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the sepulchre.' There, the dead body of Christ would engage their thoughts; but at home, in communion with God, who is a Spirit, to whom they owed a duty superior to their regard for the mortal part even of Jesus, they could worship their Maker in spirit and in truth. Though they had known Christ after the flesh, yet, for that day, they would know even him, in that respect, no more.

Such a Sabbath was never beheld before or since. The Prince of Life was in the grave; the Word that was made flesh had left his body in the sepulchre ; the earth, in that one revolution on its axis, bore a strange freight, a priceless treasure, in its bosom. The Resurrection and the Life' is sleeping the short sleep of death. The almighty Saviour has with him, in that tomb, our hopes, and our heaven, and the keys of death and hell. What if ensuing weeks should still behold the Saviour in the tomb. It is easy to see why all who love Christ cherish the day when he arose. They do not need laws and prohibitions to give them that superior relish for the sacred pleasures of the Lord's day which makes the world and its pleasures distasteful. There is enough in the sacred recollections suggested by the Lord's day to fill up the hours with profitable thoughts and duties, if we have the feelings of true believers in Christ. Then, we have no need to ask concerning any amusement or business, Is it lawful to do this on the Sabbath day? A heart that is right with God is a sound casuist.

It was "yet dark" on the first day of the week when these women came to the sepulchre. It was an interesting, a touching instance of that presumption to which love is prone, that these women should have gone to that place with the purpose for which they had prepared themselves. There was a guard around the tomb. Would that guard suffer Christ's disciples to have access to his body? Surely not. Suppose that they would; how were these women to roll that stone away? They said to themselves, as though they had just thought of it, "Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" This is a beautiful instance of womanly forgetfulness of difficulty, in pursuit of a favorite object. Woman will go close up to a mighty stone between herself and the object of her enterprising love, with no prospect of its being removed, yet borne on by something which can hardly be called hope, it being more like presumption; when man would foresee all the difficulties, and more prudently avoid them. But it is interesting to see how God oftentimes appears, and rolls away great stones for those who, with faith and love, march boldly on to the utmost limit of seeming possibility. Had we this simple love and courage, we might say to many a thing that obstructs our path, 'Who art thou, O great mountain? thou shalt become a plain.'

("And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away;) for it was very great." The words following the parenthesis, give the reason why they asked among themselves for help. But some one had been there before them. "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven 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."

And did this heavenly being, able thus to strike terror into those Roman soldiers by his presence, sit quietly in heaven, while that Saviour was in the hands of his enemies, and they were nailing him to the cross? Has he not come too late? Why not interpose at the cross, instead of the tomb? How easy it would have been for this bright seraph to have routed that host of crucifiers, priests and scribes, and soldiers, by appearing to them in his heavenly glory. Twelve legions of them, too, would have had their hands upon their swords, at one word of Christ. But how would the Scriptures have been fulfilled, that thus it must be? What means this forbearance, and why did Christ thus patiently suffer? For you, O my soul, for you, angels stand aloof, till men had killed the Prince of Life'; 'that he by the grace of God should taste death for every

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man.' It is finished! the day of triumph has arrived; now we shall see all heaven, "the helmed cherubim and sworded seraphim," around the tomb. It is not so. What economy of strength, what forbearance from needless display. One angel is commissioned to do this work of preparing for the Saviour's resurrection. Christ, by his own word, could have rolled the stone away; but it is deemed proper that one of his servants shall do it for him. Hạppy, honored spirit, to be selected for such a work. Worlds of treasure, ages of bliss, for that privilege, to unseal that stone, to look in and see the Resurrection and the Life revive!

There is something remarkable and instructive here. Christ was crucified publicly, and all who wished, might exult, and reject him, and insult over him. He rises from the dead, as he promised, on the third day, but he rises in secret. No mortal eye beholds that triumph. Why was not his resurrection as public as his crucifixion? Why was not Jerusalem, or the sanhedrim at least, gathered round his tomb, to see his triumph ? What an opportunity to convince and convert them. They could not pretend that he was not dead, and that the sleep of the grave had revived him. The blood and water following the soldier's spear, every anatomist among them knew, was proof positive of death; but before that, the soldiers had forborne to break his legs, because they saw that he was dead. Now, to see that great stone roll away before the single-handed effort of a crucified man, alone within the tomb, and his coming out to life and strength before his enemies, would have struck them with confusion; it would have established his claims forever as the Christ. Why was it not so? Why crucified in public, and raised without one mortal eye to witness the resurrection? and after he was risen, seen only by companies of his friends? enough, indeed, to establish his resurrection beyond reasonable dispute, and yet in so private a manner, when a public demonstration could have confuted every gainsayer?

Thus God deals with men while on probation. He is never lavish with his proof; he will never over-persuade; but we are free agents; and this, we may truly say, is the great characteristic of the government of God: it is based on our being free, and not machines; or, in other words, we are governed by motives, and not by force.

In pursuance of the great plan of governing men, God, in his infinite majesty, refuses to afford his enemies more evidence than he sees to be suitable for their conviction. Christ spake in parables for this same reason, that they who were disposed to learn might inquire further, and they who were disposed to cavil might be offended, if they chose to be, at the appearance of difficulty which the parable