We may, however, still make a two-fold division; we may regard the apostles going away to their own homes, as a temporary thing, as a mere term of preparation for the duties which they were afterwards called to; or we may look upon it as complete so far as earth is concerned, since, taking them as Christians only and not as apostles, they might have so lived on to the end of their lives, having received all those helps which were needed for their own personal salvation, and having only to use them daily for their soul’s benefit.  This same distinction we may apply to ourselves.  We may consider ourselves as going to our own homes for a time only, awaiting our call to active life; or we may consider ourselves as withdrawing, after every celebration of Christ’s resurrection, to that round of daily duties which on earth shall never alter; and to which all the helps derived from our communion with Christ are to be applied, with nothing future, so for as earth is concerned, for which we may need them.  So then, of whatever age we may be, what is said of the apostles in the text may apply to us also:  after having witnessed, as it were, Christ’s resurrection, we go away to our own homes.  Let us first take that part of the text which is common to us all, though not in the same degree—­the having been witnesses of Christ’s resurrection.  John and Peter found him not in the sepulchre; they found the linen clothes and the napkin lying there, but he was gone.  And upon this, as John assures us, both for himself and his companion, “they believed.”  They believed, we should observe, when as yet they had no more seen Jesus himself after his resurrection, than we Lave now.  They only knew that he had been dead, and that he was not in the sepulchre.  And this we know also; we have not seen him, indeed, since his resurrection:  but we are sure he is not in the sepulchre.  We are sure that the malice of his enemies did not do its work:  we are sure, for we are ourselves witnesses of it, that that name, and that word, which they hoped would have been destroyed for ever, like the names of many, not only of false prophets and deceivers, but even of good men and of wise, have not perished, but have brought forth fruit more abundantly, from the very cause that was intended to put them out.  Christ’s gospel, assuredly, is a living thing, full of vigour and full of power; it has worked mightily for good, and is working; it is so full of blessing, it tends so largely towards the happiness that is enjoyed upon earth, that we are quite sure it is not lying still buried in Christ’s sepulchre.

They (the two disciples) then went away believing, because they found that he was not in the sepulchre.  But Mary Magdalene came and told them, that she had seen him risen, and had heard his voice with her ears.  What she told Peter and John, Peter and John are now telling to us.  They tell us that they have heard him, have seen him with their eyes, have looked upon him, yea, that their hands have handled him.  They