"And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him leave." St. Luke says

further of Joseph, that he was a counsellor—a member of the council-but that he had not consented to the condemnation of Jesus; that he was a good and just man, and "himself waited for the kingdom of God." He hoped for it, and did not dread and resist everything that might lead to it, as the others did. This man went in, "boldly," says St. Mark, "unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if He were already dead; and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whe ther He had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph."

And now another friend came forward-" Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.' It is singular that these men, who had never during the life of Christ been able to make up their minds to be openly on His side, should, now that He was dead, and His cause apparently ruined, run the risk of making themselves obnoxious to their associates by such an exhibition of respect. But they had evidently generous hearts, and the very circumstances which had damped the faith and cooled the love of some, had quickened their attachment to Him into livelier exercise. "Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury."

"Now in the place where He was crucified"—in the immediate neighbourhood-" there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre"-(Joseph's own new tomb, says St. Matthew, "which he had hew for himself out of the rock")-" wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand." The Sabbath being so near, they did not bestow so much care on the burial rites as they would otherwise have done.

Having placed the body in the tomb, they closed the mouth of the sepulchre with a large block of stone, and "departed."

"And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre."* St. Luke says " And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments"-for a more formal anointing-" and rested the Sabbathday according to the commandment."

But the chief priests were hardly yet secure. They had uncomfortable misgivings as to what might occur on the third day, and "on the next day that followed the day of the preparation"-on the Sabbath therefore-they came "to Pilate, saying 'Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while was yet alive, After three days I will rise They suggest (Matthew, ver. 64) the

ples might privately remove the body

* Matth. ver. 60, 61.

suade the people that He was risen; "so the last error" would be worse than the first." They beg Pilate to take measures to prevent this. "Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch"-a guard at your service "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."*

SECTION LXXXIII.

CHRIST RISEN-SEEN BY MARY MAGDALENE.†

MARK XVI. I-10; MATTHEW Xxviii. 1—15; LUKE xxiv. 1—12; JOHN XX. I-18.

"A

ND when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magda

lene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun."

Never in this world's history had there been such a day as the "next day" that followed "the day of preparation," the solemn interval between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. It might seem, now that the Prince of Life was shut up in Joseph's tomb, as

* Matth. ver. 62-66.

The impossibility of combining the details of the four Evangelists into one harmonious narrative is well known. Mr. Westcott remarks: "The existence of difficulties in brief records of such a crisis is no more than a natural consequence of its character. The events of the first great Easter morning, were evidently so rapid in their sequence and so startling in their lessons, that a complete history would have been impossible. Even in ordinary circumstances, the effects produced by the same outward phenomena, and the impressions which

if all the world lay dead with Him, ready to sink into the grave for ever. What a Passover! what a Sabbath! The disciples overwhelmed with grief, and almost devoid of hope. Peter sorrowing over his unfaithfulness, yet resisting Satan's suggestions, upheld by the Lord's prayer. John having at least the consolation of ministering to his sacred charge. The women finding some comfort in their plans for the morrow, just as we also, after a heavy bereavement, find a certain relief in the necessary funeral arrangements. Thoughts of a Resurrection far from the minds of any, except the conscience-stricken priests.

But the third day dawned at last, and by sunrise the faithful women were at the sepulchre to fulfil their errand of love. Their greatest anxiety seems to have been, according to St. Mark, how they should remove the stone from the entrance to the sepulchre, "for it was very great. But when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away." Previous to this (as it would seem from St. Matthew), had taken place the earthquake and the descent of the angel, at the sight of whom the guard fled in the utmost terror and precipitancy.*

"And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in

they convey to different persons in moments of great excitement, are so various, that we are in some measure prepared for apparent discrepancies in the recital of the facts which accompanied what was the new birth of believers, no less than of the Saviour." Introduction, &c., p. 305. Such being the acknowledged difficulties of a harmony of the narratives of the Resurrection, a few only of the most prominent incidents are here selected for detailed remark.

St. Matthew further relates the account they gave to their employers, and the means they resorted to, to silence this unwelcome testimony. See verses 11-15.

a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, 'Be not affrighted: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen; He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him. But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed; neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid." They said nothing to any one, that is, till they got home, but afterwards, when they had a little recovered their first terror, we find that they "told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. And," as St. Luke adds, "their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not."

Mary Magdalene is mentioned amongst the women who went first to the sepulchre, and she probably set out with them; but by one of those accidents which so often occur in common life, but which is not here mentioned, she seems to have separated from them, and to have arrived at the sepulchre alone; for we read in St. John-"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark"-being, as it appears, the first person who reached the tomb-" and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then"without staying to make any further investigation— "she runneth,* and cometh to Simon Peter, and to

* It was during her absence, probably, that the other women arrived at the sepulchre by another road, and left it before the return of Mary with Peter and John.