CHAP. IV. FROM THE RESURRECTION 01, CHRIST TO HIS ASCENSION. —Szenday, 17th ty Nisan (April 9).--' Sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes, when lie is coming forth from his chambers of the east.' Never was early rising, as thus recommended in the quaint eloquence of Jeremy Taylor (Holy Living-, i. 1. 1), so grandly rewarded as in the case of the faithful ayomen who, on the first Easter morning, antici pated the sun-rise in their visit to the tomb of the Crucified. Like him of old (Ps. esix. 147) they prevented the dawn,' and at the earliest gleam of twilight—' the hind of the morning,' as the Rabbins call it*—they made the happy discovery that Jesus had risen, the Sun of Righteousness,' the bright and morning star,' whose Easter glory the poet Prudentius described (licanktepuni, Hymn. ad in rens. Cer. Paschal.)— ' Non sicut tenebras de face fulgida Surgens oceano lucifer imbuit,' etc., etc. . . . Not as the day-star from his ocean-bed Streaking the night with torch of glowing red, But upon earth sad with its dying Lord Afore than the solar day hath Christ restored,' etc.
Visit of the Women to the Sepulchre.—We have seen how the female disciples of Christ suspended their offices of sorrowing love, which they had be gun on Friday evening, in order to keep the Sab bath (Luke xxiii. 56). Having rested' at the call of duty, and gained, no doubt, strength for their pious resolution, they resume their preparations, on the expiration of the holy day at six o'clock (Mark xvi. r), for the supplementary embalming of the sacred body (compare John xix. 39, 40, with the two passages just referred to). Besides the women avho had followed the Lord from Galilee, there were, as we may well suppose, not a few earnest hearts of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood who would unite with them in doing honour to the be loved dead. St. Luke seems to imply as much by mentioning other women that were with them' (xxiv. to, the a/ X rural o-bv abrais is synonymous with the Kat TUTS o-bv abrais- of ver. 1,.f. and need not be limited to the other Galilean women in addition to those whose names are given, but may be regarded as including all the women, whoever they may have been, who had combined their testimony of the resurrection to the apostles). If we can hardly imagine that the virgin mother would join the holy company, we feel no such restraint respecting Mary of Bethany and her active sister. The much serving Martha would scarcely be absent on the occasion of this last office of love. Owing to their numbers, and in order to escape public notice, they probably appointed to resort to the sepulchre by different ways, in separate groups, and very early in the morning. Mary Magdalene, in the intensity of her devotion to him, to whom she owed so much (Luke viii. 2 ; Mark xvi. 9), was on her road, while it was yet dark' (John. xx. t). In company with the other Mary' (Matt. xxviii. 1), who had been her companion also at the burial (xxvii. 61) and the cross (56), as well as with Sa lome (Mark xvi. t), fresh, in all probability, from the side of the afflicted virgin, they proceeded to the garden of the sepulchre.* Of the military
watch, which had been set there some time since their last visit, they seem to have had no know ledge ; for the only difficulty they talk of by the way is the removal of the large stone which they had themselves seen placed at the entrance of the tomb, when the Lord was consigned to it on Friday (Mark xvi. 3). Little did they dream of the heavenly interposition, which even then was pre paring not only to remove their embarrassment, but to endue them with an unexpected joy. Never did any precaution of human power more signally miscarry than at this moment ! Christ's tomb of late the threefold guard Of watch and stone and seal had barred r The Restirrection. —But impotent are all hind rances to His resurrection ! Neither Jewish seals nor Roman arms avail! The first Evangelist, in few but divinely graphic words, narrates how heaven met all this defiance of the powers of darkness : Behold there was a great earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men' (xxviii. 2-4). Whether the resurrection took place at this point, or (as the ancient opinion of the church concurrently ran) previous to the miraculous opening of the tomb, we are not told ; whether he who had power to lay down his life and power to take it again' (John x. 18) arose in solitude from the yet unopened grave ; or whether, as Peter was afterwards led by an angel-hand from his prison, he availed himself of the heavenly agency which operated in the earthquake that opened his tomb, we cannot tell. Nor is it at all material to know at what moment the Lord arose. The fact is it self indisputable, and the opened sepulchre and its sequel of wonders were meant to attest the grand event. When the Magdalene and her two com panions arrived at the precincts of the grave, the soldiers of the watch were probably quitting the spot after recovery from their terrible frig-ht. The women lifted up their eyes' (for dvapX6Pao-ac is St. Mark's word, xvi. 4), probably on entering the garden, and they saw that the huge stone was rolled away. Mary Magdalene, in the keen sus ceptibility of her grief, instantly conjectured the worst. The decamping watch, whom she pos sibly descried, added to her suspicion that the sepulchre had been violently robbed of its sacred contcnts by ruthless hands. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other dis ciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith tint° them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre and we know not where they have laid him' (John xx. 2). After the Magdalene had thus returned to the city, the other Mary and Salome entered the sepulchre. The angel of the earthquake whom the terrified guards had seen sitting in awful splen dour on the removed stone outside, was now observed by the amazed and trembling woinen within, and in much serener aspect.