Easter Eve.

THE EVENTS OF EASTER EVE.

62-66.

“Now the next day that followed the day of Matt. xxvii. the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,

Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.

Luke xxiii.

56.

So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch."

"And [the women which came with him from Galilee] rested the sabbath day, according to the commandment"

LECTURE VII.

THE WARNING OF THE DAY OF REST.

ST. LUKE xxiii. 56.

"And rested the sabbath day, according to the commandment."

ST. MARK is altogether silent concerning the events of Easter eve. The fifteenth chapter closes the narrative of the Friday; at the commencement of the sixteenth, the Sabbath is spoken of as already past. St. John is silent also. The account of St. Matthew occupies but five verses; and that of St. Luke but a few words. The former tells us of the anxiety and restlessness of the scribes and Pharisees; the latter of the resignation and obedience of the faithful

followers of Christ. And this is all that we read in Holy Scripture of the vigil which we now commemorate. The Second Lesson appointed for the morning and the Gospel, brief as they are, contain more than the complete narrative of the day.

What a contrast does this silence afford to the long, minute, and heart-stirring accounts of the events of yesterday! Our Church has, as it were, spread them out through the services of the whole week. Hitherto the occurrences of each particular day have been omitted, in order that the crucifixion itself may be brought continually before our eyes. It is as though mourner after mourner had passed by, first St. Matthew, then St. Mark, then St. Luke, and last of all the beloved Apostle, St. John; each walking along the same path; each raising his finger, and pointing slowly to the cross; and each in his own voice and words giving the same solemn warning of the price that was paid for the redemption of mankind.

I do not think that any one could really enter into the Church Services for Passion Week without being conscious of a marked change on Easter eve. We seem to breathe more freely now that the oft-repeated narrative of the crucifixion is at an end, and we feel that a day of comparative rest, a Sabbath day, has arrived.

Such, also, do I believe to have been the spirit that this day breathed on the little flock which our Saviour left upon earth. It was given to them to collect their thoughts; to recover from their alarm; to weep quietly for their Lord; to repent their momentary desertion of Him; to love Him more and more because He was gone; to feel that there was a dreary blank without Him; to remember all He had said and done; to meditate on His mysterious promises; to hope that in a little while He would be with them again; to pray, as He had taught them, for the coming of His kingdom; to gaze on the precious ointments which they had pre