THE ENTOMBMENT.

NOT far from the place of Christ's execution, there was a garden belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, in which was a new sepulchre, lately hewn out of a rock, and by him designed for the reception of his own body. The Saviour's friends having embalmed his body, and wrapped it in linen, according to the practice of the Jews, laid it in this new sepulchre, rolling a large stone before the entrance. "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed *." Mary Magdalene and the other women who were present at the death of their blessed Lord, and had assisted at his burial, repaired early next morning, with spices and perfumes, to embalm the body; not knowing that a guard had been placed before the sepulchre. Their conversation by the way was, how they might remove the large stone from the mouth of the cave. Before they arrived, however, an angel had rolled it away, and was seated upon it when they reached the spot. At the sight of this heavenly visiter, and at the shock of the earthquake which accompanied his appearance, the guards had fallen down upon their faces in consternation, so that the women had free entrance into the sepulchre. Upon entering, they found the body gone, and an angel, in shining garments, sitting in the place where it had been laid. Alarmed at this apparition, they quitted the sepulchre in haste; but were met by another angel, who acquainted them with the Saviour's resurrection. In order to convince them, he conducted them back into the tomb; and showing them the place where Christ's body had lain, and the clothes in which it had been wrapped, commanded them to repair immediately to the Apostles, and inform them that their Lord had risen from the dead.