ght preceding the
dawn of the most memorable Sunday in history was well nigh spent, while
the Roman guard kept watch over the sealed sepulchre wherein lay the
body of the Lord Jesus. While it was yet dark, the earth began to quake;
an angel of the Lord descended in glory, rolled back the massive stone
from the portal of the tomb, and sat upon it. His countenance was
brilliant as the lightning, and his raiment was as the driven snow for
whiteness. The soldiers, paralyzed with fear, fell to the earth as dead
men. When they had partially recovered from their fright, they fled from
the place in terror. Even the rigor of Roman discipline, which decreed
summary death to every soldier who deserted his post, could not deter
them. Moreover, there was nothing left for them to guard; the seal of
authority had been broken, the sepulchre was open, and empty.[1355]

At the earliest indication of dawn, the devoted Mary Magdalene and other
faithful women set out for the tomb, bearing spices and ointments which
they had prepared for the further anointing of the body of Jesus. Some
of them had been witnesses of the burial, and were conscious of the
necessary haste with which the corpse had been wrapped with spicery and
laid away by Joseph and Nicodemus, just before the beginning of the
Sabbath; and now these adoring women came early to render loving service
in a more thorough anointing and external embalmment of the body. On the
way as they sorrowfully conversed, they seemingly for the first time
thought of the difficulty of entering the tomb. "Who shall roll us away
the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" they asked one of another.
Evidently they knew nothing of the seal and the guard of soldiery. At
the tomb they saw the angel, and were afraid; but he said unto them:
"Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is
not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the
Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from
the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye
see him: lo, I have told you."[1356]

The women, though favored by angelic visitation and assurance, left the
place amazed and frightened. Mary Magdalene appears to have been the
first to carry word to the disciples concerning the empty tomb. She had
failed to comprehend the gladsome meaning of the angel's proclamation
"He is risen, as he said"; in her agony of love and grief she remembered