Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/326

 learn the nature of the occurrences which had so alarmed the women, the nimbleness of the youthful John soon carried him beyond Peter, and outstripping him in the anxious race, he came down to the sepulcher before him, and there stood, breathless, looking down into the place of the dead, in vain, for any trace of its late precious deposit. While he was thus glancing into the place, Peter came up, and with a much more considerate zeal, determined on a satisfactory search, and accordingly went down into the tomb himself, and narrowly searched all parts; and John, after his report, also then descended to assure himself that Peter had not been deceived by a too superficial examination of the inside. But having gone down into the tomb, and seen for himself the grave-clothes lying carefully rolled up, but no signs whatever of the body that had once occupied them, he also believed the report of the women, that the remains of Jesus had been stolen away in the night, probably by some ill-disposed persons, for an evil purpose, and perhaps to complete the bloody triumph of the Jews, by denying the body so honorable an interment as the wealthy Joseph had charitably given it. In distress and sorrowful doubt, therefore, he returned with Peter to his own house, without the slightest idea of the nature of the abstraction.

The next account of John is in that interesting scene, described in the last chapter of his own gospel, on the lake of Galilee, where Jesus met the seven disciples who went on the fishing excursion by night, as already detailed in the life of Simon Peter, who was the first to propose the thing, and who, in the scenes of the morning, acted the most conspicuous part. The only passage which immediately concerns John, is the concluding one, where the prophecy of Jesus is recorded respecting the future destiny of this beloved disciple. Peter, having heard his Master's prophecy of the mode in which he should conclude his life, hoping to pry still farther into futurity, asked what would be the fate of John also. "Lord, what shall this man do?" which Jesus replied, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"—an answer evidently meant to check his curiosity, without gratifying it in the least; as John himself, remarking on the fact, that this saying originated an unfounded story, that Jesus had promised him that he should never die,—says that Jesus never specified any such thing, but merely said those few unsatisfactory words in reply to Peter. The words, "till I come," referred simply to the time when Christ should come in judgment on Jerusalem, for