Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/456

 the narrow soul of Iscariot; but seizing this occasion for the manifestation of his inborn meanness, and his growing spite against his Master, he indignantly exclaimed, (veiling his true motive, however, under the appearance of charitable regard for the poor,) "To what purpose is this waste? Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" So specious was this honorable pretense for blaming what seemed the inconsiderate and extravagant devotion of Mary, that others of the disciples joined in the indignant remonstrance against this useless squandering of property, which might be converted to the valuable purpose of ministering to the necessities of the poor, many of whose hearts might have been gladdened by a well-regulated expenditure of the price of this costly offering, which was now irrecoverably lost. But honorable as may have been the motives of those who joined with Iscariot in this protest, the apostle John most distinctly insists that he was moved by a far baser consideration. "This he said, because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and kept the coffer, and carried what was cast into it." This is a most distinct exposition of a piece of villainy in the traitor, that would have remained unknown, but for the record which John gives of this transaction. It is here declared in plain terms, that Iscariot had grossly betrayed the pecuniary trust which had been committed to him on the score of his previous honesty, and had been guilty of downright peculation,—converting to his own private purposes, the money which had been deposited with him as the treasurer and steward of the whole company of the disciples. He had probably made up his mind to this rascally abuse of trust, on the ground that he was justified in thus balancing what he had lost by his connection with Jesus; and supposed, no doubt, that the ruin of all those whom he was thus cheating, would be effectually secured before the act could be found out. What renders this crime doubly abominable, is, that it was robbing the poor of the generous contributions which, by the kindness of Jesus, had been appropriated to their use, out of this little common stock; for it seems that Iscariot was the minister of the common charities of the brotherhood, as well as the provider of such things as were necessary for their subsistence, and the steward of the common property. With the pollution of this base crime upon his soul, before stirred up to spite and disgust by disappointed ambition, he was now so dead to honor and decency, that he was abun