of
Christ, but who had hesitated to openly confess his conversion through
fear of the Jews, desired to give the Lord's body a decent and honorable
interment. But for some such divinely directed intervention, the body of
Jesus might have been cast into the common grave of executed criminals.
This man, Joseph, was "a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just."
It is expressly said of him that he "had not consented to the counsel
and deed of them"; from which statement we infer that he was a
Sanhedrist and had been opposed to the action of his colleagues in
condemning Jesus to death, or at least had refrained from voting with
the rest. Joseph was a man of wealth, station, and influence. He went in
boldly unto Pilate and begged the body of Christ. The governor was
surprized to learn that Jesus was already dead; he summoned the
centurion and inquired as to how long Jesus had lived on the cross. The
unusual circumstance seems to have added to Pilate's troubled concern.
He gave command and the body of Christ was delivered to Joseph.

The body was removed from the cross; and in preparing it for the tomb
Joseph was assisted by Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin, the
same who had come to Jesus by night three years before, and who at one
of the conspiracy meetings of the council had protested against the
unlawful condemnation of Jesus without a hearing.[1335] Nicodemus
brought a large quantity of myrrh and aloes, about a hundredweight. The
odorous mixture was highly esteemed for anointing and embalming, but its
cost restricted its use to the wealthy. These two revering disciples
wrapped the Lord's body in clean linen, "with the spices, as the manner
of the Jews is to bury"; and then laid it in a new sepulchre, hewn in
the rock. The tomb was in a garden, not far from Calvary, and was the
property of Joseph. Because of the nearness of the Sabbath the interment
had to be made with haste; the door of the sepulchre was closed, a large
stone was rolled against it;[1336] and thus laid away the body was left
to rest. Some of the devoted women, particularly Mary Magdalene, and
"the other Mary," who was the mother of James and Joses, had watched the
entombment from a distance; and when it was completed "they returned,
and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according
to the commandment."

THE SEPULCHRE GUARDED.[1337]

On the day following the "preparation," that is to say on Saturday, the
Sabbath and