motlier of our Lord was. Can we doubt tliat Mary Magdalene would think of her as one among the first to be told about the stone being rolled away ? It is moreover highly probable, though a matter of conjecture only, tbat Peter and John were staying at some house very near the sepulchre. It is most likely that the other Apostles were " scattered," according to our Lord's prophecy, in diiferent parts of Jerusalem, and none were so near the tomb as Peter and John.
It is interesting to notice how, all through the Gospels and Acts, Peter and John seem to have been peculiarly drawn to- gether, and to have been close friends and companions. As fishermen, we are told that James and John were partners with Simon. (Luke v. 10.) Three times the name of James is joined with theirs, — on the Mount of Transfiguration, at the house of Jairus, and in the garden of Gethsemane, But the special intimacy between Peter and John comes out at the last supper, in the high priest's house, on the occasion now before us, at the Sea of Tiberias, at the end of this Gospel, and in the third of Acts, where the lame man was healed. All point to that mysterious drawing together between two men of widely different temperaments, which every observing eye must occa- sionally see in the world. John alone, of all the Apostles, had witnessed Peter's sad fall in the high priest's house, and ob- served his bitter weeping afterwards. Can we not understand that from Friday night to Sunday morning John would be lovingly employed in binding up the broken heart of his brother, and telling him of our Lord's last words ? Can we doubt that they were absorbed and occupied in converse about their Master on this very morning, when Mary Magdalene suddenly ran in with her wonderful news?
The love and tender charity of John's character come out beautifully in his affection for Peter, even after his denial of Christ. How many modern Churches would have excommuni- cated Peter, and put him in a low place for months. John clings to him, and has him under his own roof, wherever that was. When Judas fell, he had no friend to raise and cheer him. When Peter fell, there was a " brother born for adversi- ty," who did not despise him.
Bengel thinks, from the repetition of the preposition " to," in the Greek, — " to Peter, to John," — that the disciples were not together. But I cannot think this at all likely.
[And saith... taken away. ..know not. ..laid Him.] Mary's an- nouncement was a very short one. Whether she had actually looked inside the tomb and seen that it was empty, seems more than doubtful. It would rather appear, by comparison of the four Gospels, that she had only seen the stone rolled away from the door. But that was enough for her. She had at once jumped to the conclusion that the body of "the Lord" was taken away, and so she announces it. And after all she had