loudly proclaimed His resurrection, even before the chief council who had condemned Him to death, although by this conduct they drew upon themselves nothing but mortal hatred and persecution.
It is true that the soldiers who guarded the grave, being bribed with a large sum of money, spread the report that, while they were asleep, the Disciples of Jesus came and stole His body. But 1. If they were asleep, how could they see, then, that His Disciples stole the body? 2. Whence did the timid Disciples, who expected now nothing more from their deceased Master, get on a sudden such undaunted courage? 3. How did it happen that not even one of the sleeping guards awoke at the rolling away of the heavy stone? 4. Why were the guards not punished for the neglect of their duty? (Comp. Acts xii. 19.)
If the evidence of the Apostles and the Disciples had not been so certain and quite unexceptionable, they would never have convinced the world, in opposition to the most powerful and crafty enemies of Jesus, that He who, like a malefactor, had been publicly executed and buried, had on the third day risen again glorious from the dead. They have nevertheless so firmly convinced the world of this truth that countless Christian converts endured the most painful martyrdom in testimony of their firm belief in it.
9. What effect ought the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ to produce in us?
It ought 1. To strengthen our belief in His Divinity, and our hope of our own future resurrection; and 2. To incite us to rise from the death of sin to a new and holy life.
1. 'God raised Him up from the dead, and hath given Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God' (1 Pet. i. 21).
2. 'We are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life' (Rom. vi. 4).
Application. He who is still deeply buried in the grave of sin—i.e., in evil habits or sinful desires — is not risen yet to a new life. All our thoughts, all our exertions, should tend towards Heaven. 'If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that
