[18] “The cerements were there, but the body was gone. Whither? Had it been stolen and hidden? Who would have been the thieves? Friends or foes? Not friends; for how could their faith be made heroic for their crusade against the world’s unbelief by a theft and a carcase? Not foes; for it was their interest to prevent the disappearance of the body, that there might be ocular demonstration of the falsity of the predicted resurrection. The fact of the actual resurrection of our Lord is a rock-of-ages that never can be moved.”—Commentary on Mark, by James Morrison, D.D. (1882), p. 445. CHAPTER XIX. SUFFICIENCY OF THE PROOFS (AFFIRMATIVE EVIDENCE). Holding, then, the objectors to the historical record, and keeping in mind that the question is narrowed down to the hypothesis of visions on the one hand, or to a true resurrection on the other, _what evidence had the Apostles and immediate disciples that they were not deceived_? First and foremost, they had the empty tomb. They knew[1] that the body was neither left on the cross, in violation of the Jewish law, nor thrown to the “dust-heap,” in violation of the Roman law which required a delivery to the friends as soon as claimed, but was placed in the sepulchre, as attested by all the Evangelists, as also by Paul. They knew that _they_ had not taken it away, and that if the Jews had, they would have been but too ready to produce it when, only a few days after, it was boldly proclaimed, that that Jesus whom they had crucified, God had raised from the dead. It was the absence of the body that first arrested the attention of the women, and also of Peter and John, and which, with the orderly arrangement of the grave clothes, induced a conviction of the truth in the mind of John, before Jesus appeared to any, and sent Peter to his home “wondering.” And these same facts (the good faith of the disciples themselves being undoubted), can never be explained, in any rational way, otherwise than by the fact of the Resurrection. There is a great truth in Professor Keim’s expression[2] that: “It is upon an empty tomb that the Christian Church is founded.” They had _further_ proof, in subsequent appearances to individuals singly, to the collective body of Apostles, and to the multitude of believers, under circumstances that satisfied them, and should convince us, that they were not deceived.