A Communion Sunday in Scotland ca. 1780 by Leaver Robin A.;Spinks Bryan D.;Spinks Bryan D;

Author:Leaver, Robin A.;Spinks, Bryan D.;Spinks, Bryan D;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

EVENING SERMON

MATTHEW xxviii. 6

Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

WHEN OUR Saviour expired upon the cross, the cause of Christianity seemed to be lost. Rejected by that nation to whom he was sent, condemned under the forms of a legal trial, and crucified as a malefactor before all the people, an effectual bar seemed to have been put for ever to all his designs. It then seemed that all was over. A people whom their prophets taught to look for a king, did not look for him to come down from a cross; a nation who expected the appearance of a Messiah, did not expect him to appear from the grave. His followers were few in number, and feeble in spirit. Although he had frequently foretold his death, the idea of a temporal prince was so strong in their minds, that they could not reconcile themselves to the thought of a suffering Saviour; and though he had also on various occasions foretold his resurrection, they were so much under the power of prejudices, deeply rooted, that they either did not understand, or did not believe his predictions. When he was apprehended by a band of soldiers, they forsook him and fled; they had not courage to attend him in the last hour of his life; to go with him to the tribunal and to the cross: afar off only, they followed with their eyes, and beheld with tears, him whom they expected to behold no more. Then they gave up all for lost. The sun, which was soon after darkened by a preternatural eclipse, and the rock which was rent asunder by an earthquake, appeared to be the sad tokens of a glory that had departed, and of a kingdom that was to be no more.

Dark and dismal were the shades of that night which descended on the Saviour’s tomb: the hearts of the disciples were troubled, and their Comforter was gone. All the scenes of their past lives, the miracles they had seen, the discourses they had heard, the hopes they had entertained, were like a dream; they abandoned themselves to despair, and, as we learn from the Evangelist Luke, they were about to leave Jerusalem, and betake themselves to their old employments.

While the enemies of Jesus triumphed, and his friends lamented, the councils of heaven were executing, and the operation of the Almighty was going forward. We read in the Gospel of Matthew —“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

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