The Lord had left a special message for Peter who had denied Him so cruelly and had repented so thoroughly! As they looked to "behold the place where they laid Him," they saw another angel shining white through the gloom, "one at the head, and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain." They also ran, glad, yet half afraid, to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard.

Peter and John found the linen that had wrapped the Lord's body laid carefully aside. They did not yet remember the prophecy concerning His resurrection from the dead, but they believed He had risen, and they went away, hoping perhaps, that He was seeking them.

Mary Magdalene could not leave the empty tomb until she had learned something more about the Lord. Weeping and desolate she stood at the low door of the cave-tomb, and stooping to look in again she saw the vision of angels that the other women had seen, "one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain."

"Why weepest thou?" they asked, and she answered,

"Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." As she turned to go out into the garden she saw one standing there who said,

"Woman why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"

She thought as she looked through her tears that it must be the man who kept the garden, so she said,

"Sir, if thou have borne Him hence tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away."

"Mary!"

It was the voice of Jesus--the same that once said to her, "Thy sins are forgiven," and she spread her arms to clasp His feet, crying.

"_Rabboni!_--my Master!"

"Touch me not," He said, "for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren and say unto them, 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father: and to my G.o.d and your G.o.d.'"

It was while Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, were still in the garden, perhaps, that Jesus met them and said,

"All hail!" and they fell at His feet and worshipped Him.

"Be not afraid," He said, "go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me."

When the women told all these things to the apostles who had come together to mourn for their dead Master, they could not believe. But the first Easter had risen upon the world, and though the joy of it filled all heaven, only a few women knew the blessed secret on earth, and were saying over and over, "The Lord is risen! the Lord is risen indeed!"

CHAPTER XLV.

THE EVENING OF EASTER.

It was the afternoon of the same day in which the women had brought such strange stories from the tomb of the buried Christ, that two disciples went out to their home at Emmaus, a village about eight miles from Jerusalem. They had been in the upper room where they often gathered, and had heard the stories of Mary Magdalene, and of Peter and John, and they knew not what to believe.

As Cleopas and his companion (Luke, perhaps) went westward over the hills they talked of all these strange things with bowed heads and sad hearts, for Jesus, the One whom they had trusted was the Redeemer of Israel, was crucified, dead and buried, and as for the words of these women, they seemed like idle tales; but what if they should be true?

Another step seemed to fall beside theirs, and looking up they saw a n.o.ble looking young Stranger who was following the same road. He greeted them and said,

"What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk, and are sad?"

"Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem," Cleopas said, "and hast not known the things that are come to pa.s.s there in these days?"

"What things?" asked the Stranger, and they said, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before G.o.d and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this to-day is the third day since these things were done."

Cleopas also told the story of the women who had come from the sepulchre that morning talking of a vision of angels, with that of Peter and John, who had gone also, and found it even as the women had said.

Then the Stranger began to speak to them of many things, and in words so full of wisdom and love and faith that their hearts were drawn with Him to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. He told them that they were very foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,"

He said, "and to enter into His glory;" and He explained to them all the Scriptures that foretold the coming, the suffering, and the death of the Messiah, until the two hours' walk seemed as nothing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The walk to Emmaus]

As they came to the village where they lived, and the Stranger was pa.s.sing on, they urged Him to come with them into the low white house near by which was the house of one of them. "Abide with us," they said, "for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went with them, and sat down with them to their evening meal.

Then another and strange beautiful vision was given at the sunset of the first Easter Day, like that which was given to the women at its dawn. The Stranger took bread and blessed it and broke it, and as He handed it to each disciple their eyes were opened, and they knew Him.

It was the Lord! But in a moment He had vanished from their sight, and they could only wonder and believe. They began to recall His words.

"Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?"

Perhaps they ate the bread that He had broken as they would take the sacrament, and then rose, though the day was fading over the hills of Ephraim and hurried back to Jerusalem to the friend's house where the disciples met. There in the upper room, the doors closed and guarded for fear of the Jews, they told the story of the Stranger to the eager disciples, and found that the Lord had also appeared to Peter.

In the midst of the joy and the wonder there fell a strange hush over the little company, for suddenly the Lord was seen standing in the midst and they heard the greeting so dear and familiar to them all,

"Peace be unto you!" and to them all He spread His hands having the print of the nails in them, and showed them His side that bore the mark of the Roman spear. That they might be still more sure He was the Lord and Master they had loved and followed (for they were afraid), He asked them to touch him; and as they had been at supper together He asked to share their meal, and He ate of the broiled fish and of the honey-comb before them. After this He talked lovingly with them of Himself--of the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Him and of the work of the kingdom that was before them. Again he blessed them, and breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And so ended the day of the Lord's resurrection from the dead--the first Easter of the Christian Church.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE LORD'S LAST DAYS WITH HIS DISCIPLES.

On Easter evening, when the Lord's friends were gathered in the upper room where He appeared to them, one of the eleven was absent. There were others beside the apostles--Cleopas and his companion, and probably the women of Galilee, as well as Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany, but Thomas was not there. The others had told him that the Lord had shown Himself to them and had broken bread with them, but he could not believe. He believed, perhaps, in a vision, but not in the return of the crucified Jesus. He declared,

"Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe."

A week pa.s.sed, and the disciples were again gathered in the upper room, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut and guarded as before, but, as before the Lord suddenly stood in the midst, saying,

"Peace be unto you." Then He turned to Thomas with gentle rebuke,

"Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing."

Thomas did not wait to touch the Lord, but cried,

"My Lord and my G.o.d!"

"Thomas," He said, "because thou hast seen me thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and have believed."

Soon after this the apostles went away into Galilee, as the Lord had commanded them to do. There by the Lake where He had called them from their nets to follow Him they waited for Him. Peter, and James, and John were there, with Thomas, and Nathanael, and two others of His disciples. The old love for the Lake came back to Peter, and he said,

"I go a fishing," and the others said,

"We also go with thee," and they went out for a night with the nets on the Lake, but they caught nothing. In the morning as they drew a little nearer land they saw a dim figure on the sh.o.r.e and heard a voice saying to them,

"Children, have ye any meat?" They answered "No," and then the clear voice came across the water saying,