1 Now upon the first day of the "week, very early in the morning, they came imto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which thej had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments :
5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them. Why seek ye the living among the dead r
6 He is not here, but is risen : re- member how he spake imto you when he was yet in Gaulee,
7 Saying, The Son of man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again, o And they remembered his words,
9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other xoomen that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre ; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by them- selves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
The resurrection of Christ is one of the great foundation- stones of the Christian religion. In practical importance it is second only to the crucifixion. The chapter we have now begun directs our mind to the evidence of the resur- rection. It contains unanswerable proof that Jesus not only died, but rose again.
We see, in the verses before us, the reality of Christ's resurrection. We read, that " upon the first day of the week " certain women came to the sepulchre in which the body of Jesus had been laid, in order to anoint Him. But w^hen they came to the place, ''they found the stone rolled away. And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus."
This simple fact is the starting-point in the history of the resurrection of Christ. On Friday morning His body was safe in the tomb. On Sunday morning His body was gone. By whose hands had it been taken away P Who had removed it ? Not surely the priests and scribes and
492 RXPOftlTOBT THOT7GHTS.
other enemies of Christ ! If they had had Christ's hody to show in disproof of His resurrection, they would gladly have shown it. — ^Not the apostles and other discijdes of our Lord ! They were far too much frightened and dis- spirited to attempt such an action, and the more so when they had nothing to gain hy it. One explanation, and one only, can meet the circumstance of the case. That explanation is the one supplied by the angels in the verse before us. Christ " had risen " from the grave. To seek Him in the sepulchre was seeking " the living among the dead." He had risen again, and was soon seen alive and conversing in the body by many credible witnesses.
The fact of our Lord's resurrection rests on evidence which no infidel can ever explain away. It is confirmed by testimony of every kind, sort, and description. The plain unvarnished story which the Gospel writers tell about it, is one that cannot be overthrown. The more the account they give is examined, the more inexplicable will the event appear, unless we accept it as true. If we choose to deny the truth of their account we may deny everything in the world. It is not so certain that Julius Caesar once lived, as it is that Christ rose again.
Let us cling firmly to the resurrection of Christ, as one of the pillars of the Gospel. It ought to produce in our minds a settled conviction of the truth of Christianity. Our faith does not depend merely on a set of texts and doctrines. It is founded on a mighty fact which the sceptic has never been able to overturn. — It ought to assure us of the certainty of the resurrection of our own bodies after death. If our Master has risen from the grave, we need not doubt that His disciples shall rise