Most glorious Lord God, it is marvelous in our eyes that you should become incarnate, that your Son should take our flesh upon himself. It surprises us greatly that the Lord of Life should condescend to die, and that the incorruptible One should be laid in the grave. We are full of loving gratitude, we are also full of adoring wonder.
When we have stood at the sepulcher and looked into it, and thought of Jesus having lain there, when we have seen it open and knew that it was empty, we bless your name that even he died and was buried, and magnify you that he is risen again from the dead. These great facts concerning our divine Lord are the foundation of our confidence in him. We bless you that they have been attested by such four-fold witness, and yet further that afterwards he appeared alive to so large a number of those who knew him, that the fact of his rising from the dead might never be questioned again.