Seeing the danger of Judas, He had brought him close to Himself, within the inner circle of His chosen and trusted disciples. Day after day, when the burden lay heaviest upon His own heart, He had borne the pain of continual contact with that stubborn, suspicious, brooding spirit; He had witnessed and labored to counteract among His disciples that continuous, secret, and subtle antagonism. And all this that no possible saving influence might be lacking to that imperiled soul! “Many waters can not quench love, Neither can the floods drown it;” “For love is strong as death.”[112] * * * * * [Sidenote: _Warning to the Eleven_] [Sidenote: _Goal of Worldly Wisdom_] So far as Judas himself was concerned, Christ’s work of love had been without avail. But not so as regards his fellow-disciples. To them it was a lesson of lifelong influence. Ever would its example of tenderness and long-suffering mould their intercourse with the tempted and the erring. And it had other lessons. At the ordination of the twelve, the disciples had greatly desired that Judas should become one of their number; and they had counted his accession an event of much promise to the apostolic band. He had come more into contact with the world than they, he was a man of good address, of discernment and executive ability, and, having a high estimate of his own qualifications, he had led the disciples to hold him in the same regard. But the methods he desired to introduce into Christ’s work were based upon worldly principles and were controlled by worldly policy. They looked to the securing of worldly recognition and honor,—to the obtaining of the kingdom of this world. The working out of these desires in the life of Judas, helped the disciples to understand the antagonism between the principle of self-aggrandizement and Christ’s principle of humility and self-sacrifice,—the principle of the spiritual kingdom. In the fate of Judas they saw the end to which self-serving tends. [Sidenote: _Results of Christ’s Training_] For these disciples the mission of Christ finally accomplished its purpose. Little by little His example and His lessons of self-abnegation moulded their characters. His death destroyed their hope of worldly greatness. The fall of Peter, the apostasy of Judas, their own failure in forsaking Christ in His anguish and peril, swept away their self-sufficiency. They saw their own weakness; they saw something of the greatness of the work committed to them; they felt their need of their Master’s guidance at every step. [Sidenote: _Self-Distrust_]