Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-04-19
sTHEY COULD NOT
HOLD HIM"
By REV. GEO. z. BURLINsAME. D. D.

$50 they went and made the sepulcher
sure, sealing the stone, the guard being
with them. Matt. "a
A KING buried by his friends, sealed
\ 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 Islander 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 1T 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-
sostom, both seal and a stone and a
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 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 a 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
he taken down from the cross before
the Sabbath comes. And then come
the friends of Jesus asking permission
70 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 guard is posted
and 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-
lite purpose-to prevent the removal
OF the body of Jesus. The precaution
was ample; combining the highest ALL
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 sepul-
cher's mouth doth snap and part as
would 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