April 1

They entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. — Luke 24:3

Suppose they had found the body there – what would have been the result?

That would have meant that Christ was still holden in the clasp of death. They were disappointed at not finding the body, but in this disappointment lay the glorious hope out of which all our Christian joys come today.

We get from this lesson of comfort, to give cheer to our own hearts when we stand by the graves of our Christian dead. The body of our loved one may be in the grave, but he, the friend we knew and loved, is not there; he is with the Lord.

In describing death, St. Paul speaks of it as “absent from the body, at home with the Lord.” You go to the old house where your friend used to live. You find that he has moved away to a new house on the hill. You stand by the form of your dead. Your friend is not there; he has gone away. Where is he? He has left the old tattered tabernacle and dwells in the house not made with his hands.