now too intimately. They are not as good in
private as they are in public. Their life does not bear too close
inspection. We discover in them dispositions, habits, ways, tempers,
feelings, motives, which dim the lustre we see in them at greater
distance. Intimacy weakens the friendship. But, on the other hand,
there are those who, the more we see of their private life, the more we
love them. Close association reveals loveliness of character, fineness
of spirit, richness of heart, sweetness of disposition--habits,
feelings, tempers, noble self-denials, which add to the attractiveness
of the life and the charm of our friend's personality. We may be sure
that intimacy with Jesus only made him appear all the more winning and
beautiful to his friends. Judas lived in the warmth of this wondrous
love, under the influence of this gracious personality, month after
month. He witnessed the pure and holy life of Jesus in all its
manifold phases, heard his words, and saw his works. Doubtless, too,
in his individual relation with the Master, he received many marks of
affection and personal friendship.

A careful reading of the Gospels shows that Judas was frequently warned
of the very sin which in the end wrought his ruin. Continually Jesus
spoke of the danger of covetousness. In the Sermon on the Mount he
exhorted his disciples to lay up their treasure, not upon earth, but in
heaven, and said that no one could serve God and mammon. It was just
this that Judas was trying to do. In more than one parable the danger
of riches was emphasized. Can we doubt that in all these reiterations
and warnings on the one subject, Judas was in the Master's mind? He
was trying in the faithfulness of loyal friendship to save him from the
sin which was imperilling his very life.

But Judas resisted all the mighty love of Christ. It made no
impression upon him; he was unaffected by it. In his heart there grew
on meanwhile, unchecked, unhindered, his terrible greed for money.
First it made him a thief. The money given to Jesus by his friends to
provide for his wants, or to use for the poor, Judas, who was the
treasurer, began at length to purloin for himself. This was the first
step. The next was the selling of his Master for thirty pieces of
silver. This was a more fearful fruit of his nourished greed than the
purloining was. It is bad enough to steal. It is a base form of
stealing which robs a church treasury as Judas did. But