we snatch the early flowers of the spring and strew them on the grave of some dear one gone; carefully we wreathe the garland and place it on the spot or hang it on the shrub — that points it out. Many a time have we stood in cemeteries more like a flower-garden than a garden of the dead, and admired the care, the tenderness, and the affection of surviving relatives, as evinced in the plants and wreaths and flowers which ornamented the last resting-place of the departed. ‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” was the invitation of the angel to the women in the parallel record of St. Matthew. The passage of the Gospel before us is thus a visit toa tomb—to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathza, the tomb where Jesus lay, the tomb of the dearest Friend we ever had, the tomb of the most loving One that ever lived, the tomb of him who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” of the good Shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep, of him in regard to whom the believer can say, “He loved me, and gave himself for me.” 2. Object of our visit to the Saviour’s sepulchre. The followers of the false prophet Mahomet make their weary pilgrimages trom year to year to that impostor’s tomb. We pity their delusion, we pray for their deliverance; but we admire their devotedness. The mighty military enterprises that roused the martial spirit of European peoples during the Middle Ages, and employed the hands and hearts of bravest warriors, had for their object the rescue of the holy sepulchre from the possession of the infidel, and the protection from injury and insult of all Christian pilgrims who might please to visit that shrine. The conception was a grand one, but somewhat gross—gigantic in one sense, and yet grovelling in another. The subject of our section leads us in the same direc: tion; but our visit is spiritual, not literal; it is not to the mere geographical position, but to the glorious Person who made a brief repose there, and accomplished a tri- umphant resurrection therefrom. 3. The lessons to be learnt from this visit. When we visit in this sense the place where they laid him, the first lesson we are taught by it is (1) the lowliness of our Lord. It was wondrous condescension on his part to visit earth at all, For the Holy One to come into this sin-blighted world, for the eternal Word to be made flesh and dwell among us, for the Son of God to be made of a woman, made under the Law, for the King of saints to endure the contradiction of sinners, for the King of glory to make himself of no reputation,—in a word, for him who was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, to take upon him the form of a servant, was surely most astonishing humiliation. But for that high and holy One, not only to empty himself and become obedient to death, and a death so ainful and so shameful as that of the cross, but to enter the region of the dead, to be id in the tomb, and to lie as a corpse in the cold grave where they laid him,—this may well challenge the surprise of man, as it commands the study of angels. We admire that patriot king who quitted for a time his throne and left his kingdom and travelled through the nations of Europe, visiting their dockyards, their workshops, and their manufactories, and actually working as a mechanic, in order that when he returned home and resumed the reins of government he might benefit his kingdom and improve his subjects. Still more are we astonished at Charles V., who had done daring deeds of chivalry, gained brilliant victories, achieved great successes, exhibited strokes of skilful diplomacy, and wielded a mighty power among the potentates of Europe, at length, as though wearied with royalty and fatigued with dominion and surfeited with splendour, giving up and resigning all, retiring into private life, and spending the remainder of his days in a cloister. But what was the temporary resigna- tion of the Czar of all the Russias, or the final abdication of him who wore the imperial crown of Germany and swayed the proud sceptre of Spain, compared with the King of kings and Lord of lords resigning the sovereignty of the universe for the stable of Bethlehem, the crown of glory for the cross of Calvary, the sceptre of heaven for the garden sepulchre? “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.” (2) “Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” and consider the lesson of his Jove, for it was his love that laid him there. It was love that made him submit to the indignities which, as we have seen, were heaped upon him— the scoffing, and scourging, and spitting, and smiting. It was love that subjected him to the insults of priests and people, to the sentence of an unjust judge, the torture of a most cruel death, and the disgrace of an ignominious execution. It was love that thus nailed him to the cross and suspended him on that cursed tree, as the gazing-stock of earth and heaven. So was it love that bound him in the habiliments of death, wrapped
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