Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-29
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U BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.

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CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
[origlnal.]
CHRIST AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.
The facts connected with the death of our
Saviour are infinitely narrated by Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. He was crucitied
between two thieves. On the day preceding
the Sabbath, which was, for the sake of en-
phasis, called the preparation, between the
hours of three and four in the afternoon, he
cried, "It is finished" and expired on the
cross. According to the present mode Of
naming the days of the week, our Saviour
died on Friday. Friends and foes now con-
cluded that an end had come to Jesus Of
Nazareth. His followers were crushed with
intense grief of heart, while, no doubt, his
foes were jubilant over the apparent success
of their bloody schemes and bloody work.
Events, however, were not altogether favor
able to the murderous Judas, who had be-
trayed Jesus into the hands of the blood
thirsty Jewish priests and Jewish rulers,
and hanged himself. This act was sufficient
to startle the whole nation. In a history of
two thousand years, so far as is recorded,
but two cases of suicide-Ahithophel and
Saul-had occurred. But another strange
occurrence took place. Jesus was crucitied
between two thieves, and was thus literally,
as had been predicted more than seven CEN
turtles before, numbered with transgres-
sors." Had custom been followed his body
would have been disposed of as the bodies
of the crucifed generally were disposed of,
but it was not. Joseph, of Arimathea, be-
sought PLATE that he might take the body
away. This request Plate strangely, but
readily, granted, and Joseph and Nicode-
mus wound the body in linen cloths with
spices. Nicodemus furnished the mixture
of myrrh and aloes, and Joseph furnished
the tomb. The probability is that Nicode-
mus was rich, since he was a ruler of the
Jews, and We are positively told that Jo-
seph, of Arimathea, was a disciple of Jesus,
and that he was both an honorable counsel
or and rich. Jesus died as a transgressor
between two thieves, but he was laid in the
new tomb which the rich Joseph, of Ari-
mathea, had prepared for himself. The
tomb was, we are told, hewn out of a rock.
1t was a new tomb, that is, it had never been
used. 1t was a tomb prepared by a rich
man for himself. In this was fulfilled the
apparent contradictory prophecies ofIsaiah,
uttered with the same breath, and more
than seven hundred years before the death
of our Saviour. Here they are, "He made
his grave with the wicked and with the
rich in his DEATH"
It is manifest that the death of Jesus
Christ blighted, for the time, the prospects
of his disciples. Their notions of his per-
son and works were largely carnal. ave
trusted" said Cleopas, "that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel" In
the place where Jesus was crucified there
was a garden, and in the garden a tomb.
We are not to suppose that this tomb was
a grave in the modern sense, especially in
the common American sense of the word
tomb. 1t was not a pit dug in the ground,
but an opening hewn out of a solid rock.
This opening was sufficiently large to con-
tain a body, and a stone, prepared for the
purpose, was placed upon the mouth of the
| lOIIlD lluS COllSll QClCu. NllCl OSSuS was
led out of Jerusalem to Golgotha to be cru
cited, a multitude of the people, and of
women, followed him to the place. These
women were greatly distressed. The people
were, in all probability, the idle and de-,
based multitude which, in all countries,
congregate to see a fellow being executed
the women, no doubt, were the friends OF
Jesus. The people gazed on the scene with
fendish curiosity, but the women, whom
our Saviour calls daughters of Jerusalem,
"bewailed and lamented him."
We learn that the women who came with
Jesus from Galilee, followed Joseph and
Nicodemus from the cross to the s~epulchre.
These, most probably, were the women
who "bewailed and lamented him." These
women of Galilee saw the sepulchre, and
they saw the body of Jesus laid in it, and
seem to have observed particularly how
it was laid in the sepulchre. This done, the
women returned to their temporary places
of abode. So far as the record shows, no
men, except Joseph and Nicodemus, were
present on the occasion. This is very re-
markable, from the fact that although Jo-
seph was a disciple of Jesus he was a secret
disciple, for fear of the Jews. Now he went
boldly unto Plate and craved the body OF
Jesus, and Plate, when he learned from the
centurion that he was dead, gave Joseph
the body to do with it as he saw fit. This
was strange. The usual custom among the
Romans respecting the bodies of those who
were crucifed was to let them remain upon
the cross to be devoured by birds of prey,
and that this might be effected, a guard of
soldiers was set over the place so that no
one might take the bodies down and bury
them. In this case PLATE seems not to have
hesitated a moment to give the body of Je-
sus to Joseph. What became of the bodies
of the two thieves we do not know. Per-
haps they were devoured by the birds of
prey. 1t was also strange that Nicodemus
who, like Joseph, was most probably a dis
ciple Of our Saviour, but, like Joseph, Sc
cretly, for fear of the Jews, should have
prepared a mixture for the burial of the
body of Jesus. Nicodemus is never men,
toned in the Scriptures but it is added "he
that came to Jesus by night" Two timid
men and two women, Mary Magdalene and
Mary the mother of Joses, performed the
whole duty of burying the body Of our Sa-
viour. Where was the bold and impetuous
Peter, who boosted that he would die with
his Master? Poor fellow, he was still, no
doubt, in some secluded spot, weeping bit
terly over the sin of denying his master.
Whara we're the other ten disciples? All