Bible Commentaries

Chapter91

Prayer

Almighty God, because the house is thine, there is peace in it, and a great light makes it glad with a morn bright as heaven. This is the day the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it. We would fain dry our tears today and have nothing but joy dwelling in the heart and singing along all the range of the redeemed life. Thou hast redeemed us with blood, thou hast encountered the adversary in mighty battle, and behold the outshedding of the blood of the heart of Christ was the very victory of the Son of God. We are redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ thy Son. We know not the price thereof: they only who have lived long as thyself can add up the mighty value. To us it is precious, redeeming blood, the blood which cleanseth from all sin, the answer of God to the wickedness of the world.

We have come up to thine house with all musical instruments making glad noises, with shoutings of the heart because of thy goodness, yea our whole life lifts itself up in anthems of joyous praise, because thou hast beset us behind and before and laid thine hand upon us. Thou hast held over us the lamp which thou hast set for thine anointed, and thou hast found for us a rod and a staff. We have come to render our whole life to thee in grateful return: Lord, accept the worthless gift, and make it worthy through him that was slain.

We have come to sign thy book again, to write our names upon the open pages, and publicly, in the light of noontide, to proclaim ourselves sinners saved by grace. We would be living sacrifices unto God, our life would rise up into the heavens daily as an acceptable incense. Lord, what are those impulses and desires of ours, but inspirations of the Holy Ghost? Herein do we feel the might gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit. These impulses are thy creation, these prayers come out of thine own Matthew 27:1-19

1. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel (held a council) against Jesus to put him to death:

2. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor (the Procurator of Judea).

3. Then Judas, which had betrayed (the Greek participle is in the present tense) him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented (Greek—a simple change of feeling) himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple (the part of it known as "the sanctuary,"—the money was thrown into the Holy Place), and departed, and went and hanged himself.

6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury (Corban, or sacred treasure chest), because it is the price of blood.

7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field (the type of the unseen Gehenna), to bury strangers in.

8. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;

10. And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.

11. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.

12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

13. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?

14. And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.

15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people (a common incident in a Latin feast in honour of the gods) a prisoner, whom they would.

16. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.

17. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?

18. For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

19. When he was set down on the judgment seat (the chair of Judgment, which was placed on a mosaic pavement), his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

Christ Before Pilate

When the morning was come." Was ever morning invited to look upon so ghastly a spectacle? Morn and death! There is a grim irony in this conjunction of terms. God sends a fair day upon the earth, and we befoul the very dew that glistens upon the heavenly gift. We rise from sleep as men skilled in evil, and begin at once, with practised hands, to rub out the commandments written upon the rocks, and to pervert every promise hidden in the sweet flowers. We begin soon: we might have spent some little time in hesitation, but we are apt scholars in the school of evil; we soon cease to be scholars and become teachers. The morning that once had in it some gladness for us, and some hint of veneration and religiousness, and that came to us as a Matthew 27:20-54

20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.

21. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.

22. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified (the first direct intimation of the mode of death).

23. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands ( Deuteronomy 21:6) before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

25. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Madly inverting the law, Deuteronomy 21:8.)

26. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged (flagellum: the Roman punishment with knotted thongs of leather) Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall (the Prtorium), and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers (the cohort, or subdivision of a legion).

28. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. (Probably some cast-off cloak of Pilate's own.)

29. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand (representing the sceptre used symbolically both in the Republic and the Empire): and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

30. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

31. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name (Mark mentions him as the father of Alexander and Rufus), him they compelled to bear his cross.

33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha (nigh unto the city, John 19:20), that is to say, a place of a skull,

34. They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall (wine mingled with myrrh, meant to dull the sufferer's pain), and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

35. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

36. And sitting down they watched him there;

37. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS (the titulus, or bill, or placard).

38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.

39. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,

40. And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

41. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,

42. He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

43. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

44. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

45. Now from the sixth hour (the place of execution was reached about9 a.m.) there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (to the Roman soldiers and the Hellenistic Jews unintelligible), that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias (probably a wilful perversion).

48. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.

49. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

50. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52. And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

54. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

The Crucifixion

Barabbas or Jesus." That is the question, today, that question never changes. Our choice is not between things similar, but between things exactly and irreconcilably opposite. This does not always appear to be the case, but it is so in reality. We have shaded things now so much into one another that we delude ourselves with the notion that the distance between one action and another is merely nominal. We must get rid of that sophism, if we would begin the real work of life. There are but two spirits in the universe, both present at the opening of human history, and they rule the world today. Those spirits are good and evil, God and the devil, the pure and the impure, the heavenly and the infernal. To one or other of these we belong.

Yet we may not appear to belong to either of them decisively. In our motive and purpose we may be the very elect of God, whilst we are apparently the children of wrath. We are what we would be if we could. Our character is not in the broken deed, the unsaintly word, the passing temper: our character is in our heart of hearts, our secret motive, our supreme purpose. Herein are men misjudged, both on the one side and the other; herein has been found a considerable difficulty in the reading of the Bible itself to some, for they know not how a man can be said to be a man after God's own heart, when he has done thus and so—actions evidently contrary to the spirit of holiness and of justice. How can Peter be a disciple of Christ, when he has sworn with an oath that he knew not the man? Surely there must be some other standard of judgment by which we make our mistakes, for we make no true judgments. I find rest in the doctrine that we are in reality, all appearances to the contrary, what we really would be, in our holiest prayers and in our highest inspirations. If we can say, "Lord, thou knowest all things—thou knowest that I love thee," though ten thousand accusing voices ring from the very caverns of hell itself in impeachment of our life, God will know how to esteem us.

The doctrine holds good on the other side. We are not to be judged by our occasional goodnesses, our fits of charity, our studied actions of beneficence. We cannot pay the mighty debt of accusation which the law brings against us. Thrust we our hand never so deep into our resources, there is nothing in those resources themselves to answer the mighty claim. So let us be just on the one side as on the other. I do not value the momentary sigh, the mere cry of a calculating penitence, which is sorry for the result rather than for the sin. I must be understood as speaking to reality, to essences, to the very vitalities of things, and as holding the candle of the Lord over the thoughts and reins of the heart.

Is not some such word of cheering necessary to recover us from the leprosy of despair? We get into the way of adding up what we have done, and complaining of the little sum. There is a sense in which such action is perfectly proper—but what is your spirit, what is your supreme desire? Stripping yourselves of all commendation, false refuges, mistaken trusts, and fanciful conceptions of life, what is it that you really wish to be? If hidden in God's sanctuary, shut up with God face to face, you can truly say, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee: God be merciful unto me a sinner," then who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" It is Christ that died—who is he that shall rub out the record of his sacrifice and blood? Stand in the temple of these infinite securities and let no man take thy crown.

"The chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus." The chief priests and elders are doing the same thing today. The priest is always a bad man; if he be not more than a priest, he is the worst of men. This was the irreligiousness of religion. Religion has done the very worst things that ever were done in human history. We must get rid of his word "religion" in some of the senses in which it is so often mistakenly and mischievously employed. Religion lay. at the bottom of the original FALL. Eve never could have been deceived by anything but religion. It was along the religious instinct she was approached, it was through the religious instinct she was destroyed. What said the tempter? "Ye shall be as gods."

That is the sophism which underlies the subtlest temptations which assail our life: to be as gods,—to break through the boundary line, to commit the final trespass, to include all things within the circle of our thought and movement! Religion may describe a merely outward attitude, religion may be nothing but a Latin name: what we want is.... Godliness. God is a Spirit.

We want an essential quality, a vital spirit, a holy inspiration. Religion may be irreligious, but godliness can never be less than divine.

In all the imprecatory psalms we have nothing but the irreligiousness of religion; religion pressed beyond its proper province; a partial and imperfect righteousness, a little and mean righteousness which thinks itself virtuous because it would bring down fire upon the vices of other people. The great righteousness is love. O that we could learn that lesson! then should we get rid of all censoriousness and cynicism, and all mutual criticism, and men would be silent where they are now noisy as to one another's faults. The imperfect Matthew 27:55-66

55. And many women (distinct from the "daughters of Jerusalem," Luke 23:28) were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:

56. Among which was Mary Magdalene (the first mention of the name in Matthew), and Mary the mother of James (the Little) and Joses, and the mother (Salome, Mark 15:40) of Zebedee's children.

57. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimatha (probably Ramah, the birthplace of Samuel), named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus" disciple;

58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

60. 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.

61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

62. Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,

63. Saying, sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

64. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error (better deceit, as corresponding with deceiver, ver63) shall be worse than the first.

65. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.

66. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch (the priests took part as well as the soldiers).

The Sayings on the Cross

These incidents are utterly trifling as compared with what had transpired on the cross itself, as indeed all incidents, except the Resurrection, must be. Nothing can occur, so soon after the scene upon the cross, which can, compared with that tragedy, be worthy of one moment's consideration. Whilst therefore these petty details are completing themselves, let us study the inner life of Christ as revealed in some of the Sayings which he uttered from the cross in his last agony. These Sayings will admit us into the very sanctuary of his soul. You remember that he called his sermon upon the mount "These sayings of mine,"—now that he is upon the higher mount, the cross, he utters Seven Sayings, which are really but a re-pronouncement of the first. The Sayings on the cross seem to be the solemn peroration of the Sayings on the mount. The great music is one. He returns, after many a wondrous and thrilling variation, to the note with which he opened the anthem. In such returns and such consonances, we find an argument for his Deity.

What said he on the cross? "Woman, behold thy son." He also said, "I thirst." Further, he said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Again he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And he cried, saying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Finally he said, "It is finished." He laid the rock when he preached the sermon on the mount: on the cross he built the infinite fabric. Without professing to settle the order in which the Sayings are uttered, we can have no difficulty in discovering the meaning of the revelation. After we have studied that meaning awhile, we can come to these little incidents, and gather them up and show their greater meaning.

The Sayings upon the cross surely give a complete revelation of the humanity of Jesus Christ. It was no dramatic personage that quivered on the cross. It is of importance to say this. The voice was human, the confession of need was human, the sense of desolation was human, his filial affection was human. All these last proofs were needed to render absolutely impossible any theory, mythical, dramatic, or imaginary in any sense. On the cross was the man Christ Jesus. The humanity of Christ made his priesthood possible. We could not have a priest in a mere Deity. Deity does not pray. He must be a man, often as weak as I am; he must have a body as real, burning with the same fire, quivering under the same pain, answering the same great demands. He hungered, he thirsted, he slept, he rested because of weariness, he sat down on Jacob's well. Verily he took not on him the nature of angels, he took on him the seed of Abraham. Touch him, grasp him, look at him, watch him, and he is Man and Woman, male and female, the ideal man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. "We have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: he was in all points tempted like as we are."

This is the tender power of his priesthood to my soul. Peter touches the exact music of the occasion when he says, "Casting all your care upon him, for..." O listen to the following and completing words. How grandly the sentence would have read had it stood thus, "Casting all your care upon him, for he is omnipotent." That would, however, have touched but a feeble chord. Only the few can respond to sublimity. The sunset is wasted upon most eyes. But all hearts can answer the sympathetic —so the glorious sentence stands not as I have suggested it, but, "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." It is the moral sublimity, not the intellectual magnificence, that touches the universal heart!

Herein is the secret of the power of evangelical preaching, above all philosophical abstraction and ethical prelection. These touch but a few, but evangelical unction, sympathy, tenderness, grace, these belong to the universal heart, and the tone is detected as the tone of a universal speech. Be quite sure of your Lord's humanity. Do not allow any section of the theological church to steal that from you, as if it belonged to that section as a special possession. When a theologian of any school arises and says, "I believe in the humanity of Jesus Christ," we ought to answer, "And so do we." More fully, more pathetically, and more trustfully, we accept more from his blood than any school of theologians can accept, who doubt or hesitate concerning his divinity. A body was prepared for him: he interrupted no law of nature: whilst on the cross he said, "I thirst,"—what wonder, with his blood drained from his heart, what wonder if the peasant thirsted? The wonder was that he confessed the thirst. But it was a wonder of love, a wonder of condescension, a wonder that concealed a revelation. The words "I thirst" did not indicate a merely personal accident, they revealed and confirmed a sublime doctrine and fact, namely the humanity, and the priestly humanity, of the suffering Son of God. He suppressed no natural instinct—" So, said he, "behold thy mother." He created new relationships whilst he was sundering old ones. "Woman," said he, "behold thy Son , thy support, thy friend, thy refuge in time of bitterest loneliness and childlessness." He set up a new household whilst the temple of his body was being torn asunder, he made whilst he was being unmade. He smothered no natural emotion; "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" uttered in a strange language, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." Hark, is it Hebrew? is it Syriac?—what is it? They could not tell. The bystanding Jews said, "He calls for Elias." He was always misunderstood! The Son of God calling for Elias? Always were his great magnificent words dragged down to little applications and accidental circumstances, by the mean interpreters who thronged around him, crowding him with their society, but not enlarging him with their thoughts.

These Sayings do more than reveal the complete humanity of Christ: they show the grandeur of his moral nature. I do not dwell on the tenderness of his care for his mother, but I would point to the sublimity of his forgiveness. It was his then to be the great man, to work the last miracle, to mount a throne from the very head of the Cross itself. He would have his murderers forgiven! It is grander to forgive than to slay! we should have no enemies if we could really pray for them. They in themselves might continue to be enemies, but in our hearts there would be no sting of enmity. When did the Lord turn the captivity of Job—when he gave his most brilliant retort to his three comforters? No. The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends!

It is always so: it is a subtle and beneficent law in the divine revelation, and the administration of human affairs, that we get our greatest blessings in our most religious moments. Examine what has been done to you, analyze it, weigh it in scales of your own making, measure it by standards of your own setting up, and then you will but aggravate the enmity which you have already deplored. But pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, and though no answer fall upon them, the reply will surely enter your own heart, and in the sanctuary of your consciousness there will be rest, and even joy.

But I would dwell still more upon the magnificence of Christ's religious conceptions. He called himself "forsaken," but he did not therefore deny the existence of God; he did not allow the experience of a moment to becloud and destroy the eternal realities. That is where so many of us fail. God takes away the delight of our eyes, and we therefore turn our back upon him, and deny what is infinitely of more consequence than his existence —we deny his love! Of what avail is it to confess his existence if we deny his providence, his compassion, his mercy? What does it amount to if we have a theological God, but no God gleaming in the compassion which bedews every morning, and shining in the light which gladdens the whole day? Better deny his existence and shout blasphemous oaths into his blank heaven, than profess to acknowledge his existence and yet deny, or distrust or disown his love and his claims.

Let us read this cry of forsakenness in the light of the other Sayings, and we shall see what it meant. How many of us have taken out this dark expression and reasoned gloomily about it, instead of setting it in its right place, and allowing all the lights to shine upon it and illustrate its great sadness and mystery? "Forsaken," yet not without consciousness of God: calling him "Father," committing the spirit into the Father's hands. He is not "forsaken" who can in the darkness say, "Father." Forsaken, yet confident in prayer, spending his last breath in supplication—addressing the heavens, making no appeal to the earth: sending enough downwards to prove his humanity, but sending upwards the great breadth and force of his life. "Father, receive me, Father, forgive them"—he cannot be much forsaken who can thus trust his spirit to the Unseen One!

Forsaken, yet forgiving all; dying with the word of clemency upon his lips, anticipating and outblotting the great judgment about this solemn tragedy. He was not forsaken who thus prayed. "Why hast thou forsaken me?" ay, that is the question of the ages, and that cry was meant for our consideration rather than as an expression of his own loneliness. "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Let the ages answer that inquiry! let the church ponder it! let the world renounce all smaller inquiries, and answer this infinite perplexity! It is a question we must answer: God made no reply; we must find out why it was that for one moment Christ was orphaned and left alone. When we come to consider this question in other relations we may find that it was part of the grand priestly process that Christ should feel the woe of orphanage; we shall find that this was no reflection upon his purity or his purpose, but one of the infinitely solemn secrets of the impenetrable decrees of heaven. Maybe that sin explained the forsakenness, that sin wrought out this isolation; the Lamb must stand back in terrible loneliness to receive the last shock of the very storm which he came to silence and to sanctify.

Then mark how these Sayings show Christ's assurance of the completion of his work. He bowed his head and said, "It is finished." "It"—what? The sentence relates to something beside and beyond itself. "It is finished"—how much is signified by that meanest of the pronouns. Who can tell what visions enthralled his attention at that moment? how the eternal purpose stood before him like a tower on which the top stone had just been laid; how some immeasurable cycle of time completed itself and another cycle of vaster sweep and intenser light began its revolution. What decrees were fulfilled, what prophecies matured, what hearts enlightened, what worlds opened—none can tell. The atonement was completed, the answer to the law perfected, the way to the Father was opened, the love of God shone upon the world without a cloud to interrupt its light, and righteousness and peace kissed each other over the covenant fulfilled.

In the light of these reflections turn to the little incidents that make up the rest of this chapter, and in those incidents you find bewildered but undespairing love. "Many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him." They stood their ground, and were saying just what Christ was saying, in a sense their own. They said, "My Jesus, my Jesus, why hast thou forsaken me?" Had he forsaken them? No more than God had forsaken him. See in their loneliness some hint of the meaning of his own, "I will come again. After three days I will rise again. Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it again." It was a momentary forsakenness; it recalled an ancient prophecy—"For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee."

Then here is what we always find in the whole Christian history, and perhaps in the individual story as well—Help from an unexpected quarter. "When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathæa, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus" disciple; he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus." Help from an unexpected quarter! the evening having a star all its own! This star was not seen in the bright light, it shone "when the even was come." The evening brings us all together: morning scatters us, evening reconstitutes the household and resanctifies the home. Thank God for evening stars, for night glories, for jewellery gleaming through the darkness. We have seen some of God's bright stars when the night settled upon our houses, but what we have seen is but a dim hint of the glory that shall be revealed.

And here also we have a confession of human weakness. They—the chief priests and Pharisees—remembered what the disciples had forgotten. The disciples required to be reminded of the resurrection!—"Then remembered they the saying that he would rise again,"—but the enemies treasured it. Our enemies catch tones in our speech which our friends sometimes miss. Those who watch us most carefully with a view to our destruction write down in their note-books sentences which our friends hardly hear. " Sir, " said they, "we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again." So they would have precautions taken. Pilate said unto them,—I wonder with how much of irony,—"Ye have a watch—go your way, make it as sure as ye can." As ye can: go your way—wave your hands to the rising sun, and forbid him to advance. What a fool's errand! Go your way: seal up the Spring, and tell it that this year we shall have no vernal wind and no vernal blossoming. What a fool's errand! Go your way and tell Arcturus and his sons to shine no more, and bid the Pleiades vanish from the heavens they have illumed so long. What a fool's errand!—but a philosopher's undertaking compared to sealing the tomb in which lay the Son of God.

So shall all our enemies be disappointed, if we ourselves be right; so all sealing and watching shall come to an ignominious end, if the thing buried be only the body, and not the soul that cannot die!