The objection that they could not have known that Jesus had said, “After three days I will rise again,” is well answered by Alford: “Not the saying, but its meaning was hid from his disciples.” Judas knew it, and may have informed the chief priests and Pharisees of it; and they may have known it from other sources, for it was not spoken in secret. Nor with their perverse rejection of him while they could not deny his works, is it improbable that they might have some apprehension of the necessity of a guard? We are not to judge them from our standpoint, but from theirs. They did _not_ believe that he was the Messiah (Acts iii. 17; 1 Corinthians ii. 8). They said and doubtless believed, after a fashion, “He deceiveth the people” and “casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.” Their guilty fears were the occasion of this increased certainty of his resurrection. The mention of a guard by Matthew (although not by the other Evangelists), is in perfect keeping with his previous occupation, which had led him to make, and observe, precautions against fraud. It was, in his view, as in ours, an important fact that their precautions against imposition had reacted upon themselves. His narrative is unimpeached. It was published early, and his statement of the appointment of a guard was not contradicted. The facts must stand that Jesus died, and was buried; and at the instance of his bitterest foes, soldiers guarded his tomb against the little company of his frightened followers. At a very early hour on the first day of the week it was known that the stone had been rolled away, and the body of Jesus was not in the tomb. Such is the testimony of all the Evangelists. This great fact is at the threshold of our inquiry. It must be accounted for. The Christian’s explanation is that Jesus rose from the dead, and an angel of the Lord descended and rolled away the stone. The account which the soldiers were induced to circulate was, that his disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept. This story was current among the Jews when Matthew wrote[4] his Gospel, and when, nearly a hundred years after, Justin Martyr wrote to Trypho the Jew. It ought not to be difficult to determine which explanation is the true one. As soon as Mary Magdalene (who was of the company of women who came first to see the sepulchre), saw that the stone was rolled away, she ran to Peter and John, saying, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid him.” (John xx. 2.)