daily work without getting their hands—or in that country-their feet soiled.

But whilst He scruples not to tell His faithful followers that they were clean, He carefully makes an exception, which, doubtless, at the moment might raise an uneasy feeling in their minds. "Ye are

clean, but not all.”

"So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, 'Know ye what I have done to you?" " Do you understand the meaning of this action of Mine? He had said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," and now He will fulfil His promise of explanation. "Ye call Me Master and Lord and ye say well; for so I am." They had not overrated His dignity. "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." This then was the great moral of the transaction, to teach them, and through them us, that whatever we may be, however high in rank, character, attainments, official dignity; we can never be so high as to be above the obligation of doing any office which is really needed-required by the physical or moral good of our brethren.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord "-what his lord does, he may well do—" neither he that is sent (the apostle) greater than He that sent him"-the Saviour Himself. "If ye know these things, happy are ye do them."

if

ye

These words suggest to us how difficult is the lesson here exhibited to us. It is easy to talk about humility and self-denying love, but to practise them

-how rare is it! We know we ought-we admire the example of Christ; but blessed indeed are they who put their knowledge into habitual action,

SECTION LXIV.

THE LAST SUPPER-FOREWARNING OF THE BETRAYAL. JOHN xiii. 18-38; MATTHEW xxvi. 21-25; MARK xiii. 18-21; LUKE Xxii. 21-23.

"I

SPEAK not of you all; I know whom I have chosen but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me."

A glance at the one exception to the honesty of the disciples seems to have brought home the baseness of the treachery, with peculiar poignancy, to our Lord's mind; for when He "had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, That one of you"even of you—" shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake." "Who can He mean? who could possibly

even think of such a thing?" St. Matthew tells us that "they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I?" Most affecting is it to see that, with the fullest consciousness of their own loyalty, they yet did not dare to trust themselves. Wonderful, too, that they had not the smallest suspicion of the real traitor!

"And He answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish"+-who eats familiarly with Me" the same shall betray Me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him"—that is a pre-determined, pre-arranged event-" but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed it had been good for that man if he had not been born." It is no excuse for the crimes of men that they are all worked up into God's inscrutable plan. "Then Judas, which betrayed Him, answered and said, Master, is it I?" Wonderful that he should have had the effrontery to put such a question to his injured Lord! but perhaps he felt that he must say the same as the others did, or his silence would become an acknowledgment of his guilt. "He said unto him, Thou hast said." This assent must have been spoken aside to Judas, or perhaps only signified by a gesture, otherwise there could have been no further doubt amongst the disciples, and Peter's question would not have been put.

* Ver. 22-25.

+ The custom was to lean on one elbow and help themselves from the dish with the other hand.

66 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." This was, as generally admitted, St. John himself. He was pro

bably our Lord's cousin, and certainly a specially beloved friend. He was sitting or reclining next to Jesus, and so that he could lean against Him, and whisper to Him unheard by others. "Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom He spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast, said unto Him, 'Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him." No doubt Judas had watched the countenances of our Lord and of John, and had been aware that some secret communication had passed between them. We can all interpret "unspoken dialogue" when our interest is aroused. He felt he was detected, and dreaded that he should be at once denounced. Rage and malignity took possession of his soul, and yielding himself up fully to the Tempter, he got up and left the room, to prosecute his abominable intentions, and urge, no doubt, the immediate seizure of the Victim. "Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.” Christ wished for no delay-He was straitened, cramped, till all was accomplished. "Now no man

at the table knew for what intent He spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag"-kept the common purse"that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things

that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor."* The words that our Lord said to Judas were evidently spoken so that the others did not distinguish their nature, and only thought the Master was giving him some commission, as He had, no doubt, often done before. So little did they apprehend what was coming!

"He then," continues St. John, "having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.” It would almost seem that the departure of Judas had lifted a weight from off the Saviour's soul. He saw now the near approach of that which, though in itself so dreadful, was yet to Him so desirable as the prelude to the glorious exhibition of God's perfections. He goes on to speak to His faithful few with even increased tenderness. "Little children, yet a little while I am with you”—you have Me now, but it will be but for a little while longer—“ ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." They must be separated from Him for a time; not merely, as it would seem, by His death, but by His return to heaven-and their comfort must be their mutual love. "A new com

mandment I give unto you, That ye love one

* John, ver. 23-30.