bed, from their bier, and even when corruption had begun to do its
loathsome work. He had His days of darkness, when He could say, "Now
is my soul troubled;" yet a voice from heaven even then witnessed to
His glory. He washed the feet of His disciples, yet it was at the very
moment when, "knowing that God had given all things into his hands,
that he came from God, and went to God." He died and was buried,
but though, during all the hours which marked that saddest of all
tragedies, there were signs of human woe and weakness, as if "Himself
He could not save," yet what signs of dignity and superhuman majesty!
For He was addressed on the cross as a King by a dying criminal, and
as a King He promised to save him; while the darkened sky, the
rending rocks, and all the august circumstances which attended His
humiliation, proclaimed, with the centurion, "Truly this was the Son
of God!" He lay in the grave, and His body received the tears and
affectionate ministrations of attached friends; but an angel descended
and rolled away the stone; the Roman guard became as dead men; "the
Lord was risen indeed!" and He appeared to His disciples, and so
overcame the unbelief of Thomas by His very presence, bearing the
marks of His human sufferings, that the doubter fell down and
"worshipped Him," saying, "My Lord, and my God!" Jesus remained on
earth for forty days, and we still "behold _the man_." He conversed
familiarly with His apostles, ate and drank with them, and instructed
them in the things pertaining to His kingdom: but He ascended to
heaven before their eyes, while angels announced His second coming;
and soon the descent of the Holy Ghost, with the great ingathering to
the Church which followed, testified to the truth of the apostolic
preaching, that Jesus was the _Son of God_, and that all power was
given to Him in heaven and on earth!

Now, in all this eventful history, there was that very combination