is a traitor!"

[Illustration]

Everyone stopped eating. And each one of the twelve disciples thought
of his own sins. Each one wondered if he were loyal enough to Jesus.
Each one cried out:

"Master, is it I?"

Jesus only answered:

"It is one of you twelve men, eating with me now. It would have been
better for that traitor if he had never been born!"

A moment later Judas Iscariot slipped quietly out of the door. The
other disciples did not know where he had gone.

Jesus spoke again: "I wanted so much to eat the Passover feast with
you this year, before I suffer. But I shall not eat it again with you
until a better day, when we shall all be together once more."

He took up a piece of bread, and said a prayer of thanks to God. Then
he broke the bread, and passed the pieces among the disciples--only
eleven of them now. He said words that they did not understand.

"Take and eat this. This is my body."

He took a cup of wine, and once more he gave thanks. Then he passed
the cup among the disciples, saying:

"Drink--all of you--drink of this wine. It is my blood, which I am
going to shed so that the sins of many people may be forgiven. And in
the days to come, do this same thing often, always remembering me."

Then they sang a hymn together and walked out into the night air and
went up the Mount of Olives.

As they walked, Jesus said to the disciples:

"You will all desert me tonight. For it is written in the Scriptures
that when something happens to the shepherd the sheep will go away in
all directions. However, I shall meet you again."

Peter spoke up, and said bravely,

"Even if everyone else deserts you, I will not!"

Jesus answered: "Before the rooster crows at sunrise to tell you that
morning has come, you will have said three times that you do not even
know me."

But Peter cried out that even if he died for it he would be true to
Jesus. And all the other disciples said the same.

Presently they came to a grove called Gethsemane. It was late. Jesus
said to the disciples,

"Sit here, while I go and pray."

[Illustration]

He took only Peter and James and John with him, and went a little way
apart from the rest. To the three disciples he said:

"I am greatly troubled. I do not know how I can bear it any longer.
Wait here, and stay awake with me."

Going a few steps farther on, Jesus fell on his knees and began to
pray aloud:

"O my Father, if it is possible, take this cup away; do not