And when I hear one smiling tell, Of sinful things that men have done, I will not smile, but sorrow feel, Because sin bruis’d God’s only Son. LESSON XXXVIII. DEATH OF JUDAS. MATTHEW, xxvii. 3-5. WHERE was Judas all this while? The wicked people had given him the money, thirty pieces of silver: but Judas could not be happy. Ah! thought he, I have killed my good Master! what a wicked thing I have done! Judas felt that he could not like the money: he could not bear to keep it, because he had done such a wicked thing to get it. So Judas went to look for the wicked men. They had been sitting up all night talking against Jesus: but now they were in God’s house—the Temple. Judas brought the thirty pieces of silver in his hands, and threw them down on the floor near the wicked men. Judas said, I have done a very wicked thing. But the men did not care for _that_: all they wanted was to get Jesus killed. They picked up the pieces of silver from the floor, and went and bought a field with the money. And where did Judas go? He went out to the field to kill himself. He did not go and ask Jesus to forgive him, but went and hanged himself. I suppose he tied a rope around his neck, and fastened the rope to a tree. Afterward he fell down from the tree, and his body burst, and his blood was poured out on the ground. O what a horrible sight it must have been! But it was more horrible to think where Judas’ soul was gone. It was gone to hell—to Satan. It was very wicked of Judas to hang himself, instead of praying to God to forgive him. Judas is in the wicked place now; and Jesus will judge him at the last day, and say, Depart, you cursed! LESSON XXXIX. THE CROSS—PART I. LUKE, xxiii. 26-34. THE wicked people were very glad when Pilate said Jesus was to be crucified. They made a cross of two great pieces of wood like boards, and made Jesus carry it. They took him out of Jerusalem into the country. The wicked people came with him. Jesus was so weak that he could hardly walk, and the cross was so heavy that he could not carry it. He would have dropped down on the way, if a man had not helped him to carry the cross. There were a few people who were sorry for the Lord Jesus. Some women, who loved him very much, came crying after him. Jesus heard them crying, and he turned round and spoke very kindly to them. He said, Do not cry for me; cry for yourselves, and for your children. Why did Jesus tell them to cry for themselves? Ah! Jesus knew how God would one day punish the people in Jerusalem for their wickedness. At last Jesus came to the top of a hill. Then the soldiers made Jesus lie upon his cross, and they put nails in his hands, and nails in his feet. So they nailed him to the cross. Then the soldiers made a hole in the ground, and stuck the cross in it.