“The Lord Is Risen, Indeed”

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 13, 1873,

BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!
Remember how He spoke unto you when He was yet in Galilee." Luke 24:5,
6.

THE first day of the week commemorates the Resurrection of Christ and,
following Apostolic example, we have made the first day of the week to
be our Sabbath. Does not this intimate to us that the rest of our souls
is to be found in the Resurrection of our Savior? Is it not true that a
clear understanding of the rising again of our Lord is, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, the very surest means of bringing our minds
into peace? To have a part in the Resurrection of Christ is to enjoy
that Sabbath which remains for the people of God. We who have believed
in the risen Lord do enter into rest, even as He also, Himself, is
resting at the right hand of the Father. In Him we rest because His
work is finished, His Resurrection being the pledge that He has
perfected all that is necessary for the salvation of His people and we
are complete in Him.

I trust, this morning, that some restful thoughts may, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, be sown in the minds of Believers while we make a
pilgrimage to the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and see the place
where the Lord lay.

I. And, first, this morning, I will speak to you upon certain
INSTRUCTIVE MEMORIES which gather around the place where Jesus slept
"with the rich in His death." Though He is not there, He assuredly once
was there, for "He was crucified, dead, and buried." He was as dead as
the dead now are and though He could see no corruption, nor could be
held by the bands of death beyond the predestined time, yet He was in
very deed most assuredly dead. No light remained in His eyes, no life
in His heart. Thought had fled from His thorn-crowned brow and speech
from His golden mouth. He was not, in mere appearance, but in reality
dead–the spear-thrust decided that question once and for all.

Therefore in the sepulcher they laid Him, a dead Man, fit occupant of
the silent tomb. Yet as He is not there now, but is risen, it is for us
to search for memorials of His having been there. Not for the "holy
sepulcher" will we contend with superstitious sectaries, but in spirit
we will gather up the precious relics of the risen Redeemer. First, He
has left in the grave the spices. When He rose He did not bring away
the costly aromatics in which His body had been wrapped, but He left
them there. Joseph brought about one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes,
and the odor remained. In the sweetest spiritual sense, our Lord Jesus
has filled the grave with fragrance. It no longer smells of corruption
and foul decay, but we can sing with the poet of the sanctuary–

"Whyshould we tremble to convey These bodies to the tomb? There the
dear flesh of Jesus lay, And left a long perfume."

Yonder lowly bed in the earth is now perfumed with costly spices and
decked with sweet flowers, for on its pillow the truest Friend we have
once laid His holy head! We will not start back with horror from the
chambers of the dead, for the Lord, Himself, has traversed them–and
where He goes no terror abides. The Master also left His grave clothes
behind Him. He did not come from the tomb wrapped about with a
winding-sheet. He did not wear the burial clothes of the tomb as the
garments of life, but when Peter went into the sepulcher he saw the
grave clothes lying carefully folded by themselves. What if I say He
left them to be the hangings of the royal bedchamber wherein His saints
fall asleep?

See how He has curtained our last bed! Our dormitory is no longer bare
and drear, like a prison cell, but hung around with fair white linen
and comely tapestry–a chamber fit for the repose of princes of the
blood! We will go to our last bedchamber in peace, because Christ has
furnished it for us! Or if we change the metaphor, I may say that our
Lord has left those grave clothes for us to look upon as pledges of His
fellowship with us in our low estate and reminders that

as He has cast aside the death garments, even so shall we. He has risen
from His couch and left His sleeping robes behind Him in token that at
our waking there are other vestures ready for us, also.

What if I again change the figure and say that as we have seen old
tattered flags hung up in cathedrals and other national buildings as
the memorials of defeated enemies and victories won, so in the crypt
where Jesus vanquished death His grave clothes are hung up as the
trophies of His victory over death, and as assurances to us that all
His people shall be more than conquerors through Him that has loved
them? "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?"
Then, carefully folded up and laid by itself, our Lord left the napkin
that was about His head. Yonder lies that napkin now. The Lord needed
it not when He came forth to life.

You who mourn may use it as a handkerchief with which to dry your eyes.
You widows and you fatherless children– you mourning brothers and you
weeping sisters–and you, you Rachels, who will not be comforted
because your children are not here, take this which wrapped your
Savior's face and wipe your tears away forever! The Lord is risen,
indeed, and therefore thus says the Lord, "Refrain your voice from
weeping and your eyes from tears, for they shall come again from the
land of the enemy." "Your dead men shall live." O mourner–together
with the Lord's dead body shall they arise! Why, sorrow not as they
that are without hope, for if you believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so they, also, which sleep in Jesus will the Lord bring
with Him!

What else has the risen Savior left behind Him? Our faith has learned
to gather up memorials sweet from the couch of our Lord's tranquil
slumber. Well, Beloved, He left angels behind Him, and thus made the
grave–

"A cell where angels use To come and go with hea venly news." Angels
were not in the tomb before, but, at His Resurrection, they descended!
One rolled away the stone and others sat where the Body of Jesus had
lain. They were the personal attendants and bodyguard of the Great
Prince and, therefore, they attended Him at His rising, keeping the
doorway and answering the enquiries of His friends. Angels are full of
life and vigor, but they did not hesitate to assemble at the grave,
gracing the Resurrection even as flowers adorn the spring!

I read not that our Master has ever recalled the angels from the
sepulchers of His saints. And now, if Believers die as poor as Lazarus
and as sick and as despised as he, angels shall convey their souls into
the bosom of their Lord and their bodies, too, shall be watched by
guardian spirits, as surely as Michael kept the body of Moses and
contended for it with the foe. Angels are both the servitors of living
saints and the custodians of their dust. What else did our Well-Beloved
leave behind Him? He left an open passage from the tomb, for the stone
was rolled away–doorless is that house of death! We shall, in our
turn, if the Master comes not speedily, descend into the prison of the
grave. What did I say?–I called it a "prison," but how can it be a
prison–it has no bolts or bars!

How can it be a prison, that has not even a door to close upon its
occupants? Our Samson has pulled up the posts and carried away the
gates of the grave with all their bars! The key is taken from the belt
of Death and is held in the hands of the Prince of Life! The broken
signal and the fainting watchmen are tokens that the dungeons of death
can no more confine their captives! As Peter, when he was visited by
the angel, found his chains fall off him and iron gates opened to him
of their own accord, so shall the saints find ready escape at the
Resurrection morning! They shall sleep awhile, each one in his resting
place, but they shall rise readily, for the stone is rolled away!

A mighty angel rolled away the stone, for it was very great–and when
he had done the deed he sat down upon the stone. His garment was white
as snow and his face like lightning. And as he sat on the stone he
seemed to say to Death and Hell, "Roll it back, again, if you can."
"Who shall rebuild for the tyrant his prison? The scepter lies broken
that fell from his hands. His dominion is ended–the Lord is arisen!
The helpless shall soon be released from their bands." One thing else I
venture to mention as left by my Lord in His forsaken tomb. I visited,
some few months ago, several of the large grave vaults which are to be
found outside the gates of Rome.

You enter a large square building, sunk in the earth, and descend by
many steps. And as you descend you observe on the four walls of the
great chamber, innumerable little pigeonholes in which are the ashes of
tens of thousands of departed persons. Usually in front of each
compartment prepared for the reception of the ashes stands a lamp. I
have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of these lamps, but they are all
unlit and, indeed, do not appear ever to have carried light. They shed
no ray upon the darkness of death. But now our Lord has gone into the
tomb and illuminated it with His Presence–"the lamp of His love is our
guide through the gloom."

Jesus has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel! And now
in the dovecotes where Christians nestle, there is light–yes, in every
cemetery there is a light which shall burn through the watches of
earth's night till the day breaks and the shadows flee away–and the
Resurrection morn shall dawn! So, then, the empty tomb of the Savior
leaves us many sweet reflections which we will treasure up for our
instruction.

II. Our text expressly speaks of VAIN SEARCHES–"Why seek you the
living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!" There are places
where seekers after Jesus should not expect to find Him, however
diligent may be their search, however sincere their desire. You cannot
find a man where he is not, and there are some spots where Christ never
will be discovered. At this present moment I see many searching for
Christ among the monuments of ceremonialism, or what Paul called, "the
weak and beggarly elements," for they, "observe days and months and
times and years." Ever since our Lord arose, Judaism and every form of
symbolic ceremony have become nothing better than sepulchers.

The types were of God's own ordaining, but when the Substance had come,
the types became empty sepulchers and nothing more. Since that time men
have invented other symbols which have not the sanction of Divine
authority and are only dead men's graves. At this present period the
world has gone mad after its idols, deluded and deceived by those who
have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Surely there never
was a period, even when Rome was most dominant, in which men heaped
unto themselves ceremonies at such a rate as at the present day! They
have made Christianity to be a greater yoke of bondage than was
Judaism, itself–but in vain shall any sincere and awakened soul hope
to find Jesus among these vain performances!

You may stumble from one holy day to another, and from one holy place
to another, and from one hocus-pocus to another, but you shall not find
a Savior in any of them, for thus has He Himself declared, "Neither in
this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men worship the Father, but
the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship
Him." Jesus has torn the veil and abolished ceremonial worship and yet
men seek to revive it, building up the sepulchers which the Lord has
broken down. This day He repeats in our ears the warning, "Take you
good heed unto yourselves, for you saw no manner of similitude on the
day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire;
lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the
similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female."

Yet certain men among us go about to set up the altars which our godly
forefathers broke down, and the work of Reformers and of Protestants
must now be done over again! God send us a Knox or a Luther with a
mighty hammer to break in pieces the idols which the priests of Baal
are setting up! They seek the living among the dead! Jesus is not in
their masses and processions! He is risen far above such carnal
worship! If He were a dead Christ, such a worship might, perchance, be
a suitable pageant over His tomb. But to one who always lives, it must
be insulting to present such materialistic services!

Alas, there are many others who are seeking Christ as their Savior
among the tombs of moral reformation! Our Lord likened the Pharisees to
whitewashed sepulchers–inwardly they were full of dead men's bones,
but outwardly they were fairly garnished. Oh, the way in which men,
when they get uneasy about their souls, try to whitewash themselves!
Some one gross sin is given up, not in heart, but only in appearance,
and a certain virtue is cultivated, not in the soul, but only in the
outward act–and thus they hope to be saved though they still remain
enemies to God, lovers of sin and greedy seekers after the wages of
unrighteousness! They hope that the clean outside of the cup and the
platter will satisfy the Most High and that He will not be so severe as
to look within and try their hearts.

O, Sirs, why do you seek the living among the dead? Many have sought
peace for their consciences by their moral reforms–but if the Holy
Spirit has truly convicted them of sin–they have soon found that they
were looking for a living Christ amidst the tombs. He is not there, for
He is risen! If Christ were dead, we might well say to you, "Go and do
your best to be your own saviors," but while Christ is alive, He needs
no help of yours–He will save you from top to bottom, or not at all.
He will be Alpha and Omega to you and if you put your hands upon His
work and think in any way that you can help Him, you have dishonored
His holy name–and He will have nothing to do with you! Seek not a
living salvation among the sepulchers of outward formality.

Too many, also, are struggling to find the living Christ amidst the
tombs which cluster so thickly at the foot of Sinai. They look for life
by the Law, whose ministry is death. Men think that they are to be
saved by keeping God's Commandments. They are to do their best and they
conceive that their sincere endeavors will be accepted–and they will

thus save themselves. This self-righteous idea is diametrically opposed
to the whole spirit of the Gospel! The Gospel is not for you who can
save yourselves, but for those who are lost! If you can save
yourselves, go and do it, but do not mock the Savior with your
hypocritical prayers! Go and stumble among the tombs of ancient Israel
and perish as they did in the wilderness, for Moses and the Law can
never lead you into rest.

The Gospel is for sinners who cannot keep the Law for themselves–who
have broken it and incurred its penalty! The Gospel is for those who
know that they have done so and confess it. For such, a living Savior
has come that He may blot out their transgressions. Seek not salvation
by the works of the Law, for by them shall no flesh living be
justified. By the Law is the knowledge of sin and nothing more!
Righteousness, peace, life, salvation come by faith in the living Lord
Jesus Christ and by no other means! "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved," but if you go about to establish your own
righteousness, you shall surely perish because you have rejected the
righteousness of Christ.

There are others who seek the living Jesus among the tombs by looking
for something good in human nature–in their own natural hearts and
dispositions. I can see you now, for I have known you a long time and
this has always been your folly–you will go into the morgue of your
own nature and say, "Is Jesus here?" Beloved, you are sad and depressed
and I do not wonder. Look at yonder dry bones and bleaching skeletons.
See that heap of rottenness, that mass of corruption, that body of
death–can you bear it? "Ah," you say, "I am a wretched man, indeed,
but I long to find some good thing in my flesh!"

O Beloved, you search in vain! You might as well rake Hell over to find
Heaven in it as look into your own carnal nature to find consolation!
Behold this day, God has abandoned the old nature and given it up to
death. Under the old Law, circumcision was the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, as though after this filth were gone the flesh
might perhaps be bettered, but now, under the New Covenant, we have a
far deeper symbol, for, "know you not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we
are buried with Him by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we, also,
should walk in newness of life." "The old man is buried as a dead thing
out of which no good can come." "Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from
now on we should not serve sin."

God does not attempt to renew the old carnal mind, but to make us new
creatures in Christ Jesus. If any man continually practices
introspeculation with a view to consolation, he might as well pile up
blocks of Wenham ice with a view to burn down a city! If you are
turning over your frames and feelings, your thoughts and imaginations,
to discover comfort, you might far sooner hope to find precious
diamonds in the sweepings of the roads. "He is not here," says the
whole of our old nature. He is not here, He is risen! And for
consolation you must look alone to Him, as He is enthroned above the
skies.

Yet again, too many have tried to find Christ amidst the gloomy
catacombs of the world's philosophy. For instance, on Sunday they like
to have a sermon full of thought–thought being, in the modern meaning
of it, something beyond, if not opposite to, the simple teaching of the
Bible. If a man tells his people what he finds in the Scriptures he is
said to "talk platitudes." But if a man amuses his people with his own
dreams, however opposed they may be to God's thoughts, he is a
"thinking man," a "highly intellectual preacher." There are some who
love, above all things, the maundering of daydreamers and the crudities
of skeptics. If they can hear what an infidel Professor has said
against Inspiration–if they can be indulged with the last new
blasphemy–some hearers feel that they are making advances in that
higher culture which is so much vaunted nowadays!

But, believe me, the bat-haunted caves of false philosophy and
pretended science have been searched again and again, and salvation
dwells not in them! In Paul's day there were Gnostics who tracked all
the winding passages of vainglorious learning, but they only discovered
"another gospel which was not another." The world by wisdom knew not
God. After roaming amid the dreary catacombs of philosophy, we come
back to breathe the fresh air of the living Word and concerning the
mazes of science, we gasp out the sentence–"He is not there." Reason
has not found Him in her deepest mining, nor speculation in her highest
soaring, though, indeed, He is not far from any one of us! Athens has
her unknown God, but in the simple Gospel God is known in the Person of
Jesus.

Socrates and Plato hold up their candles, but Jesus is the soul. Our
moderns quibble and dispute and yet a living Christ is among us
converting sinners, cheering saints and glorifying God! If the Lord
were a dead question for debate, philosophy might help us. But as He is
a living power, a grain of faith in Him is better than mountains of
philosophy. O

you who know not the inner life and the quickening Spirit, what have
you to do with the risen Lord? As well might corruption's world become
the judge of cherubim as you become the arbiters of the Truth of God
concerning Jesus our

Lord!

How anxiously do I wish that you who have been searching for salvation
in any of these directions would give up the hopeless task and
understand that Christ is near you–and if you, with the heart, believe
on Him, and with the mouth confess Him, you shall be saved. "Look unto
Me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and
beside Me there is none else." This is His cry to you. "Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved." Jesus is still living and able to save
to the uttermost! All you have to do is simply turn the glance of your
faith towards Him–by that faith He becomes yours–and you are saved!
But oh, seek not the living among the dead, for He is risen!

III. We will again change our strain and consider, in the third place,
UNSUITABLE ABODES. The angels said to the women, "He is not here, but
is risen!" As much as to say–since He is alive He does not abide here.
The living Christ might have sat down in the tomb–He might have made
the sepulcher His resting place–but it would not have been
appropriate. And so He teaches us today that Christians should dwell in
places appropriate to them. You are risen in Christ–you ought not to
dwell in the grave!

I shall now speak to those who, to all intents and purposes, live in
the sepulcher though they are risen from the dead. Some of these are
excellent people, but their temperament, and perhaps their mistaken
convictions of duty, lead them to be perpetually gloomy and desponding.
They hope they have believed in Christ, but they are not sure. They
trust that they are saved, but they would not be presumptuous enough to
say so. They do not dare to be happy in the conviction that they are
accepted in the Beloved! They love the mournful string of the harp.
They mourn an absent God. They hope that the Divine promises will be
fulfilled–they trust that, perhaps, one of these days they may come
forth into light and see a little of the brightness of the Lord's
love–but now they are ready to quit, they dwell in the valley of the
shadow of death and their soul is sorely burdened.

Dear Friend, do you think this is a proper condition for a Christian to
be in? I am not going to deny your Christianity for a moment, for I
have not half so much doubt about that as you have. I have a better
opinion of you than you have of yourself! The most trembling Believer
in Jesus is saved and your little faith will save you. But do you
really think that Christ meant you to stay where you are, sitting in
the cold and silent tomb amid the dust and ashes? Why keep underground?
Why not come into the Master's garden where the flowers are breathing
perfume? Why not enjoy the fresh light of full assurance and the sweet
breath of the Spirit's comforting influences?

It was a madman who dwelt among the tombs–do not imitate him. Do not
say I have been such a sinner that this is all I deserve to enjoy. If
you talk of deserving, you have left the Gospel altogether. I know you
believe in Jesus and you would not give up your hope for all the world.
You feel, after all, that He is a precious Christ to you. Come, then,
rejoice in Him though you cannot rejoice in yourself. Come, Beloved,
come out of this dreary vault, leave it at once! Though you have lain
among the pots, yet now you shall be as the wings of a dove covered
with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. Your Master comes to you
now and says, "O My Dove, that are in the clefts of the rocks, in the
secret places of the stairs, let Me see your countenance, let Me hear
your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is comely."

Members of the body of a risen Savior, will you still lie in the grave?
Arise and come away! Doubt no longer! O Believer, what cause have you
to doubt your God? Has He ever lied to you? Question no longer the
power of the precious blood. Why should you doubt it? Is it not able to
cleanse you from sin? No longer enquire as to whether you are saved or
can be–if you believe, you are as safe as Christ is! You can no more
perish than Christ can if you are resting in Him– His word has pledged
it, His honor is involved in it–He will surely bring you unto the
promised rest! Therefore be glad. Why, I have known a Brother live down
in the catacombs and vaults so long that he has condemned his Brethren
for living in the sunlight, and has said, "I cannot understand a man
speaking so confidently, I cannot understand it."

My dear Brother, because you cannot understand it, it is not,
therefore, wrong. There is a great deal about eagles that owls do not
understand. You that are always fretting and worrying in that way are
sinning against God–you are grieving His Spirit! You are acting
inconsistently with your Christian profession and yet you judge others
who believe God to be true and take Him at His Word and therefore get
joy and comfort out of His promise! Never do that–it would be wicked,
indeed, for you to set yourselves up as judges. Instead, pray the Lord
to lift up the light of His

Countenance upon you, to give you joy and peace in believing, for this
He says, "Rejoice in the Lord you righteous, and shout for joy all you
that are upright in heart." Come out of the tomb, dear Brothers and
Sisters, for Jesus is not there and if He is not there why should you
be? He is risen! O rise into comfort, too, in His Spirit's power!

Another sort of people seem to dwell among the tombs–I mean
Christians–and I trust real Christians. They are very, very worldly.
It is no sin for a man to be diligent in business, but it is a grievous
fault when diligence in business destroys fervency in spirit–and when
there is no serving of God in daily life. A Christian man should be
diligent so as to provide things honest in the sight of all men, but
there are some who are not content with this. They have enough, but
they covet more, and when they have more, they still stretch their arms
like seas to grasp in all the shore. Their main thought is not God, but
gold–not Christ, but wealth.

O Brothers and Sisters, Brothers and Sisters, permit me earnestly to
rebuke you lest you receive a severe rebuke in Providence in your own
souls. Christ is not here! He dwells not in piles of silver. You may be
very rich and yet not find Christ in it at all–and you might be poor,
and yet if Christ were with you, you would be happy as the angels. He
is not here, He is risen! A marble tomb could not hold Him, nor could a
golden tomb have contained Him. Let it not contain you! Unwrap the
grave clothes of your heart–cast all your cares on God who cares for
you. Let your conversation be in Heaven. Set not your affection on
things on the earth, but set it upon things above where Christ sits at
the right hand of

God.

Once more on this point, a subject more grievous still–there are some
professors who live in the house of sin. Yet they say that they are
Christ's people! No, I will not say they live in it, but they do what,
perhaps, is worse–they go to sin to find their pleasures. I suppose we
may judge of a man more by where he finds his pleasure than by almost
anything else. A man may say, "I do not habitually frequent the
gaieties of the world. I am not always found where sin is mixed with
mirth and where worldlings dance upon the verge of Hell–but I go there
now and then for a special treat." I cannot help quoting the remark of
Rowland Hill, who, when he met with a professor who went to the
theater–a member of his Church–said to him, "I understand you attend
the theater." "No," he said, "I only go for a treat now and then."

"Ah," said Mr. Hill, "that makes it all the worse. Suppose that
somebody said, 'Mr. Hill is a strong being, he eats carrion,' and I am
asked, 'Is it true, Mr. Hill, that you live on carrion?' 'No, I do not
habitually eat carrion, but I have a dish of it now and then just for a
treat.' Why, you would think I was nastier than I should have been if I
had eaten it ordinarily." There is much force in the remark. If
anything that verges on the unclean and lascivious is a treat to you,
why then, your very heart is unclean and you are seeking your pleasure
and comfort among the dead!

There are some things that men take pleasure in nowadays that are only
fit to make idiots laugh, or else to cause angels to weep. Do be
particular, Christian men and women, in your company. You are brothers
to Christ–will you consort with the sons of Belial? You are heirs of
perfection in Christ. You are, even now, arrayed in spotless linen, and
you are fair and lovely in the sight of God–you are a royal
priesthood, you are the elect of mankind–will you trail your garments
in the mire and make yourselves the sport of the Philistines? Will you
consort with the beggarly children of the world? No, act according to
your pedigree and your newborn nature and never seek the living among
the dead. Jesus was never there–go not there yourselves. He loved not
the noise and turmoil of the world's pleasures. He had meat to eat of
another kind. God grant you to feel the Resurrection life strong within
your spirits.

IV. But I pass on from that. In the fourth place, I want to warn you
against UNREASONABLE SERVICES. Those good people to whom the angels
said, "He is not here, but is risen!" were bearing a load, and what
were they carrying? What is Joanna carrying, and her servants? And
Mary, what is she carrying? Why, white linen–and what else? Pounds of
spices, the most precious they could buy. What are they going to do?
Ah, if an angel could laugh, I should think he must have smiled as he
found they were coming to embalm Christ!

"Why He is not here and, what is more, He is not dead! He does not need
any embalming, He is alive!" You might have seen all over England, on
Good Friday, and also on this Easter Sunday, crowds of people–I have
no doubt very sincere people–coming to embalm Christ. They tolled a
bell because He was dead and they hung crepe over what they call their
altars because He was dead, and they fasted and sung sad hymns over
their dead Savior! I bless the Lord my Redeemer is not dead–and I have
no bells to toll for Him, either! He is risen, He is not here! Here
they come, crowds of them with their white linen and their precious
spices to wrap a dead Christ up in!

Are they mad? But they say, "We were only acting it over again." Oh,
was that it? Practical charades, was it? Acting the glorious Atonement
of Calvary as a play! Then I accuse the performers of blasphemy before
the Throne of the eternal God who hears my words! I charge them with
profanity in daring to rehearse in mimicry that which was once done and
done forever and is never to be repeated! No, I cannot suppose they
meant to mimic the great Sacrifice, and, therefore, I conclude that
they thought their Savior to be dead. And so they said, "Toll the bells
for Him! Kneel down and weep before His image on a cross."

If I believed Jesus Christ died on Good Friday, I would feast all day
long because His death is over! As He has ordained the high festival of
the Lord's Supper to be His commemoration, I would follow His bidding
and keep no fast. Who would sit down and whine over a Friend once dead
if you know Him to be restored to life and exalted in power? Why toll a
bell for a living Friend? However, I condemn not the good people any
more than the angels condemned those holy women, only they may take
their spices home and their white linen, too, for Jesus is alive and
does not need them!

In other ways a great many fussy people do the same thing. See how they
come forward in defense of the Gospel. It has been discovered by
geology and by arithmetic that Moses was wrong. Straightway many go out
to defend Jesus Christ. They argue for the Gospel and apologize for it,
as if it were now a little out of date and we must try to bring it
round to suit modern discoveries and the philosophies of the present
period. That seems to me exactly like coming up with your linen and
precious spices to wrap Him in. Take them away! I question whether
Butler and Paley have not, both of them, created more infidels than
they ever cured–and whether most of the defenses of the Gospel are not
sheer impertinences. The Gospel does not need defending! If Jesus
Christ is not alive and cannot fight His own battles, then Christianity
is in an evil case.

But He is and we have only to preach His Gospel in all its naked
simplicity, and the power that goes with it will be the evidence of its
dignity. No other evidence will ever convince mankind. Apologies and
defenses are well intended, no doubt–so was the embalming well
intended by these good women–but they are of small value. Give Christ
room, give His preachers space and opportunities to preach the Gospel
and let the Truth of God be brought out in simple language! And you
will soon hear the Master say, "Take away the spices, take away the
linen! I am alive, I do not need these." We see the same kind of thing
in other good people who are sticklers for old-fashioned, stereotyped
ways–they must have everything conducted exactly as it used to be
conducted 100 or 200 years ago. Puritan order must be maintained and
there must be no divergence.

The way of putting the Gospel must be exactly the same way in which it
was put by good old Dr. So-and-So, and in the pulpit there must be the
most awful dreariness that can possibly be compassed. And the preacher
must be devoutly dull and all the worship must be serenely proper–lots
of spices and fine linen to wrap a dead Christ up in! I delight to
break down conventional proprieties. It is a grand thing to put one's
foot right through merely human regulations–life cannot be strapped
down by regulations fit only for the dead! Death lies wrapped up like a
mummy in the museum–it will always do the proper thing, or rather
won't do anything at all. But Life, reality, will show itself
unexpected ways. Life will say what Death could not say. It will break
out where it was not expected and break all your laws and regulations
into a thousand pieces!

But still I see the good people holding up their hands in horror, and
crying out, "Bring here the Arabian gum, the myrrh and the aloes. Bring
here the linen–we must take care of our dear, dead Master." Leave Him
alone! Leave Him alone, Man, He is alive and does not need your
wrapping up. I do not hesitate to say that a great deal of Church order
among Dissenters and Episcopalians, Presbyterians and all sorts of
denominations–and a great deal of propriety and decorum, and
regulation, and,
"As-it-was-in-the-beginning-is-now-and-ever-shall-be-isms"–are only so
much spices and knell for a dead Christ. But Christ is alive and what
is needed is to give Him room!

I do not say this for my own sake–am I not always proper?–but I say
it for the sake of earnest Brother Evangelists who, in preaching to the
poor, use extravagance of language and perhaps of action. Let them use
it. Scoffers say they are histrionic. Was ever anybody ever half so
histrionic as Ezekiel? Did not all the Prophets do strange things to
get the attention of the people? Why, the same charge was brought
against Whitfield and Wesley–"These people are breaking through all
rules," and so on. What a blessed thing it is when men can do it! Mr.
Hill went to Scotland to preach the Gospel and they said he rode on the
back of all order and decorum.

Then said he, "I will call my pair of horses by those names, and make
it true." It was true! No doubt he did ride on the back of order and
decorum, but then he drew souls to Christ with those two strange steeds
and his breaking through rules enabled him to get at men and women who
never would have been got at in any other way. Be ready to set Christ
at liberty and give His servants liberty to serve Him as the Spirit of
God shall guide them.

V. I wanted to speak, last of all, upon THE AMAZING NEWS which these
good women received–"He is not here, but is risen!." This was amazing
news to His enemies. They said, "We have killed Him–we have put Him in
the tomb– it is all over with Him." Aha! Scribe, Pharisee, Priest!
What have you done? Your work is all undone, for He is risen! It was
terrifying news for Satan. He, no doubt, dreamed that he had destroyed
the Savior–but He is risen! What a thrill had gone through all the
regions of Hell! What news it had been for the grave!

Now it was utterly destroyed and Death had lost his sting! What news it
was for trembling saints. "He is risen, indeed." They plucked up
courage and they said, "The good cause is still the right one and it
will conquer, for our Christ is still alive as its Head! It was good
news for sinners! Yes, it is good news for every sinner here. Christ is
alive! If you seek Him He will be found of you. He is not a dead Christ
to whom I point you today. He is risen! And He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him. There is no better news for
sad men, for distressed, desponding and despairing men than this–the
Savior lives–able, still, to save and willing to receive you to His
tender heart!

This was glad news, Beloved, for all the angels and all the spirits in
Heaven! Glad news, indeed, for them. And this day it shall be glad news
to us, and we will live in the power of it by the help of His Spirit.
And we will tell it to our Brethren that they may rejoice with us, and
we will not despair any longer. We will give way no more to doubts and
fears, but we will say to one another, "He is risen, indeed: therefore
let our hearts be glad." The Lord bless you, and in coming to His
table, as I trust many of His people will come, let us meet our risen
Master. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Luke 24.
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A Call To Worship