tion that Jesus Christ never changes. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. As He dealt with His erring disciples in the morning of His resurrection, so will He deal with all who believe and love Him, until He comes again. When we wander out of the way He will bring us back. When we fall He will raise us again. But he will never break His royal word: " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." (John vi. 37.) The saints in glory will have one anthem in which every voice and heart will join : " He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." (Psalm ciii. 10.)
Notes. John xx. 11—18.
11. — [But Mary stood without. ..weeping.] The question naturally arises, " Wliy did not Mary go away from the tomb with Peter and John ? " — The answer to that question must probably be found in the curiously different temperaments of men and women. Mary acted like a woman, and Peter and John acted like men. The head of a woman is generally weaker than that of a man, but the affections are generally stronger. — In the case before us the heart of Mary was not satisfied. Her mind was not convinced, like that of John, that our Lord had risen from the dead. It was not enough for her to know that the body was gone, and the tomb empty, and something wonderful had occurred, as it was for Peter. Her strong love aiid grati- tude towards our Lord made her linger near the tomb, in the faint hope that something might yet turn up to explain where the body was gone. At any rate she could not tear herself away from the place where her Master's body had last been seen, and when Peter and John departed she stayed behind, like a real warm-hearted woman, and gave a natural vent to her feelings in tears. She felt as if she must see something, before she could be satisfied, and so lingered near the grave, perhaps hardly knowing what she expected to see. The Lord had compassion on her. Her deep love was richly rewarded.
On Mary staying at the sepulchre, Andrews remarks, " The going away of Peter and John commends Mary's staying be- hind. To the grave she came before them, from the grave she went to tell them, to the grave she returned with them, at the grave she remains behind them." " To stay, while others do BO, while company stays, that is the world's love. But Peter is gone, and John too ; all are gone and she left alone. Thus to stay is love, and constant love."