rds the grave of their Lord, thought of one difficulty which seemed
insurmountable, and asked one another, "_Who shall roll us away the
stone at the door of the sepulchre_?" Still on they went, with faith
and courage, and when they reached their imagined difficulty they found
that it had vanished; for they saw that the stone was rolled away.

A similar experience is constantly met with. It is shared by a young
man who is expected to undertake some doubtful transaction, but from
conscientious scruple hesitates. He fears what the result of a refusal
may be, but resolves to risk it; perhaps to find that the order is not
pressed, or that some new incident opens up for him a way of escape.
True, God does not always deliver a conscientious man from the special
danger before him, but in the forum of conscience, and before the
judgment-seat of Christ, he will be righted.

Be the result what it may, we must be true to conscience, which,
however, is but another form of saying, we must be true to God; and
instead of peering into the future, and picturing to ourselves all
possible evil results, we must learn to take the next obvious step in
the pathway of duty, trusting that God will make the next step clear,
possible, and safe. When a tourist is climbing a difficult mountain,
his guide sometimes rounds a corner, or climbs up to a higher level,
and for a time is lost to sight, having left his charge behind him; and
he, unaccustomed to such an expedition, dares not look down, and fears
to stir another step, till feeling the rope taut between himself and
the guide, and hearing his cheery voice, he ventures forward, to find
that the danger was not so great as he imagined. Thus made bolder by
each difficulty surmounted, he begins to feel the exhilaration of a
mountain climb, which braces the nerves more than anything besides. If
we are really anxious to be in God's appointed way, and boldly take it
when it is made clear, we may be sure that He will answer the prayer:
"_Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not_."

III.

There are crises in the experience of every one when the whole future
is determined; and such a crisis came to Joseph of Arimathea.

He had been for some time a disciple of Jesus, but had never avowed the
fact. But after standing on Calvary and seeing the death of his Lord,
sorrow, shame, and indignation so stirred him, that at once he went in
boldly unto Pilate. It was the turning-point i