s thither. We may
yet retreat. We may yet disentangle ourselves. We may yet receive
into our natures the living power of the Lord Jesus. We may yet cut
off the right hand and right foot, and pluck out the right eye, which
is causing us to offend. Better this, and go into life maimed, than be
cast, as Herod was, to the fire and worm of unquenchable remorse.

XV.

The Grave of John, and Another Grave

(MATTHEW XIV. 12.)

"When some beloved voice, that was to you
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence, against which you dare not cry,
Aches round you like a strong disease and new,--
What hope, what help, what music will undo
That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh,
Not reason's subtle count.... Nay, none of these!
Speak, Thou availing Christ!--and fill this pause."
E. B. BROWNING.

"Tell Jesus"--The Sin-Bearer--The Resurrection of Jesus--The Followers
of John, and of Jesus--"He is Risen!"

We have beheld the ghastly deed with which Herod's feast ended--the
golden charger, on which lay the freshly-dissevered head of the
Baptist, borne by Salome to her mother, that the two might gloat on it
together. Josephus says that the body was cast over the castle wall,
and lay for a time unburied. Whether that were so, we cannot tell;
but, in some way, John's disciples heard of the ghastly tragedy, which
had closed their master's life, and they came to the precincts of the
castle to gather up the body as it lay dishonoured on the ground, or
ventured into the very jaws of death to request that it might be given
to them. In either case, it was a brave thing for them to do; an
altogether heroic exploit, which may be classed in the same category
with that of the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who travelled all night through
the country infested by the Philistines to rescue the bodies of Saul
and his sons from the temple of Bethshan.

The headless body was then borne to a grave, either in the grim, gaunt
hills of Moab, or in that little village, away on the southern slopes
of the Judaean hills, where, some thirty years before, the aged pair
had rejoiced over the growing lad. God knows where that grave lies;
and some day it will yield up to honour and glory the body which was
sown in weakness and corruption.

Having performed the last sad rites, the disciples "went and told
Jesus." Every mourner should go along the path they trod, to the same
gentle and tender