Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-04-21
THEY COULD NOT
HOLD HIM"
By REV. GEO. E. suaLINsANE. D. D.

so they went and made the sepulcher
sure. sealing the stone the guard being
with them. Matt q: Sc.
A KING buried by his friends, sealed
Z = in the tomb and guarded by His
enemies; raised from the dead by the
power of His divine life; it is a story
STEPPED in sensation and charged with
marvel. Friday His friends sorrow for
their suffering Saviour as they roll the
stone at the door of His tomb; Satur
day his foes SANDER Him and set their
seal across the narrow entrance; Sun
day friends and foes alike are shaken
and startled by unearthy sights and
sounds, by earthquakes and angels and
dazzling light and awful mystery. 1t
is time much to be remembered, for
in it the Lord with high hand and an
outstretched arm brought again the
child of bondage out of the darkness of
Egypt. 1t is the greater exodus-the
exodus of the Son of Man from the
captivity of earth to the Canaan of
glory; from the bitter bondage of life
in the flesh to the power of an indisso-
luble life in the spirit; from obscurity
and humiliation to splendid and ire
sistible triumph Behold" says Chry-
d
watch, and they were not able to hold
Him
Hurried BY HIS FRIENDS.
What torture they had endured in
His suffering! Now they may wash
His wounds and tenderly lift Him to
His resting place. No longer shall He
hang in agony and shame on the cross
provided by His enemies; He shall lie
quiet and undisturbed in a'virgin tomb,
the loving gift of His friends They
gladly give Him their best There is
no question of mean economy. AS Mary
brought to Him living box of prec-
ious ointment, so now with like indif-
ference to cost they bring to Him dead
hundred weight of myrrh and aloes.
Surely Nicodemus had never spent his
| money to so good a purpose as this,
consecrated to the body of his Lord.
II-SEALED BY HIS FOES
Fame and fortune await the poet
who will do for PLATE what Shake
speare did for Lady Macbeth-write
the history of his conscience. He had
washed his hands of the whole bust
ness, and now if his wife will say NO
| more about her dreams perhaps he can
| forget it all But with what pitiless
persistence the fates pursue him with
| the memory of his gentle Victim. There
are the Jews coming to insist that He
| be taken down from the cross before
| the Sabbath comes. And then come
| the friends of Jesus asking permission
| to bury Him. Surely with this request
| granted nothing further can annoy
the troubled ruler. But here come the
| priests anxious to keep Him buried
| and asking that his authority pursue
| the Saviour into the tomb and tie Him
there. So it is that a guard is posted
| and a bit of tape stretched across the
closed mouth of the tomb; both en-
| blems of Roman power and authority
| All these precautions were for a defin-
| ite purpoSe-to prevent the removal
| of the body of Jesus. The precautiou
was ample; combining the highest au.
| thority and the fullest capacity; one
| thing only had they overlooked, and
that was God,
III.-RAISED FROM THE DEAD.
The bit of tape tied across the sepuI-
cher's mouth doth snap and part as
| would a thread made fast to a flash
| ing meteor. The eyes of the Roman
soldiers watching a dead Christ are
blinded by the glory of Him whose
| countenance is as the sun shining in