than we expected Judas. Pilate had had his chance at Jesus.
Pilate had had an opportunity of knowing, of befriending Him, of
serving Him. But Pilate had allowed his own interests to get the
better of his conscience. Pilate had chosen the friendship of Caesar
and had spurned the friendship of the King Eternal. So we did not
expect Pilate to be present in this little company of the friends of
Jesus who met on the resurrection side of the cross. Who was the
missing man? It was not Caiaphas. He, too, had stood in the presence
of Jesus, but his envy had made him blind. And he shouted "Blasphemy!"
so loud that he drowned the voice of his conscience and the gentle
whisperings of the Spirit of God. No, it was not Caiaphas, nor any of
the indifferent or hostile crowd that we miss in this meeting.

Then, who was this missing man? And we read the text again and we find
his name was Thomas. That is a very familiar name. Oh, yes; we
remember Thomas quite well. It was Thomas who was missing. Now,
Thomas was expected, for he was a member of the little band of
disciples. He was one of the Twelve. He belonged to the Inner Circle.
His fellow Christians had a right therefore to expect him. Yet Thomas
was not with them.

It is a sad day ever for any congregation when its own membership begin
to absent themselves from its services. It is a sad day for any
congregation when those who compose it can be counted on to be there at
the social function, there at the place of business, but cannot be
counted on when the interests of the Kingdom are at stake and when the
Son of God goes forth to war. Believe me, no community ever loses
respect for a congregation till that congregation loses respect for
itself.

And did you notice when it was that Thomas was absent? "Thomas was not
with them when Jesus came." What an unfortunate time to be away! What
a great calamity to have missed that service of all others! There was
the little despondent, despairing company of ten meeting behind closed
doors. They were sorrow-burdened and fear-filled. But Jesus came, and
Thomas, the saddest and bitterest man of them all, was not there.

Of course he would have gone if he had had any idea what a wonderful
service it was going to be. If he had even dreamed that Jesus would be
there, of course he would not have missed it; but he expected the
meeting to be a very dull affair. He felt confident that whoever else
was there that there would