mself this
evening with the purpose of more effectually screening himself from
suspicion. The circle of suspicion is thus narrowed to the one or two
who were not only so intimate as to be eating at the same table, but as
to be dipping in the same dish.

The third step in the process of discovery went on almost simultaneously
with this. The impatient Peter, who had himself so often unwittingly
given offence to his Master, is resolved to find out definitely who is
pointed at, and yet dare not say to Christ "Who is it?" He beckons
therefore to John to ask Jesus privately, as he lay next to Jesus. John
leans a little back towards Jesus and puts in a whisper the definite
question "Who is it?" and Jesus in the ear of the beloved disciple
whispers the reply, "He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have
dipped it." And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas
Iscariot. This reveals to John, but to no one else, who the traitor was,
for the giving of the sop was no more at that table than the handing of
a plate or the offer of any article of food is at any table. John alone
knew the significance of it. But Judas had already taken alarm at the
narrowing of the circle of suspicion, and had possibly for the moment
ceased dipping in the same dish with Jesus, lest he should be identified
with the traitor. Jesus therefore dips for him and offers him the sop
which he will not himself take, and the look that accompanies the act,
as well as the act itself, shows Judas that his treachery is discovered.
He therefore mechanically takes up in a somewhat colder form the
question of the rest, and says, "Master, is it I?" His fear subdues his
voice to a whisper, heard only by John and the Lord; and the answer,
"Thou hast said. That thou doest, do quickly," is equally unobserved by
the rest. Judas need fear no violence at their hands; John alone knows
the meaning of his abrupt rising and hurrying from the room, and John
sees that Jesus wishes him to go unobserved. The rest, therefore,
thought only that Judas was going out to make some final purchases that
had been forgotten, or to care for the poor in this season of festivity.
But John saw differently. "The traitor," he says, "went immediately out;
and it was night." As his ill-omened, stealthy figure glided from the
chamber, the sudden night of the Eastern twilightless sunset had fallen
on the company; sadness, silence, and gloom fell upon John's spirit; the
hour of darkness had at le