Travelers in Eastern countries have had a good deal to say about tombs. Those who have had the means and opportunity, have spent years and years of their lives in exploring and examining the tombs which are to be found in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and other parts; or in digging in sands and rocks, and even under the beds of rivers, to discover tombs which they fancied might be hidden there. This is a curious way to spend one's Life, is it not? For tombs, you know, are the dwelling-places of the dead, and it seems a strange fancy for a living person to fritter away the precious hours in company with death.
But travelers in Eastern countries are not the only persons who act thus, any more than they are the only travelers in this wide world. You and I, dear reader, are travelers too, travelers through a region of sin and pain and sorrow, travelers from time to eternity; and so are all persons who are born into this world. And the question comes to us-What are we doing with the precious hours? How are we spending them? Are we journeying in the way of life, with the sunshine of God's love upon us? or are we hidden away among the dark unwholesome tombs, in company with death?
In a place called Gournou the people actually live in tombs. A celebrated traveler tells us that they have never erected a single house, although the materials for building them lie all around. They prefer the dark hollow rocks where the dead lie buried, and thither they bring their cows and camels, their buffaloes and sheep, their goats and dogs, and make themselves exceptionally comfortable. Instead of having the bright sun to light up their abodes, they have little lamps, kept alive by rancid oil, or the fat of sheep, and these are suspended from the black ceilings of the mummy-pits, in which they live. Often, when the traveler referred to went in to sup with them, he had no other seat than a heap of bones; and the food which was placed before him had been baked in ovens, which had been heated with mummy cases, or even with the bones and rags of the mummies themselves. In the Bible we are told of a rebellious people "which remain in the graves, and lodge in the monuments;" and the end of that people was to be death-death, like the mummies with which they chose to live-death by the hand of the Lord; because they did evil before His eyes, and chose that wherein He delighted not. (Isa. 65:1212Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. (Isaiah 65:12).) The people of Israel were a rebellious people, and when the Lord set before them 'Life and good, and death and evil,' and told them to love Him and walk in His ways, they chose death and did evil in His sight, and they had to be punished for it. And people to-day, young people as well as middle-aged and old people, are making the same choice. The Bible sets before them “the way of life and the way of death,” and they choose the last. That is to say, when Jesus tells them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me,” they do not heed His words. They prefer to remain among the tombs (in “the shadow of death” as we might say), and have no desire that their blind eyes should be opened to see the light of life. The flickering light of their own smoky little lamps is more to them than the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and so they go on in their state of darkness and unbelief, heedless of the Saviors tender invitation, and heedless, too, of that word of warning, "the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.”
“Ye will not come to me," is the sorrowful reproach of the One who loves them and died to save them; "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." How strange that He should thus be slighted and rejected by those for whom He suffered and died! Do you not think, dear reader, it is time to alter your treatment of this loving One, time to think more worthy thoughts of Him, time to trust yourself to those open arms of His? Surely, yes! Then why not take advantage of the present moment; why not come to Him now? I do not ask you to do this because you want Him (though you need Him greatly, whether you realize your need or not), but because He wants you. He came into this world to save you. "I am come," He says, "that ye might have life." He died to save you. He was the good Shepherd, "who gave his life for the sheep." He went into the place of death that you might be taken out of it. He went down to the grave that you might be with Him in the glory: and Jesus in heaven, not the gloomy society of the tombs, will be the end and object of your journey, if you take the place of a traveler in the narrow way. Do you not think that life with Jesus is better than death among the tombs? I am sure you do. The path of life-the only right path-leads up to the courts of heaven, but the chambers of death lead to the pit of hell. Faith in Jesus will set your feet in the right path; unbelief will keep you where you are. There is no uncertainty as to this, for God says it, and His words are not to be mistaken: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Doubtless you have heard the Bible story of the man of Gadara, who had his dwelling among the tombs. Poor, unhappy man! he was in a sad way till Jesus met him. He was not responsible for his actions, as we should say, and people had to bind him with fetters and chains, lest he should do them harm. No one could tame him, for (like many persons in our own time) he was led captive by the devil at his will. And even when they did bind him, he used to break the chains and fetters, and get loose again; "and always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones." But one day Jesus crossed the sea of Galilee, and came into the country of the Gadarenes; and He had no sooner left the ship, than the man saw him. Oh, the wondrous power of a Look at Jesus! It was the salvation of that man. He saw Him; he believed in Him; and then he worshipped Him: and the unclean spirits which had vexed his Peace were driven away, and he was made whole and happy. Youthful reader, if you have not looked by faith to Jesus, you are like this poor demoniac, and need the Savior more than I can tell you. Satan is trying to keep you in the place of death, among the tombs; and though you may not know it, you are injuring yourself more and more, the longer you keep away from Christ—cutting yourself with stones, to use the scriptural figure. The loving counsels and gentle reproofs of your friends are the fetters and chains with which they seek to bind you, but when Satan presently tempts you to do wrong, you feel that you have no power to resist his allurements, and so you break the chains, and not only grieve your friends and make yourself unhappy, but grieve the loving heart of Jesus too. Well, now, if you will simply Look to Jesus, He will not only save your soul and make you immediately happy, He will not only forgive your sins and wash every stain of them away in His precious blood-though He will surely do all this-but He will also give you power over the great enemy of your soul, so that when he comes to you, you will be able to resist him, and take no harm by his attacks. Is not such a power as this worth having?
But I have not yet told you all I have to tell about tombs. It is a gloomy subject I grant you, though many persons seem to take another view of it. What a strange parade is sometimes made of death-and what a mine of wealth is often spent on tombs! I once read an account of a grand sepulcher which had been built many hundred years ago for one of the kings of Egypt. It was discovered after a great deal of trouble at a depth of eighteen fect in the ground (for the accumulating sand of ages had helped to bury it in this way), and when the outer door of the tomb was opened, the traveler who had made the discovery entered a corridor or passage, thirty-six fect long, the ceiling of which was decorated with paintings. At the end of the corridor was a staircase, leading clown to another door, which opened upon a second corridor, and the walls of this were painted as well as thc ceiling. Then he came to a deep pit, which he descended by means of ropes, till he carne to a large hole in the side of the pit, finto which he crawled. After proceeding a short distance, his progress was arrested by a wall of painted plaster, but having broken through this barrier, he found himself in a beautiful hall, supported by great pillars. In this way he passed in succession through several chambers, each more beautiful than the last, and separated by staircases and corridors, in one of which he found the carcass of a bull, and several wooden figures of mummies. Last of all, he came to a magnificent saloon, in the center of which was an immense stone coffin of the finest alabaster, quite transparent, and covered by several hundred minutely sculptured figures. This contained the mummy of the Egyptian king.
But with all its grandeur, the tomb of this Pharaoh was only a house of death: ah! and death is always death, dress it up as you will. We may embalm the body, and lay it in coffins of oak, or lead, or alabaster, it matters not; sooner or later it must fall to corruption, while the soul, the priceless, immortal soul, lives on. True, the bodies will be raised again one day, but we have nothing to do with that. The soul, and not the body, should be our deep concern. Those who make provision only for their bodies are taking care of the husk, and throwing the kernel away; they are treasuring the casket and throwing away the gem; and what folly can be greater than this? The resting-place of the body is, after all, of very, very little moment. Whether in the bed of the great ocean, or in some funeral urn; whether in a lofty pyramid, or beneath the grassy mound of a village churchyard; the Christian in his deal coffin is better-oh, how much better off than the Christless king in his sarcophagus of alabaster. And how is this?
The question brings us to our last mention of tombs; and, by way of variety, I will now introduce you to an empty tomb. The tomb of Jesus is an empty tomb. We are also told that it was a new tomb, which a rich man named Joseph had hewn out in the rock. Our illustration shows us one or two of these rock-hewn burial places, which are very common in the East, especially in the hill country round about Jerusalem; but it is difficult and expensive work digging out these chambers in the hard rock, and hence only rich people are buried in that way. The prophet Isaiah says of Jesus, that "he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;" and thus, you see, though men could find no place for Him while He was going in and out among them, a rich man's tomb was ready for Him when He died. This is the way of the world. Joseph, to be sure, gave up his tomb to Jesus with the best of motives-love; but it is not so with all. The scribes and Pharisees who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous, sought to kill Jesus, who carne to fulfill what the prophets had written. "Woe unto you," He said, "for ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them."
What dreadful hypocrisy was this! How offensive it must have been to God! Insincerity and unreality of any kind are always hateful to Him, and persons who try to be what they are not, whether before God or before their fellowmen, only show that they are very blind. It is no use pretending to love God if we have not felt the power of His love in our hearts; it is no use pretending to be Christians if we have not placed our trust in His beloved Son. It was a custom with the Jews to whiten their sepulchers every year on the fifteenth of February, in order to make them Look clean and spotless; and a hypocrite is just like one of these sepulchers. Jesus Himself has used this illustration and speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, He said, “Ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed are beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.” Now no one covets a character like that; it is not pleasant to be likened to a place which is full of uncleanness and corruption: but to all who make pretensions of belonging to Christ, and yet have never placed themselves in His hands-to all such the term applies. The world is full of unrealities, and will one day pass away; but the abiding things are real. Heaven and hell are real; God is real; and the interests of our undying souls are very, very real.
But I was speaking of the tomb of Jesus. There was no corruption in that tomb. Corruption was the consequence of sin, and Jesus being without sin, God could not suffer His holy One to see corruption. Man, who wanted to see the end of Him, tried to keep Him in the place of death, but man's efforts were of no avail. A great stone was rolled before the mouth of the tomb, and a seal was fixed upon it, and men were put there to watch, lest the body of Jesus should be stolen away, but these were vain precautions. It was foolish of them to think that a sealed stone and a guard of soldiers could present any obstacles to the Son of God. We know what happened. During the night "there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back Me stone from the door, and sat upon it"; and when Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James carne to the tomb next morning with heavy hearts, they were told to fear not, for Jesus was risen. And presently the wondrous news had passed onward to His disciples, and the awed, yet happy whisper, had gone round that little circle, "The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!”
And the tomb of Jesus was now an empty tomb. Think of that. Jesus had gone down into the dark regions of death because He had taken the sinner's place, and death was the sinner's doom; but it was not possible that He should be holden of death, and He rose triumphant out of it. And we who trust Him, knowing that He bore the death-penalty of all our sins, we have a place with Him beyond the tomb, and are looked upon as risen with Him. God will never punish us for sins which Jesus bore. That could never be.
" The Lord is risen: with Him we also rose,
And in His grave see vanquish'd all our foes.
The Lord is risen: beyond the judgment land,
In Him, in resurrection life we stand.”
Happy portion! And to all who are in the secret and enjoyment of this great blessing, the word of God is this: "IF YE TREN BE RISEN WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. (Col. 3:11If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1).)
CHAPTER ON FEASTS.