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It seems very strange that Jesus, who knew the hearts of men, should have admitted as one of the twelve a thief, a devil, a traitor, one who had better never been born. Gifts of some kind he must have had, rendering the choice of him not strange to others, not unfit in itself. Was it that, though our Lord discerned the germs of evil in his character, He saw also germs of good, and hoped that, as a result of association with Himself, these might prevail? If we suppose so, new force is given to many of Christ's sayings. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." What a truth for Judas, if he were vainly trying to follow both! The destructive power of "the cares of this world," and "the deceitfulness of riches," Judas heard of. He heard of the fate of the unfaithful steward, etc. If Jesus had this merciful desire, not least among the griefs of the Man of Sorrows must have been the deepening conviction that His efforts were in vain, and that He was but adding to the condemnation of one from whom "so much would be required," as so much had been given. What a pang each evidence of this must have given to Jesus! e.g., the objection to the costly ointment with which Mary anointed the Lord. At last Jesus said, "One of you shall betray Me," and Judas, "having received the sop, went immediately out." It has been suggested that motives other than base actuated Judas, but these contradict the narrative and every probability.

I. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF FUTURE PENALTIES. Amidst much obscurity two things are clear:

1. That the consequences of evil will be felt after death; that what is sown here shall be reaped there, and that the "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish" felt, and inflicted by God, will be of such a sort that the strongest and most dreadful images are not too strong or dreadful to express it.

2. That, whatever the reality, the Judge of all the earth will do only right; so that no suspicion of injustice, or distress because of it, need or ought to have place in our minds.

II. EACH GOING TO HIS OWN PLACE. Whether the apostles had clearer knowledge about the fate of Judas than they here express, we know not. At least there is singular moderation and reverence in what they said. One might well have excused sterner language about the betrayer. Their refraining is a pattern to us all. But this statement fits every case as well as that of Judas. It is not a mere confession of ignorance, which says nothing. See how exactly true it is of the material world. The two are so mysteriously allied that, to an extraordinary degree, what is true of the one is true of the other; and it is most useful to study the one to gain hints about God's government of the other. We should avoid many errors if we recognised this oftener. The position of each mass of matter is exactly determined by its quantity and condition in relation to the forces around and within it. No pebble, no star, can be in a place one hair's breadth different from that to which it is guided by its peculiar character. Every difference of character involves a difference of position. The same is true of each of those millions of invisible atoms of which each atom is composed. The place each fills is not determined by chance or by caprice, but by its very nature. Is not that indication of a Divine order, allied to morality and justice? And so no mere caprice will determine the position of spiritual beings in the future world, but each will "go to his own place" there, by a law as true and an order as beautiful as that which regulates the position of each material particle. The true, the pure, the loving and unselfish, will they not tend necessarily towards Him who is truth, and purity, and love, as the nearest planets live in the radiance of the sun? The untrue, the impure, the selfish, will they not as necessarily be repelled from the Divine light by their very condition? So with every intermediate description of character. Conclusion: In view of these sublime laws of Divine order and fitness, what a pitiable and monstrous delusion is it that mere profession will avail; that to say to Christ, "Lord, Lord," is enough; that to be duly baptized and buried by a priest is to be safe for ever. What we are, or by Christ's help become, that is everything — not what we profess to be. So Christ and Judas went "each to his own place"; so you and I shall do also.

(T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

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KJV: And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

WEB: They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.