Tracts for the Christian Seasons. ST. MATTHIAS'S DAY. THERE are few days more awful than St. Matthias's; there are so many terrible lessons in it; we learn how near we may be to God, and yet after all fall away; how God can do without us, and at the last moment put us aside, and take another to do our work and fill our place; how a man can go on thinking himself all right, and yet after all be a cast-away; and more awfully still, how one who has holy works to do can go on living in them and after all be withered, dead at heart; the name of Christian, attending daily service, oft communion, knowing God, separation from the world, being one of twelve, having the fair word of every one, may after all be nothing; he may, like Judas, be beyond hope, beyond penitence, beyond grace. St. Matthias's day reminds us of two men, one chosen and the other not, one called late, the other early called and late rejected; the last taken in and the first cast out; the man called at the eleventh hour chosen before him called at the first. It is a very awful lesson, I know of scarce any more so; and yet all said about Judas is so still, so silent, so slight, it is hardly more than a whisper or hint, a word put in by the way, and then the holy story goes on as usual; and yet these few little words do tell of one who had the greatest of all advantages coming to the most awful end. But so it ever is; the fall of men whom we think much of is quiet, unnoticed, not known by themselves, not understood, till all is over, past hope, and then when the soul is lost, and the shadows of evening closed in around him, the world goes on quietly as usual. See the story of Judas. He was "one of the twelve," he was called with the rest; we know very little about him, except that his name is mentioned in the list of those who were called, but always last. And this awful thing is said of him from the first: that our blessed Lord knew who should betray Him. So he was known from the beginning, Christ read his heart, but he did not know the eye which was on him, or feel how deeply its sight was piercing his secret thoughts. Time went on, and we hear no more of him; he looked like the other eleven; he saw and lived with God; he slept with Christ in the cold night air, and eat with Him his plain and simple food; he saw His miracles, he was received like the rest into towns and villages where his Master was, and well received because he belonged to Him. If He was cast out, Judas was cast out with Him; he was tossed with Him on the sea, he heard His voice bid the waves be still; he was by when He raised the dead and healed the sick; he had every advantage, every opportunity. He said nothing, he saw and watched every thing. There was nothing in his manner, which made the others suspect him to the end, for we find they had no idea what he was to the last night of his life. He was one of a little brotherhood, and every thing which happened served to bind him up closer and closer with them; he "was bound up in the same bundle of life with the Son of God.” Above all, he was sent to preach and to perform miracles. A man having the holiest employments and highest calling may after all be the worst of all; the highest calling, the holiest employments, the largest grace, the fairest outside, are not enough to save a man from being lost past hope; he may be lost all the while he appears fair outwardly. So time went on and it drew towards the end, and Judas came out; but he did not know it or feel it, and no one else suspected him; bad men come out and are shewn by degrees, but they themselves are the last who understand themselves. On Friday before Good Friday Judas came out of Jericho with Christ, "one of the twelve;" every one thinking well of him; one with St. Peter, and St. John, and St. James; that day week at that hour all was come out, all known, all plain to the world, to himself, and he hung a blackened corpse in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and his body swinging in the wind was but a likeness of his last state; one week between all seeming good and all being lost. Next day, Saturday, he was at the supper at Bethany at Simon's house; Judas watched it all. On Sunday our blessed Lord set off to mount Olivet to go into Jerusalem; the disciples followed Him, and among them Judas. A small narrow path leads over the hill to Jerusalem, a path well known and oft trodden, for at Beth As the little As the little company phage the priests lived. ascended the hill He sent two of them to find the ass and the colt, and they returned and placed Him on the colt. They then began to so; shout their Hosannas. Judas was one who did he saw our Blessed Lord weep over the guilty city; he heard His awful warnings in the temple against the Pharisees; he saw them put to shame; but still he let the vile desire of sin ripen in his heart. It seems he even then made some agreement with them for the meeting of the next day. Wednesday our Blessed Lord spent in Bethany, and that evening it seems Judas slid out from the little company to do his work; how wild and dreadful must the scene have been as he took his lonely walk at night to the guilty city; how that same figtree must have thrilled him as he saw it withered away, its branches dead. He walked on and did not change his purpose; he sought the house where the Pharisees were assembled; he entered it, and that awful bargain took place. He had time to think, time to act, time to change, but he would not; he persevered; he stifled conscience and smothered convictions; he thwarted the solemn circumstances around him, and in spite of the highest and holiest office he kept up appearances, deceived himself, and was at heart the darkest enemy to God the world contained. When he returned to that company of which he was one, they did not know whither |