VI.

"The Lord is Risen."

WE have seen the sufferings of Christ our Passover. It behoved him, or it was necessary that he should suffer; and, it was no less necessary that he should rise from the dead on the third day.

Is there irresistible evidence that Christ rose from the dead? This fact the Apostles expended their greatest force in constantly demonstrating and proving. There is more evidence for this than for any fact in the history of mankind. Nothing has been so completely sifted; and no fact has been so thoroughly tested. The Apostles themselves were unprejudiced witnesses to the fact. They did not expect it; they scarcely believed it, when it occurred. They thought it too good to be true; and therefore they did not adapt the fact to their previous expectations, but yielded their prejudices to the irresistible evidence of the fact.

In the next place, the Apostles were not fanatics, who asserted a feeling as the only evidence of a fact; but constantly, in the soberest terms, with the clearest arguments, they appealed to it, not as a fancy, not as a prophecy, not as a thing that ought to be, but as a

fact that was, and could be proved to have actually occurred.

In the next place, they did not deceive others. They were incapable of it. Read their history, their morality, their integrity, their truthfulness. You cannot conceive that men, constantly inculcating the obligations of truth, assuming the loftiest character, and giving proof, in the most trying circumstances, that they possessed it, would have deliberately palmed a falsehood as a fact upon the nations of the earth. But, if they had an object to gain by it, one might suppose this possible: but what had they to gain? Everything in this world by suppressing it: nothing in this world by announcing it. They were told by their blessed Master that bonds and imprisonment awaited them. They saw that it must be so; they were taken before the tribunals of their country, they were threatened with punishment if they asserted this fact; with their last breath they asserted it still, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's name's sake. No torture made them vary, no threatenings made them retract it, their constant reply was, "What we have seen, that declare we unto you.'

The season when the Resurrection occurred was such, that it was absolutely impossible that twelve fishermen, chiefly of Galilee—a tax-gatherer and some fishermen could have taken a dead body, carried it through the streets of Jerusalem, secreted it, and successfully asserted that that body had risen from the dead. First of all, it was the season of the great festival of the Jews; secondly, it was clear and beautiful moonlight-it was full moon, and not in a cold northern climate, but in a beautiful eastern and cloud

less clime. Thirdly, there were at least a million of people gathered within the walls of Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. There were not lodgings for them all; thousands were bivouacked upon the highways; thousands were loitering in the streets; thousands were in the fields; and lastly, sixty Roman soldiers-men who feared no foe, and whose sleeping or inattention at their post was, by the military law of the empire, visited with instant death-appointed to superintend that grave. Can you suppose that a handful of fishermen, in moonlight, with sixty Roman soldiers armed around the grave, with the streets crowded with people, at a great festival, succeeded in rolling away a gigantic stone, descending into a rocky tomb, lifting out a dead body, carrying it along the streets, and so secreting it, that the most inquisitive and active police in the whole world were unable to detect it? Is it possible to suppose such a thing? The soldiers said, as the Pharisees bribed them to say, that while they slept, the disciples came and stole away the body. Now, just notice how this would have been answered in a modern court of justice. It would have been said, You, Roman soldiers, confess that you slept as sentinels at your post-how did you escape punishment? Secondly, if you slept, how did you see the disciples come and steal the body? And thirdly, how does it happen that you all sixty slept precisely at the same moment, and slept so soundly that a great stone could be rolled away, weighing, it might be, a ton or half a ton? If you saw them do it, why did you not resist? Were twelve fishermen stronger than sixty Roman soldiers? The thing is untenable; nobody in his senses, in modern times, would accept such an excuse. The evidence is irre

sistible that the Apostles did no such thing. And again, when men are engaged in an unlawful act, they are always in a hurry. Whenever man's conscience is not sure of what he is about, his hand will always tremble, and he will leave something not nicely adjusted, as it ought to have been. What took place on this occasion? They rolled away the stone; and, though sixty Roman soldiers were about them-though the streets were crowded, and though it was bright moonlight so little in a hurry were these twelve fishermen, if they took the body, that they carefully adjusted all the clothes, folded them, and laid them quietly aside, giving evidence that it was done in no hurry. Is not the inference of reason the conclusion of an Apostle,-"Christ is risen from the dead, the first-fruits of them that slept?"

Let us now direct our attention to some of the facts connected with this resurrection. I will refer especially, in doing so, to some remarkable statements respecting it, in that most beautiful history given in the 20th chapter of St. John. First, then, what was the day on which Christ rose from the dead? It is said, "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord." The exact hour is not specified; but plainly it was before daylight, in the grey and misty morn. Now, many Christians have been perplexed with this- How could this be the third day? If Jesus was crucified between the evenings on Friday, how could Sunday morning be

the third day after? I answer, If the Resurrection had taken place at midnight on Saturday-if it had taken place at ten o'clock on Saturday evening, it would have been the third day; for, from Thursday evening to Friday evening at six o'clock was one day; from Friday evening at six o'clock to Saturday evening at six o'clock was the second day; and from Saturday evening at six o'clock to Sunday evening at six o'clock must be the third day. Therefore, if Jesus had risen any time after six o'clock on Saturday evening, and before six o'clock on Sunday evening, it would have been the third day. Recollect the Jewish mode of reckoning, from evening to evening; and you will see how Jesus was crucified between the evenings on Friday, and how he rose on the third day, or the Lord's day, or Sunday.

Secondly, we are not told the precise mode of the Resurrection. There was no struggle, no indication of alarm, but everything was perfectly adjusted—it was done quietly, and without the least interruption, or fear of interruption. It was a rocky tomb, against which a great stone was rolled. John, in his history of it, in the second verse, says, speaking of Mary Magdalene, "She cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved,"-such is the beautiful way in which John speaks of himself; not dragging in his own name, for this was unnecessary,saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him." What beautiful and holy scepticism, if I may make such a combination, was here! She could not believe that Christ would rise from the dead, for that was the last conviction that was impressed upon

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