CHAPTER VIII.

IN THE GRAVE.

AT the third hour, when Jesus was dying on Calvary, the priest was offering up incense in the holy place of the Temple. All the congregation, and the sacrificing priest in the outer court, were waiting for him to reappear. Suddenly an earthquake shook both the Temple mount and the whole city of Jerusalem. The veil, which separated the holy place from the holiest of holies, was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, laying open the sacred spot, which none ever entered except the high priest on the Day of Atonement.

On Calvary, those who had gathered to see the sight were at last terrified, and returned to the city, smiting upon their breasts. The centurion in command of the Roman soldiers, who had probably watched and listened. to the dying prophet with interest, was struck with fear, and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'

But before sunset, the Pharisees, always very scrupulous not to break the law, came to Pilate, and besought

him that all three of those who were being crucified should be put to death at once, because the next day was a Sabbath, and their bodies ought not to be hanging on the crosses on the Sabbath day. The soldiers were ordered to dispatch the dying men by breaking their legs; but when they came to Jesus, and found that He was dead already, they refrained from mutilating His body; yet, lest any spark of life lingered which might be fanned into a flame, one of them pierced His side with a spear. Thus they made sure that He was dead.

In the mean time another applicant had gone to Pilate. This was Joseph of Arimathea, a well-known man, rich, honourable, and good, one of the Sanhedrim itself, though he had not consented to the death of Christ. He was a timid man, and a secret disciple; but shocked by the deeds of his fellow-councillors, he went boldly in to Pilate, and begged that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate marvelled whether He were yet dead, and called the centurion to ask him if it were so. He then willingly granted the body to Joseph, who had already provided himself with fine linen for the entombment. When he returned to Calvary, Nicodemus accompanied him, bringing a large quantity of spices. The women from Galilee were lingering about the place; and now, in the cool and gloom of the evening, they took the body down from the cross, and wrapped it, with the spices scattered amid the folds, in the linen cloth. Close by was a garden belonging to Joseph,

and in it a new tomb, which he had hewn for himself in the midst of his garden. No man had ever lain in it; no taint of death polluted it. Here they buried their Lord hastily, for the Sabbath was near. Mary Cleophas and Mary Magdalene sat close by, watching, but perhaps too overcome with grief to give any active assistance. The women from Galilee also saw the sepulchre, and how His body was lain. Then all of them returned to the city, to prepare spices and ointments for the embalming of the corpse as soon as the Sabbath was

over.

The enemies of Christ had not been prepared for this honourable burial of their victim. If Joseph of Arimathea had not interfered, His body would have been carried away from Calvary, with those of the thieves, and carelessly laid in a common grave, where criminals, who had died a shameful death, were flung together. The followers of Jesus, poor obscure Galileans, could not have had influence enough to save the corpse from this degrading fate. But the Sanhedrim found that two of their own chief men, startled by their fierceness and injustice into open discipleship, had interposed promptly to claim the body of their Lord, and to lay it in the new tomb of a rich man, amidst the cool and quiet fragrance of a garden, where those who loved Him might visit His resting-place unnoticed and unmolested.

The Sabbath was come; a high day. The Sabbath of the passover was no doubt the most important of all

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seized upon them in their hour of triumph. 'Sir, we remember,' they said, '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 cared little for any error, but he could not afford to offend the chief priests. 'Ye have a watch,' he answered, 'go your way, make it as sure as ye can.' The watch consisted of Roman soldiers, not of the Temple guard, who as Jews could not touch a sepulchre without being defiled. The soldiers made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone; and when the watch was set the priests and Pharisees went their way, satisfied that no second error could arise to deceive the people. It was the Sabbath, and therefore it was unlawful to touch the dead, or they might have removed the body to the common grave of executed criminals.

No doubt there must have been much discussion that day throughout Jerusalem. None of these things which had come to pass were done in a corner, in some remote place in Galilee; but in the Holy City itself, during the passover week. Jesus was well known as a prophet of the most blameless life. Every one had heard before, or heard then, of Lazarus, who was probably hiding from the malice of the chief priests and Pharisees. Rumours would run along, from one to another, of the indecent