lifts the shroud flung over his despairing visage, that every future disciple may be stirred with fear, and be led to earnest efforts that the bond which unites him to the Saviour be like the vital union of the branch to the vine. We are admonished also, to bear tenderly the failings of others, and tenderly reclaim every wanderer from the beginning of his departures, for we may need the same office of Christian affection. We are not to expect perfection among the saints on earth, and, though the thought may seem foreign, I cannot but utter it, if it was no reproach to Christ or to the rest of his disciples that such a traitor was with them, let it be no reproach to his religion that there are similar ones still. He who expects to find a perfectly pure church on earth must go elsewhere than even to Christ's immediate disciples, to find it.

If the reader be yet a stranger to God, let me ask you to reflect deeply upon the end of the wretched man we have been so long contemplating. He followed a course of sin, covertly, pleasingly to himself, but he was sent to his own place. The world has cautiously glided its arms about your heart.

You are insensible of your bondage. The thirty pieces of silver are not your price of blood; but, for some price, you have yet evaded the claims of the Saviour. By some allurement you are being led along, nearer and nearer the dangerous verge. Awake to the insidious embrace before the world clasp its hold tightly about your spirit, and your heart be left crushed, withered and dead!

"Can sin's deceitful way
Conduct to Zion's hill?

Or those expect with God to reign,

Who disregard his will?

Thy grace, O God, alone

Can a good hope afford!

The pardoned and renewed shall see

The glory of the Lord."

CHAPTER III.

The Midnight Enquisition.

SCRIPTURE NARRATIVE. Matt. xxvi. 59-68.- Mark xiv. 5365. Luke xxii. 54 and 63-71.-John xviii. 12, 14 and 19-24.

Their

THE Jewish hierarchy had Jesus at length in their power; but so crippled had that power become under their heathen masters, that it amounted to little more than a name. Yet the shadow of their power they meant to cast over their victim in its darkest folds. proceedings cannot be characterized better than in the prophetic language of the Psalmist, "They gather themselves together against the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood."* How strikingly do the features of Jewish hate and Roman recklessness peer out in this prophetic delineation! But before proceeding with the narrative of the trial of our Saviour, there is one fact to be stated, not always clearly enough exhibited, yet an index to the disposition which instigated the trial.

*Psalm xciv. 21.

It is this: His trial was as illegal in form, as his sentence was unjust in fact. A statement of the regular form of trial among the Jews, and a comparison of it with their actual proceedings will sufficiently show this.

"The whole criminal procedure of the Pentateuch rested upon three principles, which may be thus expressed: publicity of the trial, entire liberty of defence allowed to the accused, and a guaranty against the dangers of testimony.

In accordance with these principles, trials were not allowed to be conducted during the night time. Especially capital cases must be investigated by day, usually in the morning. During any of the national feasts, the Talmud forbade a trial.

On the day of trial, the members of the sanhedrim were seated in a circle, upon cushions, in the present Oriental style, with the accuser and the accused in the centre. A secretary (sometimes two were present, one upon each hand of the president) wrote down every thing relating to the case. The

*This abstract is derived chiefly from M. Dupin's Trial of Jesus.

papers were read and the witnesses successively introduced. Two witnesses, at the least, were necessary to establish a charge. If they swore falsely, they were subjected to the punishment to which they exposed the accused by their testimony. When a man was condemned, they whose evidence established his guilt, inflicted the first blow, to add the last degree of certainty to their honesty. The simple confession of an individual against himself would not decide a condemnation; nor must he be believed unless his confession was established by two or more witnesses. After an examination, the judges who believed the party innocent first gave their reasons, then they who believed him guilty, however with the greatest moderation. When the accused person wished to speak, he was listened to with the most profound attention. The spectators were then all removed and the two scribes collected the votes of the counsel. Eleven votes out of twenty-three were sufficient to acquit; it required thirteen to condemn. In case of acquittal, the defendant was discharged instantly: if he was condemned, the sentence was not pronounced till