The manner in which the first day of the week is pointed out in the Gospels as the day of the Lord’s resurrection, is itself striking and significant. All four of the evangelists concur in making prominent the fact that it was on this day that Christ rose from the dead. This fact is stated by Matthew, 28:1-6; twice by Mark, 16:1-6, and again in verse 9; by Luke, 24:1-6; by John, 20:1, 2. This concurrent, particular mention of the first day of the week as the day of the resurrection, in four independent historical accounts, the earliest of which was written probably about twenty years after that event, has a significance readily overlooked, but well worth noting. To appreciate this fully, we must distinguish between the words of the historians and the words of the persons whose sayings they record—a most important point in the study of any history. Observing this distinction, then, we note that the promise of Christ, as recorded by the historians, was, that he would rise from the dead on the third day, dating from and including the day of his crucifixion and burial. The chief priests and Pharisees, asking Pilate to have the sepulcher guarded; the angels at the sepulcher the morning of the resurrection; the two disciples, conversing with the risen Lord on the way to Emmaus, and the Lord himself, speak of it as the _third_ day. In no other way does any one whose language is recorded by the historians refer to the day of the resurrection. Now, had the historians themselves, writing after an interval of from nearly twenty to over sixty years, simply desired to state the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, it would have been sufficient for them to say that, according to His promise, he rose on the _third_ day. But instead of this, they all concur in pointing out particularly the _first_ day of the week as the resurrection day. On the supposition that, when the historians wrote, the first day was regarded precisely like the second and third days of the week, as it was at the time of the resurrection, this change of statement is singular and inexplicable. On the other hand, on the supposition that the first day had become an honored and noted day among Christians, this mention of it by all the evangelists, and that, too, in a uniform and somewhat formal phrase, and the difference between the language of the historians and that of the persons of whom they write, are naturally and satisfactorily explained. In this change of language, then, on the part of the inspired historians, and in their concurrent and prominent mention of the first day, we have strong presumptive evidence in favor of the marked character of that day at the time when the Gospel histories were written. Testimony of this kind, in the form of unstudied allusion or undesigned coincidence, though easily passed without notice, is acknowledged on all hands to be of great weight.