Sermon 1081. A Visit to the Tomb

(No. 1081)

DELIVERED

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Matthew 28:6.

THE holy women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, came to the sepulcher hoping to find there the body of their Lord whichthey intended to embalm. Their intention was good and their will was accepted before God, but, for all that, their desirewas not gratified for the simple reason that it was contrary to God's design. It was at variance with even what Christ hadforetold and plainly declared to them. "He is not here: for He is risen, as He said."

I gather from this that there may be good desires in our hearts as Believers and we may earnestly try to carry them out, yetwe may never succeed in them because through our ignorance we have not understood, or through our obliviousness we have happenedto forget some Word of Christ that stands in our way. I have known this to be the case in prayer. We have prayed and we havenot received because we had no warrant in the Word of God to ask for the thing we

did.

Perhaps there was some prohibition in the Scriptures which ought to have restrained us from offering the prayer. We have thoughtin our daily life, amidst the pursuits of business, that if we could gain such-and-such a position, then we should honor God-andthough we have sought it vigorously and prayed about it earnestly, we have never gained it. God had never intended that weshould and, had we succeeded in compassing our own project, it might have been evil rather than advantageous-an entail oftrouble instead of a heritage of joy. We were seeking great things for ourselves! We forgot that expostulation of the Lord,"Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not." Do not, therefore, expect to realize all those desires which seemto you to be pure and proper. They may not happen to run in the right channel. It may be that there is a Word from the Lordthat forbids your ever seeing them brought to pass.

These good women found that they had lost the Presence of Him who had been their greatest delight. "He is not here," musthave sounded like a funeral knell to them. They expected to find Him but He was gone. But then the grief must have been takenout of their hearts when it was added, "He is risen." I gather from this that if God takes away from me any one good thing,He will be sure to justify Himself in having done so and that very frequently He will magnify His Grace by giving me somethinginfinitely better.

Did Mary think it would be a good thing to find the dead body of her Lord? Perhaps it would have given her a kind of melancholysatisfaction-or so she thought according to her poor judgment. The Lord took that good thing away. But then Christ was risenand now to hear of Him, then presently to see Him-was not that an infinitely better thing? Have you lost anything of latearound which your heart had intertwisted all its tendrils? You shall find that there is good cause for the loss! The Lordnever takes away a silver blessing without intending to confer on us a golden gain! Depend upon it-for wood He will give ironand for iron He will give brass-and for brass He will give silver and for silver He will give gold!

All His taking is but preliminary to a larger giving. Have you lost your child? What if you find your Lord more dear thanever? One smile of your Lord will be better to you than all the cheerful frolics of your child. Is He not better to you than10 sons? Have you lost the familiar companion who once cheered you along the valley of life? You shall now, by that loss,be driven closer to your Savior! His promises shall be more sweet to you and the Blessed Spirit shall reveal His Truth moreclearly to you. You shall be a gainer by your loss.

There is many a plant that has been protected by a great tree whose spreading branches covered it from the drenching rainand the downfall of hail. But the tree has been cut down by the cruel woodman's axe. At the fall of that tree the little planthas been ready to cry out for fear. Henceforth it will remain unprotected. Not so-these sad bodings quickly vanish-for nowthe sun has come upon it as it never came before and the dews have fallen more plenteously, and

the rain has penetrated to its roots! And the little tender plant springs up to a stature it could never otherwise have known,seeing it was dwarfed by the comfort it enjoyed.

You shall find that full many of the comforts taken from you were drawbacks to your high culture and in the absence of themyou shall get an abundant compensation, a tenfold blessing. "He is not here"-that is sorrowful. But, "He is risen"-this isgladsome! Christ, the dead One, you cannot see. You cannot tenderly embalm that blessed body. But Christ, the living One,you shall see! And at His feet you shall be able to prostrate yourself! And from His lips you shall hear the gladsome words,"Go, tell My Brethren that I am risen from the dead"! That lesson may be worth your remembering! If God applies it to yoursoul it may yield you rich comfort.

Should the Lord take away one joy from you, He will give you another and a better one. "He does not afflict willingly, norgrieve the children of men." You never deny your children any pure gratification, I am sure, without intending their realgood. How many of you have a way, when you put your child into a little self-denial, of making it up to him again so thathe is no loser by it? And your heavenly Father will deal quite as gently and tenderly with you, His children.

With these two preliminary remarks, we proceed to our text itself. And it may be well to say that some of us have been, thisafternoon, to the funeral of a dear friend and deacon of this Church-and as such, the thoughts that stir in our breasts andthe words that will flow from our lips this evening would be more appropriate if the open grave were before us. Let us standthere in imagination and conceive, if you will, even yonder bell-though it often hinders our devotions so that I wonder whyany Christian people need annoy other Christian people with it-to be a funeral knell for us.

Let it help to bear us on the wings of sound to the grave so that we may the better realize the position in which these meditationswill be congruous to the occasion. The text contains, first of all, an assurance! And secondly, an invitation. First, an assurance-"Heis not here, for He is risen." Secondly, an invitation-"Come, see the place where the Lord

lay."

I. The assurance-"He is not here, for He is risen." Jesus Christ has really RISEN FROM THE DEAD. Though superficial scholarshave tried to prove that this well-attested fact is but a fabulous myth, there is not one doctrine of Holy Writ which hasnot been, in like manner, spirited away. At first they denied out and out that such things ever happened and said that theywere a pure invention. But afterwards, when abundant evidence was brought to prove a resurrection, this gross incredulitygave place to a more refined skepticism.

Yet beyond a doubt it can be shown that there is as much evidence for the resurrection of Christ as for any fact in history.There is probably no fact in history which is so fully proven and corroborated as the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, who wasnailed to the Cross and died and was buried, did rise again! As we believe the histories of Julius Caesar-as we accept thestatements of Tacitus-we are bound on the same grounds, even as historical documents, to accept the testimony of Matthew,Mark, Luke and John-and of those persons who were eye-witnesses of His death and who saw Him after He had risen from the dead.

That Jesus Christ rose from the dead is not an allegory and a symbol but a reality! There He lay dead-friend or foe to witness-acorpse fit to be committed to the grave. Handle Him and see. It is the very Christ you knew in life. It is the very same!Look into those eyes. Were there ever such eyes in any other human form? Behold Him! You can see the impress of sorrow onHis face. Was there ever any visage so marred as His, any sorrow so real in its effects? That is the Emperor of Misery, thePrince of all mourners, the King of Sorrow! There He lies, unmistakably the same.

Now, mark the nail prints. There went the iron through those blessed hands and there His feet were pierced. And there is thegash that found out the pericardium and divided the heart-and brought forth the marvelous blood and water from His side! Itis He, the same Christ! And the holy women lifted limb by limb and wrapped Him in linen and put the spices about Him, suchas they had brought in their haste. And they lay Him down in that place-in that new tomb.

Now, let it be known and understood that our faith is that those very limbs that lay stiff and cold in death became warm withlife again-that the very body with its bones and blood and flesh which lay there became again instinct with life and cameforth into a glorious existence! Those hands broke the piece of honeycomb and the fish in the presence of the disciples-andthose lips partook of the same. And He held out those wounds and said, "Reach here your finger and put it into the print ofthe nails." And He bared His side, the same side, and said, "Reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side and be not faithless,but believing."

He was no phantom, no spectra! As He Himself said, "A spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have." He was a real Manas much after the resurrection as He had been before! And He is real Man in Glory now even as He was when here below. He hasgone up-the cloud has received Him out of our sight. The same Christ who asked Peter, "Do you love Me?"-the same Jesus whosaid to all His disciples, "Come and dine"-a real Man has really risen from a real death into a real life!

Now we always need to have that doctrine stated to us plainly, for though we believe it, we do not always realize it and evenif we have realized it, it is good to hear it again so as to let our minds be confirmed about it. The Resurrection is as literala fact as any other fact stated in history and is so to be believed among us. "He is not here: for He has risen." Pursue thenarrative, Beloved, and you will see that when our Lord Jesus Christ had risen on that occasion, being quickened from theslumbers of death, it was not only true that He had really risen from the sepulcher, but He had risen in order to His beingfurther raised up in His ascension into the Glory which He now possesses at the right hand of the Father.

When He had burst the iron bonds of the grave, the disciples had this for their consolation-that He was now beyond the reachof His enemies. During the few days that our Lord lingered, none of His enemies attempted to do Him hurt. Against Him nota dog dare move his tongue. We can scarcely tell why, but so it was. There seemed to be a remarkable acquiescence in the mindsof all His foes during the time in which He sojourned among His people below. He was beyond the reach of His enemies. Theycould hurt Him no more. And it is so now!

He is not here, in another sense, and He is now beyond the reach of all His malignant adversaries. Does not this cheer you?It does me. No Judas can betray the Master now to be seized by Roman guards. No Pilate can now take Him and bribe justiceand give Him over to be crucified though he knows Him to be innocent. No Herod can now mock Him with his men of war. No soldierscan now spit in His dear face. Now none can buffet Him, or blindfold Him and say to Him, "Prophesy who it is that struck You."

The head, the dear majestic head of Jesus can never be crowned with thorns again and the busy feet that ran on errands ofmercy can never be pierced by the nails any more! Men shall no longer strip Him naked and stand and exult over His agonies.He is gone beyond their reach. Now they may rail and seek to spite Him through His people who are the members of His body.Now they may rage, but God has set Him at His own right hand and He is inaccessible to their malice! It comforts me, justas I think it would comfort the soldier in the day of battle when he saw the fight going very hard, to feel that the commanderwhom he loved was out of bullets' range.

"There," he would say, "You may strike us as you will. The bullets may rain red death through our ranks but our commander-in-chief,upon whom all the conflict hangs, is safe." Oh, blessed are those words and blessed was the pen that wrote them-and blessedwas the Spirit who dictated them-"Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name;that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; andthat every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the

Father"!

It matters not, dear Brothers and Sisters, what becomes of us poor common soldiers. We feel as if our being slandered, ourbeing disgraced, our being persecuted, our being put to death would not matter the turn of a straw in view of the momentousissues, so long as our beloved Master that once was crowned with thorns is crowned now with glory! And so long as He who stoodat Pilate's bar to be condemned now sits on His Father's Throne, waiting till He shall come to judge the princes and kingsof the earth, it matters not what we suffer for Him! With regard to our Lord's not being here, but having risen, it shouldconsole us to think that He is now beyond all pain as well as beyond all personal attack.

I comforted myself in thus reflecting of our friend who is lately deceased. He was struck, as many of you know, with suddenparalysis and he had lain so some six weeks. If it had pleased God, he might have lain six years or 16 years and it wouldhave been a very painful thing to see him with life still in the body but with a mind sorely darkened. We are thankful-I feelpersonally grateful to God-that our friend has fallen asleep-that he has escaped from the miseries of this present evil life.

But how much more grateful ought we to be concerning our dear Lord, whom our soul loves! Oh, can you bear to think of Him,that He had not where to lay His head? Who among us would not have left his couch to give Him a night's

rest? Yes, and have forsworn the bed forever if we might have given Him soft repose. Would we not, ourselves, have fallento the hillside and been there all night till our head was wet with dew, if we might have gained rest for Him? He is worth10,000 of us-and did it not seem as if it were too much for Him to have to suffer-to be homeless and houseless? He was hungry,Brothers and Sisters! He was thirsty! He was weary! He was faint!

He suffered our sicknesses-we are told that He took them upon Himself. Often had He heartache. He knew what "cold mountainsand the midnight air" were to chill the body. And He knew what the bleak atmosphere and bitter privation were to freeze thesoul. He passed through innumerable griefs and woes. From the first blood-shedding at His birth, down to the last blood-sheddingat His death, it seemed as if sorrow had marked Him as her peculiar child. Always was He troubled, tempted, vexed, assailed,assaulted, molested by Satan, by wicked men and by the evils that are without!

Now there is no more of that for Him-and we are glad that He is not here for that reason. He is no child of poverty now! Thereis no carpenter's shop for Him now! No longer for Him is the smock frock of the peasant, woven from the top throughout. Nolonger the mountainside and heather for His resting place. No more jeering crowds around Him, now! No stones to stone Him,now! No sitting on the well, weary and saying, "Give Me a drink." There is no longer a need that He should be supplied withfood when He is hungry.

No more, Brothers and Sisters, scourging and flagellations. No more will He give "His back to the smiters and His cheeks tothem that plucked off the hair." No piercing His hands and His feet, now! No burning thirst upon the bloody tree-no cry of,"Eloi, Eloi, lame Sabacthani." God's waves and billows went over Him once, but no more can they assail Him! He was broughtinto the dust of death and His Soul was once exceedingly sorrowful-He is beyond all that. The sea is passed and He has cometo the Fair Havens where no storms can beat upon Him. He has reached His joy! He has entered into His rest and He has receivedHis reward!

Brothers and Sisters, let us be glad about this! Let us enter into the joy of our Lord! Let us be glad because He is glad-happybecause He is happy! Oh that we might feel our hearts leaping within us though we, for a little while longer are on the fieldof battle, because He is clean gone from it and now is acknowledged and adored King of kings and Lord of lords! The fact thatour Lord has risen has not only these consoling elements about it with reference to Him, but we must remember that it is theguarantee to every one of us who believe in Him, of our own resurrection!

The Apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, makes the whole argument for the resurrection of the body hinge uponthis one question-did Christ rise from the dead? If He did then all His people must rise with Him! He was a representativeMan, and as the Lord our Savior rose, so all His followers must. Settle the question that Christ rose and you have settledthe question that all who are in Him and conformed to His image must rise, too! As for ourselves, it is certain that we, asbelievers in Jesus, if we shall die and be put into the grave, will be fed upon by the worms-will go back to mother earthand mold.

For my part, I would never wrap the body in lead or do it up in any way that would keep it from melting back speedily to theearth from which it came. It seems fittest and holiest to let it speedily mold back to its native dust. But here is the appointedissue-no matter what becomes of that dust and through what transitions it may pass-the roots of trees may drink it up in thisform. It is true it may turn to grass and flowers to be fed upon by beasts! The winds may waft it thousands of miles away,atom from atom-bone may be scattered from its bone. But, as surely as the Savior rose, we shall rise, too!

We say not that each actual particle of this flesh shall rise-it is not necessary for the identity of the body that it shouldbe so-but still, the body shall be identical and the same body that is sown in the earth shall rise again from the earth ina beauty and a glory of which we know but little as yet-be assured of it! That body of the dear child of God to which youbade farewell some years ago shall rise again! Those eyes that you closed-those very eyes-shall see the King in His beautyin the land that is very far off. Those ears that could not hear you when you spoke the last tender word- those ears shallhear the eternal melodies! That heart that grew stone cold and still when Death laid his cold hand upon the bosom shall beatagain with newness of life and leap with joy amidst the festivities of the home-bringing, when Christ the Bridegroom shallbe married to His Church, the bride!

That same body!-Was it not the temple of the Holy Spirit? Was it not redeemed with blood? Surely it shall rise at the trumpetof the archangel and at the voice of God! Be you sure of this! Be you sure of it-sure for your friend and sure for yourself!And fear not death! What is it? The grave is but a bath wherein our body, like Esther, buries itself in spices

to make it sweet and fresh for the embrace of the glorious King in immortality! It is but the wardrobe where we lay asidethe garment for a while. It shall come forth cleansed and purified with many a golden spangle on it which was not there before.It was a work garment when we put it off-it will be a Sabbath robe when we put it on and it will be fit for Sabbath wear!We may even long for evening to undress, if there is to be such a waking and such a putting on of garments in the Presenceof the King.

Further-not to linger too long on any one thought-let us remember that our Lord's not being here, but having risen, has init this consolatory thought that He has gone where He can best protect our interests. He is an Advocate for us. Where shouldthe Advocate be but in the King's court? He is preparing a place for us. Where should He be who is preparing a place but there-makingit ready? We have a very active adversary who is busy accusing us. Is it not well that we have One who can meet him face toface and put the accuser of the Brethren to silence?

I think, if Christ were here at this very moment in proper Person, we should be inclined to say to Him, "Good Master, Youcan serve us well here. Your going about to heal the sick and teach the ignorant is very blessed. And we love to see You.The vision of Your face makes earth Heaven to us. But still, our great interests demand Your absence, for, good Lord, ourprayers need someone to present them at the Throne. As one by one our prayers go up to Heaven, we would not have You hereand send them away to a place where You are not. Besides, where the enemy goes to accuse, we need You there to defend-andsince our best heritage is up above we need a Keeper who shall preserve it for us. Good Master, it is expedient that You goaway."

We have not to say that to Him, for He is gone and if ever the one Christ was of double value if ever the advantage of Hisposition enhanced the value of His services-it is now that He is in Heaven. He would be precious here, but He is more preciousthere! He is doing more for us in Heaven than it could have been possible for Him to do for us here below, as far as our finiteintelligence can judge and as truly as His infinite wisdom can pronounce. Meanwhile His absence is well-compensated by thePresence of His own Spirit. And His Presence there is well consecrated by His personal administration of sacred service forour sake.

All is well in Heaven, for Jesus is there! The crown is safe and the harp is secure and the blessed heritage of each tribeof Israel all secure, for Christ is keeping it. He is, to the Glory of God, the Representative and Preserver of His saints.And does not this Truth of God, that Christ is not here, but is gone, fall upon our ears with a sweet force as it constrainsus to feel that this is the reason why our heart should not be here? "He is not here." Then our heart should not be here!When this text, "He is not here," was first spoken, it meant that He was not in the grave. He was somewhere on earth. Butnow He is not here at all. Suppose you are very rich and Satan whispers to you, "These are delightful gardens. This is a noblemansion, take your ease"? Reply to him, "But He is not here. He is not here. He is risen, therefore I dare not put my heartwhere my Lord is not."

Or, suppose your family makes you very happy and, as the little ones cluster around you and sit around the fireside, yourheart is very glad-and though you have not much of this world's goods, yet you have enough-and you have a contented mind.Well, if Satan should say to you, "Be well content and make your rest here." Say to him, "No, He is not here and I cannotfeel that this is to be my abiding place. Only where Jesus is can my spirit rest." And have you lately begun in life? Hasthe marriage day scarcely passed over? Are you just now beginning the merry days of youth, the sweet enchantment of this life'spurest joy?

Well, delight yourself, but still remember that He is not here and therefore you have no right to say, "Soul, take your ease!"Nowhere on earth is Christ and therefore nowhere on earth may our heart build her nest. Nowhere-no, not in the high placesor in the quiet resting places! Not in the garden of nuts, or in the beds of spices. Not in the tents of Kedar or betweenSolomon's curtains. Not even at His sacramental table, nor yet among the means of Grace is Christ bodily, actually, present.

So we will take the sweetness of all and the spiritual good there may be in all outward means-but still they shall all pointus upward-they shall all draw us away. As the sun exhales the dew and attracts it upward towards Heaven, so shall Christ magnetizeand draw our hearts away and our thoughts up-and our longings up and our whole spirits up- towards Himself! "He is not here."Then why should I be here? Oh, get up, my Soul! Get up and let all your sweetest incense go towards Him who "is not here,for He is risen."

II. I must leave that point and come, with a few words, to speak upon the second point which is AN INVITATION. "Come, seethe place where the Lord lay." Not, Beloved, that I am going to take you to Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. About that I shallnot speak much. But I think any tomb might suffice to point the same sacred moral. I felt this afternoon, while I stood bythe open grave in Norwood Cemetery, as though I heard a voice saying, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." It does notmatter much to us about the precise spot. He lay in the grave-that is the prominent fact that preaches to us a pithy sermon.

Any grave may well suit our purpose. In the little town of Campodolcino I once realized the tomb of Christ very vividly inan affair which had been built for Catholic pilgrims. I was upon the hillside and I saw written upon a wall, these words,"And there was a garden." It was written in Latin. I pushed open the door of this garden. It was like any other garden, butthe moment I entered, there was a sign with the words, "And in the garden there was a new tomb." Then I saw a tomb which hadbeen newly painted and when I came up to it I read on it, "A new tomb wherein never man

lay."

I then stooped down to look inside the tomb and I read in Latin the inscription, "Stooping down, he looked, yet went he notin." But there were the words written, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." I went in and I saw there, engraved in stone,the napkin and the linen clothes laid by themselves. I was all alone and I read the words, "He is not here, for He is risen,"engraved on the floor of the tomb. Though I dread anything scenic and histrionic and popish, yet certainly I realized verymuch the reality of the scene-as I have this afternoon in standing before the open tomb.

I felt that Jesus Christ was really buried, really laid in the earth and has really gone out of it. And it is good for usto come and see the place where Jesus lay. Why should we see it? Well, first, that we may see how condescending He was thatever He should lay in the grave. He that made Heaven and earth lay in the grave! He who gave light to angels' eyes lay inthe darkness three days! He slept in the darkness there. He, without whom was not anything made that was made, was given upto death and lay a Victim of death there! Oh, wonder of wonders! Marvel of marvels! He who had immortality and life withinHimself, yields Himself up to the place of death!

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay," in the next place, to see how we ought to weep over the sin that laid Him there.Did I make the Savior lie in the grave? Was it necessary that before my sin could be put away, my sweet Prince, whose beautiesenchant all Heaven, must be chill and cold in death and actually be laid in the tomb? Must it be so? O you murderous sins!You murderous sins! You cruel and cursed sins! Did you slay my Savior? Did you tear apart that tender heart? Could you neverbe content until you had led Him to His death and laid Him there? Oh, come and weep as you see the place where the Lord lay!

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay," that you may see where you will have to lie unless the Lord should come on a sudden.You may take the measure of that tomb, for that is where you will have to repose. It does us good to remember, if we havegreat estates, that six feet of earth is all that will ever be our permanent freehold. We shall have to come to it-that solitarymound with two spears' length of level ground-

"Princes, this clay must be your bed,

In spite of all your towers.

The tall, the wise, the reverent head

Must lie as low as ours."

There is no discharge in this war. To the dust we must return. So, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" to see that youmust lie there, too.

But then, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," to see what good company you will have there! That is where Jesus lay-doesn'tthat comfort you?-

"Why should the Christian fear the day That lands him in the tomb? There the dear flesh of Jesus lay, And left a long perfume."

What more appropriate chamber for a Prince's son to go to sleep in than the Prince's own tomb? There slept Emmanuel! There,my Body, you may be well content to sleep, too! What more royal couch can you desire than the bosom of that same mother earthwhere the Savior was laid to rest awhile? Think, Beloved, of the ten thousands of saints that have gone that way to Heaven!Who shall dread to go where all the flock have gone?

You one poor timid sheep, if you, alone, had to go through this dark valley, you might well be afraid! But, oh, in additionto your Shepherd who marches at the head of all the flock, listen to the footsteps of the innumerable sheep that follow Him!And some were very dear to you and fed in the same pasture with you. Do you dread to go where they have gone? No, see theplace where Jesus lay to see what good company is to be had though it may seem to be in a dark chamber.

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay," to see that you cannot lie there long. It is not the place where Jesus is. He isgone and you are to be with Him where He is! Come and look at this tomb. There is no door to it. There was one-it was a hugerock, a monstrous stone-and none could move it. It was sealed. Can you see how they have set the stamp of the Sanhedrim, thestamp of the Law, upon the seal to make it sure that none should move it? But now, if you will go to the place where Jesuslay, the seal is broken, the guards are fled, the stone is gone! Such will your tomb be. It is true they will cover you upand lay on the sods of green turf. If you are wise you will prefer these things to the heavy slabs of stone they sometimeslay upon the dead.

That sweet mound, with here and there a daisy like the eye of earth looking up to Heaven asking mercy, or smiling in joy ofexpectation-there, there will you sleep! But just as in the morning you do but open your eyes and the curtains are openedand you come forth, none standing in your way, to do the labor of the day, so, when the trumpet of the Resurrection sounds,you will rise out of your bed in perfect liberty, none hindering you, to see the light of the day that shall go no down moreforever! You have nothing to confine you! Bolt and bar there are none! Guard and watchman none! Stone and seal none! "Come,see the place where Jesus lay."

I would not care to go to bed in a prison where there stood a turnkey with his iron key to fasten me in. But I am not afraidto go to sleep in the chamber out of which I can come at the morning's call a perfectly free man! And such are you, Beloved,if you be a Believer. You come to lie in a place that is open and free-a fit slumbering place for the Lord's free men!

"Come, see the place where the Lord lay," in order to celebrate the triumph over death. If Miriam sang at the Red Sea, wealso may sing at Jesus' tomb. If she said, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously," shall not we say the same?If all the hosts of Israel went out with her-the women with dances-and the strong men with their voices in the song, so letall Israel go forth this day and bless and praise the Lord, saying, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is yourvictory?" The place where Jesus lay has told us that-

"Vain the watch, the stone, the seal! Christ has burst the gates of Hell.'" Now let us sing unto Him and give Him all thepraise.

I was thinking to say to you, Beloved, let us come and see the place where Jesus lay to weep there for our sins. Let us comeand see the place where Jesus lay to die there to our sins. Let us come and see the place where Jesus lay to be buried therewith Him. Let us come and see the place where Jesus lay to rise from that place to newness of life and find our way throughresurrection-life into the ascension-life in which we shall sit in the heavenly places and look down upon the things of earthwith joyous contempt, knowing that He has lifted us up far above them and made us to be partakers of brighter bliss than thisearth can ever know.

But I will forbear. I have done. I would to God that all here present had some share in this! You all have a share in dying.There is a tree growing out of which your coffin will be made, or perhaps it is already cut down and seasoning against thetime when it shall make you a timber suit-the last suit that you shall ever need. There is a spot of earth that must be shoveledout for you to be laid into to fill up the vacuum. But your soul shall live-your soul shall never die! Let not those who tellyou of annihilation be believed for a moment! It must exist. Put it to yourself whether it shall be with the worm that neverdies and the fire that never shall be quenched or with Christ who lives in His Glory and who shall come a second time to giveGlory to His people and raise their bodies like His own!

Oh, it will all hinge on this-"Do you believe in Jesus?" If you do, you may welcome life and welcome death and welcome resurrectionand welcome immortality! But if you believe not, then a blast has come upon you and to you it is terrible to die! It is terrible,even, to live-but more terrible to die! It will be terrible to rise again! It will be terrible to be damned and that forever!God save you from it, for Christ's sake! Amen.