sked, "What is that
to us? See thou to that." They had been cordial enough to him when he
had come before, but now, after the instrument has served their turn,
they fling it contemptuously aside. The miserable man had to turn away
from the scorn of the partners of his guilt; but he could keep the
money no longer--it was burning in his hands--and, before escaping from
the precincts, he flung it down. This is said to have happened in that
part of the temple which could be entered only by the priests;[3] and
he must either have made a rush across the forbidden threshold or
availed himself of an open door to fling it in. Not only did he desire
to be rid of it, but a passionate impulse urged him to leave with the
priests their own share of the guilt.

Then he rushed away from the temple. But where was he going? Oh that
it had been in him to flee to Christ--that, breaking through all
obstacles and rules, he had rushed to Him wherever He was to be found
and cast himself at His feet! What if the soldiers had cut him down?
Then he would have been the martyr of penitence, and that very day he
would have been with Christ in Paradise. Judas repented of his sin; he
confessed it; he cast from him the reward of iniquity; but his
penitence lacked the element which is most essential of all--he did not
turn to God. True repentance is not the mere horror and excitement of
a terrified conscience: it is the call of God; it is letting go the
evil because the good has prevailed; it includes faith as well as fear.

IV.

The manner of his end is also used as an argument in favour of the more
honourable view of Judas. The act of suicide is one which has not
infrequently been invested with a glamour of romance, and to go out of
life the Roman way, as it is called, has been considered, even by
Christians, an evidence of unusual strength of mind. The very reverse
is, however, the true character of suicide: except in those melancholy
cases where the reason is impaired, it must be pronounced the most
contemptible act of which a human being is capable. It is an escape
from the burdens and responsibilities of existence; but these burdens
and responsibilities are left to be borne by others, and along with
them is left an intolerable heritage of shame. From a religious point
of view it appears in a still worse light. Not only does the suicide,
as even heathen writers have argued, desert the post of duty where
Providence has placed him