and of the disciples, and the holy women who stood by His cross; they
wish to stir us up to pity and horror, and to bring before us the saddest
parts of Holy Scripture, such as the Lamentations of Jeremiah; as well as
dwell at great length upon very painful details, which may be all quite
true, but of which Scripture says nothing; as so to make this day a day
of darkness, and sorrow, and horror, just such as it would have been to
us if we had stood by Christ's cross, like these holy women, without
expecting Him to rise again, and believing that all was over--that all
hope of Israel's being redeemed was gone, and that the wicked Jews had
really conquered that perfectly good, and admirable Saviour, and put Him
out of the world for ever.

Now, I judge no man; to his own master he standeth or falleth; yea, and
he shall stand, for God is able to make him stand. But it does seem to
me that these good people are seeking the living among the dead, and
forgetting that Christ is neither on the cross nor in the tomb, but that
He is risen; and it seems to me better to bid you follow to-day the Bible
and the Church Service, and to think of what they tell you to think of.

Now the Bible, it is most remarkable, never enlarges anywhere upon even
the bodily sufferings of our dear and blessed Lord. The evangelists keep
a silence on that point which is most lofty, dignified, and delicate.
What sad and dreadful things might not St. John, the beloved apostle as
he was, have said, if he had chosen, about what he saw and what he felt,
as he stood by that cross on Calvary--words which would have stirred to
pity the most cruel, and drawn tears from a heart of stone? And yet all
he says is, "They crucified Him, and two other with him, on either side
one, and Jesus in the midst." He passes it over, as it were, as a thing
which he ought not to dwell on; and why should we put words into St.
John's mouth which he did not think fit to put into his own? He wrote by