THE CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR. No. 12.] DECEMBER 1, 1824. Keligious Communications. On Betraying Christ. A SERMON. One of you shall betray me,—Mat thew, xxvi. 21. THE circumstances in which these words were spoken, and the occasion in which they originated, are familiar to every reader of the gospel. Our blessed Lord had nearly filled up the life of sorrow and suffering to which he had condescended, and was just on the eve of that tragical scene which was to complete the price of man's redemption. He had before often intimated to his incredulous disciples that he was to be cut off by a cruel and ignominious death; but never till now did he disclose to them the awful secret that this was to be brought about by the treachery of one of their own little number. It would have been a great thing for them to be told, on infallible authority, that their master must die; for they had given him their strongest affections, and had looked forward with confident expectation to the time when they should share in the glories of a temporal kingdom. But then they might have hoped according to the ordinary course of events, that they should be indulged the mel ancholy privilege of soothing his last agonies by their vigilant and affectionate attentions. But no, he is to be denied the privilege of dying in their arms, and they the privilege of endeavouring to minister to the conVOL. VI.-No. 12. [VOL. VI. solation of their dying master. He is to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and to be hung up on a cross, a public spectacle of disgrace and agony. But even then, they might enjoy the melancholy consolation of reflecting that they had all been faithful to him unto the end ;—that in his own beloved family he had found none but friends; that they had stood by him to the last, and rendered him every assistance and every consolation in their power; and made a united and most vigorous effort to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies; and if he must suffer, they might be able all of them to wash their hands of his blood, and to appeal to each other, and to him, and to the world, that they had all borne for him a love stronger than death. But no, far from this; their hearts were wrung with the melancholy intelligence that one of them was to be the traitor;--yes, one of that little number, who were then eating and drinking with him at the same table, was to be instrumental in procuring his master's death. Is it any wonder that their hearts should have sunk in fearful expectation, and that each one should have begun to utter the expressive and anxious interrogation, Lord, is it I?' The event fastened the guilt and the odium of this horrid act upon Judas; the very man perhaps, of whose integrity and fidelity the disciples were most unsuspicious. E.77 ven then, while he was apparently as much devoted to the interests of his master as any of the disciples ;-even then, while he was mingling with him in an act of professed friendship, and virtually pledging himself to be faithful to the end, the malice and treachery of hell were awake in his bosom ; and in a short time he was seen at the head of the murderous band which came with swords and staves to seize the innocent sufferer, and carry their horrid plot into execution. I doubt not Christians, that when you have read the history of this horrid act, and have marked the conduct of this most wicked man, you have been almost ready to believe that the same degree of guilt never blackened the character of any other man. But perhaps you mistake in this opinion. No other man, it is certain, ever was, or ever can be guilty of precisely the same sin, in form, of which Judas was guilty; but I am by no means certain that many a false professor may not find as low a place in the world of wailing as he and you mistake, if you suppose that the sin of betraying Christ was confined to Judas, or that it may not be committed in substance now as well as when our Lord was on the earth. Every false professor of religion is chargeable with it; and the object of this discourse is to exhibit some of the forms in which it appears, and the awful guilt with which it is connected. I. I am first to mention some of the ways in which professed Chris tians betray their master. They do this, in the first place, when they are ashamed of their religion. The language of a Christian profession is that we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. When we come forward and voluntarily take upon ourselves Christian vows, and promise to live devoted to the Lord in all the ways of holy obedience, we virtually declare that we will glory in nothing in comparison with the cross of Christ. But how painfully frequent are the instances in which And here, professing Christians, as I pass along, I wish to bring this matter home to your heart, by way of examination. You have never sold your master for thirty pieces of silver; but have you never sold the credit of his cause for a still more paltry consideration ? When you have been thrown among the ungodly and profane, have you never felt willing that they should remain ignorant that you were a professor of religion; and have you not, even at the expense of your own conscience, been willing to appear compliant and courteous? When you have seen that religion was unfashionable in the circle in which you happened to fall, and found that all around you were given to trifling and vanity, have you not sometimes secretly wished that you might be free from the restraints of a Christian profession, and that you might even forget that you had solemnly covenanted with God? What name, professing Christian, I put it to your conscience-what name does this conduct deserve better than treachery; and who will say that he is slandered, who being guilty of this conduct, is called a traitor? 2. Those professors also betray Christ, who attempt to make a compromise between his service and that of the world. I do not mean that Christians are forbidden to enjoy the world, or that religion lays an icy hand upon any truly innocent and rational indulgence: still every one on entering the family of Christ, does virtually renounce the world as a portion; and promises to sacrifice every enjoyment which may come in competition with his Christian obligations. But how many are there, who, after a while, practically forget that they engaged to make this sacrifice; and as they cannot decently throw off, in a formal manner, their Christian obligations, they endeavour to bring down the standard of duty to their own taste, and to persuade them selves that all the pleasures of the world to which their inclinations lead them are innocent. They may even plead for these pleasures as a part of religion, notwithstanding they are directly fitted to drive every serious thought from the mind; and they may charge you with being unreasonable, and endeavouring to defeat the kind purposes of our heavenly father, if you admonish them ever so kindly of the guilt of such indulgences. But nothing is more certain than that such conduct as this indicates a spirit of treachery towards Christ: and let me add that the world understand this matter perfectly. It is not the professor who is most ready to sink the character of the Christian in that of the worldling, whom they in their hearts respect most; it is not the person whom they see handling the sacramental elements in the church, and then going out into the world with as keen a relish for its pleasures, as those who profess to have no other portion; but it is the man between whose profession and whose conduct they observe a happy consistency; who after having professed before God to have renounced the world as his supreme, portion, proves by his life that he actually has renounced it. This is the man whom the world respects most, even though it may heap upon him a load of malediction. That professor, therefore, who attempts to unite religion and the world as objects of pursuit, while he acts the part of a traitor to Christ, defeats the very purpose at which he aims; for even the open enemies of religion discover his inconsistency, and secretly despise him as more guilty than themselves. 3. I remark, once more, that those professors are especially guilty of betraying Christ, who become open apostates from his religion.-In order to this, let it be remembered that it is not necessary that a man should come into the church with a deliberate design to stab the cause of christianity; on the contrary, he may have been the subject of very serious impressions; and he may have joined the church with a resolution that he would live a holy life; but his faith proves to be that of a stony ground hearer;--when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, he is offended; he gradually yields to one sinful indulgence after another till the sensibility of his conscience is extinguished, and he openly renounces all pretensions to religion, and comes out before the world in the character of a scoffer. It may be that he is now heard to profane the name of God; or that he is seen with the poisonous cup of intoxication at his lips, or that he makes the piety of others as well as his own former professions the subject of profane jesting. Such a man, be assured, has the guilt of Judas blackening his heart. His master looks upon him as a traitor, and the most profane and abandoned persons in society secretly exult in a comparison of their characters with his. But let it be remembered that it is you should make not necessary that a profession of religion in order to be guilty of this sin in substance: it may be justly chargeable upon you, even if you have never come within the limits of the Church: for suppose you have professed to feel the power of religion, and to indulge a hope in the mercy of God through the atonement of Christ; and suppose you have not joined yourselves publicly to the people of God; yet if after these professions and these hopes you return again to the world, and cast off fear, restrain prayer, and give yourselves up again to vanity and sin, here is all the essence of an apostasy, and here is all the guilt of having betrayed Christ. You have betrayed his cause, so far as you were able, into the hands of the enemy; You have given them occasion by your conduct, to make religion itself the subject of reproach; and some probably have drawn from your experience that most false and fatal conclusion that the whole of religion is either delusion or imposture. Remember then, that if you go back to the world after having professed to be a christian, whether it have been publicly or not, you will always be regarded through life as bearing the guilt and the odium of an apostate; you will have done christianity an injury, which you will probably never have the power, even if you should have the disposition to atone for. II. Such are some of the ways in which the Saviour is betrayed: without going into further particulars, I proceed, secondly to consider the aggravated guilt and criminality of this conduct. 1. This appears first, from the fact that it is a violation of the most sacred of all obligations. There is not a more solemn act on this side of eternity, than that in which the christian, by a voluntary profession, enters into covenant with God. While it is a transaction immediately between God and his own soul, angels and men are virtually called to witness his sincerity, and to testify against him if he forget or disregard his obligations. He engages in professed reliance on God's grace that his life shall be devoted to religion, and that he will endeavour to the extent of his power, to glorify God, to benefit the world, and to adorn a christian profession. But all these obligations which he has once publicly acknowledged, and to which heaven and earth have borne witness, he deliberately and flagrantly violates. It is not merely the violation of a promise, but of a promise made under the most solemn circumstances; a promise made directly to the God of heaven and earth. Let the man who resolves on being a traitor to Christ, in in any way, ask himself how he shall be able on his final trial to review the day when he entered into covenant with God, and publicly assumed the weight of christian obligations. 2. The criminality of this conduct appears farther from the fact that it indicates the blackest ingratitude; for who is this master whom the treacherous professor so wantonly betrays? Is it one whose conduct towards him has always been of a suspicious character; who has never manifested any interest in his happiness, and who has in no respect any claim upon his gratitude? No, it is the most kind and gracious of all masters; it is that compassionate Saviour who died to redeem him, who has offered his Spirit to sanctify him, and who has been always calling him in a voice of tenderness to holiness and heaven. What has he done, O false professor, that thou shouldst thus betray his cause into the hands of the enemy? What act of unkindness hast thou ever received from Jesus, that should inake thee so ready to dishonour his religion and trample on his blood? Is this the testimony of thy gratitude for the poverty and degra dation to which he submitted on thy behalf; for his being born in a manger, and dying on a cross? Has thine heart been changed into adamant that thou hast become insensi 3. But thirdly, the criminality of the sin upon which I am remarking, appears, also, from the consequences by which it is followed. A professor of religion in the view of the world, occupies an elevated station be belongs to a city which is set on a hill and which cannot be hid: of course his conduct must be subjected to the most rigid scrutiny. Now then, when a professing christian deliberately and shamefully violates his christian obligations; when he is seen in the ranks of carelessness, walking in the way of the ungodly, or sitting in the seat of the scuffer; what think you must be the inevitable consequence? Why, one such professor, without doubt, does more injury to the cause of Christ, than a multitude of infidels. They have always been enemies by profession: it was their trade to ridicule and despise religion; but he has worn the mask of a friend, and of course is able to stab the cause with a much deeper and heavier thrust. His apostasy is exultingly alleged as a glorious and decisive argument against all religion, for here say its enemies, is the testimony of one who has tried it. Oh how black and deep must be the guilt of betraying Christ! What a violation of sacred obligations, what malignant perfidy, what base ingratitude, what tremendous consequences does it involve! The first inference which we derive from our subject is, that the fact that there are some false professors, furnishes no argument against the truth of religion. The fact that Ju das was a traitor proves nothing against the other disciples; nor does the fact that there are traitors now in the church prove any thing against those whose lives are conformed to the gospel. And it is the most unfortunate weapon which the enemies of christianity ever wield against us, when they undertake to make religiou answerable for the hypocrisy of its professors. For if religion were not something which is good in itself, who would even think of assuming the appearance of it? If it did not find an advocate in the breast of every man, the fact that there are those who assume the appearance of piety when they are strangers to the reality, in order to recommend themselves to the world, would be an anomaly of which there could be no explanation; for did you ever hear of a man who had assumed the character of a knave, or a liar, or a drunkard, merely to make himself respected in the community? If you tell us that there are hypocrites and traitors in the church, we admit it; but this proves nothing against religion, any more than the fact that there may be traitors in the state, proves that the whole state is given up to corruption, or that all civil government ought to be abolished. And you may triumphi in the ungodly lives of professors, and build upon them an argument which shall quiet your consciences for the present in the neglect of religion; but take care that the day does not come when its fallacy will be exposed by the convincing light of a suffering eternity. Finally we learn from this subject that professors of religion have no reason to quiet themselves in regard to their spiritual state, merely because they are in the church. Judas was in the church, and a greater monster of wickedness, has perhaps, rarely walked the earth. And how do you know but that the elements of the same character may be in your own heart? The spirit may not yet have begun to operate; and yet the day may not be distant when your whole soul will |