368 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



ther, were placed on the east side of the altar, because 

 from that quarter the bright light of the morning sun 

 arose a natural symbolism common to nearly all re- 

 ligions, Christians, Mohammedans, and Pagans alike 

 turning to the east in prayer, and laying their dead 

 and building their sacred shrines in that direction- 

 so the Sun of Righteousness rose from that point of 

 the compass, and cast back the light of the glory of the 

 resurrection upon all the incidents and circumstances 

 of His death. The radiance of the rising sun shone 

 on the ashes beside the Jewish altar, making it manifest 

 that the lamb had .been entirely consumed; the sun 

 rose upon the morning of the Sabbath after Christ's 

 crucifixion upon a cross from which the slain Lamb of 

 God had been taken away, and upon a sepulchre nigh 

 at hand, wherein had lain the body of Him who was 

 the end of the law for righteousness. And lastly, as 

 the Jewish priests carried the ashes of the sacrifice 

 without the camp into a clean place, so the body of 

 Jesus was laid outside the city of Jerusalem in a new 

 sepulchre wherein no man had ever before been laid. 

 His grave was in a garden which was close to Golgotha, 

 where He was crucified. Truly God gave beauty for 

 ashes in that garden sepulchre ! How significant is the 

 circumstance that the ashes of our great atoning sacri- 

 fice were laid in this clean place ! What a garden of 

 loveliness and fruitfulness have they made of this deso- 

 late wilderness world ! All old things have passed 

 away and all things have become new. A new crea- 

 tion, grander and fairer than the first, rose out of the 



