_We see the minute fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures._--It had been
written by Isaiah on the page of inspiration, that the Messiah would
make His grave with the rich. When Jesus died that prophecy seemed
most unlikely of accomplishment; but it was literally fulfilled. There
is not a prophecy, however minute, concerning our Lord's life and
death, which did not have an actual fulfillment; and does not this show
us how we are to treat the prophecies which foretell His future glory
and second advent? They too shall have a literal and exact fulfillment.

_We learn, too, that there are more friends of Christ in the world than
we know._--They sit in our legislature, in our councils, in our pews;
we meet them day after day: they give little or no sign of their
discipleship: the most large-hearted friend would be surprised to hear
that they were Christians. But they are Christ's. Christ knows and
owns them. But if they are secret disciples now, they will not be
secret disciples always. A time will come when the fire of their love
will burn the bushel that hides it, and they will avow themselves on
the Lord's side.

_We gather, too, that God can always find instruments to carry out His
purposes._--The immediate followers of Christ could not see how to
preserve the beloved corpse from defilement, but God had His place and
His servants ready; and at the very crisis of need He brought them to
the point. So has it been again and again: when influence and money
and men have been really required for the work of God, they have been
all at once forthcoming. He says to men like Joseph, Go, and he goeth;
and to men like Nicodemus, Come, and he cometh; and to His servants, Do
this, and it is done. Even the king's heart is in the hand of the
Lord; as the rivers of water, He turneth it wheresoever He will.

_There is also a very significant meaning contained in verse 41_: "In
the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden
a new sepulchre." There is something startling in the association--the
cross, the garden. The one--the symbol of shame and suffering, the
most awful witness to the destructive power of that sin which has laid
waste our world; the other--where flowers, Eden's brightest relics,
were guarded for man's enjoyment. Flowers, blooming in all the
luxuriance of an Oriental spring, shed their fragrance around our
Saviour when He died; one loves to dwell upon the thought that Golgotha
was part o