honours to that sacred body. Both are rich men, and men of rank and station among the Jews; and both are disciples, though they have never owned it. One of them, Nicodemus, we have met with before, more than once; of the other, Joseph of Arimathea, we have never before heard.

Joseph came first. The death of Jesus has done in him what the life of Jesus never did, brought him to a decision. He fears the Jews no longer, but boldly goes to Pilate and asks leave to take the body away; Pilate gives him leave, and he takes it down from the cross.

And now Nicodemus joins him, bringing with him a great quantity of spices-myrrh and aloes-for embalming the body; and the two together, doubtless with the help of others, wrap the body in linen with the spices, according to the Jewish custom.

The burial-place was near. In a garden close by, Joseph had hewn a tomb out of a rock, meaning it doubtless for a family vault for himself. It was new; no corpse had yet been laid in it. There they buried the body of the Lord Jesus. Thus "He made His grave with the wicked," as being put to death between two malefactors, but also "with the rich in His death," as laid in the rich man's tomb (Isa. liii. 9).

We love to think that those precious remains were thus honoured. True, His spirit was not there, He was past bodily feeling then, He could not have the comfort of that loving respect: yet did He not know? We love the men who came forward to do Him this honour. Surely no spices were ever so well bestowed, no tomb ever so highly honoured.

Yet, while we love these men for what they did now,

let us take warning by them too. The Lord Jesus calls for open disciples. He would have us own Him boldly, confess Him before men, take up the cross and follow Him. Did Nicodemus feel no pang of regret, as he looked on the lifeless body of the Lord, that he had never owned Him when living? Did Joseph feel no sorrow, that he had put off showing himself on His side, till all that was left for him to do was to lay His body in the grave?

1

The Resurrection:

Peter and John at the Sepulchre.

CHAP. XX. 1-10.

"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and 2 seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him. 3 "Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, 4 and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came 5 first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he 6 not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen 7 clothes lie, and the napkin that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together 8 in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he 9 saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home."

NE whole day is left out of the history, the Sabbathday, during which the body lay in the tomb. Nothing is told us of that day. It was only one wholę

day, though the time is spoken of as three days, and even as three days and three nights. But the body was in the tomb part of the day before, and part of the day after the Sabbath-day; and it was the custom of the Jews to speak of part of a day as a whole day.

The four Gospels do not give the same account of the resurrection, and of what followed, though there is no contradiction among them. Each of the Evangelists relates what came under his own notice, or what he himself heard from eye-witnesses. St. John tells what was seen by him, or came to his knowledge at the time.

The day had hardly dawned when Mary came to the sepulchre, it was yet dark. She was not alone. Other women were with her, bringing spices to anoint the body: but she only is mentioned by St. John, because she came and told him what had happened.

• The sepulchre, it must be remembered, was not a grave dug in the ground, but a cave hollowed out of the side of the rock. A great stone had been placed at the entrance-so great that the women, as they went, wondered who should roll it away for them. But when they got there, they found it already taken away.

Leaving the other women there, Mary ran back to the city to tell the news to Peter and John. It is plain that these two were together, and not at this time with the rest. The mother of Jesus was doubtless already with him to whom He had committed her. And whose company would Peter be so likely to seek, in his deep sorrow and repentance, as that of his old companion and friend, the gentle and loving John ?

Mary had no thought yet that Jesus was risen. The stone was rolled away, the sepulchre was open, some one

had been there before her, and taken the loved remains away; and she knew not where to find the body, and now she could do it no honour, the spices had been prepared in vain. Such were the thoughts that filled her mind.

John was probably a much younger man than Peter. They both set out together for the sepulchre, but John got there first. He stooped down and looked in through the low entrance, and saw the linen clothes lying there; but reverence and awe kept him from going in. Peter, more eager and hasty in character though older in years, went in at once.

What did he see? What John had seen indistinctly, Peter saw plainly. The linen clothes lay there in order, there was no sign of confusion or haste, even the headcovering was folded up and laid by itself; but the body was gone.

Perhaps Peter told this to John from within. At all events, John, encouraged by his example, now went in too, and saw. But more than saw, he saw and believed. What did he believe? Not merely that the body was gone that was plain to the senses-but that Jesus was risen from the dead! It is he himself who writes. He recalls his own feelings. He remembers what passed in his mind, when he saw the empty tomb. There, in the very tomb itself, faith was given him, and he believed that the Lord was risen indeed.

This belief came to him like a flash of light. He had expected no such thing. "For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead." Up to that moment, neither ancient prophecy nor the Lord's own words had led John to expect the resurrection; Iwell did he remember the state of mind in which he