priests for the betrayal of his Lord.

"Having received a

band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees" (John 18: 3), he comes to that garden "with lanterns and torches and weapons."

Now comes on the last interview of our Saviour with Judas Iscariot. The traitor had given the band of men and officers "a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he, take him" (Matthew, "hold him fast"), "and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he drew near unto Jesus to kiss him," "and saith, Hail, Master, and kissed him." Here should be noticed the Saviour's patient endurance of this man's perfidy, at each step. He only says to him, now, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" "Friend, wherefore art thou come?"-a recognition of acquaintanceship, not an expression of complacency in his character. It was as if he had said, "I know who thou art?" Even in these fearful moments, and while Judas was completing the climax of his wickedness, there was nothing in the Saviour accusative, condemnatory, and of the character of resistance. And yet that which he said was solemn as the words of God. He was suffering betrayal at the hands of a professed disciple; and entering upon the woes of that hour of the triumph of his enemies and of the powers of darkness. He was suffering himself to be "led as a lamb to the slaughter;" and, with the exception of his words just recited, silent. But to "Judas Iscariot,' would he but have considered it, what an eloquent and awful silence!

Here ended the intercourse between the Lord Jesus Christ and "that man by whom he was betrayed." The reader knows the end of the betrayer. Some of the instructions to be derived from this history, will be briefly sketched.

Not all who are admitted to the visible society of Christians, are Christians, in truth. In the church first formed after the coming of Christ into the world,-a church formed by the Saviour himself; a small church, select; there was one hypocrite and heir of perdition. This is a mystery in the church of Christ, appearing under his own personal administration; and not all the vigilance and care of those who have kept the doors of the church, from that time to the present, have prevented the occur

rence of like cases. Why this is permitted by the Head of the church, we cannot tell fully. One reason, however, doubtless is, that upon this fact may be rested appeals to the godly fear and self-jealousy of all who make a visible profession of religion. It is hardly probable that there is a church upon the face of the earth without some false professors in it.

The Lord Jesus Christ, in his infinite wisdom, can make use even of those in the church who are not his true friends, for the accomplishment of his own purposes. This he can do in entire consistency with their remaining as they are, and perishing at last in an aggravated destruction. God often employs men in connection with his church, and in carrying forward the concerns of his kingdom, who have never "known the grace of God in truth," and will never reach heaven themselves. Judas Iscariot, during his life as a disciple of Christ, doubtless answered some important purposes for Christ. And now, as an example, a warning against trifling with God in a false profession, his history is full of instruction. Some purposes are doubtless being accomplished through his history, which could have been accomplished in no other way.

Christ, as the searcher of hearts, perfectly understands the character of all who enter the visible church; and who hold stations in it, official or private. He "needed not (on earth) that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man.” "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins of the children of men," is his declaration of his power to discern character. Every one who makes a Christian profession, therefore, may well lift his eyes to him with holy trembling, while he acknowledges, "For thou, Lord, knowest me altogether." There is no question which a professor of the religion of Christ can ask himself, which is possessed of deeper solemnity than this, "What am I in the sight of Christ? What does he know me to be, friend or enemy? Child of his love or

alien? Saint, or sinner condemned already?"

The possession of high privileges, under the permission of Providence, and in the visible church, is no sure indication of divine complacency, nor of right character. Judas Iscariot, with all his privileges, was still "the traitor." Thus in the church, still, some enter, bear the name and enjoy the reputation of Christians, come to ordinances, and talk of their hopes of heaven; in whom,

under the divine inspection, remain the unaltered evidences of alienation from God. Some worldly interest may be subserved, for a time, by a place within the pale of the church. Judas found his temporary interest in association with Christ and his eleven true disciples. But what thought he of this, in that terrible hour when awakened to the terrors of his condition as having "betrayed the innocent blood." The unconverted now in the church, perhaps in the sacred office, moves on in quietness and self-complacency at present; but the disclosing hour of a fatal plunge into sin, or if that come not, the hour of death; or if that even find him in the quietness attendant on a seared conscience, the day of judgment, and the revolving ages of eternity,-in what condition of feelings will these find him?

The forbearance of Christ with those who are in his church but out of his favor, is mercy in close and fearful association with justice. He permits the false professor to live many years in the church and in the reputableness of a profession; throws around him restraints, so that he perhaps does not, for years, forfeit his standing, by anything scandalous and palpable, as against his Christian character. His hour is not yet come, is long, perhaps, in coming. True wisdom teaches, that those who stand in doubt of themselves should diligently employ the season of forbearance, in self-searching, and making their foundation sure.

Unsound professors are not left without many forewarnings and much instruction, adapted to the purpose of manifesting them to themselves. The delineations of true religion in the Scriptures; the examples of genuine gracious character which they are permitted to see; the rebukes of conscience; the warnings of the word against self-deception; the sad declensions of many, the fall of some; the utter and final apostasy of others; all these are monitions for those who have a "name to live," while "dead." Continued self-deception or hypocrisy, and final failure of the salvation of the gospel, will be emphatically without excuse in the case of such. No men perish with their eyes more fully open to their duty and their dangers, and to the ruin they approach, than do unsound. professors of the Christian faith.

The fact, that a false professor of religion is not certainly known to be such, by those around him, is no

evidence of his safety, so long as the eye of Christ may see him corrupt at heart. The belief of the man, in whom lurks an insidious disease, that he is in health, does not settle the point that he is so. Nor does the opinion of others that he is sound in health alter his condition. The disciples of Christ had such confidence, apparently, in Judas Iscariot, that he was not more an object of suspicion than others of the twelve. And yet their confidence did not make him a good man. The confidence of the whole church of God in one who has not true grace, cannot stay him from sinking down to hell, except he repent. The question, therefore, is not, Have I the charity of my brethren? but, Does the Lord, who "trieth the righteous,' know me to be a Christian?

The condition of that man is, beyond all conception, awful, who has arrived at the point where the restraints are removed which have hitherto preserved him from apostasy and disgrace; and when he is left to the mighty workings of his own depravity. The situation of no condemned spirit in hell is more hopeless than his. Nor can it be predicted what shall be the limit of his race of wickedness; what he will not do, even on this side of the grave, to render him an abhorrence of God and man, and a terror to himself. On the other-but "O my soul, come not thou into their secret." Can mortal mind conceive, or tongue describe, the terrors which fill the soul of the hypocrite, when he has entered into the prison of eternal despair!

There will be a fearful contrast between the times of the silent sufferings of Christ and his cause in this world, at the hands of false and treacherous friends, and that hour when they will stand at the foot of the "great white throne." When the graceless bearer of the name of "Christian," having his hands stained with the blood of Christ, shall "stand before the judgment seat of Christ;" when the wounds he has inflicted upon the Saviour shall be counted and named; the sentence of injured justice be declared, and the sword of the divine indignation uplifted; what sickness of heart and shudderings of spirit will overwhelm him! And while even saints and angels may tremble to behold the pouring out of the vials of divine wrath upon him, well may they exclaim, "Good had it been for that man if he had never been born!"

ARTICLE III.

THIERSCH ON CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

F. Thiersch on Classical Education, translated from the German by the Editor.*

WERE the nations of classical antiquity entirely disconnected with us, had they no influence over us, or were their influence prejudicial to our interests, then it would be unwise to put their literary productions into the hands of the young. In that case, we should come to the same result,, though in a different way, as the emperor Julian did, who excluded the classic writers from Christian schools, in order to exclude learning and influence from Christian society. But this whole view springs from an arbitrary distinction, and rests upon no better foundation than a plausible error. To what extent the works of the ancients are intelligible to us, and fitted to act upon our minds, may be learned from the fact that the productions of the oldest Greek bard, the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, notwithstanding their foreign air, are more popular, even among those who do not understand Greek, than any modern, or even German epic.

This eloquent defence of classical studies, like the whole work, "On Learned Schools," from which it is extracted, deserves the serious attention of all who take a special interest in the great subject of a learned education. That the distinguished author, in his enthusiasm for "those ancient immortals," and in his zeal for the cause of classical education, should carry some of his views to an extreme, will not be regarded as strange. We think he has done so in several instances, and particularly on page 346, where he maintains that one can learn the Latin and Greek languages simultaneously in the same time that would be requisite for the former alone. If he had only said that a thorough comprehension of Roman literature could be best and soonest attained by the study of both languages, or merely that the knowledge and discipline acquired in studying the Greek greatly facilitate the study of Latin, his statement would have appeared less paradoxical. It should be borne in mind that the author wrote for Germans, and that many of his allusions would be made unintelligible, if not ridiculous, by being applied to any other than the German system of academie study. We have omitted sentences and even whole paragraphs, where much commentary would be required to explain the text to an ordinary American reader, and in general, as the author's glowing style is peculiarly German, we have labored more to be true to the spirit than to the letter of the original. The first volume of Thiersch on Learned Schools appeared in four parts, in 1826; the second volume, in 1827; and the third, in 1837. His last work on the general subject relates to the Present State of Public Instruction in the Western States of Germany, in Holland, in France and in Belgium. The extract that is here presented is from Vol. I, Part IV, of the former work, and may be found in the first volume of Friedemann's Pardnesen.-ED.