SERMON XXVI.

THE GRAVE OF JESUS-THE SCENE OF THE RESURRECTION.

MATTHEW Xxviii. 1.

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

THE impulse of lively affection only could have directed the footsteps of these females to the place where their Lord lay. No expectation had they that he had risen from the dead; for, in common with his disciples, they supposed that the stone which closed the door of his sepulchre had shut him for ever from the world, and frustrated all the hopes which they had entertained that it was he who should redeem Israel. Well, therefore, might their breasts be agitated with the mingled emotions of fear and joy, when "a great earthquake" proclaimed the descent of a celestial messenger, whose "countenance was like lightning, and whose raiment was white as snow;" and who addressed to them the infinitely momentous tidings-" Ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

This is the language with which the church addresses us on this sacred festival. It was but lately she called us to contemplate, with sorrow and penitence, the Saviour, as the man of sorrow; his

visage marred through suffering; smitten for our transgressions; bruised for our iniquities; pouring out his soul unto death. In the solemnities of yesterday, she called us to commemorate the descent of his body into the house of silence, to sanctify for us the chambers of corruption, while his soul passed to the prison of departed spirits, to proclaim to them the glad tidings of redemption. This day she calls us to his sepulchre, cheering us with the glad tidings-" He is not here: he is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." "Christ is risen from the dead, and dieth no more." "Death hath no more dominion over him." "The Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel."

The scene of the resurrection

1. Is an interesting scene;

2. It affords an evidence of the divine power of Christ; and,

3. It is a pledge of his mercy and compassion, and of the glorious hope of immortality.

1. The scene of the resurrection is an interesting

scene.

In the sepulchre rests that divine Personage whose life had been uniformly pure, exemplary, and benevolent, and yet whose life had been a continued series of pain and suffering. Here, at length, he reposes in peace. He has reached a haven where he is sheltered from those tempests that rolled the waves of sorrow over his soul. the cross he poured forth his soul, and finished the work of suffering. He has become the peaceful tenant of the tomb-of that house of silence where the sorrows of life are forgotten-the wicked cease

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from troubling him-the persecuted Friend of man at length finds rest.

Contemplating then the grave merely as the place of rest to the holy Jesus from the calamities which had so long pursued him, we must regard it with interest; for in its quiet abode this divine and benevolent, but persecuted Saviour of the world, has at length found a refuge which calamity cannot disturb, where the darts of calumny and persecution cannot assail him, where the voice of the oppressor is no more heard.

But the scene of the resurrection is also interesting on account of the varied and anxious emotions which must have agitated the breasts of the disciples.

Their Master, their Companion, their Guide, their most tender and faithful Friend, had been wrested from them by the hand of violence, crucified, and slain. With what sacred affection must they have beheld the tomb which guarded his precious remains! Mary Magdalene, who, having had much forgiven, loved much, anticipating even the dawn of day, hurried to pour forth her affectionate lamentations at the sepulchre of her Lord. When the tidings reached them that the body of their Master was not to be found, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the faithless but penitent Peter, full of anxious affection, hasted to the sepulchre. It was a period of awful solicitude to them; for the mysterious scenes of the cross and the sepulchre involved not only their destiny, but the destiny of a fallen world. The sepulchre was either to hold for ever the body of the crucified Jesus, and thus to frustrate the hopes of redemption through him; or, bursting its bands, Jesus was to issue VOL. III.

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from it, the victorious Conqueror of death and the grave, the Author of life and immortality. Behold, then, a fallen world stands at the sepulchre of Jesus, wailing its destiny, trembling lest the bands of corruption should hold him, and thus blast the hope that he was to be the world's Redeemer.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this state of awful suspense did not long continue. A messenger from heaven proclaims the tidings--" He has risen." Thus,

2. The scene of the resurrection affords an evidence of the divine power of Jesus.

But as yesterday we beheld committed to the tomb the body of him who had been crucified as a malefactor. The sepulchre was in the custody of his implacable enemies. The seal of the civil authority is set to the stone which closed the door. A watch is placed to guard it.

To-day we go to the place where the Lord lay. The body of Jesus is not there. By whom could it have been removed? By the disciples and followers of Christ? They had not the courage nor the means for accomplishing the theft. For when their Master was taken to the judgment-seat of Pilate, they forsook him and fled. And would they have run the risk of detection, and of the most severe punishment, in order to get into their possession the body of him whom they had thus basely forsaken? Where was the watch, too, which was set by his inveterate enemies to guard the sepulchre ?

That the body of Jesus could have been stolen from the place where it was thus guarded, is wholly incredible, is morally impossible. The mighty

power of God raised his Son Jesus from the dead. Of this indeed he has given the fullest, the most irrefragable testimony, in the miraculous success and propagation of that Gospel throughout the world-which is founded on the truth, that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth has risen again-by simple, friendless, obscure fishermen of Galilee.

Come then, unbeliever! view on this day the sepulchre of Jesus. Lately to this tomb was committed his body. He had repeatedly predicted, that, though he should be crucified, on the third day he should rise again. His enemies resolved to frustrate his predictions, and to prove him an impostor; and with this view they guarded the sepulchre. But all their precautions proved vain. Look at the tomb of Jesus: the body of him who was lately its tenant is not to be found: and behold, he appears to his disciples: he walks abroad in the face of day; he comes into the midst of them in their private retirement; he talks with them; he eats with them; he invites them to handle him, to be satisfied that he is not a spirit. The incredulous Thomas he calls-"Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side." He ascends into heaven in their presence. He bestows upon them, according to his promise, the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost. Thus armed with power from on high, they go forth conquering and to conquer. The prejudices, the pride, the passions, the wealth, the learning, the power of the world, vanish before the preaching of these obscure and contemned men, like the dew before the beams of the morning. The nations become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ; and this day Christians celebrate that