3559. The Pierced Heart of Jesus

A Sermon Published On Thursday, April 12, 1917.

Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he who saw it bore record that his record is true: and he knows what he says is true, so that you might believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled. “A bone of him shall not be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look at him whom they have pierced.” {Joh 19:32-37}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1956, “On the Cross After Death” 1957}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3559, “Pierced Heart of Jesus, The” 3561}

   Exposition on Joh 19:1-37 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3123, “King of the Jews, The” 3124 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 19:14-37 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3279, “Ever This Our War Cry—Victory, Victory!” 3281 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 19:23-37 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3311, “Water and the Blood, The” 3313 @@ "Exposition"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Joh 19:33"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Joh 19:34"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Joh 19:35"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Joh 19:36"}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Joh 19:37"}

1. What a wonderful conjunction of prophecy and Providence! I want you to behold it, and admire it. Two texts of Scripture, the one in Exodus the other in Zechariah (such a long interval having occurred between the distinct records), predict, the former that not a bone of the Paschal Lamb should be broken; the latter, that he should be pierced. How were these two to be fulfilled in the minuteness of one incident? The rough Roman soldier comes with the iron bar to break the bones of the three prisoners who have been crucified. He has orders to break their legs. The well-disciplined soldier acts almost mechanically, according to orders. Roman discipline was of the very sternest kind. Will not the soldier, therefore, break the legs of Jesus? No. Moved by some strange impulse, he sees that one of the three, Jesus, who is called Christ, is dead already. Though commanded to break his legs, he forbears; but most likely to clear himself of all doubt on that point, he pierces his side with a spear. The wilfulness of the soldier, wavering though wanton, so fulfilled both the prophecies of which he must have been himself totally ignorant; and this was brought about first by his not doing what he was ordered to do; and, secondly, by doing what he had not been ordered to do. Oh! how inscrutable the mystery of Providence! How marvellously does God rule the sons of men while he leaves them to their own free will! Did not this soldier act altogether as a free agent, whether following the dictates of his reason or the impulse of his disposition, when he so unwittingly, by his exceptional conduct, verified to the letter the words of prophecy as precisely and entirely as if he had been a mere puppet moved with wires at the instigation of another mind and another hand than his own. This was not an accidental circumstance, or a unique coincidence—it was Providence; a sublime purpose of God brought to pass by simple means. Irregularities among men do not disorganize the ordained purposes of heaven, and what we think to be chaos is a well-ordered system far beyond our understanding, into which we vainly attempt to peer.

2. I need not detain you with any speculations arising out of the piercing of our Saviour by the spear. It has been, I think, very soberly argued, that in all probability the physical cause of our Saviour’s death was a broken heart. In a scientific treatise by one who had studied the anatomy of the subject, and investigated cases which appeared after death to bear some resemblance to our Saviour’s case, it has been shown that when the heart was pierced, a small portion of blood and water has flowed, death has been traceable to a heart broken with intense grief. So, if we may assign a physical cause to the death of our Lord, it appears most probable to have been so occasioned. It was anguish that, in the first stage, produced a bloody sweat in Gethsemane, and in the last stage ruptured his heart. Not, however, that I am inclined to attach any importance to such arguments or speculations. For my part I do not see that there is any analogy, or that analogy need be sought between the case of the Saviour and the case of any common man. The anatomist would be baffled with an analysis. The body of any ordinary person would exhibit symptoms of corruption. He who hung on the cross was exempt from this. When death comes, and the vital spark leaves the human body, the process of decomposition speedily begins. But our Lord saw no corruption. Overshadowed as was his virgin mother by the Spirit at her conception, his birth was predicted as “that holy thing which shall be born by you.” Through the entire course of his life on earth, the Spirit rested on him in a special way. And even after his soul had left his body, the Spirit preserved and kept that body, so that the prophecy was fulfilled, “Neither will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.” Hence you search in vain for a parallel. The disparity of any cases that might be sought for is so palpable that you really do not have any data to start with, or any premises to reason with, in the effort to judge what happened in the anatomy of the sacred body of our blessed Lord. Instead of following speculations which rather belong to the physician than the theologian, I desire the Spirit of God to conduct us into some spiritual reflections arising out of the piercing of the heart of Jesus Christ by the soldier’s spear.

3. I. One observation, I think, lies on the very surface of the narrative:—EVEN AFTER OUR LORD’S DEATH, MEN RUDELY ASSAILED HIM.

4. Was it not enough that they had scourged his back? Did it not suffice that they had put a thorn-crown on his head? Was it not sufficient that they had nailed his feet and his hands to the tree? And yet after they were satisfied that the life had been forfeited to the law, and the body was already dead, nothing could satisfy human cruelty until his heart was pierced with the lance. Say, now, was not this man who pierced Christ’s heart a fair, though a foul, sample of our sinful race; his heartless act a type of our headstrong profanity? We, too, after the Saviour’s death have pierced him. Shall I show you how? The crime is so common that you come to condone it. His Godhead is his glory. Deny his deity and you not only detract from his dignity, but you make him unworthy of our confidence. This is to thrust the spear into his very heart. Your tone is treacherous when you say, “He is only a man. Though an admirable teacher, I can only regard him as a finite creature.” Oh! how many people go up and down among us professing to be members of a Protestant Church, and believers in the Scripture, who yet will not acknowledge the miracles of Christ to be authentic, performed in sign by his own personal authority, bearing the witness of his Father, and conveying a clear proof that he was the Son of God! May the Lord have mercy on those who in this respect pierce our dear Redeemer afresh. If any of us have been guilty of this sin, may we be converted from our dangerous error, and led to affirm him, like Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”

5. They pierce him, too, who attack the doctrines which he taught, and the testimony which he delivered. The truth was in Christ’s heart; it was written there. Whatever he preached with his lips he sanctified with his life. His heart was a fountain from where all those doctrines came which reveal the Father to us. When men attack any truth revealed to us by Christ, they do in effect what the soldier did in fact; they do spiritually as this Roman legionary did literally; they thrust at his heart. If you disparage the words that Jesus spoke, or call in question the truth that he showed to his disciples and revealed in the word, what is there left of that mission in which he made known the will of God the Father? He came to proclaim this truth; he died to bear witness to this truth. He witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. If you touch those doctrines, you touch the apple of his eye; no, you pierce his heart again.

6. How do they also thrust at his heart who persecute his people! And has he not often been wounded like this through all the centuries that have transpired since he ascended up on high to the Father’s right hand? Saul of Tarsus pierced his heart, for Jesus said, “Why do you persecute me?” The sufferings of the men and women, haled to prison, and beaten in the synagogue, and compelled to blaspheme, were injuries deliberately and wickedly done to Christ himself. And what shall we say of the martyrs, their groans in the prison-house, their cries at the rack, their pangs at the stake, their blood so cruelly shed; have not all these touched the Saviour’s heart?

7. So, too, every rude jeer and ribald jest, every harsh word and bitter taunt aimed at a follower of Christ, is a reproach of the dear Lord and Master for whose sake it is meekly borne; but on their part “who sharpen their tongue like a sword,” it is aimed at the heart of Jesus, on whom they cannot otherwise wreak their vengeance now, for he cannot now suffer, except in sympathy with the sufferings of his saints.

8. And there is yet another class of people who, although Christ’s sufferings are over, still continue to pierce him. They are such us pretend to be his disciples, but they lie and practise a foul hypocrisy. Are there any such present? I tremble as I ask the question. Just as there were false apostles of yore, so there are foul apostates in these days. Their profession is only the prelude to their perfidy. They take a solemn pledge to obey him, but, like Judas, they only wait for a suitable opportunity to betray him. They will sell the Saviour for silver; only let the price be high enough, their principle is low enough; their conscience will not hesitate to “crucify the Lord afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Oh! you inconsistent professors! Oh! you graceless men and women! How dare you come to the table of his fellowship? You have a name to live, and yet you are dead; you are crucifying him; you are piercing him; the guilt of the Roman soldier clings to you.

9. I fear, too, there is another class that pierces his heart—it includes those who refuse to believe in his willingness to forgive them. When under conviction of sin, it may be difficult to believe that one can be pardoned; but when the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us, and his infinite condescension that brought him to suffer for us, it does seem hard that any should doubt him. Yet there are some who link their chains, sit down in despair, and say, “He is not willing to forgive.” So unkind and cruel a thought as that he is unwilling to forgive pierces him to the heart and cut him to the quick. I know some of you do not mean this. You are startled, now that you think what you are doing. I pray the Lord you may humbly trust him. Oh! do not doubt him, the Son of God, who suffered for his enemies, surrendering his life for even the ungodly. Will you, can you still doubt him? Will you doubt the testimony which God has given concerning his Son? Would it not be far better that you honoured him by casting yourselves at his feet? Angels who sing his praises night and day unceasingly do not honour him more than you will do, if, all black and defiled as you are, you will come and trust him that he can wash you and make you whiter than snow. Oh! do this, and pierce his heart no more!

10. Some men pierce the heart of Christ through their carelessness. They trifle and even scoff because they have not known him, or sought by any means to learn what claims he has on their homage. They disparage those divine features of his ministry which they have never properly understood. So they pierce the heart of Christ out of ignorant prejudice. They are unacquainted with the gospel themselves. All that they have heard or read about it has been from the tongue or pen or opponent or satirist, and then, catching their attitude, they have joined in reviling it. Alas! too, there are some who malign the Saviour out of mere malice. Though they know better, yet they wilfully blaspheme his name. Stop, oh! stop, and pierce him no more, please, lest he who has meekly endured as long as the Lamb of God should suddenly stir himself up as the lion of the tribe of Judah, and make you feel the terror of his power, who will not feel the majesty of his love. So much for our first point. Even after Jesus’ death, there are those who still pierce him.

11. II. Our second thought is such as I am charmed to give you:—THESE ATTACKS ON THE SAVIOUR ARE OVERRULED TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE ALL THE BETTER.

12. His heart is pierced, it is true, but with what result, my brethren? Does there flash from it fire? Does the peal of thundering wrath roll over the sinner’s head? Ah! no; it is like the sandal tree, that perfumes the axe that wounds it. And down that spear no sooner is it withdrawn from the wound than there gushes a fountain of blood and water. The attacks that are made on Jesus Christ only display his virtues. Observe how this is brought about. If truth is attacked, and the gospel is assailed, what is the immediate result? Why, then, the saints search deeper into it, so they come to understand the doctrine better; they learn the arguments by which it is sustained, and they love the truth with fonder, as well as stronger convictions, until they feel moved to sacrifice themselves for it. The heart of Christ was opened by the spear, and often the heart of truth is revealed by the opposition brought to bear against it. They think to refute our doctrines; they only confirm our faith in their verity. Where they think they shall prove us fools, they help to make us sages. They drive us to the root of the matter, and they rather establish us in the precious truth. The March wind does not tear up the oak, but roots it all the more firmly in its native soil. So shall it always be with attacks made on our Lord and Master. We shall understand him all the better and discover more of the Scriptures that were fulfilled in him.

13. Moreover, it often happens that when Christ is opposed by persecution, the gospel is proclaimed with more zeal, and diffused with more rapidity. The saints who were, in early days, persecuted in Jerusalem, went everywhere preaching the Word. What if I say the spear of persecution does, as it were, set the atoning blood flowing more freely among the sons of men, and make the purifying water of the Saviour’s sacrifice to be dispersed over a wider area, and among a larger population. Shall I compare the persecuted Church to an oppressed nation, and remind you that, like Israel in Egypt, the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and grew? The spear let loose the blood and water from the heart of Jesus, and the spear of persecution lets loose the gospel, and compels Christian men who might have rested in inglorious ease to go forward and laboriously dispense the gospel of salvation, telling the grace of God to perishing men. So, too (but let no man turn this into evil), the very sin of men which wounds Christ becomes the means of magnifying God’s grace. Though it is a vile thing to say, “Let us sin that grace may abound,” yet it is a most glorious truth that where sin abounds grace much more abounds. So the cleansing power of the blood becomes more renowned by reason of the sin that made this wondrous sacrifice necessary. Perhaps we would never have known the Saviour so well if we had not seen sin so clearly in the lives of the pardoned ones, who afterwards were washed, and cleansed, and sanctified by his purifying energy. The very opposition that comes out is overruled for his triumph. The stronger his foes the louder the shout of victory when he returns from the strife.

14. And when the Church is assailed (which is one way of piercing Christ) she gets some immediate benefit from the grievous trial; for persecution acts like a great winnowing fan that drives the chaff away from the floor on which the pure grain is housed; it is to the Church like a refiner’s fire. The mere dross is separated. The faithless, who are found among the faithful, soon apostatise, while the sterling gold and silver, the genuine lovers of Christ are purged and purified by the ordeal through which they are constrained to pass. Oh! blessed Saviour, they do pierce you, and pierce you they may, but you are honoured; for their bitter reviling elicits your sweet virtue. They may thrust their spears into your very heart, but by giving out your own energy of love and mercy, and greeting them with salvation, you conquer those who thought to conquer you! Add these two things together brethren, man still continuing to wound the Saviour, and the more redundant display of the Saviour’s grace as the result. Then find a total if you can.

15. III. Another thought, which diverges a little from the last, may help us to pursue our meditation. Since the soldier sent his spear into the Saviour’s heart:—THE WAY TO THAT HEART IS OPEN.

16. It was always open, in fact, for he always loved the sons of men; but now you can see it open. It was a large wound that was made by the lance, for into it, we read, Thomas put his hand. What a gaping fissure must that have been into which the apostle might put his palm! “Reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side.” He still lives, as not one of us could live, with a passage to the heart always open. In his very flesh he testifies to us today that his heart is ready to receive any message that his children may choose to send, and equally ready to respond with the love that has its fountain there. Behold the open heart of Jesus! It is open so that all the grace that is within it may freely flow to undeserving sinners. Do not think, sinner, that you must open Jesus’ side. The blood has flown freely. Say now, will you come and wash in it? You do not have to beg for cleansing, as though it were a blessing barely to be obtained by persistence; it flows, it still flows. He is willing—as willing as he is able, and as able as he is willing, to cleanse you from your guilt. Whatever there may be in the heart of Christ, it all flows out. The precious liquid is kept within, but set abroach for every needy, thirsty soul.

17. His heart is open. It is open for the doubter to put his hand into it now. Where are you, Thomas? Do you ask some hard thing, and say, “Unless I see this and that, I will not believe?” Oh! trembler, weighed down by your sins and your weakness, do you not see him today in glory, with his heart still open towards you? Put your hand into the wound, and say, “My Lord and my God.” Accept your Saviour without hesitation or delay. Come and find rest in him. His side is open for your hand to reach his heart. It is open—that side is open—for those who pierced him to look in to see what they have done, and lament it. But see how tender his heart is, and go to him without fear. You pierced him; look at him and mourn because you did so. You sinners, though you put your Lord to death, his heart is open to you. He invites you to come and receive his mercy that he has treasured up for you. Oh! come, come! He will receive you now. His heart is open to sympathize with the griefs and woes, the prayers and pleadings, the desires and longings, of all his people. You know we have to get to some men’s hearts through their ears, and through their eyes. In many of our callous race, these passages are blocked up. You show them sorrow, and they see it without emotion. You cannot reach their heart. If you tell them a compassionate story of deep distress, they hear it with indifference; for somehow the story loses its way in the mazes of the ear; it does not reach the heart.

18. It is far otherwise with your Lord. His heart is so accessible that you need not fear he will not hear you, or that he will not heed your faintest cry. You will feel that you can come close, straight, quick to him, by a short passage; you reach his very soul at once. Do not say, then, that no one sympathizes with you. Jesus does; he cannot fail to pity, solace, or to cheer. His pierced heart sympathizes far more quickly than the tenderest heart that ever lived before or after. His love surpasses the love of women, tender as that is. There is no love like that of him with the open heart—the love of Jesus with the opened heart—with the open side. I cannot express to you what I see in this bare fact, this blessed truth. I wish I could. But it would be even better if you could see the same. Oh! I can come to him now and put my prayers into his side—can come and put my desires into his side. Oh! Jesus, “all my desire is before you, and my groanings are not hidden from you.” I have only five senses, you have a new one—you have a new way to your heart, such as we poor mortals do not have. My brethren may be inattentive, but you never are. You are he of the wounded heart—for ever sympathetic—for ever full of gentleness. I might linger on this thought, but I prefer leaving it to your meditation, lest I should darken it with words.

19. IV. Let us finish with a last reflection:—A WOUND IN CHRIST’S SIDE REVEALS THE HEART OF JESUS IN ITS PRECIOUSNESS.

20. That spear did, as it were, break the alabaster box and let out the sweet perfume. What, then, was there in the Saviour’s heart? Men carry in their hearts what is dearest. The true man is what he is at the heart’s core. What was our blessed Redeemer’s life-thought—the constraining motive of his life-work? On what did he most of all concentrate the desires and affections of his heart? Do you not see that when pierced there flowed out blood and water? Those two things, then, must have been the nearest to the purpose of his heart. Hence I discern that in my Lord’s heart, there was, first, a strong determination to purge sinners from their guilt by his blood. The atoning sacrifice is not merely the hand blood of the Saviour’s work, nor is it merely the foot blood of the Saviour’s journeying through the vale of tears; it was his heart’s blood, indicative of heart-work—it was the blood of redemption shed for us. He loved that work. He was constrained until he could accomplish it. And let me tell you it is Christ’s joy to wash you from your sin; Do not hold back because your conscience is troubled. He has opened a fountain for your uncleanness—in the very midst of the house of David he has opened it. He delights to take away your guilt.

   Dear, dying Lamb, “thy precious blood

      Shall never lose its power,”

   Till all the ransomed Church of God

      Is saved to sin no more.

21. It has not lost its power; then let it plead for me; let it be precious to me. Let me feel its potent power. By it may I have boldness. Like the apostle, may I say, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died.” Oh! to have the blood applied to the conscience. Do not rest until you hear it speak peace through your whole nature, until you see the curse removed, and are assured that there is, therefore, now no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus. It is Christ’s heart-work to redeem his people by his blood. Oh! that he may now see the travail of his soul in your redemption!

22. Moreover, beloved, in Christ’s heart there was the water as well as the blood. He would have his people sanctified as well as pardoned; he would deliver them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin. I believe this is very near Christ’s heart. That he may present his Church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing is his design as well as his desire. His spirit is working for this purpose. That he might not allow so much as a single stain to rest on the nature of his people is equally the pleasure and the purpose of Christ. He has put their guilt away by the sacrifice of himself. This is done. Yet he continues to demand their self-sacrifice, so that he may put away their evil propensities, the fruit of their first father’s fall. My soul, glorify the pierced heart of Christ. Let him see in yourself the effect of the water that flowed from his heart. “Be holy,” he says, “as I am holy. Be perfect,” he says again, “even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Deny the flesh with its affections and lusts. Separate yourselves from sinners. Avoid partaking of other men’s sins. Like him, be “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” This can only be accomplished by the Spirit’s vital application of the Saviour’s atoning death. Stay at the foot of the cross; live under the influence of his passion; pray that you may rise out of this world’s fading, failing vanity into newness of life, through his pierced heart. In short, let us stand in penitence before the Crucified One, and mourn that we pierced him; but let us stand in his propitiation, rejoicing that his piercing has procured our pardon. So let us go on our way, resolved, by his help, that we will glorify him “in all kinds of holy conduct and godliness.” For “he who saw it bore record, and his record is true, and he knows what he says is true, so that you might believe.” May you believe, may you all believe the record is true! Believing, you shall have life through his name. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Mt 27:50-66}

50. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

Christ’s strength was not exhausted; his last word was uttered with a loud voice, like the shout of a conquering warrior. And what a word it was, “It is finished!” Thousands of sermons have been preached on that little sentence, but who can tell all the meaning that lies compacted within it? It is a kind of infinite expression for breadth, and depth, length, and height altogether unmeasurable. Christ’s life being finished, perfected, completed; he yielded up the ghost, willingly dying, laying down his life as he said he would: “I lay down my life for the sheep … I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”

51-53. And, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split; and the graves were opened; and many of the bodies which slept arose. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many.

Christ’s death was the end of Judaism: “The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.” As if shocked by the sacrilegious murder of her Lord, the temple tore her garments, like one struck with horror by some stupendous crime. The body of Christ being torn, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. Now there was an entrance made into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus; and a way of access to God was opened for every sinner who trusted in Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

See what marvels accompanied and followed the death of Christ: “The earth quaked, and the rocks were split; and the graves were opened.” So the material world paid homage to him whom man had rejected; while nature’s convulsions foretold what will happen when Christ’s voice once more shakes not only the earth, but also heaven.

These first miracles performed in connection with the death of Christ were typical of spiritual wonders that will be continued until he comes again—rocky hearts are split, graves of sin are opened, those who have been dead in trespasses and sins, and buried in sepulchres of lust and evil, are quickened, and come out from among the dead, and go to the holy city, the new Jerusalem.

54. Now when the centurion, and those who were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

These Roman soldiers had never witnessed such scenes in connection with an execution before, and they could only come to one conclusion about the illustrious prisoner whom they had put to death, “Truly this was the Son of God,” It was strange that those men should confess what the chief priests and scribes and elders denied; yet since their day it has often happened that the most abandoned and profane have acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God, while their religious rulers have denied his divinity.

55, 56. And many women were there beholding afar off, who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.

We have no record of any unkindness towards our Lord from any woman, though we have many narratives of the loving ministry of women at various periods in his life. It was fitting, therefore, that even at Calvary “many women were there beholding afar off.” The ribald crowd and the rough soldiers would not permit these timid yet brave souls to come near; but we learn from Joh 19:25 that some of them edged their way through the throng until they “stood by the cross of Jesus.” Love will dare anything.

57, 58. When the evening was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: he went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

This rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, was Jesus’ disciple, “but secretly for fear of the Jews”; {Joh 19:38} yet when his Lord was actually dead, extraordinary courage nerved his spirit, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus are types of many more who have been emboldened by the cross of Christ to do what, without that mighty magnet, they would never have attempted. When night comes, the stars appear; so in the night of Christ’s death these two bright stars shone out with blessed radiance. Some flowers only bloom at night; such a blossom was the courage of Joseph and Nicodemus.

59, 60. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Our King, even in the grave, must have the best of the best; his body was “wrapped in a clean linen cloth, and laid in Joseph’s own new tomb,” so completing the fulfilment of Isa 53:9. Some see in this linen shroud an allusion to the garments in which priests were to be clothed. Joseph’s was a virgin sepulchre, in which up to that time no one had been buried, so that, when Jesus rose, no one could say that another came out from the tomb instead of him.

That rock-hewn cell in the garden sanctified every part of God’s acre where saints lie buried. Instead of longing to live until Christ comes, as some do, we might rather pray to have fellowship with Jesus in his death and burial.

61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the sepulchre.

Love and faith were both typified by these two Marys sitting opposite the sepulchre. They will be the last to leave their Lord’s resting-place, and the first to return to it when the Sabbath is past.

Can we cling to Christ when his cause seems to be dead and buried? When truth is fallen in the streets, or is even buried in the sepulchre of scepticism or superstition, can we still believe in it, and look forward to its resurrection? That is what some of us are doing at the present time. Oh Lord, keep us faithful!

62-64. Now the next day, that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the sepulchre be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say to the people, ‘He is risen from the dead’: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”

Those punctilious priests and Pharisees, who were so scrupulous about keeping the Sabbath, did not mind profaning the day of rest by holding a consultation with the Roman governor. They knew that Christ was dead and buried, but they still stood in dread of his power. They called him a “deceiver,” and they even pretended to “remember” what “he said, while he was still alive.” At his trial, their false witnesses gave another meaning to his words, but they knew all along that he was speaking of his resurrection, not of the Temple on Mount Zion. Now they are afraid that, even in the sepulchre, he will bring to naught all their plans for his destruction. They must have known that the disciples of Jesus would not steal him away, and say to the people, “He is risen from the dead”; so they probably feared that he really would come out from the tomb. Whatever conscience they had made great cowards of them; so they begged Pilate to do what he could to prevent the rising of their victim.

65, 66. Pilate said to them, “You have a watch: go your way, make it as secure as you can.” So they went, and made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

The chief priests and Pharisees wanted Pilate to make the sepulchre secure, but he left them to secure it. There seems to have been a grim kind of irony about the governor’s reply, “You have a watch; go your way, make it as secure as you can.” Whether he meant it as a taunt, or as a command to secure the sepulchre, they became unconscious witnesses that Christ’s resurrection was a supernatural act. The tomb in the rock could not be entered except by rolling away the stone, and they guarded that by sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

According to the absurd teaching of the rabbis, rubbing ears of grain was a kind of threshing, and, therefore, was unlawful on the Sabbath; yet here were these men doing what, by similar reasoning, might be called furnace and foundry work, and calling out a guard of Roman legionaries to assist them in breaking the Sabbath. Unintentionally, they did honour to the sleeping King when they obtained the representatives of the Roman emperor to watch his resting-place until the third morning, when he came out Victor over sin, and death, and the grave. So once more the wrath of man was made to praise the King of glory, and the remainder of that wrath was restrained.

Purpose In Prayer. A Second Volume by the same Author. A companion volume; heart searching, uplifting and consecrating. Several Editions have already been exhausted. Uniform in binding with the above. Price 2/6 post free.

At His Feet. By E. M. EVERARD. Simple morning and evening prayers for use at various seasons. Cloth boards, 1/- post free.

Let Us Pray. By W. ARTHUR CORNABY. Home Circle Papers on Supplication. Especially written for those who are troubled by the difficulties of prayer. A strong stimulus to those devout souls who have through life lived in the sacred atmosphere of habitual prayer. In cloth boards, price 2/6 post free.

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Hospital Prayers. Collected by T. R. BLUMER. Here is a little handbook which should be in every hospital throughout the kingdom. Its daily use would be a means of help and blessing to all who read or heard these prayers. They are contributed by such writers as the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Alexander Whyte, Dr. Horton, Rev. F. B. Meyer, and others. Strongly bound in cloth boards, 1/-net, by post, 1/2.

I feel certain that Spurgeon would not approve of at least some of the preceding books. Editor.