of His death ? Might there not have been imposition or deception, as to the reality of His resurrection ? — All these, and many more objections, would doubtless have been raised, if opportunity had been given! But He who knows the end from the beginning, prevented the possi- bility of such objections being made. By His over-ruling providence, He ordered things so that the death and burial of Jesus were placed beyond a doubt. — Pilate gives consent to His burial. A loving disciple wraps the body in linen, and lays it in a new tomb hewn out of a rock, ^^ wherein was never man yet laid." The chief priests themselves set a guard over the place where His body was deposited. Jews and Gentiles, friends and enemies, all alike testify to the great fact, that Christ did really and actually die, and was laid in a grave. It is a fact that can never be questioned. — He was really "bruised." He really "suffered." He really "died," He was really "buried." Let us mark this well. It deserves recollection.
Let us learn, for one thing, from these verses, that our Lord Jcsus Christ has friends of whom little is hiown.
We cannot have a more striking example of this truth, than we see in the passage now before us. A man named Josej)h of Arimathasa comes forward, when our Lord was dead, and asks permission to bury Him. We have never heard of this man at any former period of our Lord's earthly ministry. We never hear of him again. We know nothing, but that he was a disciple who loved Christ, and did Him honor. At the time when the apos- tles had forsaken our Lord, — at a time when it was a dangerous thing to confess regard for Him, — at a time when there seemed to be no earthly advantage to be