In the fore part of this chapter we have an account of the manifestation of the mighty and miraculous power of God which was the evident cause of the conviction of the people; and to no other cause, I humbly conceive, can we impute such consequences. Permit me to remark here, that all that ingenuity has ever invented about how the body of Jesus was disposed of, can have no weight at all against the doctrine of the resurrection which the apostles propagated. The body's being absent from the sepulchre never convinced one reasonable being in the world, of the fact of the resurrection. It did not convince those who first saw the sepulchre empty. "Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and they (the angels) say unto her, woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto him, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the gardner, saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, 'Mary.' She replied, 'RABBONI!'" How naturally is this account given. In what an artless manner is the story told. I so much admire the sincerity and unaffected love of Mary to her master that the following reflections demand a place here. The person who but three days before was crowned with thorns, was reviled and spat upon, was most ignominiously crucified between two thieves and laid in the sepulchre is so much the object of Mary's affection that she appears solicitous for the body. I cannot doubt the truth of Mary's being here, for the story is told without any design. But why is Mary here? If Jesus was an impostor she never knew of his working a miracle in her life. But if Jesus was in fact what he pretended to be and if he wrought those miracles which are recorded of him, all is explained. But it is evident that Mary had not thought of Jesus' having been raised from the dead, when she saw that he was absent from the sepulchre. When Jesus spake to her, and called her by name as he had frequently done before, she knew him. When this Mary and the other women that were with her went to the eleven, and told them the story, they did not believe it, nor does it appear that Peter believed in the resurrection, even after Mary and others had certified him, and he had been himself to the sepulchre and found it empty; but he went away "wondering in himself at that which was come to pass." The evidences by which the disciples believed in this all-important truth were equal to its importance and to its extraordinary character. These evidences have been noticed. 2d. The mission of Christ and his apostles, the miracles wrought by them in attestation of that mission, and the credibility of their testimony respecting a future state may now receive some notice.