
from which in other days he would have shrunk in horror. If any reader
of these words is conscious of such a passion beginning to lay hold of
him, let him beware, lest, like Judas, he be lost in the divers hurtful
lusts which drown men in perdition.

And if already you have been betrayed into sins which would bear
comparison with that of Judas, do not despair--true, you have sinned
against light and love, the eager, tender pleadings of God's love; but
do not give up hope. Cast yourself on a love which wants to abound
over sin, and glories in being able to save to the uttermost.

XXIX

The First Trial before Pilate

"Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it
was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest
they should be denied; but that they might eat the Passover."--JOHN
xviii. 28.

There is no doubt that had Pilate been absent from Jerusalem at the
time of our Lord's trial before the Sanhedrim, they would have rushed
Him to death, as afterward Stephen, and have risked the anger of the
Governor. But they dared not attempt such a thing beneath the eyes of
the dreaded Roman eagles. They must needs obtain Pilate's countersign
to their death sentence, and, indeed, consign their victim to him for
execution. The Lord was to die, not the Jewish death by stoning, but
the terrible Roman death of crucifixion.

The day then breaking was that before the Passover. If the order for
execution were not obtained that morning, the case could not come on
for seven days, and it would have been highly impolitic, from their
point of view, to keep Jesus so long in bonds. The national sentiment
might have awoke and refused to sanction their treachery. For the same
reason it was necessary to carry the sentence into effect with as
little delay as possible, or the whole plot might miscarry. Then led
they Jesus from Caiaphas to the official residence of Pilate, which had
been the palace of the magnificent Herod--_and it was early_.

In the palace there was a hall where trials were usually conducted; but
the Jewish dignitaries who had not scrupled shamelessly to condemn
Jesus were too scrupulous to enter the house of a Gentile on the eve of
the feast, for fear there might be a single grain