Srom i^c fetfirat)^ of f ^e £i6rare of (Princeton C^eofogicdf ^etntnArg B5242 8 .K94 THE RISEN REDEEMER: THE GOSPEL HISTORY FROM THE RESURRECTION TO THE DAY OF PENTECOST. THE RISEN RED THE GOSPEL HTSTO FROM THE '§,(mxxtdwn ia t^t gag of '^mUtant BY F. W. KRUMMACHER, D. D., AUTHOR OF " ELIJAH THE T18IIBITE." TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JOHN T. BETTS, SEitf) tf)c Sanction of ttc author. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS No. 5 30 BROADWAY. 1863. PEEFACE. The bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead is the fun- damental basis of Christianity. " If Christ be not risen from the dead," exclaims the apostle, " then is your faith vain/' So long as the hostile critic does not succeed in effacing that fact as a fable from the page of history, all efforts to subvert the supernatural basis of our faith and hope are in vain ; and however zealously the rash work of destruction has been prosecuted, it has, up to the present hour, been a failure. The miracle of the third day has resisted all levers and engines exerted against it by refined subtilty, as completely as if they were no more than the jugglery of a paltry legerdemain. This one miracle, well sustained, bears, supports, and accredits all the others to which the gospel bears testimony ; and it stands still, and will continue to defy, every assault. It is worthy of observation, that even David Strauss, the renowned chief of the most recent assailants of Heaven, finds himself constrained openly to admit, that the notion that the first disciples of Jesus, the apostles, were not themselves fully convinced of the truth of His bodily resurrection, is PEEFACE. utterly untenable, and must be given up. This declaration ap23ears in his recently-published work upon the writings of his intellectual progenitor, Reimarus. We attach importance to this confession of an arch enemy of all sacred history the rather, because the only and last shift by which he seeks to find an excuse for his infidelity is truly absurd; for he endeavours to persuade himself, and this undoubtedly in opposition to his better knowledge and conviction, that the disciples confounded a beautiful phan- tasy with a historical fact. Thus doth the Lord take the wise in their own craftiness, and, as we suggest, renders the cleverest men, ere they are aware of it, sport for children. In the present work, the author, in his endeavour to pro- mote edification, unites also an apologetic aim, and hopes, with the Divine blessing, to assist in strengthening the faith of the conscientious doubter by clearing away his difi&culties in a sympathetic spirit. This work, published [in Germany] under the title of " The Easter Manual," forms, with his two l^receding works, the book for the season of Advent, and that for Passion-week, a devotional trilogy, for these three ecclesiastical epochs. It will be gratifying to find this work as favourably received as the preceding ones. It treats of the loftiest and most delightful subject of contemplation that can occupy us here on earth. May the Spirit of the Lord seal the testimony as true to many a heart, however feeble the form in which it is presented ! DR F. W. KRUMMACHER. CONTENTS. PAGE DISCOURSE I. EASTE&-EVEN 1 DISCOURSE II. THE MIRACLE OF EASTEB 12 DISCOURSE III. THE EMPTY GRAVE 27 DISCOURSE IV. Christ's first appe.\rance 41 DISCOURSE V. THE RISEN ONE APPEARS TO THE WOMEN AND TO SIMON 65 DISCOURSE VI. THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAL'S. FIRST MEDITATION 67 DISCOURSE VII. THE DISCIPLES AT EMMAIS. SK( OND MEDITATION 86 DISCOURSE VIII. THE PRINCE OF PEACE IN THE EVENING ASSEMBLY 96 DISCOURSE IX. THOMAS Ill (Vii) Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE DISCOURSE X. THE APPEARANCE AT THE LAKE 127 DISCOURSE XI. Peter's love to christ tested 140 DISCOURSE XII. Peter's way 154 DISCOURSE XIII. THE RISEN SAVIOUR SEEN OF MORE THAN FIVE HUNDRED WITNESSES AT ONCE 1 70 DISCOURSE XIV. THE RISEN SAVIOUR AND JAMES , 183 DISCOURSE XV. THE APPEARANCE ON THE MOUNTAIN . . 195 DISCOURSE XVI. THE ASCENSION 212 DISCOURSE XVII. THE TIME OF WAITING 228 DISCOURSE XVIII. THE DAY OF PENTECOST 241 DISCOURSE XIX. THE ADDRESS AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST . 260 DISCOURSE XX. THE PENTECOSTAL COMFORTER 273 DISCOURSE XXI. THE PENTECOSTAL COMMUNITY 285 I EASTEE-EVEN. " If Christ be not raised," exclaims the apostle, (1 Cor. xv. 17,) "your faith is vain." Truer words were never uttered than these, and never was their truth more distinctly and palpably manifested than in our own day. Human wisdom has exhausted itself in speculations, and has set every engine in motion to obtain a final settlement of the question, " To be, or not to be?" What has been the result ? Our philo- sopiiic inquirers, wearied with their flights of thought, have ended in confessing that the prospect of a personal existence after death becomes more and more obscure to their investi- gations. There remains therefore the one, but (God be praised !) the far more than sufficient, pillar of our hope — that great historical fact, the memorial of which we celebrate at Easter. To this event, the most teeming with promise of any within the range of universal history, we would devote a fresh series of meditations, and may your heartfelt sympa- thies not fail us whilst we seek to lay them before you. Our purpose is restricted to the strengthening of your conviction of the reality of the great event, so as to render your faitli immovable ; and then to lead you on to the joyful and be- lieving appropriation of this most consolatory of all miracles. iMay the Lord graciously give me success in both attempts, and may He cro\\n that of Easter-even, to whicli I now in- vite you, with His blessiuij; 1 EASTEE-EVEN. Matt, xxvii. 62-66. " Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying. Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead : so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them. Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch." Be not dismayed when you see the Lord of glory treated as a malefactor even at the grave. What His enemies there dared to attempt turns out, under God's guidance, only to His own glorification. It is a guard of honour with which they unwillingly surround His resting-place. They are actually constructing Him a throne, whilst they purpose only to erect a pillory on which to disgrace Him publicly, and to brand Him as a deceiver. They design to perpetuate Good Friday, and they underlay the glory of Easter with a foil upon which it develops itself the more brilliantly. Let us in thought draw nearer to this extraordinary scene. After contemplating the involuntary celebration of Easter-eve by His adversaries, let us with very different sentiments perform its proper celebration at the holy sepulchre, which may God bless ! I The soul-deserted body of the Lord has rested the first night in its narrow stone chamber, but His murderers, the members of the Sanhedrim, have not. We already meet them at early dawn moving about restlessly, and the expres- sion of their features betokens anything rather than triumph and inward peace. Have they seen a departed spirit in the nioht ? Yes ; wherever they go or stay He whom bodily they slew on the cross presents Himself, and follows them like a spectre. They have murdered Him, but they have not got rid of Him. Tliey are fully conscious tliat tliey have dragged EASTER-EVEN. 3 an innocent, guiltless man to execution, but tlie awakened conscience is not to be lulled witli lying subterfuges, as if He had attacked Moses, had reviled the temiDle, and had led the people astray. Wliat they witnessed at Golgotha, the glorious termination of the righteous One's career, the public confession of the lieathen centurion, and especially the mani- festation of the Almighty by the darkened sun, the earth- quake, and the opening of the graves, served but to render them more sensitive to the lashes of that scourge which the judge within their breast incessantly inflicted on them. What marvel then if the Crucified One, in the form of a bloody spectre, was ever present to them, chasing away sleep from their eyes ? Assuredly there is not a man amongst us who has decidedly rejected Christ that can ever wholly banish Him. Such a one, though he decline to confess it, lives ever in a secret feud with his conscious inner life. The soul within him cannot avoid recognising the superimman exalta- tion of Jesus, and at the same time His just claim to the homage and subjection of all. However earnestly he may combat and strive to silence this inner self, it will incessantly whisper, "Thou rejectest thy liege Lord and only Saviour." He hates the preaching about Christ, not because it is, as he pretends, senseless and superstitious, but because there is, as has been said, a something unconquerable within him, which, notwithstanding all his unbelief, believes, counsels, and prompts him to render the homage due, while the man re- bels and will not consent that He should reign over him, wlio gives His followers and disciples to anticipate through life self-denial instead of enjoyment, and a cross instead of honour and renown. But there was another heavy burden which weighed upon the high priests and scribes besides the ban and curse of conscience. It was a gloomy solicitude lest the crime which they had jierpetrated on the Nazarene should after all, 4 EASTER-EVEN. tliroiigh some new marvel, entail on them the brand of in- famy, and cause them to be for ever pilloried in history. True it is, they did not verbally express as much, but their tone was as if they feared that some feigned miracle invented by the followers of the murdered man should prove prejudi- cial to them. They recollected perfectly well that Jesus had expressly and repeatedly intimated that He should die by murderous hands, but that on the third day He should rise again. Hypocritically concealing their real anxiety, they say amongst themselves, " What if the disciples of the Galilean should conceive the purpose of secretly bearing away the body from its tomb, and then persuade the people that their l^Jaster had come to life again ? What would the effect of this be upon us ? Every precaution must be used to prevent such a fraud as this." And they all concur in this sugges- tion. But in what mode could they successfully prevent the disciples from following this course ? They take counsel to- gether, and their practised subtlety in all the arts of lying soon discovered the means. I here observe, in passing, that several critics have ques- tioned the historical truth of the whole story, because they did not see how it could be possible that such members of the high council as a Nicodemus, a Joseph of Arimathea, and a Gamaliel, should ever have yielded their assent to so malignant a scheme as the one there planned. And, indeed, I myself likewise have held this to be impossible. But, in the first place, we do not read that these transactions were resolved on in a regularly-convened, full assembly of the Sanhedrim, but, on the contrary, everything Avould seem to indicate rather a tumultuous meeting, not of the whole body, but of a part, and that indeed made up of the most malevo- lent members of the council. For, doubtless, the two first named, Nicodemus and Joseph, would, together with their public formal protest against the judicial murder, have EASTEE-EVEN. 5 solemnly sent in their resignation as members, and would hence have no longer been present at the deliberations, or been cognisant of the subsequent jirojects of their former unrighteous associates. In this way the above-mentioned doubt is simply and easily cleared uj-), and it will be no less easily solved should it arise again in reference to a later transaction — I allude to the bribery of the guard appointed to watch the sepulchre. The chief priests and elders repair to the governor. Not- withstanding the undoubtedly early hour, Pilate, who like- wise had passed a sleepless night, granted them at once the desired audience. Upon his inquiry as to their prayer, they disclose their project, and say, with feigned loyalty, " Sir, we remember that that deceiver, of whose presence we, with your approval, have freed the country, while he was yet alive, expressly declared that he would, after three days, rise again." Beloved, let us pay great attention to this speech of the elders of Israel. Jesus, then, really said that He would rise again on the third day. Let us take note of this testimony from His enemies and most bitter opponents. It must be of great importance to us to hear it attested and confirmed as a notorious fact, that our Lord really, and in the most un- equivocal manner, announced beforehand the glorious issue of His martyrdom. The members of the Sanhedrim further say to Pilate, " Command therefore the sejKilchre be made sure until after the third day, in order that his disciples may not come and steal the body, and subsequently say to the people, He is risen from the dead ; so the last error shall be much worse than the first." Now, we have already learnt how to interpret this language, and to supply what is not expressed. They require the guard much less with reference to the dis- ciples, than with relation to our Lord himself. Pilate will- ingly grants their prayer, for to him the assurance would be rather alarminfc that the man who, when standino- before 6 EASTEE-EVEN. his bar, so powerfully impressed liim, should have spoken of His resurrection with such precision. " Take the guard," says the governor, (referring, as it appears, to his own body- guard ;) and adds, " go, make the grave as sure as you can." And they did so. The guard is taken to Joseph's garden — ■ it is placed before the sepulchre of the Crucified One — the stone which closes the tomb is sealed, in order that any vio- lent opening of it may be punished as sacrilege ; that is to .^ay, as the violation of a sanctuary, which would subject the perpetrators to criminal proceedings. You will now understand in what sense I characterised these precautionary measures of the euemies of Jesus as an involuntary preparation by them for the celebration of Easter. In the midst of their misgivings and apprehensions, Christ actually arose. After all that they had seen and experienced respecting Him, they would fain have withheld from them- selves all conscious acknov/ledgment of what they really thought Him to be, as indeed the man who possibly might suddenly raise Himself alive again from His death-chamber. And thus, whilst wearing the hypocritical mask of resolute unbelief, they, through the powerful impressions which His own personality had graven into them, rendered Him invo- luntary homage as a hero possibly superior to the king of terrors, to deatli itself. They unwillingly paid homage to the Prince of Life. Let our preparation, however, for the feast be of a better character. n. We enter Joseph's garden, and are seized with the tremor of a foreboding awe. There lies the holy sepulchre, surrounded by the armed watch. The stone door is firmly remented and sealed. But what matters this ? The firmer the bolts, the more conspicuously will it be shewn who broke them, and even here could make for Himself a free passage. The world has ofttimes seen the Lord Jesus imprisoned and immured in a spiritual sense. Imperial seals, as that of EASTEE-EVEN. 7 Julian the Apostate ; philosophical seals^ as that of Spinoza, and many others after him; republican seals, which recall the formal abolition of Christianity at the time of the French Revolution ; — these made the dungeon, in which it was fondly thought Christ was shut up, to appear closed for ever, as if no power could possibly break it open. But ere they were aware, He, whom they thought had been got rid of for ever, burst all the prison-cells, as He has in our own days that of Rationalism, in which they insanely fancied Him entombed, r-i;l He now stands victor upon the arena, crowned both in the Church and in the seats of learning. Who can confine There, in the dark vault, lies the body of the Lord of hea- ven, soulless ! Oh, what depth of humiliation ! But let us not overlook the briglit torches which God has placed beside Him ; first of all, in the prophetic passage of Isaiah liii. 9, " And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;" and then that in the words of the royal Psalmist, " Thou, Lord, wilt not suff'er thy Holy One to see corruption," (Ps. xvi. 10.) And what do we read, with the eye of the spirit, on the stone which closes the entrance of His sepulchre? His own fingers inscribed it, and it runs thus : — " Verily, verily I say imto you. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abidcth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," (John xii. 24.) Oh, do but wait, the great harvest-day is at hand ! The rocky tomb of our Lord would become a reef on which our entire faith in Providence would founder, if we regarded Christ's appearance here on earth as simply on His own account, and not rather as the head and representative of humanity. In that case He would never, as expiator of sin, have shared the lot of man even to death ; or we should, with Him, have seen the whole Divine administration sink likewise, and even God himself, as a Person and the righteous 8 EASTER-EVEN. Ruler together, annihilated and entombed for ever ! But as His tomb now gives irresistible testimony to His mediatorial position, so it transforms the tombs of His people into sta- tions whence they make their transition to new and more blissful spheres of life. For the path taken by the Head is necessarily that followed by the members ; and that which the first Adam bi^ai^ht down to the dust with himself, the second restores in clis own person out of the ruins. It is true that our flesh, corrupted by sin, is not saved from the trans- muting process of decay. The Almighty has uttered His sentence with reference to us, '' Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.'"' But no less authoritative than the pre- ceding is the following one, " It is sown in corruption ; it U raised in incorruption." An atom, though invisible to mortal eye, is preserved by the Almighty as the germinal frame of our undying body, on which at some future day the Divine agency will be made manifest, by which He, as the Scriptures declare, "makes all things subject unto Himself" The stone-vault before which we stand contains only the body of our Lord. Where is His spirit? We have heard Him give the dying thief the solemn assurance, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.'' In 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20; the apostle testifies that "after Christ had been put to death in the flesh," — that is to say, in His humanity, — He was " quickened in the Spirit," and raised to a higher, less- restricted, and freer sphere, and that " in this Spirit also He ivent and 2^reached unto the spirits in pi^ison, ivho some- time luere disobedient, when once the iGng-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark teas preparing" In the Apostles' Creed we find the passage, " He descended into hell," following the word " buried." This latter testi- mony manifestly refers to the above quotation from Peter ; and not only so, but it is based upon it. Therefore the expression, " hell" is liere used as synonymous with the EASTER-EVEN. 9 word *' prison." But it is impossible that the latter can be identical with the " paradise " which is spoken of in 2 Cor. xii. 2-4, as being one and the same with "the third heaven.'' And again, paradise, though a sphere of bliss, appears to be different from that higliest heaven where God is seen face to face, and which our Lord had in His eye when in His later testimony He says, *' / have not yet ascended to my Father;'' it is subordinate, or at least secondary, to this ; and we must therefore conceive of a heavenly vestibule where the redeemed had to wait the real ascension into heaven, the bodily one, of their glorified Mediator, in order to enter with Him the open gates of the city of God, and to attain the full possession of their eternal inheritance. To this antechamber Christ in spirit, while His body remained in the tomb, led the penitent thief, and then presented Himself to preach to the spirits in prison. We are left utterly without intimation where this latter place is situated ; but still it is not to be confounded with the abode of the damned. The great re- former, Calvin, thought he could avoid the descent into hell altogether, whilst he explained the passage in Peter thus : — Christ had exhorted Noah's contemporaries to repent, whilst they luere yet in the flesh, through the Holy Ghost by Him imparted to Noah, the preacher of righteousness. This ex- position, however, is too artificial to commend itself to an impartial mind. It is invalidated at once by the expression, " He descended," which cannot well betoken anything other than local motion, as it does afterwards in the 22d verse of the chapter alluded to. We have no intimation of the topics upon which He preached to the " spirits in prison," whether repentance, or His own triumph. But it may, however, well be presumed that amongst the souls that were hurried away by the flood, there were not a few who, if not converted, were nevertheless not far from the kingdom of God. Wcis the way to full regeneration now opened up to them ? This is 1 EASTEE-EVEN. conceivable. But under any circumstances, that descent of Christ in spirit was not associated with His state of humilia- tion, but already formed the transition to His state of exalta- tion : still less is it to be viewed as a complement of His mediatorial and propitiatory work, for this had seen its full accomplishment just prior to the moment when, commending His spirit into His Father's hands, He victoriously exclaimed, ''It is finished.'" But we should grasj^ at more than would become us, were we, from a fact of which Peter gives so mys- terious an intimation, to deduce consequences which might to some extent paralyse the zeal with which we ought to strive, on this side eternity, to make preparation for heaven. A subject of consolation for the heathen to whom God's Word has never come on earth, may be drawn from this consideration, but certainly none for us who -have the gospel. Thus we have not to seek the Lord himself in His tomb, but only His human frame, His earthly pilgrim's-garment. He is traversing in the spirit other regions. Is His resur- rection, therefore, nothing more than the reunion of the Son of God with His entombed body ? Yes, it is so, only He reassumes this body in a glorified condition. It is true that it irf difficult, nay impossible, for our short-sighted faculties to realise this representation. The bodily organisation de- stroyed by crucifixion must first be reinstated by creative power, and, beside this, be spiritualised as the organ of the God-man, who was now disconnected from the sublunary sphere of life. Indeed, this actually was accomplished, but the mode in which it was so remains an unsolved problem. I might here adduce something similar and analogous to the reunion of the spirit with the body previously deserted by Him. The condition of the clairvoyant, in whom all the bodily functions are suspended, as in death, whilst the mind for a season wanders as spectator and observer through dis- tant scenes, and then returns in one moment to its deserted EASTEE-EVEN. 1 \ body, might be adduced as one analogous to, and corre- sponding with, the reunion of His spirit with His previously deserted body. But let us be careful, lest we confound the natural and the supernatural with one another. The sub- ject in question being the resurrection of Christ, we are in the province of miracles; and precisely as Scripture teaches that it is only " by faith that we understand the worlds were made by the word of God,^' so the miracle of the resurrec- tion of our Lord, in all its parts, is given only to our faith. The great day, however— the greatest which the world has seen— knocks at the stone door of the holy sepulchre. Now let us for a short time ponder over the Almicrhty's plan of redemption, as revealed by Moses and the prophets, in its connexion. From so elevated a point of view the resurrection of the Mediator will appear to us a necessity, imposing silence on all our doubts. After this day's pre- paration, we shall with childlike simplicity, and with unem- barrassed, joyous hope, prepare ourselves for that immea- surably happier one which awaits us, and shall say with the Moravian poet : — " Jesus, of all life the Lord, Shall He in death decay ? Jesus, the Holy One of God, Shall He corruption see ? Morning's fragrance ! Easter breeze ! E'en now I feel Thy gentle motiou. ^d w !i rise again ! Amen." 12 THE MIEACLE OF EASTEfi, IL THE MIRACLE OF EASTER " Easter is God's Amen and the Hallelujah of hiimamty." It is scarcely possible that the lofty significance of the glo- rious event to the close consideration of which we this day draw near, can be more strikingly indicated than by this well-known expression.* This truth is sown broadcast throughout Scripture, and especially in the utterance of the apostle Peter, (Acts v. 30, 31,) where it is clearly attested, — '' This Jesus, luhom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted luith his right hand to he a Prince and a Saviour," — that is to say, has publicly accredited and crowned Him as such. By the miracle of Easter the Almighty stamped an imperishable seal — one the splendour of which shone throughout the universe — upon the dignity, words, and work of His only-begotten Son, and uttered His " Yea " and " Amen," confirmatory of the testimony of the Son that He was "the way, the truth, and the life," and of His triumphant exclamation, "It is finished!" intelligibly to heaven, earth, and hell. Humanity finds that it has attained the object of its boldest expectations and longings. Infinitely more has been prepared for it, and secured to it, than it ever dared to hope. After its eternal redemption had been accomplished, it was then actually declared, by the authority of the Most High, to be perfected. There thence- * From the late Bishop Draesecke, of Magdeburg, THE MIRACLE OF EASTER. 13 forth remained to the highly-favoured race of man nothing further than a never-ending hallelujah — "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think !" In these few words we see hastily sketched those truths which will constitute for a season the green pastures in which the Good Shepherd will feed our souls. Isaiah pre- dicted that " the redeemed of the Lord should come up to Zion with songs." This prediction is fulfilled since the announcement, " The Lord is risen/' has resounded through- out the world. " He is really risen ! " May it find a full echo in our hearts ! Matt, xxviii. 1-4, 11-15. " In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake : for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became aa dead men." ..." Now, when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye. His dis- ciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught : and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." " Shine, oh shine, thou Easter sun, Deep into my heart ; Dissipate the heavy shades Of its care and smart ! Shine with ray of j ui'est light, Flashing death's dark vale upon ; Brightly gild my soul's dark night — Easter sun, shine on ! shine on !" This, beloved, is the key-note of the feelings with which I hail the great event, and whicli are called forth by the Gospel 1 4 THE MIRACLE OF EASTER. just read. How few and how simple are the words in which it is conveyed to us. But they remind us of a fresco by a great artist, when, by a few bold and rapid strokes, to our astonishment we perceive the creation of an entire and ani- mated painting. Yet no human art can compete with the divine truthfulness of colouring which here strikes the eye. We at once see that we stand on the sure basis of historical fact Let us, with thoughtful spirits, approach still nearer to the most exalted and consolatory fact in the world's his- tory, and consider the miracle, first, in its historical details; secondly, as to its j^erfect credibility; and lastly, as to its high and glorious imjwrt As a blessing upon our meditations, may the words of the Psalmist be fulfilled in us — " The voice of rejoicing and sal- vation is in the tabernacles of the righteous : the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, the right hand of the Lord is exalted ; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly !" (Ps. cxviii. 15, 16.) I. A beautiful Sunday morniug here dawns, and scatters its pearls of dew on the springtide flowers. The world still lies in deep slumbers, never dreaming what a sun is about to rise upon the horizon of its life. But our Lord's disciples and friends have not closed their eyes throughout the night ; they have passed it in weeping and lamentation, and partly in preparing to discharge the most painful service of love on their return to the garden, which they had left at the beginning of the Sabbath. In spirit we anticipate their arrival. A profound solemn stillness reigns all around, broken only by the tread of the guards as they pace back- wards and forwards before the tomb of the crucified Prince of Peace. The second night since Good Friday has passed without any disturbance , apparently there is as little prob- ability of a resurrection of the deceased as tliere is of an attack by the adherents and friends of the Crucified One. The THE jMIRACLE of EASTER. 15 .irrave lies mute and closed before us ; its seal remains un- broken. It would seem tliafc the reign of the pretended new King of Zion was gone by for ever. But what now ! On a sudden the earth begins to tremble — the rocks are rent asunder all around with fearful crash — sujjerhuman forms, bright as lightning, and in garments white as snow, glide down from the heights of heaven to the garden. They are holy angels, like those who appeared at our Lord's nativity, and who came to minister to Him after His victory over the tempter in the desert. One of these gracious messengers approaches the tomb, touches the mass of rock which held it closed, and in a moment the seals are burst, the ponderous stone is rolled away, and from the opened portal of the grave there steps forth, radiant with heavenly glory, He who was dead ! — and, behold, " He lives, and bears the keys both of hell and of death ! " The guards, indeed, scarcely discern the Eisen One. The dazzling robe of light which He wears hides Him from their bewildered sight. The only object they dis- tinctly see is the seraph-form sitting in triumph on the rolled-away stone, as if it were a throne of state ; and then, with inexpressible consternation, trembling in every limb, they start up end hasten away to report to their superiors in Jerusalem the unheard-of prodigy that had occurred. Into what excitement the whole city would have been thrown by their report, had not the noiseless calm of early dawn rested on its deserted streets ! They only knock at the doors of the rulers, and we shall soon learn what was devised in that con- clave to stifle the strange report in its birth. But the new life of the Risen One was mightier than all the craft and malignity of His adversaries, and escaped, as before from the grave, so now from the hold of falsehood within which they would fain have once more confined it. Though they con- trived by the meanest expedient to stop the mouths of the living reporters, yet the dead arosp as witnesses to the Easter 16 THE MIRACLE OF EASTEE. miracle. Many of the pious dead, tlirouf2;h whose bodies a flash of returning life had thrilled at the moment when the powerful Victor's cry, " It is finished !" resounded from the cross, came forth from their graves with the Prince of Life, awakened by His death- subduing power, " and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many," (Matt, xxvii. 53.) What do we say to this great and unique event ? It must be understood that we employ here a different standard from that of our limited every-clay experience, a higher one that stands above the earthly order of nature. We find ourselves in the domain of miracles. That which is here presented to our field of vision comes direct from the power and majesty of the Most High. From the earthquake, the rending of rocks, and the visit of angels, down to the appointed place in which, as the evangelist John reminds us, (John xxviii. 7,) the napkin and the linen clothes were seen, neatly wrapped together, in the empty tomb — all are the immediate working of the omnipotence of the personal and living God, whose pleasure it was that through these tokens His only-begotten Son should, after He had endured the ignominy of the cross, be honoured and glorified before the whole world. The greatest of all wonders, however, is the Risen One himself. Who can comprehend the change which suddenly had passed upon Him ? Who can fathom the mystery of His glorified nature, of His new being? There He stands before us reunited to the body which, two days previously, He had left on the cross inanimate. It is the same body which we saw bleeding on the tree, and yet no longer the same. A spiritual change has likewise taken place in Him, of which His subsequent appearances do not permit us for one moment to doubt. Where He presents Himself, He does so as the result of a definite voHtion. Without this, His new nature would have been veiled to mortal eyes. After He had assumed a i^lorioiis body. He ate and drank, but He did not THE MIRACLE OF EASTEE. 17 lo SO from necessity, but, doubtless, in the same mysterious manner in which we saw Him, under the well-known title of "the Angel of the Lord," together with His attendant angels, eat in the grove at Mamre, when the Lord a^^peared to Abraham. Let no one now ask where the Risen One obtained the mantle with which He appeared invested at His exit from the tomb. This question remains an open one for our shortsighted understandings, like that of the snow-white garments of the angels. Hardly were they the product of a loom worked by man. Nor let us inquire where the Lord afterwards tarried when He did not manifest Him- self to His disciples. We must ever remember that, after His resurrection, He had entered into the spliere of a higher nature, and, indeed, such an one that the earthly has nothing corresponding to place beside it. Moreover, the other mat- ters connected with the Easter marvel, which, to our veiled eyes, appear enigmatical, will not embarrass or disturb us in the least, from the moment we hold the miracle itself to be, beyond all contradiction, a grand historical fact. That it is such a fact does not admit of one moment's doubt when viewed apart from all prejudice. We wish to convince all honest seekers for truth in the crowd of doubters around' us. that Jesus Christ is really risen from the dead : but what eft'ect do our arguments produce upon you ? Calmly follow us in the discussion of the subject which we are prepared to enter upon with you, in order to elicit the truth, and then say what historical event was ever confirmed with more striking proofs than that of Christ's resurrection. II. At Jerusalem, we find the high priests and elders already assembled before the first cock-crowing. The tidings brought by the watch have roused these terrified rulers from their beds like an alarm-trumpet. It is true they are not all assembled ; Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathca, and pos- sibly some others like-minded, are absent. What measures B ] 8 THE MIRACLE OF EASTER. must be employed now ? If the rumour of what happened to the watch be spread, the last error will be worse than the first, and the Galilean has triumphed even after death. Good advice is not at hand, and, in its stead, they adopt an expedient every way bad. As at the private audience on the Friday morning they meanly practised bribery, so now they employ the same means. The members of the council engage themselves to pay large sums of money to the guards upon their solemn promise to spread the report among the people, that during the night, and whilst they, the guards, were asleep, the disciples of the Nazarene came and stole away the body of their Master. But what if it should come to pass that the Dead should actually present Himself among the people? Well, even then, there remained this evasion, that He was only apparently dead when laid in the sepulchre, and that, by the employment of secret but effective means. He had been recalled to life. But what if the governor be informed of the bribery practised? The members of the council took upon themselves the responsibility of pacifying him on this head, and, moreover, engaged so to manage matters, that the guards should incur no punishment for their dastardly fliglit from the grave. Upon this, the guards took the wages of iniquity, and did as had been suggested to them. Since the Eisen One did not again shew Himself to the people, the story of the robbery of the tomb was, as the evangelist says, " commonly reported among the Jews," and, indeed, Matthew adds, "until this day." We, however, may apply this expression to the present age, for not only do Jews, but with them there are likewise thousands of nominal Christians, who still concur in making the same " common report." Bur the thought that Christ is actually risen from the dead is indeed so great, and attended with such exceedingly happy results, that we incur danger, as did the apostles of old, in not believing "for joy." Nevertheless, THE MIRACLE OF EASTER. 19 it is impossible to deny tlie event of Easter-tide, witliout at the same time flying in the face of all history; without accoutring one's-self in triple brass, to repel the most cogent })roofs ; without entirely renouncing all sound understand- ing ; and without stifling and annihilating in oneVself the last sparks of susceptibility for historical truth. If it be certain that there ever lived a Eoman emperor who bore the name of Augustus, — or that a people existed called the Jews, who, after th.ey had crucified Christ, were scattered as chaff to the four winds of heaven, — or that, once upon a time, the Dagon of the Philistines fell before the ark of the covenant, — or that the gods of Greece and Rome were hurled from their altars before the gospel of the publicans, the fishermen, and the tentmakers, — we have still more conclusive evidence i>f that fact which, raised as it is immeasurably higher, abo\e and beyond all doubt, the whole Church on earth is wont to celebrate at Easter with sound of trumpets and son^i- — t^.e mircicle of the resurrection of Jesus. Eirst of all, survey with me the far-reaching chain of unequivocal predictions which, link within link, stretches through the four thousand years prior to the appearance of Christ. Or, will you dare deny that the ancient patriar^^h^ of the human race, together with the entire Jewish nation, from their origin, placed their hopes on a Messiah who would bring salvation, peace, and redemption to them, and to the whole human race? Indeed, were you to do so, every Jew would enter the lists against you, and would reproach you as both blind and stupid. Open the sacred records of that people, and fix your eye upon the sublime form of the Saviour which will present itself to you in almost every pas(e. Learn in those sacred writings how, when, and where " He who should come " was to appear. Beliold Him in the representations of prophecy, as if He were already incarnate, walking-, act'U'^, c^oinr; si'^ps a'lc^ A^'jrd-^r;. J^>ehold Him, 20 THE MIRACLE OF EASTEE. further, in that mirror, rejected by His own people, num- bered among the transgressors, suffer, bleed, and die, and hear the propliet's explanation of it — " for our transgressions, for our iniquities." Observe, further, how in the great pro- phetic vision, after He has given up His life as a sacrifice, has been " taken from judgment," released from death, He is at length crowned with honour and glory, and raised to be the foundation and corner-stone of a new kingdom — the kingdom of grace ; how He then " should prolong His days," and how " the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in His hands/' Then take up the New Testament, and read first the four Gospels. What do you discover there? A man is born into the world at the precise time, at the fixed spot, and of the very family in v.'hich, according to prophecy, the ^Messiah should be born. This man, who thus appeared publicly, declares Himself to be " He of whom Moses and the prophets s^^ake/' He accomplishes all the works and wonders of the prophetic type. He corresponds in every feature with the Messiaii of the Old Testament. He becomes the Lamb that bears the sin of the world. He says that He is fore- ordained to suffer and to die ; that He shall not, however, remain in death, but shall rise again on the third day : and He suffers, sheds His blood, and dies, and — " does not rise again ! " That were inconceivable, more so even than if the trunk of a sound tree, whicli is in the course of progressive development, should suddenly be arrested in its growth, and remain a stunted stem, without any head-growth or crown at all. The connexion of the prophecy and its fulfilment, as well as the gradually progressive course of the consecrated, sinless life of the incomjDarable personage of whom we speak, demanded a resurrection from the dead as an absolute necessity. If this had not followed, the life of Christ would Lave been the most insoluble riddle in the whole history of the world. It would have been like a build- THE MIEACLE OF EASTEE. 21 ing framed in all its jDarts most carefully and perfectly, but in which the key-stone had been most unaccountably omit- ted; or like a painting, executed with marvellous ability, but from which, however, the hand of the artist was re- moved, just before its completion, by the Lord God himself, leaving us in astonishment at the mystery of His providence. If Scripture did not aver anything concerning the resurrec- tion of Jesus, the assertion that part of the gospel must have been lost would be j^erfectly reasonable and warranted. The resurrection of Christ thus presents itself as the indis- putable sequence of His existence and life up to the time of His death. But let it be supposed He did not rise again, wdiere could the Dead One have remained? Search through the whole wide world, and you will discover no place which could have concealed Him. YV^as He in the custody of the Jews ? Im- possible ! Would they not subsequently, and especially at the splendid triumph of the gospel on the day of Pentecost, ha\c brought forth the Dead from His hiding-place, and, by t]-.o simple exhibition of His body, have achieved with one blow the downfall of this hated Christianity. Was his body deposited by His disciples in some remote and secret sepul- chre ? The Jews allege this even to the present hour, cer- tainly in a very dubious manner, feeling, as they must, that no one will believe that the disciples would have been able to kindle within themselves enthusiasm sufficient to cause them to stake not only property, fame, and honour, but even dear life itself, for one by whom they had been most wickedly deluded and deceived in those blessed hopes which He him- self had awakened in them. There remains therefore to unbelief, in the tliird place, only this supposition, that Christ, after He had distinctly foretold that He should die, and after three days rise again, wlien taken from the cross was not really dead, but only in a deep trance, from which He 22 THE MIRACLE OF EASTER. awoke exactly on the third day purely by accident. But no one can put forward such an opinion without rendering him- self liable to be considered as one who merely, to evade the pressure of the fact, does not consider the most absurd sup- position too irrational as a last resource against his con- science and better knowledae. In order not to be oblio-ed to surrender the citadel of his unbelief, such a man blows him- self up together with his reason and his logic ! Not to say that it would have been wonderfully like a miracle if the Lord had awoke from His rigid trance exactly on the third day, the one which He had appointed for His return to life ; the Ee-a-Aakened One would soon have had to go the way of all flesh, that is to say, must have died : and where could He have expired so secretly and obscurely, that neither friend nor enemy, Jew nor Christian, should have discovered anything about His death ? Perhaps He plunged into the depths of the sea, or repaired to some remote uninhabited island. You see into what contradictions, what absurdities, that man falls who refuses to believe the miracle of the resurrection. Sound reason does not deny this miracle ; but, at its cost, and in opposition to it, a perverse will does, refusing to do homage to Clirist, and to submit to His sceptre. The day of Pentecost is an historical fact. This is beyond all question. Believe the baptism of fire by the Holy Spirit to be what you will, it is certain that the disciples of Christ at Pentecost received such a baptism, and that then and there, by the organising of the congregation at Jerusalem, the Cliristian Church on earth was founded. This fact no one will controvert. It was Christ, however, who foretold this day of Pentecost in the most definite manner, and added to this prophecy the important assertion, that, by the out- pouring of the Holy Spirit, He should give the first visible sign of His elevation to the riorht hand of the Father. This THE I\riEACLE OF EASTER. , 23 sign, therefore, followed. And in the presence of such world- wide manifestations of life by the Prince of Peace, as well as of unheard-of miraculous operations, by means of wliich He, in so short a time, by a handful of poor Galileans, drew tlie whole Eoman Empire to His banner, called into existence a new spiritual world, in the ordinances, customs, views, and ideas of which we all now live, will any one still doubt whether this Christ be risen from the dead ? Why should you not, then, at once doubt all history, in which — I boldly afhrm it — hardly anything recorded is so fully confirmed and verified as the fact, the memorial of whicli we celebrate at Easter. The First Epistle to the Corinthians was written by Paul, the contemporary of Christ and of all the other apostles. This is beyond all contradiction. Even our most unbelieving critics do not dare seriously to call it in question. But what do we read in this epistle ? Loudly and openly before all the world the apostle here testifies, (chap. xv. 6,) that the Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, "was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom the greater part remain unto this prese];it, but some are fallen asleep." Any one zealous for the truth, who then doubted, might have arrived at certainty in the shortest and surest way. But the reality of the resurrection was seriously called in question by scarcely any one in the earliest centuries of the Christian epoch. On the contrary, the lapse of time served but to increase the number of the adherents to the Divine Prince of Life. And will you still doubt? Why then? Because death is death, and nobody ever returned from the grave. So, indeed, you are taught by the history of natural science, and hence the common saying of unbe- lievers, that the latter will in time entirely unhinge and dis- place Christianity. But whence do you derive authority to impose a limit upon the development of creative j^owers by tho Author of nature, saying, " Thus far shalt thou go, and 24i THE MIEACLE OF EASTER. no further," and to regard those laws by which nature is now sustained as fetters by which the Creator's hands are bound ? Poor jDurblind mortals ! Because in the present day no sinful child of Adam rises from the dead, do you conclude that the Son of God, the Sinless One, could not vanquish that death which He incurred on our account ? A more foolish conclusion than this I cannot conceive. Away with it ! You wilfully blind your eyes that you may not see, because you feel that, to be consistent, you must accept not only the resurrection of Christ, but many other things likewise ; that you must not only give up and renounce much, but must give to your whole life another, a higher, and a more spiritual direction. III. And that you doubtless must. For if Christ rose ngain from the dead on the third day, He is your divinely-" accredited King and Lord ; and so long as you withhold from Him homage, and do not render Him obedience, both in body and soul, you are rebels, obnoxious to punishment, without excuse. The confirmatory seal of the Most High shines upon all that He has revealed, taught, and ordained, and those who delay even for one moment to bow beneath His sceptre, are stigmatised as rebellious subjects. Did the Eternal Euler raise His Son, crowned with glory and honour, from the dust of death ? — then this latter is by such glorious exaltation proved to be the Eedo'^ir.er of the world with power; and at the same time our natural condition is repre- sented to be so hopelessly h?>i. chat it could be relieved only by the unexampled manifestations of grace. But who would be concerned for such a sinner? for he strives with all his might against the requirement that he should be simply in- debted for his salvation to the merits of another, to the righteousness of a Mediator. And precisely because men have an idea of the consequences incident to faith in the resurrection of Christ, they reject it ; and maintain, in oppo- THE MIKACLE OF EASTER. 25 sition to the voice of truth sounding loudly within them, that the sun in clear broad day, though brightly shining overhead, is not to be found in the heavens at all. But it is to be hoj^ed you are not among the number of those who wilfully evade a truth which is fitted to transform this earthly valley of the shadow of death into the portal of Paradise. I assume that your need of grace, peace, and a certain liope of everlasting life has made your eye single, and quickened your apprehension of the reality and glory of the Saviour's resurrection. Ye blessed ones ! what a stream of comfort and of joy issues for you from the open grave in Joseph's garden ! Oh say, after what are your aspirations ? Is it after a Prince of Peace, whose brow God himself has en- circled with the diadem of honour ? — a Kedeemer who, under His own hand and seal, has attested that He has " blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and taken it out of the way?" (Col. ii. 14) — a Friend quite as powerful as He is condescending, in whom you may im- plicitly confide, on whose breast you may gently lean, into whose bosom you may shed your tears, and from whose love you may always indulge the highest hopes ? — a Surety who, from His own experience, can satisfy you that death to the believer involves nothing further than being raised to the vision of God and glorification in the heavenly state ? All this you have, and infinitely more, in Him who hails you from the ruins of His riven tomb, with His " Peace be unto you ! " — the first morning salutation of a new life. Oh, fall at Ris feet in adoration and homage, whose resurrection , already spreads the dawn of a heavenly day over your earthly ' existence Open wide — and surely this can be no diflScult matter — the portals of your heart to Him, that He may enter therein with the plenitude of His Easter consolations ; and whithersoever you go or stay, released from cares, and liav- ing banished fears, with your inner soul attuned to perfect 26 THE MIRACLE OF EASTEE. harmony by the exulting message, " The Lord is really risen," re-echo the trium23hant song of the poet : — " The Lord is risen again ! Where is now the death-sting? Where, grave, the victory ? Thanks to God, and praise and blessing, Christ for us hath risen — Christ, that lives in heaven, Hath to us the victory given ! To the skies See Him rise ! There, through Him, we follow ! Faxewell, death and sorrow I Amen.*'' THE EMPTY GEAVE. 27 THE EMPTY GRAVE. The mere existence of the Christian Church is the mightiest evidence of the truth of the resurrection of Christ. It would not have existed if Christ had not risen ; and he who denies the resurrection believes in an absurdity, and accepts effects which have no causes. No doctrine of the Christian Church so clearly shews that the root of unbelief is to be found oftener in the heart than in the understanding, as that of the resurrection of Christ. Dispute with unbelievers concerning every other doctrine or fact of the Christian religion, and it is possible that, even though the point be not settled, you may leave off peaceably and pleasantly. But if you urge upon them evidences of the historical truth of the resurrec- tion, they will part from you embittered and angry. Why this ? Because they cannot escape the painful feeling that here all the weapons of their critical acuteness refuse to do them service, and the inward judge inexorably sentences them as men who wilfully shut themselves out from the truth against their better knowledge and convictions. When Peter, in his defence before the council, as reported in Acts V. 30, reminded them of Jesus' resurrection, and, in discuss- ing its truth, appealed to his own ocular testimony as well as that of his fcUow-disciples, and likewise to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, by which latter event the Lord had prac- tically authenticated His exaltation to be '' a Prince and 28 THE EMPTY GRAVE. Saviour of Israel," his judges were "cut to the heart/' — that is to say, they were enraged, and combated that which they were unable to resist, with insolent defiance and wilful obdu- racy. Gamaliel alone perceived that this was not the right way to combat, but that where truth held the field it wavS more becoming to bow to her, whatever it might cost. May the honesty which characterised Gamaliel be, by God's grace, imparted to us, and may it accompany us throughout the whole course of our Easter meditations ! May it not be denied us to-day ! Matt, xxviii. 5, 8; IMat^k xvi. 1-8 ; Luke xxiv. 1-12 ; John xx. 1~11. " Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, when it was yet dark, came Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, and others with them, unto the sepulchre, bringing sAveet spices which they had prepared that they might embalm him. And they said among themselves, Yf ho shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre ? But when they looked, they saw that it was rolled away, for it was very large. And they entered in, but found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And, as they were much perplexed concerning it, behold, there stood by them two men in shining garments ; and they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment ; and they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth. But the angel an- swered and spake to the women, Fear not ye ; I know ye seek Jesus who w\as crucified. But why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here : he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. But go quickly, tell his disciples and Peter that he is risen from the dead. Remember how he spake to you when he was yet in Galilee : The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again : and behold he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him. Lo, I have told you. And they remembered his words, and went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre ; for they trembled and were amazed : neither said they anything to any one, for they were afraid. But they told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest ; but their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Mary Magdalene cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said unto them, They have taken the Lord away out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter there- fore went forth, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre ; and so they did V'oth run together, but tliat other disciple did outrun THii] e:.ipty oeave. 29 Peter, and came first to the sepulchre ; and he stooped down, and looking in, he saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been about his head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, went in also, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again together." The primary incidents in connexion with our Lord's deserted tomb are tliiis narrated in the combined accounts of the evangelists, reported partly from their own observa- tion, and partly from that of the female disciples. Where are now the irreconcilable discrejiancies in their representa- tions, which, according to the utterances of unbelief, annihi- late the doctrine of the inspiration of the sacred writers, and expose them so palpably, that, at least with reference to the report before us, we are no longer on historic ground ? I am unable to discover these contradictions. That ^Matthew and Mark only mention one angel as having spoken, whilst Luke and Joim speak of a second as having done so like- wise, will hardly be considered a contradiction by any one. Mark's deviation from the other accounts aj)pears more im- portant, in stating that the women, when hastening back, told no one, whereas the other evangelists distinctly say that they told the disciples all that had happened to them. But let it be only supposed that the women told their secret to no one whom they met on the way — that they at first, partly from consternation, partly from joy, concealed it for a while even from the a2)ostles; in this case Mark's account is no less accurate than that of Matthew, Luke, and John. But the .i:reatest difficulty is presented in the circumstance that jMary Magdalene, who at early dawn joined the women going out, neither, saw the angels at the same time as they did, nor heard their message, nor learned their errand. But the solution of the enigma is at hand, if we only — and what so THE EMPTY GEAVE. should binder us? — present the matter to ourselves in the following manner. Assuredly Mary Magdalene went out of Jerusalem with the other women, but, prompted by her quick temperament and impulsive habit, she rushed on before the others, taking probably some nearer bypath. Immediately upon her entering the garden, she, to her great consterna- tion, observed that the sepulchre was shattered; and without tarrying for a moment, she hastened back to the city by the same path by which she had gone there, and told Peter and John that the body of our Lord had been carried off; hav- ing done which, she at once returned to the tomb with the two disciples. It was during this interval that those inci- dents transpired which happened to her friends in the garden of Joseph. They may, indeed, have left our Lord's tomb before Mary Magdalene and her companions had reached it. When the latter, to their no small grief, had convinced them- selves that Mary Magdalene's report was correct, they forth- with returned to Jerusalem, whilst she, abandoned to grief, stopped at the tomb ; and it was then and there that she was favoured w^ith the sight of the Risen One, concerning which we shall hear more anon. This appearance was followed by that described in Matt, xxviii. 9, 10, in which her friends w^ere cheered by our Lord's presenting Himself to them, the meeting taking place probably in a spot near the city. Or, in the above-mentioned passage, did Matthew only concisely relate that of which John gives a more detailed account? (chap. XX. 11-17.) And, in his short narrative, did Matthew assign to all the women those incidents w^hich occurred to Mary Magdalene only ? Many accept this version, and with its adoption the wdiole narrative of the evangelists is cleared from all perplexity. But, indeed, so it is without it. If we only can conceive the collocation of events to have been such as we liave just represented, the harmony of the fourfold testimony is firmly cstnblislied against all objections. THE EMPTY GEAVE. 31 Now let us pcass in review the different features of this liighly suggestive picture. And first of call, let the mind's eye be attentively directed to the luomen setting out at early dawn; secondly, to the incidents which befell them at the sepulchre; thirdly, their report to the assembled dis- ciples; as also, fourthly, the issue of their communication. You remember that when the corpse was deposited in Elisha's tomb, it revived. In a spiritual sense, may we experience something similar ! with this difference, however, that the effect wrought in us may be as much greater as the tomb we are now about to visit is greater, more sublime, and Iiolier than was that of the prophet of Abei-Meholah. I. Night still rested upon the holy city, and a gleam of dawn was visible in the distance, when by its aid a heart- affecting sight is presented to us in its quiet, deserted streets. It is the approach of the veiled procession. We recognise it as consisting of the female disciples of the crucified Lord. They move along with heads bowed low and eyes red with weeping. They have passed the night sleepless, or disquieted with unpleasant dreams ; and now, as the Sabbath is over, they are silently moving towards the garden of Joseph, with their fine linen, their wreaths, and their spices, in order to render the last offices of love to the dear remains of their departed Friend, which had been interrupted when He was laid in the tomb. Most of them are already known to you. You see among them Johanna, wife of Chuza, an official of Herod the king ; Salome, the richly blessed mother of Zebe- dee's children, the two apostles, John and James ; the three Marys — Mary, wife of Cleopas, and mother of James the Less and of Joses ; another Mary, perhaps Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and INIartha ; and Mary Magdalene, who had been saved as a brand from the fire, and now burns with more fervent affection than all tlie others for her beloved Saviour. jMary, the mother of the Lord, is not in the 32 THE I'MPTY GRAVE. funeral procession. Crushed l)y the terrible blow whicli she lias experienced, this sorely-afflicted one remains bathed in tears under the roof of lier adopted son, John. But we rejoice that our last view of her is not in this liour of sorrow. "We find her on the day of Pentecost abundantly comforted ; happy once more, truly happy ; and when she shortly after- wards disappears from our view, we will know where to look for the " highly-favoured one." The sorrow-stricken women move silently along. It is not until they have nearly reached the garden that a petty care unseals their lips, and we hear them say, " Who will remove the stone for us from the mouth of the sepulchre ? " Thus all their wishes and desires resolved themselves into this trivial solicitude. Considering the unequivocal pro- phecies which they had repeatedly heard from the mouth of their Master, this seems hardly conceivable. But the fearful and bloody end of His life must have fallen like a terrific, devastating hailstorm upon the harvest-field of their hopes and recollections. Even supposing the inexpressible con- sternation into which they had been throv>m to have left them adequate opportunity and self-possession to remember what He had heretofore said most unequivocally, in reference to His resurrection after His previous crucifixion, yet they must have reo^rded it as a settled matter that they were only authorised to give it a spiritual meaning, or, at the utmost, to apply it to the resurrection at the last day. For the present, and for all time. He figured in the range of their gloomy and veiled notions but as one of the dead — an inanimate corpse. Hence they restricted all their affectionate solicitude to one (jbject — gently and reverentially to commit His remains to their long sleep in the bosom of the earth. Alas ! how many are there now-a-days who, like the women, need to have the stone rolled away from the door of their Saviour's sepulchre ! To how many who are baptized in THE EMPTY GRAVE. 33 and called by His holy name, is Christ but a corpse still ! Were they but equally distressed and anxious for salvation, as were these female disciples now on their way to His tomb, surely we might trace an analo;,^ in their .subsequent expe- rience^. But our ri.sen Lord to this hour witlidraws Himself from all who will not feel their need of Him, from all who are satisfied with their own righteousness. Yes ! their be- setting self-love and self-sufficiency work their delusion; they are ever seeking the living among the dead, whilst, on the contrary, the Church of our Cod never ceases to ring with hallelujahs, simply because He is risen ; and instead of re- joicing with believers, sayino-, ''Jesus lives, and I too live in him," and seeing heaven opened to them, they must needs repeat the disconsolate commonplace, " No one has ever returned from the realms of the dead." Poor souls ! how are they to be pitied ! 11. When these mourners reached the garden, they were still occupied with the anxious desire to know " who should remove the massive stone from the entrance to the tomb." What do they perceive there? Oh! what can it mean? Behold ! the stone has already been moved aside, and the interior of the tomb lies exposed. But the spectacle plunges them in fresh perplexity, The weakness of their faith sug- gests that some violence had been practised upon His dear remains. Trembling with fearful anticipation, they draw near the sepulchre ! Lo ! suddenly there gleams forth from it a beam of light like lightning, and by its marvellous bril- liancy they discover two figures, young men clad in glittering garments, in whom they immediately recognise two beings from another world, two angels of Cod. Do not marvel that the resurrection should have been accompanied by such extraordinary appearances as these. AVithout such, as some one has truly observed, the resurrection of Christ would have been a spring without flowers, a sun without rays, a 34 THE EMPTY GEAVE. victory without a triumphal wreath. It was right that the majesty of the Almighty should be revealed in every possible way in connexion with it, and holy angelic beings are truly some of the most lovely rays of His glory. Yet they were not present for the sake of pageant or parade, but, as on every other occasion, so likewise on this, for the sake of those who are heirs of salvation. They had been sent as heralds, to communicate a message. Scarcely had the women recovered from their first astonishment, when one of the angels opened his gracious lips, and speaking to the sorrow- ful party from within the tomb, said, " Fear not ye : for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here. He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." There you have one of the most blessed messages ever yet heard on earth. The plain simple form in which it presents itself to us at once stamps it with the impress of truth ! The mere poet or mythologist would have made the messengers of God proclaim more emphatically and ostentatiously an event which lighted up earth's dark valley of death with a starry firmament of the brightest hopes. But the heavenly messengers were intent only upon informing mankind of the historical fact, and they left it to the highly-favoured ones themselves to celebrate the wonderful event in psalms and songs of praise. It cannot escape you that the mode in which the angels express themselves proposed nothing be- yond announcing, with due emphasis, the reality of the re- surrection of Christ, and placing it beyond all doubt. The " Crucified One," say they. He whom the women seek in the grave, is risen from the dead. Yes ! He Himself arose, and that, too, bodily, as He was buried. Here from the place where He lay has He raised Himself. Through this open stone doorway has He gone forth again alive. " Fear not ye." With liow much stronger emphasis might that " Fear THE EMPTY GEAVE. 35 not ye" be proclaimed in this sinful world, than on that sacred night when the shepherds on Bethlehem's plains were greeted with the same salutation ! For now fear, care, terror, and doubt were utterly banished from every secret hiding- place. "Who would now be disposed to accuse, or who to condemn? and what now remained to oppress and terrify the poor heart of man ? Whether Jesus Christ be really the only-begotten Son of the Father, whether His work of mediation be held in the Father's eyes to be fully perfected and sufficient for the ex- piation of our sins, whether the way of salvation which He has pointed out to us be the one leading there surely and infallibly, and whether death has been really vanquished and paradise regained for us by Him, — all these and many other glorious truths beside are now placed by the resur- rection beyond doubt. Their affirmation was decided; it was most clearly confirmed by the seal of the Most High. There is no longer any distressing condition upon earth to which the " Fear not ye" of the angels, together with the j^owerful grounds of consolation on which that utterance is founded, may not be applied. It brightens the darkest nights of sorrow with divine gleams of hope, and banishes, at least, the horror of despair from the gloomiest vales of life. The women feel conscious of the profound significance of the angel's exclamation ; but again they are so overcome by the greatness of the joyful news thus intimated, that at first they can only rejoice with trembling. They stand there dumb with wonder. But the heavenly messenger rouses them from their torpor, commanding them forthwith to go and tell the disciples of the Lord, and especially Peter, that their Master had risen, and is alive again. Truly a more glorious errand than this was never committed to any mor- tal ! That which makes our office, the office of ambassadors 36 THE EMPTY GRAVE. for Christ, the most deliglitful on earth, is, that the charge committed to the minister of Christ is analogous to that given to the women. How enviable would the preacher of the gospel be, if the message which he has to declare were everywhere and at once believingly received ! How happy would the world be made by his presence, dispelling on all sides the shadows of sorrow, spreading sunshine over the beds of the sick and the dying, and transforming the grave itself into a peaceful place of rest, nay, rather, into the gate of heaven! He would be the angel of humanity; peace and joy would ever attend his steps. But, in a majority of cases, how long have we to knock at the fast- closed doors of the heart, ere it be opened to receive our message ! This may be salutary for us as an exercise of humility and of prostration in the dust, but the world only excites our commiseration. In God's own gracious time, however, we are ever and anon encouraged by a specific message to indi- viduals, as were these good women who were desired to an- nounce a fact to the eleven and to Peter. It was cordially received by them all, but especially by Peter. What could be more touching, and, at the same time, more elevating, than this special mention of the poor fallen disciple ? " Tell it to Peter." It shall be first announced to him ; before all others to him, weeping in retirement, overcome with peni- tence and shame. No one was so near to the heart of the risen Saviour as he was. I ask again, could there be any- thing more touching, and, at the same time, more consola- tory, than this more than motherly tenderness of the Lord of lords for His contrite, broken-hearted Simon ? Together with the notification of the resurrection, the women were desired to remind the eleven of a previous utterance of their Master, according to which He engaged that, after His resurrection' He would go before them into Galilee. The angel expressly told the women this, and emphasised His words, adding, THE EMPTY GEAVE. 37 "Lo, I have told you i' These female disciples, agitated with inexpressible emotions, and perliaps yet doubtful whe- ther they were awake or only under the illusion of a pleasant dream, hasten back to the city. They encounter several persons on their road, but, maintaining strict silence, they hasten by them, keeping their secret locked up in their breasts, III. But we will leave them for a few moments, and turn our attention to another incident. We know already that at early dawn, when the women had scarcely reached the pre- cincts of the city, ]\Iary Magdalene, whose temperament most resembled Peter's, had hastened before them, on wings of impatience, by a shorter road. To see the open and empty tomb, and to hasten back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples the alarming news, were to her but oioe operation. She met John, and his friend Peter, in the city, and gave them as a sad morning salutation the sorrowful news, " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him," (John xx. 2.) At this news the two hurried away to the garden ; and JMary Magdalene returning scarcely was outrun by them. They arrived there just as the other women had left the sacred spot ; they actually found everything as Mary had informed them. The stone was rolled away, and the grave was empty. John arrived there first ; but either from tender awe, or fear that his feelings would be too much for him, he did not enter the tomb, though, from a little distance, he looked into it, and saw the linen clothes in which the beloved remains had been wrapped. Peter, on the other hand, to search out the matter, entered the sepulchre, and we know what there met his eye. Folded, as by a careful hand, lay the napkins and linen clothes in one place, and in another, folded also smoothly and carefully, lay the napkin which had been bound round our Lord's bleeding head. Then John wished to see it also, and rever- •58 THE EMPTY GRAVE. ently, as if his foot were on holy ground, entered the sepul- chre. Certainly the napkin thus neatly folded would have seemed to them to indicate anything rather than a violent abstraction of the body ; but this circumstance was inade- quate to suggest more than a fleeting thought of the real bodily resurrection of the Lord. This seems incomprehen- sible to us, but it actually was so. The Gospel says, "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." And truly they did not know it. If they had ever read anything about the victory over death to be achieved by the expected Messiah, or had they ever heard anything concerning it from the mouth of their Master himself, like Mary and Martha just before the ai^proaching resuscitation of their brother Lazarus, they lost and dissi- pated the real sense by assigning a subtilised and spiritual one. They returned despondently from the garden of Joseph to Jerusalem, but without their friend Mary Magdalene, who could not yet tear herself from His grave who w"as to her all in all. The two had just returned home to the other disciples, when, possibly some few moments after their arrival, the women, whom in our narrative we accompanied for some distance on their way home, arrived likewise. We see them, in a state of the highest excitement, join the circle of the disciples. Here, likewise, their lips are for a while closely sealed. Will anything so wonderful be believed? Lideed, the fact, as narrated, and \^\1q\\ they had to repeat, was to them of overwhelming import, and in itself transcendently glorious. But joy presently unsealed their lips, and we now hear them each vying with the other in animation, relieving their full hearts by telling of the ^marvellous things which they had seen and heard. They report that they had been favoured with a vision of angels, and then deliver the trans- porting message which one of the heavenly heralds had com- THE EMPTY GRAVE. 3D mitted to them for tlie disci2:)lGS. And they have yet some- thing mucli more important still, to which we shall recur later. For they insist upon it, that they have personally seen the Lord himself. The discii)les hear, but scarcely trust their ears. " Angels in their Master's tomb 1 And assurance from the lips of one of them that the Master is risen ! Nay, more than that, an interview with the Eisen One himself: Oh, that all this had not transpired under the veil of twilight, and that the message had been delivered by other lips than those of excited and credulous women ! Jb'or John and Simon were both there too, and they saw and heard nothing of it." With such thonghts as these the eleven are exercised, and they do not believe ; or rather let me sa}^ they strive against belief. It was just so with the other disciples when they heard of it. " Por the words of the women," according to historic record, "appeared to them Hs idle tales." Poor men ! how little confidence do they shew in the power and love of the living God ; how little ability have they to grasp the divine scheme of salvation to be wrought out by Christ ; how limited was their aj^prehen- sion of all that they had heard, during three whole years, from the mouth of the JMaster himself, as to the real object of His mission to the world ! Indeed, it is difficult to say how far the natural man is carried away from belief in a living God constantly operating creatively ; he gets entangled in what we style *' the unchangeable laws of nature." And up to this very day we cannot get absolutely clear of secret doubt, as to whether the resurrection be not a fable, though the most cogent arguments for its historical truth be brought home to^the understanding, unless the Holy Spirit has per- fected in us the work of Divine illumination, and has, with the pangs of the new birth, thoroughly convinced us that we are irrecoverably lost, without a God-man Mediator sacri- ficed as a sin-offerino- for us, and then raised airain from the 40 THE EMPTY GRAVE. dust of death to the glory of a new life. But if the light of Pentecost dispel our dariaiess, it will then truly appear in- comprehensible how we should ever have given room to the slightest doubt as to an event distinguished by more confir-. niatory seals than any other in universal history. May the Lord help us likewise, in the way above indicated, to a right belief of the resurrection, and loose the tongue of our hearts, so that we may shout with the sacred poet — " Emmanuel's glory pledged to me, All in all I now possess ; Above He keeps a heavenly home For my soul in readiness ; Though sin and curse hang o'er me still, I conquer'd have, and conquer xdll. ** Through the world I joyous travel, With Christ my strength I'm glad at soul Happy now though waves of trouble Still across my bosom roll ! Happier when, life's voyage o'er, My bark shall rest for evermore f * CHRIST'S FIKST APPEARANCE. 41 IV. CHRIST'S FIRST APPEARANCE. That the risen Saviour should, as the apostle Peter ex- pressly observes in Acts x. 41, " have appeared not to all the people, hut only unto luitnesses chosen before of God!' has excited in many surprise, and shaken the faith of others. It is not difficult, however, to perceive why it was so. In the first place, the Lord had brought His ministry to a close; and to a generation that had wilfully and obstinately resisted the truth proclaimed by Him, the aj^pearance of the Risen One would have been a matter of indifference, and without results. On the other hand, if He had shewn Himself again to a hostile people, the proverb would only have been verified in their experience, which Christ, in the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus, put in Abraham's mouth — "If they hear not Moses and the i^rophets, neither will they be per- suaded though one rose from the dead." Moreover, had it come to pass that the people were constrained to admit the Risen One was neither a phantom, nor one merely awakened out of a trance, but really risen from the dead, the fruit and effect of the conviction thus attained would have been but idle astonishment, or a blind enthusiasm, or a disjDosition excited in them to make Him a king ; but without a believ- ing surrender of the heart to Him. Finally, the purpose involved in our Lord's manifestations of Himself during the forty days, was simply to crown the faith of believers, to 42 cheist's fiest appeaeance. spirituLise still more the communion into which they had already o.itered with Him as their Divine Head, and to give it a hccivanly glorification. This was a purpose which, from its nature, could not extend to the great masses who were ruled by a worldly spirit. Here that law was brought into exercise, " that to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly." The scenes reported as having transpired during the forty days, unveil the outskirts of paradise. Here a barrier had necessarily to be erected, and the profane were warned to keep their distance. Our Lord rejected the service of an extorted faith ; that which He accepted was the spontaueous affection of a soul feeling its need of salvation. And He did not look around for such in vain. We shall presently have an opportunity of convincing ourselves of the fact. John xx. 11-18. " But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping ; and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou ? She saith vxnto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her. Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him. Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Eabboni ; which is to say, Master, Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father : but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and your God. IMary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these thmgs unto her." Might we not, whenever this Gospel is read, imagine that we were listening to a hymn of praise of ecstatic harmony in connexion with the resurrection, rather than a narra- tive of the event. What object can be more charming, CHRIST'S FIRST APPEAEANCE. 43 affecting, and tender, than the scene which is here brouglit under our observation? A. higher world here stands out from the lower one, in which all that we prize as most beau- tiful and noble uj^on earth is presented to us as lighted up with heavenly glory ; and from thence a light beams on us, in the wondrous radiance of wiiich every gloomy care in our own course is dissipated. In its light, the way through tlie valley of our pilgrimage, stretching beyond death and the tomb, lies disclosed before us as a peaceful path bloom- ing with the most exalted hopes. Let us contemplate this attractive story from a nearer point of view, and may our spiritual energies be increased by meditation iqjon the first appearance of the risen Prince of Peace. In Marys grief lue shall recognise the indispensable condition of all true joy in the resurrection; and in the personal revelation of the Prince of the Resurrection, we shall find the end of all earthly sorrows. May that happiness be again experienced in our midst which was then realised by Mary Magdalene. The Lord of His mercy grant it ! L The rising sun is just about to gild the tops of the mountains of Judea with the first roseate tints of dawn. It is spring, and day breaks beautifully over the realm of nature, whilst One incomparably more beautiful breaks over the spiritual world. You will see nothing of the latter at the moment we are entering Joseph's garden. On the con- trary, our eye at once fixes itself upon a scene which forms a harsh contrast to the cheerful festive dress with which newly-awakened nature is adorned. Look yonder ! do you not see, between those shrubs in front of the open sepulchre, the veil of mourning waving in the breeze ? Who is she who, all alone, has found her way here so early, whose eyes are swimming in tears, and who, with her head leaninir on tlie stone, seems ready to faint with agony and grief? You know her. It is that disciple whom you saw, at the Pharisee's 44 Christ's fieoT appearance. house, a while ago, wash her Divine Master's feet with her tears and dry them with the hair of her head, — she who once went so far astray, and was so fearfully possessed, — she whom her Lord liberated from the power of seven devils, and in a peculiar manner rescued as a brand out of the fire. Much had been forgiven her, and therefore she loved and still loves much. How happy was she then, so gloriously saved ! But, alas ! her sun declined, and the day of her peace, according to all appearance, was never likely to dawn again. What she, when sobered down from worldly intoxi- cation, once desired, with passionate impatience, whether men call it truth or assurance, — that God would restore her to favour, confer power to overcome Satan and the world, and the hope of eternal life, — all these, and much more besides, Mary Magdalene had found in Jesus her Prince of Peace. Through His instrumentality, she saw her past merged in the sea of oblivion ; the blissful rays of His grace and love to sinners brightened up her present and her future. Whenever she contrasted her present with her past, she felt as if she must join in the holy Virgin's anthem — " Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." But now, all that beautiful world, in which she was once so happy, lies shattered before her. Its foundation's are broken up. Her Surety for all that she had accepted as eternal truth, had sunk in death, and was still held by death. And had only His lifeless corpse still been there, Mary would certainly have bathed even this with her tears. But then — What! would she then still hope in a resurrection? I will not precisely maintain that ; but the contrast between the S23otless innocence of her Divine Friend, and the dreadful termination of His life, are presented to her mind in such glaring, yea, in such appalling contradiction, that it seems to her the world must sink in ruins, unless there be a har- monious settlement, unless there be a satisfactory explanation CHRIST'S FIRST APPEARANCE. 45 of the dreadful mystery. She has no longer any clearly- defined ground of hope, especially now that His dear remains have disappeared. But why does she perpetually repeat those prying glances into the empty sepulchre ? A certain some- thing, which at least borders on hope, lingers and lives in the depths of her soul. It is, however, only like a slender flame in a room where the draught from the door or window makes it flicker to and fro, and threatens every moment to put it out. But did not the disciple deserve a severe rebuke for her excessive grief, since she was not bereft of everything ? Her Master's teaching and His bright example were still left to her. To put such a question as this, betrays in the speaker a very superficial notion of what is needed above everything else by sinful humanity. What could Christ's teaching be to Mary, if the teacher, instead of being accredited, were repudiated by God ? What the value of all His engagements and promises, if the Eternal left Him v/ithout the attesting seal? What His mediatorial redemption, if the closing scene in the life of Him who assumed to be the surety of th.is redemption, stamped it as a failure? What the hope of future bliss, if He who suggested it Himself remained, under the power of death ? She saw her whole salvation strictly connected with the personality of the man ; and in this she was perfectly right. She needed a propitiator and mediator accredited of God, who could be her representative before the Judge of the living and of the dead, who could secure to her the Divine favour, who could give her eternal life. Without such a one, she wanted everything that could set her soul at ease. She had believed that she had found him : according to present appearances, however, her faith had been but a beautiful, blissful dream. Will you still doubt whether she had good reason for shedding those tears before the empty sepulchre? Assuredly you would not, were you to place yourself in her position. 46 CHRIST'S FIRST APPEARANCE. But be assured there is no Easter joy in the resurrection to the man who, the instant he conceives the Mediator as having been removed, knows nothing of Mary's anguish, who does not feel himself to be unhappy, helpless, and wretched, with an intensity of feeling like hers. The first condition of participation in the joy of the resurrection lies in this, that after a man has been thoroughly convinced of his lost state, he passionately thirst for the grace of God and the assurance of eternal life, — that he feel and confess all the world can oflPer to relieve this craving is inadequate. As it was with Mary Magdalene in the instance before us, so he will never attain inward peace until he have met One who came down from heaven to earth, not only to announce in God's name pardon to sinners, but who confirmed the cheer- ing; messaoe in a manner that commended itself alike to both head and heart. And this One has appeared. The soul which finds itself in despair as to all human counsel and comfort, and yearns for some fixed grounds of hope, will infallibly and speedily discover Him in the Lord of the resurrection, and having done so, will ask nothing further of heaven or earth. Mary bends down again, and tries once more to pry into the sepulchre, as though it were inconceivable that the dear remains should have disappeared from within it. She sees two noble forms in white garments, the one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the body of Jesus had lain. We know who these living antitypes of the cherubim standing upon the ark of the covenant were. you who, having turned aside from the faith, still follow your own ways, learn here to have some perception, though imperfect, how happy they are, even on this side the grave, to whom the gospel is a truth in their inmost souls. AU terrors are, for them, removed ; the heavenly world rises before their view as one of glory, and imparts its glory to this earth ; CHRIST'S FJEST APPEAKANCE. 47 even from the tomb they are hailed by the divine heralds of peace, with transporting announcements of immortal life. " Woman, why lueepest thou ? " One of the heavenly ^Yatchers at the sepulchre addresses in these words a female disciple dissolved in tears. It is still uncertain whether she recognised the angels as such, or whether she thought them mere men. But granting that she recognised the angels to be such, it was not they of whom she was in search, but a totally different Being ; and even the highly encouraging question, " Woman, why weepest thou ? " would only have tended to wound her more deeply, for it must have been unintelligible to her why any one should inquire the cause of her tears. " They have taken aiuay my Lord," she re- plied, sobbing, '' and I know not ivhere they have laid him." How affecting are these words ! and how much faith gleams through that expression, " My Lord," notwithstanding all her other unbelief ! Whatever may have become of Him, He remains, now as before, her Lord, and she His humble and devoted handmaid and disciple. She still convulsively clings to the dead, like one suspended over a yawning abyss, who clutches the last holdfast he could seize in the act of fallmg. If she must give up the Master for lost, a whole host of holy angels, however friendly their approach, would have failed to compensate for His absence. And this feeling of hers is neither unfounded nor illusory. What could the angels offer her, who needed a Mediator, to reunite the broken ties between her and the thrice Holy One above, and to present her, a sinner fallen under the curse of the law, justified before God? II. ]\Iary Magdalene, after this sliort interview with the angels, resigns herself again to grief. Anon she hears foot- steps behind her. Turning hastily round, who is it that stands before her tear-bedimmed eyes ? One whom she supposes to be Joseph's gardener. But what was he to her ? 48 cheist's first appearance. She leans her head back on the stone, and her tears again flow more abundantly. You need not be surprised that she did not know Him, though she looked Him in the face. Only remember her poor suffused eyes, and that v/orld filled with images of mourning and of death to which her spirit was confined, and which had no room for the living. Indeed she might rightly call the Unknown One a gardener. He was so, — a heavenly one, who now drew near to restore and raise again, with tender hand, a flower that had been beaten down and nearly broken off the stem by the storm. Whoever weeps after Him He is not far from, no matter where the spot may be. The supposed gardener opens His gracious lips, and says, " Woman, why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou?" These, then, were His first words after His resur- rection. Oh matchless morning salutation ! — a greeting of comprehensive import for the whole body of believers ! The expression, " Whe^^efore this lueeping ? why these tears V removes every cause for them, and is equivalent to that com- mand in the Book of Eevelation, uttered in the exercise of Divine authority, " Weep not ! the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed." Whatever they may seek, — whether it be truth, whether it be peace, whether it be consolation in life and in death, — that expression, "What seekest thou?'' instructs them that they might long since have found it, since God hath prepared it abundantly in Him in whom lie hidden '' all the treasures both of wisdom and knowledge," as well as those of " grace and salvation." Mary, at any rate understand that ! " Why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou?'' But, enveloped in the web of her gloomy fancies, she hears in that which was an unmingled promise only an idle, if not an insulting question. Foolishly, though with touching simplicity, she replies, " Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." How lieart-stirring this word ''Him" CHRIST'S FIRST APPEARANCE. 49 is, as uttered by her. At first she thinks it would be super- fluous to mention His name. She thinks that all the world must know of whom she speaks. She speaks of Him, the only one who fills her whole soul, and in whom is bound up all that she thinks it worth while to inqnire for. ''• Hast thou home Him away .?" Yes, Mary, He has done so. Oh, if she ]iad but a surmise of this mystery ! " Tell me luliere thou hast laid Him, and I loill take Him away'.' And indeed, had He but told her, she would, without calculatinof her strenoth, have started at once on the errand, even thoufrh the spot named should have been miles off. Had this at- tachment to the person of her Master been an error, it would, at this stage, have been the Master's duty to have rectified it. Correcting her views. He would have said, " Mary, let the Man go whose loss thou bewailest, since thou liast His promise to save thee, which is all that is necessary." But such an expression never escaped His lips. He, on the contrary, put the stamp of His approbation upon her linger- ing affection for Him ; for He satisfied it, and gave Himself back to her wlio had mourned His loss. What a scene is now opening upon us ! The condescend- ing One can no longer refrain. His bowels of mercy yearn. He must release the sobbing mourner from the prison of her gloomy thoughts. And in what an inimitably tender manner does He do this, the mode suiting itself to the pro- foundest cravings of her heart ! Well, you already know it. He again opens His gracious lips, and there issues from them what may well be called the most transporting sound that ever fell on human ear and heart, and which no mortal lips may ever rival in sweetness of utterance. It was a word, an utterance, in which the speaker expressed all His grace and love. Yes ! the infinite was hidden in it ; possibly it gives us a presentiment of the language of heaven, where speech is the expression and impress of perfect truth and harmonj^, D 50 cheist's fiest appeaeance. and where a world of sacred thoughts and blissful feelings is developed by one word or tone. He calls her, who stood before Him dissolved in tears, by name, with that gracious intonation to which her ear had been accustomed in earlier days. In merely human friendly relations, how much com- fort and encouragement may be thrown into the tones with which the closely-allied address each other by name, is not unknown to you. And in this instance there was much more than a human friend ! " Mary ! " He says, with uplifted voice, as though He would fain say, " Thou richly-blest, thou highly- favoured one, dost thou droop the head ? dost thou mourn ? dost THOU weejJ V But all effort would be vain that should attempt to render, by any corresponding expression, the genial, cheering sense, the plenitude of promise and blessed- ness involved in that one word, " Mary !" It is only in some restricted measure, and but faintly, revealed to one susceptible of the feeling. In that "Mary !" pealed all the merry chimes of Easter-tide at once. All the blessedness that stands asso- ciated with the resurrection radiates from it upon us. The word " Mary," thus intoned, floats through the air far beyond the disciple herself, and is indeed a congratulation addressed by the Divine Conqueror over death to His ineffably-favoured Church. " Mary ! " Joyfully startled at the sound of her name, she turns round ; and who stands before her ? Can she be- lieve her eyes ? or does some sweet dream mock her ? " Is it Thou? art Thou really He V Yes, Mary, it is He! To recoo^nise the Risen One, and to fall at His feet in adora- tion, is, on the disciple's part, the act of one moment ; but to express the agitated feelings which move her heart at this moment, she finds none other than the suddenly -extorted exclamation, " Rabboni !"— that is, "My Lord and Master \" Whatever of filial reverence, of unreserved devotion, of sacred passionate affection, and superhuman joy can enter into the CHRIST'S FIEST APPEARANCE. 51 poor human heart, is here presented to us in a co iressed form by the one word " Rabboni ! '' This word E >oni is an open vessel from which exhales fragrance like tl.j odours of paradise. It mirrors to us the radiant form wivli which tlie love of Christ can glorify the inner man. It i5- ihe cry of homage, of adoration, and of unconditional suijjection ; but first, and above all, a cry of joy and rejoicing. And how well this rejoicing is warranted ! For He is alive again who died on the cross, an