make sure that the Lord's body was gone. We need not doubt that they would at once ask Mary, " How do you know the body is gone ? " and would receive the answer, " Because the stone is rolled away." But finding then, that Mary had not actually been inside the sepulchre, and seen it empty, they judged it best to go and see for themselves. When we remember that Mary the mother of our Lord was, in all human probability, in the house where Peter and John were, we may well imagine that she would be deeply anxious to have the whole matter cleared up at once.
St. Luke, we may recollect, only mentions Peter going to the sepulchre. The verse before us fills up the narrative, and tella us that John went with him. Two witnesses would be better than one.
4. — [So they ran both together, etc.] The simple fact here men- tioned shows the anxiety and excitement of the two loving Apostles. We can well suppose that Mary Magdalene's sudden announcement completely overwhelmed them, so that they knew not what to think. Who can tell that thoughts did not come into their mind, as they ran, about our T^ord's oft-repeated pre- diction of His resurrection ? Could it really be true ? Could it possibly prove that all their deep sorrow was going to turn to joy ? These are all conjectures, no doubt. Yet a vast quan- tity of thoughts may ruu through a mind, at a great crisis, in a very few minutes. Those who have had a narrow escape from drowning know that very well.
Why John outran Peter we know not. The common opinion is that John was the younger man of the two, and so he has been always represented by painters in every age of the Church. The only evidence, however, we have of this difference of age, is the fact that John's father is mentioned as being alive, fol- lowing his calling as a fisherman with his sons, while Peter's father, Jonas, is not mentioned in the same way. Moreover, John outlived all the rest of the Apostles by many years. So he may have been a comparatively young man, when our Lord called him to be an Apostle.
After all, the matter is of little importance. Bodily strength and agility are no evidence that a man possesses superior grace. The holiest saints have often had very weak and infirm bodies. Holy and zealous as John was, we have no right to contend that he felt more zeal than penitent, broken hearted Peter, when he outran him on this eventful morning.
Lampe thinks it just possible that Peter was troubled in con- science by reason of his recent fall, and therefore went to the grave with a slow and hesitating step. But 1 doubt this.
5. — [And he stooping down, etc.] The opinion of well-informed persons who have seen the tombs near Jerusalem, is, that our Lord's sepulchre was a kind of cave hewn out of the side of a
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rocky hill, and that there was either a hollow place, hewn out at a little distance within the entrance of the cave, to receive the body, or that the grave ploped gradually backwards, and the body was laid at the back part of the cave. In either case we may understand that a person coming to the door of the cave (which must have been small, if a single stone could close it), could only see what was inside, by " stooping down," as we are here told John did.
When John looked in, he saw nothing whatever but the empty grave, and the linen clothes in which our Lord's body had been wrapped lying together. Not going in, it is evident that he could not see very clearly the precise state of a dark cave, with only one small entrance. He only saw enough to satisfy him at a glance that the body of Christ was not there, and that the linen clothes were there.
Why the beloved apostle " went not in," we do not know, and are left to conjecture. It may be that he was at once satisfied that the body of his Master was gone, and that was all he cared to know. It may be that he felt a holy reverence for the place where our Lord had lain, and shrunk from going in. It may possibly be that he felt some fear, and hardly knew what to ex- pect next, remembering the earthquake and the rending of graves on the previous Friday. It may be that, being the younger man of the two, he waited for his elder brother to take the lead, and would touch nothing, do nothing, and take no step, without another witness besides himself. We cannot tell. The incident is precisely one of those little circumstantial details which bring out men's natural temperament.
It is noteworthy that John himself is the writer who records that he " went not in." Be the motive what it may, he gener- ously gives his brother Peter the whole honor and credit of be- ing the first of the two to go inside the grave, and thoroughly investigate the condition of it in every particular.
We should not forget that the simple fact of the " linen clothes lying," was enough to satisfy any thinking mind, that something extraordinary must have occurred. No enemy or thief, in removing our Lord's body, would have taken the trouble to remove the linen clothes in which he was wrapped. Reason points out that it would save time and trouble to take the body as it was, with the linen wrapped around it.
Jjampe thinks it possible that John did not go in from fear of being made unclean by a dead body. But I can hardly think this.
6. — [Then Cometh Simon Peter, etc.'] In this verse we see how diflferently different men act under the same circumstances. Grace does not alter natural temperaments, when it changes hearts. What John for some reason would not do, Peter did. On arriving, he went down at once through the mouth of the