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 http://www.archive.org/details/deathresurrectioOObaririch 
 
of '^t^n^. 
 
 TEN LECTURES FOR HOLY WEEK AND EASTER. 
 
 BY 
 
 S. [BARING GOULD, M.A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "tHK BIRTH OF JESUS." " NAZARKTH AST) CAPERNAUM." "THE 
 
 PASSION OF JBSU3." ''THE TRIALS OF JESUS." "THE SEVEN LAST WORDS." 
 
 "the WAV OK SORROWS." ETC. 
 
 ^ptD Hurlt: 
 
 JAMES POTT & CO., 14 & 16, ASTOR PLACE. 
 
 1888. 
 
Br?09 
 B37 
 
 ^refaff. 
 
 These Ten Lectures continue the Commentary on the Passion 
 and Resurrection of Christ, contained in my volumes 
 
 I. The Passion of Jesus. 
 
 II. The Trials of Jesus. 
 
 III. The Way of Sorrows. 
 
 IV. The Seven Last Words. 
 
 This forms the fifth of the series. Should the publishers feel 
 justified in continuing it, the sixth will complete this series with 
 the record from the Appearance of Christ to the Ten on Easter 
 Day in the Evening to the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. 
 I began another series, of which the first was " The Birth of 
 Jesus," and the next " Nazareth and Capernaum," with the 
 intention of their forming a Commentary on the Life of our Lord 
 to the Passion, but there has been comparatively little demand for 
 these volumes, so this series will not be continued. 
 
 Lew Trenchavd, N. Devon, 
 Nov. 21, 1887. 
 
 499 
 
(Contents* 
 
 I. 
 
 ( Suitable for All Saints.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 52, 53. 
 
 "The graves were opened; and many bodies of the Saints which 
 slept arose, and came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and 
 went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." t 
 
 II. 
 
 Cfjc mcnt 'Fell. 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 51. 
 
 " Behold, the vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to 
 the bottom." 11 
 
 III. 
 
 Cije 33icrcctJ §itJe. 
 S. John xix. 34. 
 
 "One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith 
 came thereout blood and water." 19 
 
 IV. 
 
 Cljc iScgftnt from tl^e Cro^sf. 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 57, 58. 
 
 " When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, 
 named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple : he went to Pilate, 
 and begged the body of Jesus." 27 
 
V. 
 
 Ct)e ([Entombment. 
 
 1 PAGE 
 
 S. Luke xxiir. 53. . 
 " He laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never 
 man before was laid." 34 
 
 VI. 
 
 Wl)t (great ^ahhat\). 
 
 S. Luke xxiii. 56. 
 ' ' They returned . . . and rested the Sabbath Day, according to 
 the Commandment." 42 
 
 VIL 
 
 Ttjt ^piiit^ in 39iis(on. 
 
 I Peter hi. 19. 
 " He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." 50- 
 
 vni. 
 Clje l^ejJuriection. 
 
 S. Matt, xxviii. 2-4. 
 " 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 as dead men." 58: 
 
 IX. 
 
 Ciie Appearance to JMari) ilHagtJalene. 
 
 S. John xx. ii. 
 *'And Mary stood without the sepulchre, weeping." 67 
 
 X. 
 
 €i)t OTiai) to ffimmaug. 
 
 S. Mark xvi. 12. 
 "After that He appeared in another form unto two of them, as 
 they walked, and went into the country." 75. 
 
 appenHtji-. (3n tl)e ^itt of tf)e f^olw ^epulci)ie» 
 
€fte 5ieatfi antr He^ttrrectton 
 of *^tm^. 
 
 I. 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 52, 53. 
 
 '' T'A^ graves wei'e opened ; and many bodies of the Saints which slept 
 arose, and came out of the graves after His Resurrection , and went into 
 the holy city, and appeared unto many^ 
 
 The sun declined on that Good Friday when Christ hung 
 on the Cross. With a loud cry He gave up the ghost, as 
 the priests standing before the gates of Nicanor, that led 
 into the Temple, blew a loud trumpet-blast to announce 
 that the Paschal Feast was beginning. 
 
 And as, at the Last Day, at the setting of the sun on the 
 earth for the last time, the trumpet of the Archangel will 
 sound, and the graves will be opened, and the dead arise, 
 so was it now at the last day of the Old Covenant, at the 
 close of the first period of the World's History. 
 
 Good Friday was the day on which the hinge of History 
 turned ; it was the last day of the Old History, and in several 
 ways on it was the final judgment scene rehearsed. Then the 
 
 A 
 
2 5ri)c Bthtb antf ^t^nxttttian of ^r^Su^. 
 
 sun will be darkened, and the moon turned into blood, and 
 now there is darkness over all the earth. Then the sign of 
 the Son of Man will appear in Heaven, and now it stands 
 against the sky, bearing on it the body of the Son of Man. 
 Then the veil of the Heavens will be rent asunder and 
 rolled up, and now the symbolical veil of the Temple is torn 
 from the top to the bottom. Then there will be earthquakes, 
 and now the rocks are rent ; then will be the opening of all 
 graves, and now the tombs give up their dead. 
 
 The incident of the rising Saints is given only by S. 
 Matthew, and it is an incident not often commented upon, 
 and when commented on is treated as a difficult one, hard 
 to be explained. It is an incident that deserves more notice 
 than is usually accorded to it, for it is one of those few 
 incidents recorded in Scripture which show us something 
 of the relation in which the world of spirits stands to the 
 world of the living. 
 
 It was customary among the Romans for the great families, 
 the patricians, who had the jus imagmum, at a funeral to 
 have a train of masqueraders attend, who wore wax masks 
 resembling the faces of the ancestors of the deceased, masks 
 taken from the gallery of ancestral portrait-busts and statues. 
 The meaning of this curious rite was this. The mourners 
 were taken to represent the dead of the patrician's family, 
 who rose and came forth from the world of spirits to salute 
 
Cbe 3^i^tn ^atntiS. 
 
 and welcome and attend their descendant at his decease. It 
 was the same at the funeral of an emperor, only then there 
 appeared men dressed in imperial purple, and crowned, and 
 with masks to resemble the former emperors and great men 
 of old Rome, come forth from the shadow realm to welcome 
 the dead entering into their nether world.* 
 
 But, indeed, the idea that the dead appeared when death 
 approaches is a very common one, and there is hardly a 
 nation in which such stories are not found of ancestral 
 spirits which appear as a death token. And, I may add, it 
 is in the experience of many who have had to do with 
 death-beds that the dying do either see, or believe they see, 
 relatives long dead, appear to them before their eyes finally 
 close, as though they had come to meet them on their way, 
 and accompany them to the far off land. 
 
 I do not mean to assert as a certain fact that such appa- 
 ritions do take place, but there can be no question whatever 
 that the dying do very often believe they see their lost 
 relatives, and the dying face suddenly brightens, a smile 
 breaks out on the lips, and the hands are stretched out 
 with an exclamation of recognition, and a name, or names, 
 uttered of one or more long dead and almost forgotten. 
 
 Now this phenomenon, which is incontestible, this belief 
 which is very widely spread, bears some relation to the fact 
 
 * Polybius vi. 53 ; Pliny xxxv. 2. 
 
1 
 
 of the apparitions on our Lord's decease, and I may almost 
 
 say that this incident in the Gospel record gives strength 
 
 to the belief that a much closer relation subsists between 
 
 the seen and unseen worlds than is generally allowed. As 
 
 our Lord gave up the ghost, the graves were opened, and 
 
 the ancient patriarchs appeared. 
 
 At the central point of the World's History, the Lord of 
 both worlds, after having wrought out the salvation of men, 
 descends into the realm of spirits. According to the 
 genealogy given by S. Luke, there were seventy-seven 
 generations of men to Christ ; seventy-seven generations 
 which had sinned against God. And now Ke, Who, 
 by taking our human nature on Him, has become our 
 brother, brings forgiveness to the seventy-seven generations, 
 prisoners of hope, waiting till, by the blood of the Cove- 
 nant, they should obtain release. 
 
 We know how the dead in faith looked forward to this 
 day with longing. "Your father Abraham," said Christ, 
 ** rejoiced to see My day; he saw it, and was glad" 
 (S. John viii. 6) ; and on Tabor, Moses and Elias appeared 
 speaking with Him concerning " His decease, which He 
 should accomplish in Jerusalem." (S. Luke ix. 31.) Indeed, 
 aged Simeon may be taken as the spokesman of all the 
 faithful, living and dead, when he uttered his song of praise 
 on receiving the Child Jesus in his arms in the Temple. 
 
Ct)^ ^i^tn ^amti^. 
 
 We are not told that the bodies of the Saints rose till 
 after the Resurrection, when Christ being raised became 
 the first fruits of them that slept, but the graves were opened 
 at His death, and the spirits, doubtless, were then seen 
 by Christ's closing eyes, gathered on Calvary to receive 
 Him, and when He rose they attended Him from the 
 place of Hades again, this time clothed in their restored 
 bodies. 
 
 Before the Reformation the Doctrine of the Communion 
 of Saints had been strained to sanction practices which were 
 inconsistent with pure Christianity. The Saints were thrust 
 into undue prominence to the obscuration of Christ ; but 
 we have suffered ever since the Reformation from the re- 
 action, and have come to give no thought at all to the dead 
 in Christ, and to treat the article of the Communion of 
 Saints as if it had no meaning, was of no practical im- 
 portance, and did not find a place in the Apostles' Creed. 
 Yet this article would not be there unless it were of vital 
 importance, and we may well ask ourselves whether the 
 neglect of this article is not a serious sin of defect in our 
 religion, just as the exaggeration of this doctrine was a sin 
 of excess and superstition. In our Creed we profess our 
 belief in one Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of 
 Saints ; it is an article which is double, and yet one. There 
 is but one Catholic Church, as there is but one Lord, one 
 
6 Ct^ Beats aulf Ee^urrcctton af ge^ujs?. 
 
 1 
 
 faith, one baptism, but in this one Church there are two 
 parts, the Church of the hving and the Church of the 
 dead ; as surely as we who are baptized and keep the faith 
 belong to the Catholic Church, so surely do those who have 
 kept the faith and have entered into their rest belong to the 
 Catholic Church. As we are brethren one of another, who 
 are alive, so do they who are gone belong to us, and we 
 to them ; we are all one body in Christ. And as we who are 
 ahve have duties to discharge to one another, and responsi- 
 bilities one to another, so is it mth the dead in Christ, they 
 have their offices of love and brotherhood to discharge 
 towards us, and we in like manner towards them. 
 
 In the Cathedral of Strassburg all the clerestory windows 
 are filled with figures of Saints and Angels in glory. The 
 lower aisle windows represent the acts and miracles of our 
 Lord and the World's History. Beneath the floor lie the 
 dead, and the idea contained in this arrangement is the 
 unity of the Church. Aloft are the glorified hierarchy of 
 Angels and Saints and just men made perfect, in the midst 
 are we, the living, and beneath are those who rest, and have 
 not attained unto the fulness of perfection. Above the 
 Church triumphant, in the midst the Church militant, 
 beneath the Church expectant. 
 
 The whole of the Christian life is one of growth, and we 
 have no reason whatever to suppose that we come to a 
 
E'bt ^i^m ^Kiixt^. 
 
 standstill in the spiritual life at death, but rather that we 
 pass from one stage of development to another. We have a 
 thousand analogies in nature, and we may well expect that 
 eternity will be a succession of ages of infinite progress, of 
 growth into the likeness of Christ, of deepening of the love 
 of God, of increase of spiritual discernment, of widening of 
 knowledge. 
 
 Can we suppose that when those who have loved us on 
 earth pass into the unseen world they have ceased to 
 interest themselves in us ? S. Paul teaches us the contrary, 
 when he speaks of us as running in a race with multitudes 
 looking on, no longer now in the arena, but on the several 
 ranges of Heaven, some higher, some lower, all with eyes 
 fixed on us, all eager for our success, and uttering their 
 acclamations of encouragement. 
 
 Is it conceivable that the mother who dies has not a word 
 of prayer for her child on earth, battling its orphaned way 
 through temptations ? Is it not probable that every human 
 affection is by death purified of all selfishness, but does not 
 cease, nay rather, is intensified and spiritualized. And if 
 spiritualized and intensified, must it not break forth into 
 prayer? Is it not simply inconceivable, is it not only con- 
 ceivable as a contradiction to the whole tenor of Christ- 
 ianity, that human love should live on and be denied 
 expression? Would it not be intense agony to one who 
 
1— 
 
 has passed into the presence of God to be refused per- 
 mission there to continue that intercession for the dear ones 
 on earth which was allowed and even commanded to be 
 made when in the body ? 
 
 And, again, have we no duties to perform towards the 
 dead in Christ ? Is that article in the Creed one — the only 
 one that is void of practical force, which is not to be turned 
 into a source of action ? 
 
 If the condition of the spiritual life be one of progress, of 
 infinite progress, then we may help by our prayers those 
 who have passed into the second stage of development, 
 that their sins may be forgiven, and that their growth in 
 light and perfection may be continued. 
 
 Is there, we ask, some efficacious means of entering into 
 close communion with the dead in Christ ? To this ques- 
 tion we can answer with the unanimous voice of early 
 Christianity — that in the Holy Communion that bond is 
 drawn in the closest and tenderest manner. When S. Ignatius 
 was martyred, about a.d. io8, the eye witnesses of his death 
 wrote in their circular letter to the Church, "We note the 
 day and hour (of his death) that we may assemble at the 
 time of his martyrdom, and give token of our communion 
 with this noble confessor and witness of Christ." That is 
 to say, they assembled for the liturgy ; and this we know 
 was the universal custom of the early Church, the tombs of 
 
Cbe ^i^m ^aintjS. 
 
 the martyrs being used as the altars at which the Eucharist 
 was celebrated. 
 
 In the Vatican is perhaps the most glorious picture of all 
 that Raphael ever painted, the so-called Disputa. It repre- 
 sents Christ enthroned in Heaven holding up His hands 
 and shewing His wounds, with the Saints seated on His 
 right and left, and the firmament thrilling with light, and 
 angelic forms half seen among the rays of supernal light. 
 Below is the living Church made up of kings and princes, 
 bishops, doctors, warriors, holy men and women of every 
 age and degree, on the steps leading to an altar ; and on 
 this altar, as the central point, the link binding Heaven 
 and earth in one, is the Blessed Sacrament of the 
 Eucharist. 
 
 That, indeed, which is the central act of Christian worship, 
 the one great sun of the spiritual system of the Church, that 
 is the bond between Heaven and earth, the link between 
 the visible and the invisible, the means whereby we, being 
 united to Christ, are united in and through Him with 
 the Saints and faithful departed. 
 
 In many of the old heathen faiths it was held that there 
 were times of the year, as the solstices and equinoxes, when 
 at night the doors of the unseen world were thrown open, and 
 the dead appeared and rushed with the wind, wailing over 
 the face of the earth ; and many a fable was told of how 
 
I 
 men out at night on such occasions had seen the spirits 
 
 sweep by on the wings of the storm. 
 
 On All Saints and All Souls we may look up and see 
 the dead, not as the heathen thought, in wild unrest, but 
 waiting for the consummation of all things, one with us in 
 the object of our worship, one with us in common sub- 
 jection to the one King, one with us in the same great 
 family, one in the same hope, the resurrection and restor- 
 ation of all things, one in the same mysterious spiritual life, 
 which is ever striving after perfection, and is in itself capable 
 of infinite perfectibility. 
 
11. 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 51. 
 
 ** Behold, the vail of the Temple was 7'ent in twain f'om the top to the 
 bottom y 
 
 The work of redemption was accomplished ; with the 
 exceeding bitter cry, the soul of the Saviour left His body, 
 and at the parting, the rending of soul from body, the veil 
 in the Temple was sharply torn from top to bottom. From 
 henceforth the way into the Holy of Holies is open to all. 
 God is no more veiled in the Temple and rites of the Jews ; 
 He reveals Himself to all mankind. 
 
 Every year once, on the Great Day of Atonement, the 
 High Priest was wont to pass behind the veil into the Holy 
 of Holies, bearing the blood of the slain ram. And now 
 the true Sacrifice has been offered, of which this was but a 
 shadow and figure ; and with the rent veil we are shewn 
 that the time of figure and shadow is over, for the reality 
 has come. Hitherto only one, the High Priest, might enter 
 with the atoning blood, but now the way is open to all. 
 
 " Having, brethren, boldness," writes the author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, " to enter into the holiest by the 
 
1 
 
 Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath 
 consecrated for us, that is to say, His flesh, and having an 
 High Priest over the House of God, let us draw near with 
 a true heart, in full assurance of faith." 
 
 The veil of the Temple which was rent was that which 
 hung between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, and 
 behind it was the Ark of the Covenant in the early Temple, 
 but that old Ark was no longer in the Temple after the 
 return from captivity. 
 
 In the Tabernacle there had been one veil, and so also 
 in the Temple, before the destruction of Jerusalem, but 
 when the Temple was rebuilt by Ezra after the pattern of 
 that which had been destroyed, some difficulty arose as to 
 the position of the veil — whether it hung within the golden 
 pillars that sustained the roof, or without them, that is to 
 say, whether the pillars were to be included in the Holy of 
 Holies, or in the outer place. To get over this difficulty, 
 a double veil, or rather two veils, were used, one outside 
 the pillars towards what we may call the Nave, and one 
 within, towards the Chancel.* 
 
 When in the Gospel we are told that the veil was rent, 
 almost certainly both veils were torn, and fell apart, exposing 
 the Holy of Holies, but in the Gospel only veil, in the 
 singular, is used, because the double curtain was taken to 
 
 * Bab loma, fol. 51, 2, Maimon in Beth habbechira, c. iv. 
 
Cl)e 3aent Wtil. 13 
 
 represent the single veil ordered by God to divide the Holy 
 of Holies from the outer Holy Place. The veil was of the 
 utmost magnificence, woven of purple, and red, and blue, 
 and white, and with the figures of the Cherubim on it, and 
 starred with gold thread interwoven with the colours. 
 
 Outside the veil was the perpetual lamp that was on no 
 account allowed to go out. We learn from Jewish sources 
 that forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, suddenly 
 one day the lamp went out, and never again would burn 
 regularly. When it was re-lighted so as to fill the Temple 
 with light at night, it went out of itself before daybreak. 
 
 We are told of other signs that took place at the same 
 time. The great stone threshold of the Temple was snapped 
 asunder by the earthquake which rent the rocks, and opened 
 the graves.* And the doors of the Temple swung open of 
 their own accord. 
 
 Another token of Divine wrath is also recorded by the 
 Jews as having taken place at the same time. They relate 
 that on the Great Day of Atonement, when a scarlet cord, 
 which was bound round the horns of the scapegoat, and 
 which attached it to the Temple gates, it was wont, up 
 to this time, to lose its blood-red colour, and turn white, 
 when the High Priest laid on the goat's head the sins of 
 the people. This was regarded as a pledge that the trans- 
 
 * In the Gospel of the Hebrews, as quoted by S. Jerome. 
 
14 Uri^t IBcatlj antf ^t^mxtctioxx at 3tin^* 
 
 gressions of the House of Israel were remitted every year. 
 But on this year, for the first time, the bloodstain remained 
 and was not miraculously bleached. In vain did the High 
 Priest recite over the goat the sins of the people, and 
 plead with Jehovah for pardon ; thenceforth the outer 
 token that God heard the prayer and granted absolution 
 ceased to be given. Wonderful does this seem to us — this 
 recorded by the Jews themselves — and to remember how 
 they had called down the blood of Christ on their own 
 heads and on those of their children. Moreover, hitherto 
 the lot had always fallen on the left-hand goat, but from 
 this time on to the destruction of the Temple it fell on the 
 goat on the right hand. * 
 
 In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the chapel of 
 Golgotha, is shown a rent in the limestone rock supposed 
 to have been made by the earthquake that took place at 
 the giving up of the ghost by Christ. The crack in the 
 rock is now closed with a grating, and is choked up to 
 about a foot ; but we know from early accounts that 
 formerly it was a deep cleft — so deep that popular fancy 
 supposed it went down to the centre of the earth. Accu- 
 mulations of rubbish have filled it since then, and now all 
 that shews is the mouth of the fissure, apparently made by 
 an earthquake. Such cracks in the rock are not infrequent, 
 • loma, fol. 39, 2 ; and fol. 43, 3, 
 
C!)e Mrnt Wtil. 16 
 
 on occasions of a convulsion of the earth. From Zechariah 
 (xiv. 4) we hear of one occurring at Jerusalem, when the 
 Mount of Olives was split ; and Josephus records one 
 which took place at Jerusalem, when half of the mountain 
 on the east side of the valley of Kidron fell, and masses of 
 the rock were hurled half-way up the side of the opposite 
 slope. On this occasion the roads and the royal gardens 
 were buried. In 1783 an earthquake in Calabria rent the 
 earth, and formed a chasm at Oppido five hundred feet long, 
 and to a depth of over 200 feet. Whether the split in the 
 rock in the church over Golgotha be one made at the time 
 of Christ's death or by the earthquake at the Resurrection, 
 or on any other occasion, cannot be said for certain ; but 
 this is determined, that on the rocky height which tradi- 
 tion has unswervingly identified with Calvary the rock is 
 rent asunder by seismic force, and that the chasm in the 
 Middle Ages was so profound that it was supposed to go 
 down to the centre of the world. In all probability, if 
 the site be accepted as the true scene of Christ's death, 
 then we may well suppose that when He died, uttering a 
 loud cry, the rock on which the Cross was planted was cleft 
 asunder ; for the Centurion and those who stood by saw 
 the wonder of the earthquake, and were themselves pro- 
 foundly shaken by it in their consciences. 
 
 ** Now when the Centurion, and they that were with 
 
16 CSC SBratl) mxts ^t^mxtttiaix nf S^5?ui^. 
 
 him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things 
 that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was 
 the Son of God." (S. Matt, xxvii. 54.) 
 
 Of the signs, only the darkness, and the earthquake, and 
 the opening of the graves, were visible by those on Calvary. 
 To the present day, in a chapel at the foot of the rock, are 
 the remains of old Jewish graves cut in the rock. These 
 would be closed with stone slabs revolving in grooves. 
 When the earth shook, these slabs rolled back, or were 
 split and fell outward. We must imagine the Centurion 
 on his horse, the same who had led the escort to Calvary, 
 and whose duty it was to remain to the end. He had 
 heard the mocking cry of the Jews, " If Thou be the Son 
 of God, come down from the Cross." He was a man with 
 some feeling in him for the Victim, for he had arrested the 
 procession to Calvary and relieved Christ of the burden 
 of the Cross to lay it on the shoulders of Simon of Cyrene. 
 He had been awed by the stealing on of the darkness, and 
 then, as the darkness cleared away, he heard the loud cry 
 of Christ, and saw His head fall on His breast in death. 
 Then ensued the rumble of an earthquake and the sway of 
 the ground when the three crosses reeled against the sky, 
 like masts of a ship in a storm, the rock of Calvary snapped 
 with an explosion, and was rent to an unknown depth ; and 
 at the same time the sepulchres shook, and there were many 
 
C^e Saent WtiX. 17 
 
 of them opened, and exposed the dead which lay within. 
 
 ** If Thou be the Son of God," the Jews had shouted 
 under the Cross, and the Centurion, disturbed in mind, 
 said to himself, " Truly — this was the Son of God." 
 
 Seven witnesses were borne to Christ outside the circle 
 of His disciples and Apostles. 
 
 The possessed man in the synagogue of Capernaum had 
 proclaimed Him at the opening of His ministry. Again, 
 He had been proclaimed by the man with the devils in the 
 country of the Gadarenes. At the Feast of the Tabernacles 
 the multitude had cried out, " Of a truth, this is the Pro- 
 phet ; " but others said, " This is the Christ." (S. John 
 vii. 40, 41.) Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, had 
 testified, so even had Pilate himself, to His righteousness. 
 The penitent thief had acknowledged Him, and now, after 
 His death, the Centurion professes his conviction.* 
 
 According to S. Luke, the Centurion said, "Certainly 
 this was a righteous man." If he declared that Christ was 
 the Son of God, he did not in those words express what we 
 mean by them, for among the Greeks and Romans their 
 
 * As there are to be seven trumpets and seven vials as signs before the 
 end of all things, so were there seven signs attending the death of Christ : 
 the earthquake, the opening of the graves, the rending of the veil, the 
 breaking of the threshold of the Temple, the extinction of the perpetual 
 lamp, the darkness, and the cessation of the bleaching of the scarlet cord 
 that bound the scapegoat. 
 
r 
 
 gods were supposed to have often appeared* on earth, and 
 even to have left offspring on earth. Certain heroes, and 
 some noble families, claimed to be descended from the 
 gods. The Centurion went as far as his light allowed. He 
 acknowledged that Christ suffered without being guilty, and 
 that there was divinity in Him. 
 
 The rending of the rocks was symbolical of one fruit of 
 the Cross of Christ. That has ever been potent to shake 
 and rend the hardest hearts ; hearts that have been stubborn, 
 and have refused to receive Him, have been broken by 
 Christ's cry and pierced by His Cross. And the opening 
 of the graves is also figurative, for hearts have been opened, 
 and all the dead and corrupt imaginings, thoughts, passions 
 that have been sealed up therein have been revealed, and 
 have poured forth their evil at the foot of the Cross. 
 
 And as the bodies of the Saints which slept arose, so the 
 old spiritual life, the old graces, which in the sinner have 
 died and gone into the dust, at the shaking of the earth by 
 the arousing cry of Christ, have revived and come forth to 
 new life. To the broken and contrite heart, opening itself 
 in confession to God, and waking to a new spiritual life, 
 the veil is rent asunder, that hides God from man, and 
 access is accorded into the Holy of Holies, through — as the 
 Apostle says — a new and living way, even His flesh, Who 
 hung for us on the tree of shame. 
 
III. 
 
 S. John xix. 34. 
 
 " One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came 
 thereout blood and watery 
 
 We are told by S. John that " the Jews, because it was the 
 preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the 
 cross on the Sabbath Day (for that Sabbath Day was an 
 high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, 
 and that they might be taken away." 
 
 The next day was the Passover, and the sun was about 
 to set, so that the festival was soon to begin. According to 
 Roman custom criminals who had been crucified were left 
 to linger on the cross sometimes for days. The Church 
 historian Eusebius tells us of martyrs in Egypt who remained 
 on their crosses till they died of starvation. But occasion- 
 ally, rarely indeed, the Romans lit fires under the crosses to 
 accelerate the death of those who hung on them.* Among 
 the Jews, however, this was not lawful. Even at ordinary 
 times, a criminal might not remain suspended after night- 
 fall. Moses had ordered (Deut. xxi. 22-3) " If a man have 
 
 * Cicero, ad Quint, frat. i. 2, 2. 
 
— ^ 
 
 committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to 
 death, and thou hang him on a tree : his body shall not 
 remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise 
 bury him that day." 
 
 Accordingly, when Joshua hanged the king of Ai, it was 
 only till eventide ; "and as soon as the sun was set, Joshua 
 commanded that they should take the carcase down from 
 the tree." (Josh. viii. 29.) And again, when Joshua took 
 the seven kings in the battle of Gibeon, " he hanged them 
 on five trees ; and they were hanging upon the trees until 
 the evening. And it came to pass at the time of the going 
 down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took 
 them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave 
 wherein they had been hid." (Josh. x. 27.) 
 
 The reason given by Moses for this order was that if a 
 victim were thus left hanging it would be regarded as a 
 defilement of the land. The order was given out of mercy. 
 A criminal expiated his offence by his death. If his suffer- 
 ings were protracted this was unnecessary barbarism. 
 Especially monstrous would it be that whilst men slept 
 peacefully in their beds, a poor wretch should be writhing 
 through the hours of darkness shrieking curses, and crying 
 with pain. 
 
 The Passover was drawing on, every moment saw the 
 shadows lengthened and the sun nearing the Western Sea. 
 
^f^t \Bitxtt\S ^iiSt. 21 
 
 The Jews, not out of compassion, but out of alarm lest 
 defilement should fall on their land were the crucified to 
 remain hanging all that moonlit night, besought Pilate that 
 their bones might be broken. That morning they would 
 not enter the Judgment Hall for fear of pollution, and now 
 they seek to expedite the death of the victims for the same 
 reason. 
 
 Among the Romans the breaking of the limbs was one 
 form of execution. Augustus ordered his privy secretary, 
 Thallus, to be thus put to death, because he had divulged 
 the contents of a despatch. Indeed the breaking of the 
 limbs on a wheel was a common form of execution in 
 Europe till the beginning of this century. Sentence was 
 given for the breaking from below upwards, or from above 
 downwards, according to the guilt of the criminal. If from 
 below, the executioner with an iron bar broke first the 
 ankles, then the knees, then the wrists, the elbows, and so 
 on to vital parts ; but if the sentence was from above down- 
 wards, then the first stroke fell across the breast, and at 
 once destroyed life. 
 
 Such as were crucified could find release by death 
 only. Even if taken down from the cross, and cared 
 for, the unfortunate man could hardly recover. After the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, Josephus saw among the Jews 
 who were crucified on the road to Tekoa three of his friends. 
 
22 C!)^ J3eat5 an^ 3Re^urrecttaii of ^t^n^. 
 
 1 
 
 He at once went to Titus, and implored him' to spare their 
 lives. Titus consented that they should be taken down 
 from their crosses, but though they were shown the greatest 
 care, two of them died the same night, and only one re- 
 covered. * 
 
 "Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, 
 and of the other which was crucified with Him. But when 
 they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they 
 brake not His legs." 
 
 Death on the cross was attended with awful convulsions. 
 The strain on the nails produced cramp^ and then convul- 
 sions, as in lock-jaw. It was, therefore, marvellous to the 
 soldiers to see the body of Jesus resting peacefully already, 
 without any movement in it, whereas those of the thieves 
 twitched, and were contorted. 
 
 " One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and 
 forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw 
 it bare record, and his record is true : and he knoweth that 
 he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were 
 done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him 
 shall not be broken. And again, another Scripture saith, 
 They shall look on Him Whom they pierced." 
 
 At the very hour that the soldiers were breaking the legs 
 of the malefactors, and passing by Jesus, Who was sus- 
 *Vita. 75. 
 
TOc Pi>r«if ^tXfe* 23 
 
 pended between them, the priests in the Temple were pre- 
 paring the lamb for the daily offering, and carefully avoiding 
 the breaking of a single bone. The law then in force among 
 the Jews was " Whosoever shall break a bone of the pure 
 paschal lamb shall incur a penalty of forty stripes." * 
 
 Not only so, but in the offering of the sacrificial lamb in 
 the Temple, the priest was required " to pierce the heart 
 (of the lamb), and make its blood flow forth." f 
 
 So was the Lord, the true Lamb, fulfilling in small par- 
 ticulars the types in the Temple sacrifice. The Rabbis 
 indeed knew and applied those words of Zechariah to the 
 Messiah, " They shall look on Him Whom they pierced ; " 
 and yet such blindness has fallen upon them that they 
 fulfil the prophecies, and accomplish the types of which 
 their sacrifices were foreshadows, and refuse to see the 
 accompHshment taking place before their eyes. One of 
 their commentators on the words of the Prophet said, 
 " This is spoken of Jehovah, Whom they will pierce, and 
 Jehovah says it." + 
 
 As on that night the destroying angel had passed over the 
 houses where was the sign of blood, and the paschal lamb 
 was slain, but smote elsewhere, so now do these execu- 
 tioners pass over the true Lamb of God, and smite only 
 those others crucified with Him. 
 
 * Pesakim vii. ii. +Tamid iv. 2. J Succa f. 52, i. 
 
24 €it JBeatb nixti dSie^mxtttian of SejSujJ, 
 
 1 
 But one soldier with a spear pierced H.is side. The 
 
 spear entered on the right side under the ribs, and 
 
 in the thrust the head perforated the heart, and as he 
 
 withdrew the spear, there issued after it a stream of blood 
 
 and water. 
 
 The Old Testament was a covenant in blood, the New in 
 water. Admission into the Old was by the shedding of 
 blood in circumcision ; admission into the New is by the 
 sprinkling of water. As from our Lord's side both flowed, 
 it shewed Him as the source of both covenants : that of 
 blood, which ended in His blood-shedding, that of water, 
 which was to last till He comes again. 
 
 It is curious that Jewish traditions, as old, no doubt, as 
 the time of Christ, said that Moses smote the rock twice in 
 the wilderness, and that from it flowed first blood, and then 
 water. This rock, as S. Paul says, was the figure of Christ, 
 (i Cor. X. 4.) 
 
 Moreover, as when Adam slept, God took Eve from his 
 side and presented her to Adam, so now the Second Adam 
 sleeps on the Cross, and His side is opened, and from it 
 issue water and blood ; water by which man is regenerated 
 and admitted into Christ's Church ; blood, the eucharistic 
 banquet whereby man's fellowship with Christ in His Church 
 is maintained. 
 
 Thus we may regard these two streams as figuring the two 
 
Cf)c Piercctf ^itst. 25 
 
 Sacraments, whereby the life of the Church is begun and 
 maintained. 
 
 It has been argued that the death of Christ on the Cross 
 took place through the rupture of the heart, or rather, of 
 the division between the two cells, a phenomenon which is 
 known to occur through excessive agony or sorrow of mind. 
 
 In the garden of Gethsemane our Lord endured mental 
 anguish so intense that it caused the sweat of blood, which 
 would be attended with violent palpitations of the heart. 
 On the Cross the agony was renewed and intensified, 
 accompanied by the physical sufferings of the mode of 
 punishment. This combination of agony would induce 
 such palpitation, that, reaching extreme acuteness, a rupture 
 would ensue, and when the soldier's spear penetrated the 
 heart, the mingled fluids would flow forth together.* 
 
 "Out of the heart," said our Blessed Lord, *' proceed all 
 evil thoughts, murders, adulteries." There is the source of 
 all evil. By the piercing of His heart He expiated our sins 
 of the heart, as by His pierced hands and feet He atoned for 
 our sins of act, and by His thorn-crowned head He made 
 reconciliation for our sinful thoughts. As evil springs from 
 the heart of man, so from the heart of the Son of Man 
 flows the fountain of healing for the cleansing of trans- 
 
 * Dr. Stroud, M.D., "Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of 
 Christ" London, 1847. 
 
26 Cbe 53 eats a«^ d^t^xtvrtttitiix at 3e5?u^. 
 
 - 
 
 gression. As in the heart of man is the source of weakness, 
 so from the heart of the Son of Man issues that blood 
 which is to strengthen us against temptation, and enable us 
 to master its infirmity. 
 
 The streams are mingled. In vain does the blood of 
 pardon flow unless by baptism we have been cleansed and 
 admitted into the Church ; and in vain are we baptized 
 unless we go on to the participation of the precious blood 
 which nourishes and sustains that spiritual Hfe which was 
 initiated in us by the water. 
 
 " Spring, O well ! thou living water, 
 
 Spring ! let evil men deride, 
 Spring abundant, mingled torrent 
 
 From the Saviour's side ! 
 Flow, O well ! O Blood and Water, 
 
 Streams of sacramental grace, 
 Purifying past transgression, 
 
 Present sin efface. 
 
 Flow, O well ! in fonts for ever 
 
 Is the crystal water stored ; 
 Flow, O well ! on countless altars 
 
 Is the purple Blood outpoured." * 
 
 * Church Songs, No. 49. Skeffington, 1884. 
 
IV. 
 
 Ef)e IBescent from ti)e OTross. 
 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 57, 58. 
 
 " When the even was come., there came a rich man of Arimathea, natned 
 Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple : he went to Pilate^ and begged 
 the body of Jesus T 
 
 S. Luke gives a few farther particulars. He says that 
 Joseph was a Councillor, that he was a good and just man, 
 and that he had not consented to the counsel and deed of 
 those who had condemned and delivered up Jesus ; that he 
 himself waited for the kingdom of God. S. Mark adds 
 that he went boldly into the presence of Pilate and craved 
 the body of Jesus. " And Pilate marvelled if He were 
 already dead : and calling unto him the Centurion, he 
 asked him whether He had been any while dead." The 
 words of S. Mark are couched in a figure of speech which 
 condenses a conversation into a few words. Pilate asked if 
 Jesus were yet dead. The Centurion answered that He 
 was so. Then Pilate further asked whether He had been 
 dead any length of time. When quite satisfied he gave 
 consent that the body should be delivered over to Joseph. 
 We cannot say for certain, but it seems probable that 
 
28 ^l)c 59rat]b '^ntr Ec^urrcttion at Sle^us^ 
 
 ^ y 
 
 Nicodemus and Joseph were brothers, and the sons of 
 Gorion. We know something of these two men from 
 Jewish sources. Nicodemus lived to the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, and was reduced from great wealth to extreme 
 poverty. A poor woman was seen collecting straw from a 
 dung-heap after the ruin of the city, that therewith she 
 might feed her cow, and on being asked her name, she said 
 that she was the daughter of the once wealthy Nicodemus. 
 Nicodemus was not the original name of this man, which 
 was Bonai, and he is spoken of by Jewish writers as a dis- 
 ciple of Jesus. He received the name of Nicodemus from 
 a miracle wrought by his prayers. In a time of great 
 drought he prayed, and rain came and filled the tanks of 
 Jerusalem. Joseph Ben Gorion was murdered by the 
 zealots in the streets of Jerusalem during the siege. 
 
 Joseph, we are told by the Evangelist, was a Councillor, 
 that is, a member of the Sanhedrim ; he came forth doubtless 
 to his garden, which was close to the scene of crucifixion. 
 As Nicodemus, for fear of the Jews, came to Jesus by night, 
 so did Joseph, his brother, steal out in alarm and distress, 
 and hide in his garden, peering over the wall, or through 
 the half closed door, at what took place hard by. But when 
 the sun was darkened, and the rocks were rent, full con- 
 viction took hold of him, and instead of hiding, he came 
 forth, and went into the city, and asked for the body of 
 
Ef^t Bt^ant from tlbe CroiStf. 29 
 
 Jesus. The Greek word employed shows us that Joseph 
 was outside, and that he went into the town to make his 
 request. 
 
 The request was not an extraordinary one. The Roman 
 judges were accustomed to deliver up the bodies of male- 
 factors to their friends and relatives, only paricides were 
 denied a grave among their kin. It was not till later, under 
 Diocletian, that the right of relatives to carry off and bury 
 the dead who had suffered execution was further limited, 
 and denied in cases of high treason. 
 
 This it is which lends so high an interest to the Roman 
 catacombs, for by Roman law there was as full protection 
 accorded to the graves of Christians as to heathen, and 
 no more interference attempted in the burial of those 
 who suffered sentence by a judge than in the case of the 
 noblest senator, or member of the imperial family. It was 
 not till late, that this liberty was restricted, consequently the 
 earliest Christian tombs and catacombs in Rome were 
 executed with far more richness and freedom than those 
 of later date. * 
 
 Joseph plucked up courage at last, and went to ask for 
 
 *Quinctilvi. 9, 10, 21. " Cruces succiduntur, percussos sepeliri carni- 
 fex nonvetat." Ulpian, Dig. xlviii., p. 24. "Corpora eorum qui capite 
 damnantur, cognatis ipsorum neganda non sunt. — Corpora animad- 
 versorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam danda sunt." See Kraus, 
 " Roma Sotteranea," Bk. i. c. 3, 
 
30 Wf^t mtRti antr ^t^mxtttian of ge^u^. 
 
 _ 
 
 the body. The soldiers were about to remove the dead 
 from their crosses, probably they intended to saw through 
 the crosses, cast them down, withdraw the nails, and fling 
 the dead into one of those burial places, which the Jews had 
 for malefactors. There were two of these, one for those who 
 were executed with the sword or were hung on the tree, the 
 other for those who were stoned to death, or burnt. The 
 Sanhedrim would not allow those who had suffered these 
 sentences to be laid in the tombs of their fathers till their 
 flesh had mouldered away, only then might their bones be 
 collected and laid in their family tombs. Another rule 
 among the Jews was that the cross, or stone, or sword 
 wherewith a criminal had been put to death, should be 
 buried near him, but whether the Roman soldiers would 
 comply with this rule we may well doubt; however, the 
 Jews who sought to have this execution regarded as the 
 result of the condemnation of their council, would doubt- 
 less see to the fulfilment of the precept. The story of 
 S. Helena having discovered the cross on Calvary, though 
 lacking all contemporary confirmation, is not in itself 
 impossible or improbable. 
 
 It is not unlikely that at the entreaty of Joseph, and 
 perhaps bribed by him, the soldiers did not touch the 
 cross and body of Jesus after that His side had been 
 pierced, though they set to work to throw down and 
 
TOt IBfiScent from tt^t Croj^i^. 31 
 
 remove for burial the bodies of the two thieves. Joseph 
 had obtained what he asked, and he hastily ** brought fine 
 linen." He was attended by Nicodemus, who " brought 
 a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds 
 weight." He and Nicodemus returned to Calvary, where 
 in the meantime Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magda- 
 lene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and also Salome, 
 with S. John, the beloved disciple^ kept guard. 
 
 Then Joseph took the body down, assisted, doubtless, by 
 Nicodemus and those of the Apostles who were present. 
 " 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." 
 
 The Jews were wont to use the linen strips wherewith the 
 books of the law were rolled as bands for wrapping round 
 the bodies of their dead. It was thought that the volumes 
 of the law gave a sanctity to these wraps, which were 
 eagerly sought, and highly esteemed for this purpose. But, 
 of course, this was not possible for all, it was a privilege 
 reserved for the few. The Jews did not suffer their dead 
 to be enveloped in silk, or any embroidered stuff*, only in 
 white linen. The linen was in small strips, and was wrapped 
 round and round the body, and the spices were inserted 
 between the wraps and the body or in the folds of the linen. 
 At the same time perfumes were burnt; and we are told 
 
I 
 that at the funeral of GamaUel seventy pounds of spices 
 
 were thus consumed. 
 
 On this occasion we are told that Nicodemus brought a 
 mixture of myrrh and aloes a hundred pounds in weight. 
 There is some difificulty about this, as the amount seems 
 enormous, and it has been argued that the measure meant 
 is only an eighth of a pound as we reckon it, so that the 
 quantity brought by Nicodemus would not amount to more 
 than twelve pounds, and this, perhaps, included the weight 
 of the jar. Probably he brought an unopened vessel of the 
 mixture and carried it to Calvary with him, and there broke 
 it open, to use of it as much as might be required, or could 
 be used in the hurry of the hasty entombment. 
 
 It is certainly remarkable that Joseph and Nicodemus, 
 the two most timid, as it would seem, of Christ's disciples, 
 should now show such boldness. One was His disciple, 
 ** secretly, for fear of the Jews," and the other was he who 
 came " at the first, to Jesus by night." As they had been 
 equal in the feebleness of their faith during the life of their 
 Lord, so are they equally conspicuous for the boldness of 
 their faith after His death. 
 
 What they now did was, indeed, a bold thing. It was a 
 defiance of public opinion, it was the running the risk of 
 expulsion from the synagogue, and from the high council. 
 Although the entering of the court of justice carried with it 
 
Cf)e ^t^ctnt from tljc €va^^. 33 
 
 defilement, Joseph went boldly before Pilate. He made a 
 sacrifice of his popularity with his fellow councillors, and all 
 the Pharisees and Scribes. 
 
 The example of these two men, Joseph and Nicodemus, 
 
 is valuable. It shows us how that the grace of God can 
 
 so act on the soul that a man will shake himself free from 
 
 all his scruples, conquer his natural timidity, brave public 
 
 opinion, sacrifice his favour with the people for the sake 
 
 of Christ, to act conscientiously. There are turning points 
 
 in all lives, critical moments when everything depends 
 
 on momentary action. Probably this was such a critical 
 
 moment in the lives of these two timid men. Had they 
 
 hesitated, made excuses for themselves, justified their 
 
 abstention from the last acts of mercy on the plea that 
 
 they were not relatives, and not therefore morally bound 
 
 to demand the body of Christ, then their after career would 
 
 have been one of faUing back into unbelief. But they 
 
 acted on instant conviction ; they rose to the emergency. 
 
 The call came to do this act to the dead body of Him 
 
 whom they had followed timidly in life, and they did not 
 
 turn a deaf ear ; they acted on what they thought to be right. 
 
 And lastly, we see from their conduct that God's grace is 
 
 sufficient to conquer human weakness. When they had the will 
 
 to do what was right, the grace of God came and strengthened 
 
 them to fulfil that duty they saw they were called to perform. 
 
1 
 
 V. 
 
 ^i)e <3!?ntDmtmettt* 
 
 S. Luke xxiii. 53. 
 
 ** He laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone^ wherein never man 
 before was laid." 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea had a garden close to Calvary, and in 
 that garden a new tomb. S. John mentions the garden, 
 and the gate leading to Calvary was called the Garden Gate, 
 because the road that passed through it traversed a number 
 of gardens belonging to the wealthy citizens and councillors. 
 A little below Calvary was the tank or pool of Gihon, from 
 which the water was drawn for the gardens. Indeed, 
 S. Cyril of Jerusalem, born in a.d. 315, speaks of the 
 remains of garden enclosures aboutf the Holy Sepulchre that 
 were observable in his day.* In the garden of Joseph was 
 a rocky face of the hill, in which he had had a new grave 
 made, no doubt for himself, and that this was not the only 
 one in that neighbourhood is shewn by the remains of old 
 graves scooped out of the rock, still observable in the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 The graves of well-to-do Jews consisted of an entrance 
 
 *Catech. xv. 5. 
 
Cf)t (I5nt0mftmtnt. 35 
 
 hall scooped out of the rock, in which was a stone table on 
 which the embalming of the corpse might be carried out. 
 Then came a round hole, closed with a circular stone slab 
 that rolled, hke a mill-stone, and within was the tomb 
 proper — a chamber, with graves. 
 
 The body of Jesus was conveyed from the Cross to the 
 ante-chamber of the tomb, and there washed, anointed, and 
 wrapped round with the spices. According to Jewish law 
 no woman might perform these last rites to the dead body 
 of a man, they must be performed by men. Accordingly we 
 are told that the women " followed after," that " Mary 
 Magdalene and the other Mary " were " sitting over against 
 the sepulchre." They would not dare to approach and 
 assist, their place was at a distance. The office of women 
 at an entombment was to utter lamentations over the 
 dead. 
 
 Tombs about to be used, or in use, were whited over with 
 lime, partly to give them a cheerful and glittering appear- 
 ance, partly for sanitary purposes. But this grave was 
 unwhitened, because it was used hurriedly without any pre- 
 paration for its guest. 
 
 Among the Romans at the time it was customary to burn 
 their dead, and lay up the ashes in urns in chambers erected 
 to receive them. But in earlier times this was not the case, 
 and some of the noble Roman families retained the earlier 
 
i ■ 
 
 usage of burying their dead in sarcophagi, instead of burning 
 them.* Among the Egyptians, .the dead were embalmed, 
 wound in linen, and buried in subterranean vaults ; but the 
 Jewish dead were not embalmed in the same way. The 
 Egyptians opened their dead, removed the entrails, and filled 
 the stomach with spices. The Jews merely wrapped unguents 
 and spices about the bodies. 
 
 If we accept the tradition that the present Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre stands over the real grave of Jesus, then the 
 distance from it to the place believed to have been that 
 where the Cross stood is no feet. The original tomb was 
 much interfered with by Constantine when he built the 
 Church over it, but the vault of living rock remained till 
 the Calif Hakim destroyed it in the year loio. 
 
 Christ was laid in the grave at a distance of two hours' 
 walk from Bethlehem. When He was born, it was in a 
 cave, and now He is again laid in a cave. When He was 
 taken to Jerusalem to the Temple, Simeon, a member of 
 the Council, received Him in his arms, and now, as He 
 is laid in His grave, a Councillor bears Him in his 
 arms. Simeon had prophesied that He would be ''a 
 sign which would be spoken against," and his words had 
 been fulfilled. 
 
 " And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus, 
 
 *As in the tomb of the Scipios, and in that of the Nasones. 
 
Cl)^ (f^ntomlimcnt. 37 
 
 beheld where He was laid." " And they returned, and 
 prepared spices and ointments : and rested the Sabbath 
 Day, according to the Commandment." Christ had been 
 nailed to the Cross at noon, and He had died at four 
 o'clock. The sun must have been now rapidly setting, and 
 after its golden disc had touched the sea, the Sabbath, the 
 Paschal Feast, began, and no work might be done. The 
 last offices were performed to Christ in haste ; Joseph and 
 Nicodemus did what they could in the short time they had 
 at their disposal, but they intended to re-do the work more 
 thoroughly when the Sabbath was over. They had no 
 expectation of a resurrection ; nor had the women who 
 hastened home to prepare the mixture of myrrh, aloes, and 
 cassia, for the ointment, and the gums that were to be 
 burnt as a sweet incense on the Sunday. In the Temple, 
 after the sacrifice of the bloody offering, came the oblation 
 of incense ; and so now, after the Sacrifice on Calvary was 
 offered, came from the faithful men and women the oblation 
 of sweet scents. At His birth, wise men had offered gold 
 and frankincense and myrrh. There is now no present of 
 gold, but of myrrh and of frankincense. 
 
 The women did not wring their hands, and utter loud 
 wailing, tear their hair, and wound their faces, as is customary 
 in the East at a funeral, for by Jewish law, one who had 
 died as a criminal might not thus be noisily lamented. " If 
 
38 CJc JBcatl) axits S^itsmxtttian of SejSu^. 
 
 his relatives be in grief," it was commanded, "let them keep 
 their grief locked up in the heart." When Jairus' daughter 
 was dead, the house was at once filled with minstrels and 
 professional wailers. It was not so now. In silence, broken 
 only by the low, controlled sobs of the women, and the 
 hushed whispers of the men, the Lord was laid in 
 the tomb. 
 
 As already stated in the previous lecture, it was a rule 
 among the Jews to bury with one who had been executed 
 everything which had been used in putting him to death. 
 Consequently, we may be sure that the two councillors 
 would bring with them the nails and the crown of thorns, 
 and lay them in the tomb with Jesus. It is also very probable 
 that a lamp would be lighted and placed in the tomb. It 
 was now the hour for the lighting of the Sabbatical lamp in 
 each house ; Joseph no doubt had his garden-house, or lodge, 
 close by. It is remarkable that according to Jewish accounts 
 the lamp in the Temple now went out. Did Joseph, at 
 this hour for kindling the Sabbatical lamp, place one 
 in the grave with Christ as extinction came on the 
 Temple light? 
 
 In a garden man fell, and death came on man. In 
 a garden Jesus was bowed in agony in prayer, and now 
 in a garden He is laid dead. Out of the dust man was 
 created, and now in the dust the second Adam is laid. As 
 
aCflt (BixtmnJinimt. 39 
 
 Cain was moved with anger and envy against his brother 
 and slew him, so now is this second Abel slain, and His 
 blood cries from the ground against His murderers. In life 
 Christ had not where to lay His head, and now in death 
 He is given a borrowed grave. 
 
 I^et us turn our eyes elsewhere, and we shall see on this 
 same day another hanging on a tree, and falling therefrom 
 to a horrible bursting asunder of his body. This is Judas, 
 the traitor. He, filled with remorse, but not repentance, 
 restores the thirty pieces of silver which he had taken as 
 his pay for betraying his Master, casts them down in the 
 Temple, and rushes forth to hang himself. The rope or the 
 branch gives way, and the dead man, the suicide, is precipi- 
 tated to the ground, and, no doubt, in order that the law 
 may be observed, some who have discovered him, hastily, 
 with averted faces, cover him over with the red clay 
 from the Potter's field, where probably this act of suicide 
 was committed. In the account given by S. Peter in the 
 first chapter of the Acts, Judas had bought this field with 
 the money he had received for the betrayal of Christ, and it 
 received its name from his violent death in it. This is 
 apparently at variance with the account of S. Matthew, 
 according to which the field of blood was purchased by the 
 priests with the thirty pieces of silver, after they had been 
 cast down by Judas, as a burial-place for strangers. But the 
 
40 Cljc Bratb aiilf 3arjSurrectian al gcs'iiiS. 
 
 1 
 
 discrepancy is easily explained. Judas had made the agree- 
 ment to take the field, and then before paying the sum was 
 filled with horror, probably at the signs, the darkness, and 
 the earthquake, and he went to the priests and threw down 
 the money, then in his despair committed suicide in the 
 field he had bought. Afterwards the priests, hearing of the 
 contract, concluded it, and in the place where Judas had died, 
 there thenceforth they buried strangers. The field is still 
 pointed out, and is called Hak ed-damm ; it lies on the steep 
 southern face of the valley of Hinnom, near its eastern 
 end, more than half way up the side. 
 
 The evening closes in ; the golden sun has dipped into 
 the sea, and night creeps on. Pilate sat down to his supper 
 ill at ease with himself; the priests were in consternation 
 at the rent veil ; the soldiers probably alarmed by the earth- 
 quake. A vague alarm and unrest filled most hearts ; those 
 whose consciences were not shaken were troubled by the 
 signs and wonders. And pure, calm, brilliant, the Paschal 
 moon looks down on Jerusalem, and on two graves — 
 fresh graves — that in Joseph's garden, and that in the 
 Potter's field. 
 
 " Let me hew Thee, Lord, a shrine 
 In this rocky heart of mine, 
 Where, in pure embalmed cell, 
 None but Thee may ever dwell. 
 
Cbc (I^ntDmlbmatt. 41 
 
 Myrrh and spices will I bring, 
 
 True affection's offering; 
 
 Close the door from sight and sound 
 
 Of the busy world around; 
 
 And in patient watch remain 
 
 Till my Lord appear again." 
 
 Note : In Jewish graves, out of the inner apartment, or tomb proper, 
 very generally open small oblong holes in the rock, into which the 
 bodies were thrust, head or foot foremost. But this was not always 
 the case, there were also sometimes graves cut out lengthways in the 
 side, sometimes sarcophagi. The former (as in the tombs of the 
 kings and of the Judges) were for the economization of space. That 
 of Christ was certainly not of this sort, but probably the body was not 
 laid in the final bed, but in the midst of the inner chamber. 
 
1 
 
 VI. 
 
 €i)e (great 3ai)ftati). 
 
 S. Luke xxiii. 56. 
 
 " They returned . . . and rested the Sabbath Day according to the 
 Commandment.^^ 
 
 The religions of the heathen, with their myths and sacred 
 rites, were to them schoolmasters, leading them to Christ ; 
 were to them, in an inferior manner, what the Law and 
 Ceremonial of Moses were to the Jews. 
 
 There was a custom in Palestine, and in Asia Minor, and 
 Egypt, which was a distant foreshadowing of the events of 
 Good Friday, Easter Eve, and Easter Day. The story was 
 told that a certain god, variously called Atys, Thammuz, 
 and Osiris, had been cruelly and treacherously put to death j 
 and in the early spring there was celebrated the day of the 
 death of the god. Then garden graves were made for him 
 and planted with flowers. On the second day the women 
 wailed, to testify their sympathy with his mother, who sought 
 him with tears, and on the third day they shouted for joy 
 because he had been found, and was restored to life again. 
 
 And now He to Whom these rites had pointed, and 
 pointed more distinctly than did any rite in the Jewish 
 
^c (great ^aiiiiatl). 43 
 
 Church, had been put to death, was laid in His garden 
 grave, and His mother and the holy women spent the 
 Sabbath that followed in weeping because of His loss. 
 That had come to pass in reality which in the annual rites 
 of Thammuz and Atys was but a fiction. As Christ fulfilled 
 and took away the old Mosaic sacrifices, so He fulfilled 
 these heathen typical ceremonies, and transformed them. 
 Henceforth throughout the world there was to be celebrated 
 the death day of the Lord of Life, and after that was to be 
 observed a day of rest, in which He reposed in the grave, 
 to be followed with a day of rejoicing at His victory over death. 
 
 " Now the next day that followed the day of the prepara- 
 tion," says S. Matthew, " 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." 
 
 S. Matthew speaks of this Sabbath Day, the Paschal 
 Feast, as the day after the Preparation. He no longer 
 names the Paschal Feast, because that Paschal Feast is 
 
i 
 
 abrogated. The True Lamb has been slain, of which the 
 lambs slain for the Passover were types. 
 
 The Jewish day began at sunset. It is a little uncertain 
 whether S. Matthew is employing the Jewish or the Roman 
 calculation of time, and so it cannot be said with certainty 
 whether, when he says that the Jews asked to have the 
 grave watched, they went on Friday evening after sundown, 
 or on Saturday. It is hardly likely that they would make 
 the request when the Pasclial Sabbath festival had begun ; 
 it is n)ost likely that they asked for the guard on Saturday 
 evening, after the Sabbath rest was over. Then the shops 
 would open, and people would be about in the twilight. 
 The women bought spices, and mixed the ointments, and 
 the priests set the watch and sealed the stone. 
 
 During the Saturday, doubtless, Pilate drew up his report 
 of what had taken place, to send to the Emperor. This 
 was done by all governors of provinces. Indeed, we know 
 that from Alexandria a daily report of what took place was 
 forwarded to Rome.* And these reports were preserved in 
 the Roman archives. Eusebius, the Church Historian, 
 asserts that Pilate actually did send such an account to the 
 Emperor Tiberius, and so does Tertullian. The apologists 
 
 * These daily reports were called viroiivr^nara kuI ttprj/jLipideSf commen- 
 tarii rerum quotidianarum. Philo, legat. ad Caium. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 
 ii. 2 ; TertuU. Apol. c. 21. 
 
d)c (great ^abbatt). 45 
 
 had no scruple in appealing to the testimony of these Acts ; 
 they exhorted the Roman emperors to refer to them, and 
 see if what the Christians asserted concerning Christ was 
 not confirmed by the testimony of Pilate. The archives no 
 doubt perished in the great conflagration of Rome under 
 Nero. At all events they have not come down to us.* 
 
 The Jewish Council also, we are told by Justin Martyr, 
 sent letters to all the synagogues, announcing the execution 
 of Christ. 
 
 Apparently the Emperor was dissatisfied with what he 
 heard, for the Jewish Council was thenceforth forbidden to 
 assemble. We learn from Jewish authority that this was the 
 case about forty years before the destruction of the Temple, 
 but they give no reason for it ; and we may without much 
 hesitation believe that Pilate reported the tumult as 
 occasioned by the sentence of the Sanhedrim, whereupon 
 the Emperor forbade the Sanhedrim from again assembling 
 and pronouncing sentence in spiritual cases even. 
 
 The watch set by the priests was the same Temple guard 
 which was employed in the taking of Christ in Gethsemane. 
 This guard was allowed to the Jews to protect the Temple 
 from profanation, but they might not employ it outside 
 the Temple precincts without permission from the Roman 
 governor ; this is why the priests approach Pilate with their 
 * The so-called Acts of Pilate are apocryphal. 
 
46 Cbc 59catl) Kixts ^tsuntttiaix of Stj^ujS. 
 
 \ 
 
 request, and why he answers, " Ye have a watch." He 
 
 gave them the requisite permission. 
 
 The soldiers set to guard the grave were Roman legion- 
 aries. The night was divided into watches, each soldier 
 received a token on which was stamped the number of the 
 watch he was to keep, and when the guard was changed, 
 each of the soldiers relieved delivered up the token to the 
 officer in charge. Roman guards were not allowed their 
 shields, lest they should lean on them, and go to sleep. 
 Doubtless the same rule held with the Temple guards. It 
 is striking that now the watch kept on the Temple should be 
 weakened, in order that part of it might be sent as a guard 
 to Him Who rests in the grave, and has converted that into' 
 His Temple. There were four night watches, and a division 
 of sixteen men was given charge over the grave, that is to 
 say, there would be four sentinels at a time on duty. 
 
 The priests sealed the stone. That is to say they affixed 
 wax to the go/al or rolling circular stone that closed the 
 opening into the inner chamber of the grave, drew a string 
 through it and sealed again the stone in which the door was 
 hewn. In like manner Darius (Dan. vi. 17) sealed the stone 
 door that closed the lions' den ; and we learn from profane 
 history that, in like manner, did Alexander the Great seal 
 the grave of Cyrus. To the present day in the Roman 
 Catacombs we see how the early Christians, in their desire 
 
Ebr <§rcat ^afiiiatl), 47 
 
 in all points to make their burials like to the entombment 
 of Christ, closed the doors of their sepulchres hewn in the 
 rock, with a stone, and sealed them — sometimes with rings 
 and cameos, sometimes with the bottoms of gilded glass 
 cups on which were engraved sacred subjects ; and as Christ 
 was laid with spices, so did they place little vessels in their 
 graves that contained unguents and fragrant oils."^ 
 
 On this evening the first fruits were brought into the 
 Temple. The Sabbath being ended, there came a pro- 
 cession from the vale of Kedron, bearing the first sheaf of 
 barley to the Temple, and this was received by the priests 
 in the entrance of the Temple, and carried within. As the 
 sheaf was presented the Levites in the gates sang Psalm 
 XXX. — " I will magnify Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast set me 
 up : and not made my foes to triumph over me ; " to which 
 the ascending procession sang in reply — " I profess this day 
 unto the Lord my God, that I am come unto the country 
 which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us." Then 
 the priest took the first fruits and laid it before the altar, with 
 the song, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father." (Deut. 
 xxvi. 5-1 1.) 
 
 With this the harvest season was solemnly opened. We 
 
 * These are the so-called ' ' vessels with the blood of martyrs. " It is 
 questionable whether martyr-blood is contained in any of them, it is 
 certain that the vast majority contain nothing of the sort, but balsam. 
 
48 Cb^ SBcatb antf 2af£?urrecti0ii nf 3e^u^. 
 
 1 
 
 shall see in the succeeding lecture what this signified, and 
 how it was being carried out in a marvellous manner, by 
 Christ. 
 
 So the great Sabbath, the day of rest, came to an end. 
 Again the sun set, and again the Paschal moon poured its 
 flood of silver light over the holy city, over Calvary and 
 the Sepulchre. On the preceding night there had been 
 perfect stillness in the garden. Twinkling lights had 
 illumined the city, for all households were keeping the 
 Passover."^ Now it was different ; four soldiers paced in 
 the moonlight before the grave, and there was a hum of 
 voices from the distant city. The pool of Gihon glittered 
 in the moonlight like a silver plate, and the fig-trees cast 
 dark shadows on the ground. The fireflies hovered about 
 like floating stars. In the broad moonlight the nightingales 
 in the garden trees sang, and the air was fragrant with the 
 scent of the flowering acacias. 
 
 " Calm Thou liest in the grave, 
 With the virgin rock around ; 
 All is hush'd beneath the ground. 
 
 * I have assumed throughout that S. John's chronology is correct, and 
 that Jesus died at the same time that the Paschal lambs were slain ; that 
 therefore He forestalled the Passover by a night. He died on the 14th 
 Nisan; the 15th was the Passover, beginning on the eve, i.e. after sunset 
 on the Friday. 
 
(ir^^ (Sreat ^a^ibatb* 49 
 
 All is dark, except the flare 
 From the lamp, in start and fall 
 Staining, with an ochreous glare. 
 The napkin, and the pall. 
 
 Calm Thou liest ! Thy pale hands 
 Folded o'er Thy pulseless breast. 
 Angels' burning lips are press'd 
 On each crimson print of nail, 
 As above the Mercy Seat 
 Angels' pinions form a veil 
 
 About Thy Head and Feet. 
 
 Calm Thou liest ! Thy pure brow 
 Marked with bulrush blow, and torn 
 By the ragged braid of thorn. 
 Still is crowned. Clotted flakes 
 Of Thy hair hang moisture full. 
 Thorns shall bloom, when morning breaks, 
 Thy locks be white as wool. 
 
 Calm Thou sleep ' st ! The night fleets fast, 
 The hours are stealing on to morn, 
 The veil droops in the Temple, torn, 
 The moon is set, more deep the gloom, 
 The watch is changed about Thy prison ; 
 But sudden ! Light from out the tomb — 
 The Lord ! The Lord is risen ! 
 
1 
 
 VII. 
 
 I Peter hi. 19. 
 "He went and preached unto the spirits in p7'ison,^^ 
 
 We have come now to consider that very mysterious article 
 of our Creed which we profess when we say of Jesus that 
 after His death and burial " He descended into Hell." It 
 is an article deserving of consideration, but it is one which 
 it is impossible to understand aright unless we first investi- 
 gate what was the belief of the Jews at the time of our 
 Lord's death, relative to the Spirit World. And this is the 
 more advisable, as in our Blessed Lord's teaching He 
 adopts the phraseology of His contemporaries, and there- 
 fore confirms their teaching, at least in its broad outlines. 
 The Jews held that there was a place of " outer darkness," 
 which they called Gehenna, where were flames and the 
 undying worm, where were " wailing and gnashing of teeth." 
 This was regarded as the place of the utterly lost. It is the 
 same as our Hell, but is not the same as the Hell of the 
 Creed. Above Gehenna was, according to the Jews, another 
 region called Sheol, deep and dark, and a prison. Between 
 
Cib^ ^^iviU in \Bxi^an. 51 
 
 Sheol and Paradise flows a river of fire, in which those who 
 have contracted defilement during life, but are generally 
 righteous, pass, and are cleansed before they enter Paradise. 
 But Paradise, again, is only the outer court of the Heavenly 
 Temple, a place not of perfect bliss, but of expectation of 
 the Messiah, Who alone can bring the souls of the faithful 
 into perfect felicity in the immediate presence of God. 
 
 Such were the divisions of the World of Spirits according 
 to Jewish belief. Now our Lord named all three ; He 
 spoke of Gehenna repeatedly ; it is named seven times by 
 Him in S. Matthew's Gospel, beside other references to it 
 without being named, but as the place of outer darkness, 
 where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Sheol, or Hades, 
 is twice named in S. Matthew's Gospel, and in S. Luke's 
 Dives is said not to be in Gehenna, but in Sheol, and we 
 might even suppose he were in the purifying river of fire of 
 Jewish belief were we not told that there was no passing 
 from the one place to the other. 
 
 According to the belief of the Jews the faithful dead 
 were in earnest expectation of the Messiah, Who would 
 release them and place them in the full glory of the presence 
 of God. So they interpret the wonderful passage of Isaiah 
 (xxxv. 8, 9), " He will swallow up death in victory; and the 
 Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the 
 rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the 
 
52 Cf)e Btat^ Kiits Wit^xtvrtctimi af St^vi^- 
 ^ 
 
 earth. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; 
 we have waited for Him, and He will save us : this is the 
 Lord ; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice 
 in His salvation." These words are said to refer to the 
 Messiah releasing the spirits of the just from their place of 
 expectation. Elsewhere the Jewish Rabbis say that the Son 
 of David would pass through this place of departed spirits 
 and deliver those therein ; and they apply to this the words 
 of the Prophet Hosea — ** I will ransom them from the 
 power of the grave (of Sheol) ; I will redeem them from 
 death : O death, I will be thy plague ; O Sheol, I will be 
 thy destruction." (xiii. 14.) And also that promise in 
 Zechariah, " By the blood of Thy Covenant I have sent 
 forth Thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. 
 Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope : even 
 to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." 
 (ix. II, 12.) 
 
 Now if we consider what was the belief in our Lord's 
 time, not only as to the places occupied by the departed, 
 but also as to the dead being in expectation of deliverance 
 by the Messiah, Who is the Son of David, and Who is One 
 with Jehovah,* then I think it is not hard to understand the 
 
 * Echa Rabbati, f. 59. " What is the Name of Messias ? Abba Ben 
 Cahana repHed, His Name is Jehovah, for it is written, His Name shall 
 be called, The Lord our Righteousness." 
 
Cf)c ^^ivM in \Br i^an* 63 
 
 event of Easter Eve, and to understand the allusions to it 
 in the New Testament writers. S. Peter says that Christ 
 went down and preached to the spirits in prison, in Slieol ; 
 and then he mentions those that were disobedient at the 
 time of the flood. The reason for this is that the Jews 
 expressly denied the possibility of salvation by the Messiah 
 to those who were overwhelmed by the flood, as well as to 
 certain others ; * now S. Peter singles out this group of 
 souls to which the Jews denied redemption, to say that 
 Christ did go down and carry pardon and give release even 
 to them. His words may thus be paraphrased. "After 
 Christ suffered in the flesh, His spirit went down into Sheol, 
 and preached pardon to all those there, even to those to 
 whom you deny happiness — such as were disobedient in 
 the days of Noah." 
 
 Now we can see that the prophecy, " The people which 
 sat in darkness saw great light ; and to them which sat in 
 the region and shadow of death light is sprung up," had a 
 further reference than to those in the borders of Zebulon 
 and Napthali ; and how that the words of Zacharias in the 
 Benedictus may have had a special reference to the souls in 
 Sheol. " The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to 
 give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
 
 *Sanhed, c. ii, 3. '* Those who perished in the Flood shall have no lot 
 in the world to come." 
 
54 Cbt Mtafi) aittf ^t^nvttttian at 3ic«?uj^. 
 
 J 
 
 death, to guide our feet into the way of peace," may 
 have referred to the release of spirits of the dead as well as 
 to the spiritual enlightenment of the living. When Christ 
 declared that His mission was *' to preach deliverance to 
 the captives," it was not only deliverance in this life to 
 those held captive of Satan, but also to those ** prisoners of 
 hope " who, said the Prophet, were to obtain release " by the 
 blood of the covenant." 
 
 The ancient patriarch Jacob, when dying, in his prophetic 
 song exclaimed, " I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord." 
 (Gen. xlix. i8.) David, in a moment of doubt, asked, 
 " Shall the dead rise up again and praise Thee ? Shall Thy 
 lovingkindness be showed in the grave : or Thy faithfulness 
 in destruction.?" (Ps. Ixxxviii. lo, ii.) But Isaiah answered 
 with confidence, " Thy dead men shall live, together with 
 my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that 
 dwell in the dust " — only they must be content for awhile to 
 " enter into " their " chambers " hewn in the rock, and 
 "hide" themselves "as it were for a little moment, until 
 the indignation be overpast." (xxvi. 20-1.) 
 
 And now let us look at the ceremony that was taking 
 place on the Saturday evening in Jerusalem. A first sheaf 
 of barley was cut in the vale of Kedron, and was brought 
 up the hill by the greatest among the people ; when there 
 was a king among them, by a king, on his shoulder, in a 
 
CIjc ^^ixiti in |3njSan. 55 
 
 basket. It was received by the priests and Levites at the 
 Temple gates, with songs of praise ; and the bearer said, 
 " A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down 
 into Egypt and sojourned there ; and the Egyptians evil 
 entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard 
 bondage, and when we cried unto the Lord God of our 
 fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our afflic- 
 tion, and our labour, and our oppression : and the Lord 
 brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with 
 an outstretched arm — and He hath brought us into this 
 place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth 
 with milk and honey." 
 
 We see now how significant this was of the great deliver- 
 ance being wrought by Christ, Who went down into the 
 valley of the shadow of death, and thence now brought up 
 the first fruits — not the fine wheat of the new Covenant, the 
 wheat of His harvest field the Church, but the barley of the 
 old Covenant, the harvest field just ripe of the Jewish 
 synagogue. And we see now how significantly the great 
 going forth by night out of Egypt was, of this great going 
 forth out of the pain of bondage in Sheol, after the slaying 
 of the Paschal lamb. 
 
 Now, also, we can understand what the Church means 
 when she gives us as the first lesson for Easter Eve the 
 prophecy of Zechariah, and for the first lesson on Easter 
 
— i 
 
 Day the 12th Chapter of Exodus, and we can see the 
 fulness of signification of these words, " It is a night to be 
 much observed unto the Lord for bringing the people out 
 from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord 
 to be observed of all the Children of Israel in their genera- 
 tion.'* We see how that that first deliverance was a type of 
 the still mightier deliverance that would be wrought by the 
 Prophet ** like unto Moses ; " and how that the commemora- 
 tion of that deliverance was not only to the Jew a looking 
 back on what had been done in the past, but a yearly 
 encouragement to look forward to what would be done for 
 him by the Messiah in the future. 
 
 It was customary in the Middle Ages on Easter Eve for 
 nobles and great men to visit the hospitals and leper houses 
 and the orphanages, and to give alms; and in Russia, I 
 believe, to the present day, at all events, till recently, on 
 Easter Eve the Czar or Grand Duke visits the prisons and 
 gives to the prisoners some words of consolation and hopes 
 of release. These acts are, or were, commemorations of 
 the descent of Christ into the prison-house of Spirits. 
 
 Are not we also, in a way, here on this earth, " prisoners 
 of hope?" Prisoners, indeed, we are; tied and bound 
 with the chains of sin and bad habits; in darkness also, 
 away from the light of God's presence. 
 
 But, also, prisoners of hope^ with the glorious prospect 
 
Cl)e §>pixM ill ^ti^aix. 57 
 
 before us of release from the bondage here and admission 
 to the glorious liberty of the Children of God in the land 
 of rest and peace. And as the old patriarchs were set free 
 from their prison-house by the Blood of the Covenant, so 
 are we. Through the precious Blood of Jesus alone we 
 receive remission of sin and release from the slavery of 
 Satan. And as the Prophet exhorted the Jews, " I'urn unto 
 your stronghold, ye prisoners of hope," so may we be 
 addressed. Christ is our stronghold; a very present help 
 in time of trouble. If to Him we turn in distress, in 
 temptation, when galled with our chains ; to Him Wlio 
 preaches deliverance to captives ; to Him, our stronghold ; 
 then He will release us, and make true His word to us as to 
 the old patriarchs who expected release — " Even to-day will 
 I restore double unto you." 
 
VIII. 
 
 E\)t Mesttvrection. 
 
 S. Matt, xxviii. 2-4. 
 
 *'^ Behold, there was a great earthquake : for the angel of the Loi'd descended 
 from Heaven^ and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat 
 upon it. His countenance was like lightnings and his raiment white as 
 snow : and for fear of hi?n the keepers did shake, and became as dead men" 
 
 Christ is risen ! He has broken the gates of death and 
 snapped the bars of iron in sunder. O death, where is thy 
 sting ! O grave, where is thy victory ? 
 
 Now is sorrow ended and joy come. Heaviness has 
 endured for a night, now, in the morning, cometh rejoicing. 
 Christ is risen, and as He rises *' many bodies of the Saints 
 which slept " arise also, and appear in the holy city. 
 
 There had been an earthquake when His soul left the 
 body, there is an earthquake as it returns and re-animates it. 
 Fear fell on the Jews at the first earthquake, when the graves 
 were opened, and fear doubtless fell on them now on Easter 
 morning as forth from the graves issue those who had fallen 
 into dust and appear in the streets of Jerusalem. Indeed, 
 such an impression did this resurrection of the dead Saints 
 leave on men's minds that S. Paul had to combat the 
 
Cibe l^t^uvvtdian* 59 
 
 doctrine founded on it by Hymenseus and Philetus that the 
 Resurrection was passed already. (2 Tim. ii. 18.) 
 
 Christ is the first fruits of them that slept, the first to rise, 
 and He raises with Him some of the dead in pledge of a 
 future general resurrection harvest. " God hath raised 
 Him up, having loosed the pains of death : because it was 
 not possible that He should be holden of it. . . . There- 
 fore did my heart rejoice," said David, "and my tongue was 
 glad ; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope." (Acts ii. 
 24, 26.) Henceforth " Blessed are the dead which die in 
 the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.) The doctrine of the Resurrec- 
 tion, that as Christ was raised, so also will all those that 
 sleep in Christ be raised, was the cardinal point of the 
 preaching of the Apostles. " If Christ be not risen," said 
 S. Paul, " then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
 vain. If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised : and 
 if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in 
 your sins." 
 
 What said the heathen ? 
 
 " Suns may set and rise again, 
 Light by us is sought in vain, 
 When we enter death's domain. 
 Then we pass to endless night, 
 Hope for e'er has taken flight, 
 Never dead returned to light." — (Catullus. J 
 
60 Cbc SBcatft mxts dUt^uvvtttian at Bt^xi^* 
 
 1 
 
 Pliny in his Natural History says that the expectation of 
 resurrection is a folly ; and when S. Paul preached the 
 Resurrection in Athens, men mocked. In former times 
 men had some belief in the continuance of life after death, 
 and perhaps some dim fluttering hope of a resurrection ; 
 but in our Lord's time all trust in a future had died away, 
 and even among the Jews the whole sect of the Sadducees 
 denied that there was any resurrection. This was not so 
 among the Pharisees. They looked for a restoration of all 
 things, and that through the Messiah.'' 
 
 " Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and 
 Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and 
 anoint Him. And very early in the mornmg the first day of 
 the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the 
 sun." (S. Mark xvi. i, 2.) S. Matthew says they started 
 "as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week." 
 S. Luke says "very early in the morning." S. John also 
 uses the same expression. S. Luke does not mention Salome, 
 and S. John does not mention Mary the mother of James. 
 
 ♦Sohar in Gen. f. 85. "When the Messiah shall have risen, then 
 shall Jacob enter on the possession of earthly and heavenly goods." 
 In Exod. f. 23. "Those who went out of Egypt with Moses shall rise 
 again in their bodies as witnesses." Midrash Mishle, f. 53. "Why is 
 Messiah called Jinon? (Ps. Ixxii. 17.) Because He will raise up from 
 the dust all that sleep in it." Jalkut Simoni, f. 56. "Our Rabbis teach 
 that at the coming of Messiah, in the month Nisan, our forefathers shall 
 rise and exclaim, O Messiah ! Thou Lord, our Righteousness." 
 
Cl)^ ^t^urrtttian. 61 
 
 It is worthy of remark that not one of the Evangelists 
 describes to us the manner in which Christ rose, but they 
 tell us only of the evidences that the grave had been 
 deserted. All of them record the event, and give us every 
 assurance that as He suffered under Pontius Pilate so did 
 He also rise the third day from the dead. They state the 
 fact, but give no account of it. Christ had risen amidst 
 the darkness of the night without breaking the seals or 
 removing the stone. It was not till after He had risen that 
 the angel descended and rolled away the stone in order 
 that soldiers keeping watch and disciples alike might see 
 that the grave was empty. 
 
 The angel came down from Heaven in splendour, and the 
 stone was removed from the entrance of the grave. The 
 keepers did shake and became as dead men, and fled into 
 the city, and told the priests what had taken place. These 
 they found in the Temple engaged on grinding the new corn 
 brought in the night before, and making of it a cake with 
 oil, that it might be offered before the Lord, after the new 
 sheaf had first been lifted up and waved before the Lord in 
 the Temple. Then " when they were assembled, with the 
 elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto 
 the soldiers, saying. Say ye. His disciples 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. 
 
62 Cftc JBratb antf B^^urrtctiaii of 3t^u^* 
 
 I 
 
 So they took the money, and did as they were taught." 
 
 S. Matthew adds that at the time when he wrote, " This 
 saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this 
 day." And later we have the evidence of Justin Martyr, of 
 Tertullian and of Eusebius, that this belief prevailed among 
 the Jews. Still later we have the same falsehood repeated 
 in the profane Toledoth Jeshu, a life of Christ in circula- 
 tion among the Jews, composed some time in the Middle 
 Ages, which embodies their traditions concerning Christ. 
 In it is related that Judas stole the body, diverted a stream 
 that flowed through his garden, buried the body of Christ 
 in the watercourse, and turned the river back into its bed 
 again. 
 
 " The angel said to the women," when they arrived 
 before the sepulchre, and with much amazement saw it 
 open, and the angel seated on the stone, " Fear not ye : for 
 I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not 
 here : for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place 
 where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples 
 that He is risen from the dead ; and behold, He goeth 
 before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see Him : lo, I have 
 told you." 
 
 The women knew nothing of a guard being set over the 
 grave ; probably one reason why the angel appeared and 
 drove away the watch before they arrived was to protect 
 
(TJe S^t^mrtttian. 63 
 
 them from insult and mockery from these rude soldiers; 
 and is a token to us how the Lord thought of and cared 
 for these faithful women, in the midst of the glory of His 
 Resurrection. The lightning blaze of the angel's counte- 
 nance was to dismay and send the soldiers in panic from the 
 tomb, but then its splendour faded, and the women do not 
 appear to have been dazzled by it. 
 
 "And they departed quickly from the sepulchre, with 
 fear and great joy; and did run to bring His disciples 
 word. And as they went to tell His disciples, behold Jesus 
 met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held Him 
 by the feet, and worshipped Him. Then said Jesus unto 
 them, Be not afraid : go tell My brethren that they go into 
 Galilee, and there shall they see Me.'* 
 
 The women are four — Mary the mother of James, Joanna 
 the wife of Chuza, Salome, and the Magdalene, and the last 
 apparently outran the others, or they divided in search of the 
 Apostles, and she found Simon Peter and S. John, and 
 *' saith unto them. They have taken away the Lord out of 
 the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him." 
 
 There is some difficulty in harmonising the several 
 accounts, but the simplest is this. The four women came 
 to the sepulchre, and when Magdalene saw that it was 
 open, she at once ran back to the town — leaving the other 
 three at the sepulchre, who then saw the vision of angels, 
 
64 Kl}t JBeatl) anlr ^t^ntvtttian ai B^^^i^* 
 
 and as they also returned to the city were met by their 
 risen Lord. Mary Magdalene had neither seen the angels 
 nor the risen Saviour, for she says nothing about either. 
 Then Peter and John run to the sepulchre, and she also 
 follows, and stands weeping without, when the Lord appears 
 also to her. If we take events to have happened thus, the 
 difficulties disappear. 
 
 ** Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and 
 came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together : and 
 the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the 
 sepulchre. And he, stooping down and looking in, 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 was 
 about His head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped 
 together in a place by itself Then went in also that other 
 disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and 
 believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He 
 must rise again from the dead." 
 
 S. John was the youngest of the Apostles, and S. Peter 
 the oldest, which will explain how he outran Peter. He 
 stood in the vestibule of the tomb, the outer chamber, 
 where was the stone table for embalming. He stooped and 
 looked through the round opening into the tomb itself, an 
 opening which was only large enough for a man to pass 
 
Ef)t d^cSxtrttttmx* 65 
 
 through stooping or crawling. But S. Peter crept through, 
 and was then followed by S. John, and both convinced 
 themselves that the grave was deserted. 
 
 We must not be surprised at their not understanding our 
 Lord's words teaching His Resurrection, for they gave them 
 a different signification to what He meant them to convey. 
 According to the belief of their times, after death the soul 
 remained near the body, and hovered to and fro by the head 
 till the third day, on which, convinced that return was 
 impossible, it rose to the spirit realm. Now when the 
 disciples heard Jesue speak about His rising again the third 
 day, they thought He meant that after His death, on the 
 third day His soul would mount to Paradise ; that He was 
 only confirming the prevalent belief, or superstition. They 
 could not imagine that He meant that the soul would 
 re-animate the body, and raise it. 
 
 Not without deep significance did our Blessed Lord at 
 His Resurrection leave behind Him the linen clothes and 
 the napkin that was about His head, not lying with the linen 
 clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. It was 
 intended as a lesson of order and neatness. In the moment 
 of Resurrection, of victory over death, He did not forget 
 that orderhness is an obligation, and to shew this to be a 
 duty — an important duty of Christianity, He made His grave 
 neat before He left it. That was the sermon that the grave 
 
 £ 
 
Cl)^ JBraft antr StlriSitrrrctton tif ^tsus* 
 
 preached—the first lesson of Easter—- that slatternliness is 
 inconsistent with Christianity. 
 
 Christ is risen ! The first fruits of them that sleep. In 
 the Temple this day the priest announces that the Harvest 
 has begun, and he waves the offering of the first fruits before 
 God. Christ is risen ! He, our Great High Priest, presents 
 before the Father the first sheaf of the ancient dead who 
 fell asleep in faith. And see ! how ever since the harvest 
 has been going on. How the ears have fallen in the fields 
 of the world ; but though fallen yet they will be gathered 
 in order, sheaf by sheaf, by Christ, and brought into the 
 garner of the Lord — the temple not made with hands, 
 eternal in the Heavens. 
 
IX. 
 
 Ci)e appeaiance to Ittarg IBlagtralene, 
 
 S. John xx. ii. 
 ''And Mary stood without the sepulchre, weeping^ 
 
 There is, as already said, some difficulty at first sight in 
 reconciling the accounts of the events of Easter morning as 
 given by the four Evangelists, but the sequence seems to be 
 this — The women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of 
 James, Joanna (S. Luke xxiv. lo), and Salome (S. Mark 
 xxi. i), came early to the sepulchre. Whether they all came 
 together is not certain ; if Mary Magdalene came separately 
 from the others, much of the difficulty disappears. 
 
 According to S. John's account Mary Magdalene, who 
 alone is mentioned by him, came early to the sepulchre, and 
 finding the stone rolled away, ran and told Simon Peter, 
 who along with S. John hastened to the tomb, and finding 
 it empty returned to their lodgings in great perplexity. 
 Mary Magdalene, however, remained outside 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 
 
68 El)t JBeatb anlr ^^t^nrvtttimi at S^^uiS. 
 
 1 
 
 of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, 'Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? She saith unto them, Because they have 
 taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid 
 Him." After which Jesus Himself appeared to her. 
 
 S. Matthew and S. Mark say that the women all saw an 
 angel, who bade them go and tell the disciples, and as 
 they went Jesus appeared to them. Here also there is a 
 difference, for S. Mark says that our Lord appeared first 
 of all to Mary Magdalene, and makes no mention of the 
 appearance to the other women. 
 
 S. Luke's account again differs. The women, Magdalene 
 among them, came " very early " to the sepulchre, they see 
 two angels, and after that S. Peter hastens to the tomb; and 
 departs wondering. 
 
 It is most likely that the division of the parties, Mary 
 Magdalene coming separately from the others, may explain, 
 to some extent, the apparent difficulties. 
 
 As in the Tabernacle two cherubim spread their wings 
 over the mercy-seat of the Ark, so now do two angels in 
 white occupy the head and foot of the place where the body 
 of Jesus had rested. They are there though Jesus has 
 risen, and their presence seems to teach us that sanctity 
 attaches to holy places, that, for instance, a Church in which 
 the presence of Jesus has been, an Altar on which the 
 Blessed Sacrament of His body and blood has reposed, are 
 
hallowed, not only at the moment of His presence, but 
 remain consecrated, and are not to be treated with 
 irreverence. 
 
 Mary had remained without, that is, in the porch of the 
 grave, in a rocky vestibule, in which, as already explained, 
 the embalming of corpses took place. John and Peter had 
 retired ; when they had gone, she timidly, weeping, entered 
 this vestibule, but still stood " without," that is, outside the 
 sepulchre proper. Then she stooped down, and looked into 
 the inner chamber through the low, round hole, about three 
 feet high, and then saw the angels. The ordinary pictures 
 of the Resurrection confuse our ideas, or rather mislead 
 them, and create for us difficulties which disappear when we 
 come to consider the Gospel story according to what we 
 know were the usages of the time. 
 
 "And when" Mary had said that she knew not where the 
 Lord had been laid, "she turned herself back, and saw Jesus 
 standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." 
 
 Objection has been made to this, that Mary should not 
 have recognized Him, at a time when there must have been 
 full morning light. But this objection ceases to have any 
 force when we realize where Mary was, and how Jesus 
 appeared to her. She was within the vestibule, opening 
 into the garden by a door not closed at all. She was close 
 to the inner, circular opening, that admitted into the tomb 
 
J 
 
 itself. She heard a step behind, and turned sharply round, 
 and saw a figure occupying the door and obscuring the light 
 and the sight of the garden. The fact of His standing 
 there cut off the light, and so His face was dark against 
 the brilliant morning sunshine which streamed in behind. 
 Under the circumstances she could not distinguish His 
 features, she could see only a dark figure of a man set in a 
 golden light ; and when He said unto her " Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ?" it was natural that she 
 should suppose Him to be the gardener. Very probably, 
 under the hollow arched vault, His voice sounded differently 
 from usual when He spoke under the open sky, or she may 
 have been so bewildered by the vision of angels, and by her 
 surprise at seeing someone entering the tomb behind her, 
 that she did not recognize the tones of the voice she loved. 
 
 " 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." 
 
 It would seem that Joseph of Arimathea had a gardener's 
 lodge connected with the garden, in which dwelt the keeper 
 of the garden. Mary may have known this, and thought 
 that this man was on his rounds, and had come in to see 
 why she trespassed. In passing, we may observe that it was 
 by no means unusual for tombs to be in gardens. We read 
 of Manasseh that he '' slept with his fathers, and was buried 
 
in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza." 
 (2 Kings xxi. 18.) 
 
 Observe the tender love, the fervour of piety in Mary, 
 that impels her to offer to do more than she is able. She 
 asks where Christ is laid, and will herself open His grave, 
 and carry His dead body in her arms away. Could she 
 have done this ? Most certainly not ; but in her love and 
 distress she resolves to try to do it. Surely a lesson for us, 
 who are always shrinking from duties, doubting our own 
 powers, or rather excusing ourselves from attempting things 
 by the plea of weakness. But when Mary thought that 
 profane hands had possession of the Sacred Body, that it was 
 subjected to unworthy treatment, she made no account of 
 her weak woman's arms, of her Httle strength, of her being 
 alone, she thought only of the dishonour done to her Lord. 
 " Tell me where Thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him 
 away.''* So, in the Song of Solomon, the Bride cries, " I 
 sought him whom my soul loveth, I sought him, but found 
 him not. I will rise now, and go about the city ; in the 
 streets, and in the broad ways, I will seek him whom my 
 soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not." 
 
 There perhaps ensued a pause after the question to Mary. 
 Her eyes were full of tears — she had been weeping. Her 
 heart was beating with alarm and distress. In that lull she 
 wiped her eyes, and looked up intently at Him Who stood 
 
I 
 
 in the doorway, with the golden morning light behind Him — 
 there was something in the outline of His form, something 
 in His posture, something in the attitude of His uplifted 
 hands, that made her heart stand still with a sudden 
 expectation and awe. " Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She 
 turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to 
 say, Master." Either, after having spoken first, she had 
 reverted to her former position, and now turned again, which 
 is unlikely, or this turning to Jesus, as He addresses her by 
 name, is rather that of working herself up to Him on her 
 knees. She had been kneeling, and had crouched to look 
 into the inner vault ; then she turned right round to speak 
 to Him Whom she thought was the gardener, and now, 
 probably, by this turning to Him is meant that she struggled 
 to reach Him on her knees, that she might clasp His feet. 
 
 " Mary !" He said to her. He Who telleth the number 
 of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, knows 
 also the names of those who are stars in the firmament of 
 His Church. Mary Magdalene was but a fallen star, who by 
 grace had been raised, and purified by tears, and rekindled 
 by great love, had been set again in the place whence she 
 had lapsed. With a look Jesus had recalled Peter to a 
 consciousness of himself, and by a word now He brings full 
 conviction to Mary that it is He Himself Who stands before 
 her. She, in her ecstacy of joy, would have clasped His knees. 
 
^|)c Appearance tn iWarp jWagtfalene. 73 
 
 as Abigail kneeling before David, as the Shunammite before 
 Elisha. But — "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." 
 
 That " touch Me not " was a check administered to too 
 exuberant and irreverent piety, and is a lesson not to be 
 neglected at any time. The angels stood at the head and 
 foot of the spot where the body of Jesus had lain, and shew 
 us that places are hallowed, and to be treated with reverence, 
 where Christ has been, and now Jesus shews that He Him- 
 self is to be reverently approached, and that the tenderest 
 love, the most ardent devotion, must never transcend the 
 limits of proper respect. 
 
 When God appeared on Sinai, barriers were set round the 
 mount lest the Israelites should approach too near, and with 
 light heart, and there are barriers about all the manifesta- 
 tions of God that must not be cast down or overleaped. 
 
 This is too often forgotten in these days, both by preachers 
 in their addresses, and by worshippers in their prayers and 
 hymns. The gross familiar style and the mawkish senti- 
 mental style are alike unsuitable. *' If," said an Indian one 
 day to a Wesleyan missionary, '* I were to speak to my 
 earthly prince in the way you address your God, he would 
 have me expelled his presence." 
 
74 Cf)e JBcatfi autf Ee^urr^cttnu at 3c£{u^. 
 
 1 
 
 In the Song of Songs the Bride says, ** It was but a little 
 that I passed from " the watchmen, " but I found him whom 
 my soul loveth : I held him, and would not let him go." 
 
 But the Magdalene was not to touch Jesus, for *' I am not 
 yet ascended to My Father." He implies that after that 
 event, she — and so others as well — might touch Him, might 
 lay hold of Him, and " not let Him go." And, indeed, so 
 is it. When Christ had ascended into Heaven, then began 
 the Sacramental approach, and the Sacramental laying hold 
 of Him. That which was not permissible to Mary, when 
 Christ stood before her visibly, is permissible now that He 
 is seen by faith, and the hands may now be extended to 
 clasp Him, when He comes to us veiled in Sacramental 
 forms. 
 
Ci)e iHag to ($mmaus. 
 
 S. Mark xvi. 12. 
 ^^ After that He appeared in another form unto two of them, as they 
 walked, and went into the country. ^^ 
 
 What S. Mark gives briefly, that is more fully told by 
 S. Luke, who says, "And behold, two of them went that 
 same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from 
 Jerusalem about threescore furlongs." 
 
 This Emmaus was the Mozah mentioned in Joshua 
 (xviii. 25),* of which the Talmud says, *' Below Jerusalem 
 is a little place called Mosa, whither men went to cut withies 
 for the feast of the Tabernacles." It was afterwards called 
 Colonieh, because after the fall of Jerusalem a Roman 
 colony of soldiers was settled there.t The name Mosa 
 means Pass, Emmosa — the Pass, and it is on the main road 
 to the sea at Jaffa. The only difficulty attending this 
 identification is the distance, which is forty-five furlongs 
 instead of sixty ; and the tradition, which is not very well 
 authenticated as old, of its being at a place now called 
 
 * Cf. I Chron. viii. 36, 37 ; ix. 42. 
 t Joseph. Bell. Jud. vii. 6, 6. "Emmaus, which is distant from Jerusalem 
 60 stadia." 
 
76 (T^c IBratl) aulf ^t^mvtttion of ^t^xt^. 
 
 1 
 
 Kubebe, which is actually situated at the right distance 
 from the city. As, however, the Emmaus of Josephus is 
 undoubtedly Colonieh, and he gives the same distance 
 as S. Luke, we may conclude that the distance was 
 reckoned somewhat roughly. Emmaus lies in a pleasant 
 valley, and is imagined to have been the scene of the 
 conflict between David and Goliath. The two disciples 
 who lived at Emmaus were Cleopas and another, unnamed. 
 Cleopas was not the Cleopas, or Alphaeus, of the Gospel, 
 but was probably a Greek Jew, and his full name was 
 Cleopater. 
 
 As the two walked home from the festival of the Passover 
 they had attended in Jerusalem, *' they talked together of 
 all those things which had happened." 
 
 It was towards evening, and the distance a walk of about 
 an hour and a half. They went westward, along the road 
 that twists about as it descends into the valley, and the 
 evening sun shone in their faces. 
 
 "And it came to pass, that, while they communed 
 together and reasoned, Jesus Himself drew near, and went 
 with them. But their eyes were holden, that they should 
 not know Him." 
 
 The way was narrow. It had traversed a very bare, 
 mountainous, rocky soil, and now the fertile valley, with its 
 olives and willows by the watercourse, opened before them. 
 
They walked in the narrow way, one behind the other, or 
 perhaps side by side, and they heard a Stranger pacing 
 behind them. They did not turn to look at Him ; the 
 evening sun shone in their eyes, and dazzled them. 
 
 ** And He said unto them, What manner of communica- 
 tions are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk, 
 and are sad ? And the one of them, whose name was 
 Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Art thou only a stranger 
 in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are 
 come to pass there in these days ? And He said unto them. 
 What things ? And they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus 
 of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word 
 before God and all the people." 
 
 The two disciples supposed that Jesus was one of the 
 proselytes, or a foreign Jew who had come to the feast, and 
 was like them returning. At the conclusion of the feast, 
 the roads were full of people leaving ; but as Cleopas and 
 the other disciple lived at Emmaus, they had started on 
 their walk home at a later time of day than those who 
 were going further, so that probably at this time the road 
 was not full of travellers. 
 
 Christ walked either just behind the two disciples or at 
 their side, where the turf becomes covered with marigolds 
 and chrysanthemums. He listened as they told Him how 
 that He they had trusted would have redeemed Israel had 
 
78 Ct)e JBtatl) antf Mrgurr^cti0n of 3r^ujS» 
 
 j 
 been crucified, and how "certain women also. of our com- 
 pany made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; 
 and when they found not His body, they came, saying that 
 they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He 
 was alive." 
 
 Then Jesus said to them, " O fools, and slow of heart to 
 believe all that the Prophets have spoken ! Ought not 
 Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His 
 glory ? And beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, He 
 expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
 cerning Himself." 
 
 He began from where Moses tells of the prophecy that 
 the Seed of the Woman should crush the Serpent's head, 
 which would also bite the heel of the Son of Man. He 
 shewed how that the Prophet spoken of by Moses like unto 
 him, had indeed been raised up. He shewed how that 
 David had described the sufferings of the Messiah, and the 
 Prophets His birth, His mission, and His death and 
 resurrection. 
 
 ** And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went: 
 and He made as though He would have gone further." 
 They had reached the bridge that crosses the torrent in the 
 Wady Hanina, and He made as though about to pursue His 
 way through the deep cleft road to Arimathea, but there is at 
 this point a side path leading right to the village of Emmaus, 
 
Cibe OT[ag to emmau^. 79 
 
 which lies on a height. Here it was, as the two turned out 
 of the high way, that they saw their mysterious companion 
 take some steps forward along the main road, westwards. 
 Then — "they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for 
 it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went 
 in to tarry with them." 
 
 Our Lord "made as though He would go further," indeed 
 He took some steps in the course along the main road, and 
 unless the two disciples had urged Him to tarry with them, 
 He would have gone on. We see in this how opportunities 
 arise and must be seized — how in spiritual as in temporal 
 matters the secret of success is found in readiness to lay 
 hold of an opportunity. The hesitating man, the man who 
 takes a long time to make up his mind, very often misses 
 chances. 
 
 The two disciples acted on the impulse of the moment, 
 or the voice of conscience when it spoke, and were honoured 
 with being permitted to extend hospitality to the Lord of 
 Life. We see how man's free will plays a great part in the 
 mystery of salvation. Christ accompanies man on his 
 journey through life, but Christ will not take up His abode 
 with man, and reveal Himself wholly to him, unless he, by 
 an exercise of free will, "constrains" Him to abide with 
 him. God often seems to us to make as though He were 
 departing, or leaving us to ourselves, or even as if He had 
 
deserted us, when all the time He is at our side, only 
 waiting to be entreated to enter in and take up His abode 
 in us. To the Children of Israel of old it seemed that God 
 had abandoned them when Pharaoh increased the burden 
 of their tasks, and made their lives heavy with hard bond- 
 age ; yet then He was near to them, and was ready to draw 
 them from the midst of the house of bondage. Let us, for 
 our encouragement, remember that, when faith seems to 
 fade, and when we most feel our loneliness, then is the time 
 when we must use an exercise of free will, and by our 
 urgency " constrain " Him to *' abide with us." 
 
 " And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them. He 
 took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 
 And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him." 
 
 This supper at Emmaus has been invoked as an authority 
 for departure from primitive Christian practice on two 
 opposed sides. In the first place, those who advocate 
 Evening Communions assume that this supper at Emmaus 
 was a repetition by Christ of the Institution of the Holy 
 Eucharist in the upper chamber on the eve of His death. 
 In the second place it is quoted triumphantly by Roman 
 Catholics, on the same assumption, as evidence that Com- 
 munion in one kind was of Christ's institution. Now, 
 we have no right whatever to say that Christ on this occa- 
 sion repeated the Eucharistic Sacrament. He sat down to 
 
Cib^ SSaan to (i^mmauiS. 81 
 
 the ordinary evening supper with the two disciples, and used 
 the ordinary benediction of the bread that every Rabbi or 
 master of a house employed. The two disciples had not 
 been in the upper room at the Institution of the Eucharist. 
 It is not likely they had heard about it from the Eleven. It 
 was not the peculiarity of the benediction that struck them. 
 No — He took the bread in His hands, raised it, and brake 
 and blessed — and then they saw the wounds in the hands. 
 A change had come over Christ by His death and 
 Resurrection. We know how that all great events, great 
 sorrows, great joys do alter men ; and those exceedingly 
 great sorrows and agonies of Good Friday, and the 
 marvellous Resurrection had wrought a mighty visible 
 exterior change in Christ, so that the two, though they 
 saw Him, did not recognize Him, yet their hearts burned 
 within them ; they were sure they had seen Him, heard 
 the voice before, but could not be certain it was He 
 Himself, till He took the unleavened wafer and raised 
 it over the table and brake — and then they saw the nail 
 prints in the hands — and at once, with a flash, perfect 
 recognition came. They had invited Him to the ordinary 
 meal, and He assumed the place of authority as the Maker 
 and Giver of bread, as the Rabbi or teacher, and they saw 
 that He was one with power and authority. He shewed 
 Himself to be — not the guest, but the head of the family; 
 
 F 
 
82 Ci)e JBcitb autf Eri^urrcction at 3^riSu^. 
 
 1 
 
 and whilst eating with them declared Himself as tlie Giver 
 of all good things. These two may have been in the 
 wilderness when He broke bread and miraculously fed a 
 multitude, and He may have, in some way, recalled to their 
 remembrance His action on that occasion, and this, joined 
 to the sight of His pierced hands, convinced them Who He 
 was ; but most certainly they had not been in the upper 
 chamber at the Institution of the Eucharist. 
 
 ''And He vanished out of their sight. And they said 
 one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while 
 He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us 
 the Scriptures ? " 
 
 Christ had found the disciples sorrowing ; He left them 
 full of joy. And so has it been ever since. Into the midst 
 of our griefs, in the time of desolation, in the hour of need, 
 Christ comes to us, associates Himself with us, and then 
 turns our heaviness into joy — that joy which, like His peace, 
 passeth not away, and which no man can take from us. 
 
 *' And they rose up the same hour, and returned to 
 Jerusalem, and found the Eleven gathered together, and 
 them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, 
 and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things 
 were done in the way, and how He was known of them in 
 breaking of bread." 
 
 The two men act at once on what they know. We see in 
 
€ht OT^ay ta emmauiS. 83 
 
 this the energy and promptitude of their characters ; not 
 only so, but also they show us how, in Christ's religion, we 
 are members one of another, and how we must communicate 
 to others of what we have received. If one member suffer, 
 all the members suffer with it ; if one member be honoured, 
 all the members rejoice with it — for we are all, though 
 many members, one body in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Note : Captain Conder has suggested a new site as the Emmaus of the 
 Gospel, at Khamasa, about three and a half miles S.E. of Atab and 
 sixty furlongs from Jerusalem. I cannot see that the grounds are 
 satisfactory for such an identification. 
 
 If Emmaus be properly Hammath, this implies the presence of hot 
 springs ; but if from Ammosa, or Mosa, with the article before it, it 
 means the Pass, and applies well to Colonia, where is no warm spring. 
 Josephus distinctly tells us that a colony of Roman veterans was 
 settled at Emmaus, which thenceforth changed its name to Colonia, 
 and there is Colonieh to this day. 
 
 It is true that Josephus says, " Now Emmaus, if it be interpreted, 
 may be rendered ' a warm bath' useful for healing," but the Gemara 
 (f. 45, i) says, *' Mosa is Colonieh. Why is it called Mosa? Because 
 it passed free from tribute to the Emperor." The explanation is 
 after rabbinic taste, and wrong. At Colonieh there is an abundant 
 spring, but it is not warm, at all events now. Colonieh is not sixty 
 stadia from Jerusalem, or between seven and eight miles, but con- 
 siderably less. The road, however, is so mountainous and winding, 
 that it may have been roughly called more than it really was. More- 
 over, the return of two disciples to Jerusalem, with the expectation of 
 still finding the Apostles assembled, implies a shorter distance than a 
 walk of over two hours. 
 
^ppentrix. 
 
 ON THE SITE OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 
 
 Captain Conder has attempted an entirely new identi- 
 fication of the site of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre 
 from that which is traditional, and this has been accepted 
 by Dr. Cunningham Geikie in his " The Holy Land and 
 the Bible/' and by Sir Wm. Dawson in his "Egypt and 
 Syria," as well as by others. Captain Conder takes a 
 rounded hill, with two hollows in the precipitous face, 
 which may in certain lights be taken to have a remote 
 likeness to a skull, as the Calvary, or Golgotha, of the 
 Gospel. This hill is situated outside the Damascus Gate 
 of Jerusalem, on the North side, and is near the tomb 
 of Jeremiah. Dr. Geikie quietly rejects the accepted site 
 as being impossible, because it is within the walls of 
 the city, whereas Calvary was without. Now, it is pretty 
 evident that the accepted site was originally outside the 
 walls ; the still apparent traces of old Jewish tombs in 
 the rock prove this, for the sepulchres were all anciently 
 "without the gate." 
 
 Moreover, we know that Bezetha, the new town, was 
 formed to the North and West, taking in within its circum- 
 ference a large part of the suburbs, and the new wall 
 including this was carried in a sweep from North to West 
 by Agrippa I. after the death of our Lord, and this would 
 
^^ptxxXii}:* 85 
 
 take in the site of Calvary, which was before outside the 
 Garden Gate. That tradition should retain the recollection 
 of the true site of Calvary and the Holy Grave can hardly 
 be doubted, as the Church remained at Jerusalem from our 
 Lord's time ; moreover, a temple dedicated to Venus was 
 erected by Hadrian on the site, to desecrate the spot sacred 
 to Christians, just as a temple was erected with the same 
 dedication at Bethlehem to desecrate the Cave of the 
 Nativity. These temples at least stamped the spots as 
 those which in the second century — that is, about a.d. 120, 
 or less than a century after our Lord's Death, were 
 venerated as the scenes of his Birth and Death. 
 
 Eusebius, born 264, mentions the excavations made on 
 the traditional site of Calvary. It is almost inconceivable 
 that the early Church should not have remembered the true 
 site of the Death and Resurrection, and should have com- 
 pletely ignored that which Captain Conder is pleased to 
 suggest, and which has little to recommend it except a 
 fanciful resemblance to a skull, only to be discovered in a 
 certain light, and only to be traced by a lively imagination. 
 
 The End. 
 
■■;^^i^ 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 »RR( 
 
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 on the date to which renewed. r^ *- 
 
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 MAR 181960 
 
 LD 21A-50m-4,'59 
 ^A 1724s10)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 
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