224 REV. CANON ;G1RDLEST0NE, M.A., ON THE< RESURRECTION 



soldiers, to make certainty doubly certain, with a spear pierced 

 His side, and there came forth blood and water- ] and you will 

 remember the curious expression of St. John's with regard to it. 

 He might simply have told his story and let it alone; he does 

 not do that. He adds this verse, St. John xix, 35, " And he 

 that saw it bare record, and his record is true : and he " (referring 

 to himself) " knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." 

 It is evident from that verse being inserted that he considered it of 

 very great importance that we should know what had been done 

 by the soldier and what the consequence was of the piercing of 

 the heart of Jesus. Dr. Stroud and others in later days have 

 discussed the physical cause of Christ's death, and they agree that 

 He died not of crucifixion but of a broken heart. I must not 

 say anything more about the death of Christ. It is proved as 

 much as anything can be proved. 



But now I go to the resurrection. And the first thing that 

 strikes me, on carefully examining the four gospels, is that not 

 one single person saw Christ rise. They saw Him after His 

 resurrection, but no one saw Him rise. I think if any forger had 

 written an account of the Eesurrection, witnesses would have 

 been produced who professed to have seen the Lord rise ; and I 

 daresay it was often a wonder to the early Christians that no one 

 had seen the Lord rise. When you survey the speeches in the 

 Acts which deal with the subject you find it still the case. They 

 say, We are witness of His resurrection ; but they did not see 

 Him rise. They ate and drank with Him after His resurrection, 

 which is very different. What was the meaning of it ? We 

 shall see a little later ; but what a marvellous fact is this 

 silence of the witnesses of the gospel upon this particular 

 point ! 



Now we come to St. John's extraordinary testimony which 

 we have in the xxth chapter. There we find Peter and John 

 running a sort of race to see the tomb. John (he perhaps is 

 a little the younger) outran Peter and got first to the tomb. 

 He stooped down — I imagine (though some still doubt) that the 

 tomb was of the nature of a cave — and looked in. He saw the 

 linen clothes in which Christ had been wrapped lying, but did 

 not go in. A natural feeling overcame him, a shrinking from 

 going in ; he just looked in. Peter had no such shrinking. 

 He got there very rapidly, and went right in. What did he 

 see ? He saw the linen clothes lying and the napkin which 

 had been about the head of the Lord, not lying with them in a 

 sort of heap together, but coiled round in a separate place. 

 M Then went in also that other disciple which came first, and 



