h entered and examined the
tomb and made their inferences together. For then they saw still clearer
evidence of deliberation; the napkin which had been tied round the head
of the dead body was there in the tomb, and it was folded and laid in a
place by itself, suggesting the leisurely manner of a person changing
his clothes, and convincing them that the body had not been removed to
be laid elsewhere. At once John was convinced that a resurrection had
taken place; his Lord's words took a new meaning in this empty tomb.
Standing and gazing at the folded cloths, the truth flashed into his
mind: Jesus has Himself risen and disencumbered Himself from these
wrappings, and has departed. It was enough for John: he visited no other
tomb; he questioned no one; he made no inquiries of his friends in the
high priest's household,--he went to his own house, filled with
astonishment, with a thousand thoughts chasing one another through his
mind, scarcely listening to Peter's voluble tongue, but convinced that
Jesus lived.

This simple narrative will be to many minds more convincing than an
accumulation of elaborate arguments. The style is that of an eyewitness.
Each movement and every particular is before his eye: Mary bursting,
breathless, and gasping out the startling news; the hasty springing up
of the two men, and their rapid racing along the streets and out through
the city gates to the garden; John standing panting at the rock-hewn
sepulchre, his stooping down and peering into the dark chamber; Peter
toiling up behind, but not hesitating a moment, and entering and gazing
at this and that till the dumb articles tell their story; and the two
men leave the sepulchre together, awed and convinced. And the eyewitness
who thus graphically relates what he knew of that great morning adds
with the simplicity of a truthful nature, "he saw and
believed"--believed then for the first time; for as yet they had not
seen the significance of certain scriptures which now seemed plainly
enough to point to this.

To some minds this simple narrative will, I say, carry home the
conviction of the truth of the Resurrection more than any elaborate
argumentation. There is an assuring matter-of-factness about it.
Sceptics tell us that visions are common, and that excited people are
easily deceived. But we have no word of visions here. John does not say
he saw the Lord: he tells us merely of two fishermen running; of solid,
commonplace articles such as gr