to bend to the will of God, to see the touch of a pitiful love in all the dealings of providence, to be calm at the heart amid all the ferments of the world, with an ear that hearkens for God, a heart that asks to know His will, a soul that cradles itself in the love of the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord; the faith which brings peace, and will bring, if it be God's will,

An old age serene and bright

And calm as is a Lapland night.

XIX

THE COURAGE AND THE COWARDICE OF SIN

His blood be on us and on our children.-MATTHEW xxvii. 25. Ye intend to bring this man's blood upon us.-Acтs v. 28.

How differently things look at different times! In the heat of passion consequences look small and of little account, but when the blood has time to cool the whole matter takes on another aspect. Looking forward in eager desire to a coveted object, nothing can be allowed to stand in the way, nothing is worth considering compared with the thing wanted; but looking back on the attainment, we cannot imagine that we offered such a price for it. When the balance of judgment is shaken by passion any risk seems small, any consequence seems cheap, but afterwards we think we must have been besotted to make such a poor bargain. Passion gives a spurious courage which throws down the gauntlet with an air of bravado, to be succeeded by a cowardice all the more apparent after the high and vaunting words. There is a daring of sin which is not afraid to assume all the

responsibility if there is to be any, which is willing to accept any consequences. Who is afraid to pay

the price, to reap the fruit of the deed? "His blood be on us and on our children." But when the deed is done, men whimper if the consequences they derided come, and cannot believe that they should be expected to pay the price they foresaw. "Ye intend to bring this man's blood upon us "-a grieved complaint of injured men who refuse any sense of responsibility. The courage and the cowardice of sin!

In cold blood how differently this judicial murder of Jesus looked to all the actors in the tragedy! Pilate, whose blood had never been anything but cold, had washed his hands of it, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it." Judas, who betrayed his Lord, went back with the thirty pieces of silver in despair when the dark passion had left his heart. "See thou to it," the priests said to Judas. You did it, and that is your concern; you cannot cast the burden on us by throwing back the money. And now the rulers who engineered the accusation say complainingly to the men who by their preaching were keeping green the memory of their victim, "Ye intend to bring this man's blood upon us." None can be brought to accept the responsibility for this deed of shame. But the refusal did not

alter any of the facts. Judas had to see to it: Pilate had to see to it: priests and people, themselves and their children, have had to see to it ever since. It did not need these formal words when the passion was on them to fix the responsibility. It was there, whether they owned to it or not. But the formal words are there too, giving point to the irony of history.

You remember how the words came to be uttered. At the trial of Jesus, Pilate had no heat of passion to overturn his reason. He was cold and calculating all the time. He did not want to condemn an innocent man, but he did not want government to be troubled with a possible riot and did not want his own name to be implicated at Rome. He pacified the populace by assenting to the crime, and appeased his conscience by disowning it. It was an absurd and impossible thing, though it is a common enough device. He cleared himself of the guilt by taking water and washing his hands before the multitude, as a sign that he acquitted himself and refused to contract any guilt in the matter. "I am innocent," he said, "of the blood of this just person; see ye to it." How readily we think that if we protest against a thing formally we absolve ourselves! Pilate did not want to have his name associated with a riot at Jerusalem; and his name has been associated for ever with this

judicial murder. Little did the proud Roman think that his name would go down to all the years, to all the world in infamy. To get what they wanted priests and people formally and solemnly consented to take the guilt on themselves. In the heat of passion it was done, and in the cunning policy that passion dictates even when it boils. It was done to tie Pilate down to their will. It was as much as to say, If it is only a qualm of conscience that troubles you, we will take the responsibility, our conscience is strong enough to relieve you of the guilt. In their fierce unrelenting madness of hate they utter the imprecation on themselves, regardless of any sort of consequence, His blood be on us and on our children."

Look on that picture, and now look on this. The deed was forgotten, buried, and life in the city went on as before, till the priests and rulers are annoyed by a little band of men keeping alive the name of this same Jesus whom they had crucified. Those responsible for government are always and naturally content with keeping things going smoothly, and do not want to be troubled with new doctrines. When it suited their own purpose the chief priests could create a disturbance better than any, but in normal times they want to avoid disturbance. So they set themselves by threats and imprisonment to choke off this new