---

A moment of dismay among the disciples. The Master had just declared that one of them should commit an act of the basset treachery, and betray Him to His enemies. How do they take His words? Do they break out in indignant remonstrance? Do they fall to accusing one another? Does each draw back from his brother apostle in horror at the thought that possibly that brother apostle is he who is to do this dreadful thing? No; they are all self-engrossed; each man's anxiety is turned, not towards his brother, but towards himself. Now, there are times in the lives of all of us, when that comes to us which came here to Christ's disciples.

I. WHEN WE SEE DEEP AND FLAGRANT SIN IN SOME OTHER MAN. While the act from which we recoil is repugnant to our conscientiousness, the powers that did it and the motives that stirred those powers into action are human, and such as we possess and feel.

II. WHEN WE DO SOME SMALL SIN, AND RECOGNIZE THE DEEP POWER OF SINFULNESS BY WHICH WE DO IT. The slightest crumbling of the earth beneath your feet makes you aware of the precipice. The least impurity makes you ready to cry out, as some image of hideous lust rises before you, "Oh, is it I? Can I come to that?"

III. THE EXPRESSION OF ANY SUSPICION ABOUT US BY ANOTHER PERSON. Perfectly unwarrantable and false we may know the charge to be; but the mere fastening of the sin and our name together, must turn our eyes in on ourselves and set us to asking, "Is it possible? I did not do this thing, indeed. My conscience is clear. But am I not capable of it? Is there not a fund of badness in me which might lead me almost anywhere? And if so, can I blaze up into fiery indignation at men's daring to suspect me? Can I resent suspicion as an angel might, who, standing in the light of God, dreaded and felt sin? No; our disavowal of the sin would be mot boisterously angry, but quiet, and solemn, and humble, with a sense of danger, and gratitude for preservation.

IV. BY A STRANGE BUT VERY NATURAL PROCESS, THE SAME RESULT OFTEN COMES FROM JUST THE OPPOSITE CAUSE. Unmerited praise reveals to us our unworthiness. A man comes up to our life, and, looking round upon the crowd of our fellow men, he says, "See, I will strike the life of this brother of ours, and you shall hear how true it rings." He does strike, and it does seem to them to ring true, and they shout their applause; but we whose life is struck feel running all through us at the stroke the sense of hollowness. Our soul sinks as we hear the praises. They start desire, but they reveal weakness. No true man is ever so humble and so afraid of himself as when others are praising him most loudly.

V. EVERY TEMPTATION which comes to us, however bravely and successfully it may be resisted, OPENS TO US THE SIGHT OF SOME OF OUR HUMAN CAPACITY FOR SIN. The man who dares to laugh at a temptation which he has felt anal resisted is not yet wholly safe out of its power.

(Phillips Brooks, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.

WEB: Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.