There was darkness over all the land.
Good Friday and its lessons
A dark shadow belongs to the best of things.
I. The first lesson is patience and perseverance. We must be patient with others if they stumble in the darkness, if they do not at once find their way towards the truth.
II. The darkness of Good Friday is a likeness of the opposition which each one of us ought to be, and will be, called upon to face, in doing his duty.
III. The darkness of the dismal tragedy of the crucifixion reminds us of the consoling truth that failures are not perpetual failures. Good Friday was outwardly a failure; the Easter morn was its complete success. (Dean Stanley.)
A sermon suggested by an eclipse of the sun
The infidel has attempted to impugn its credibility. He has urged: “Why we do not read of it in profane history?”
1. That, according to the evangelical history, the darkness may not have extended beyond the limits of Judea. If this be true it would not be observed in Greece, Italy, or any other country beyond Judea.
2. The historical accounts of that period, especially of matters then occurring in Judea, are, if we except those of the New Testament, very scanty indeed.
3. The policy of both Jews and Gentiles who were opposed to Christianity, was to suppress facts that might tend to record it.
4. It is assuming what cannot be proved when it is said that this event is not named by other than Christian writers. Most of the works of that time have perished; and Tertullian, in his apology for the Christian religion, addressed to the magistates of the empire and to the Senate of Rome, appeals as having this miraculous darkness preserved in their archives.
I. This darkness as indicating the agency which then predominated. Sin was then prevailing over holiness.
II. This darkness as indicating the crime which was then perpetrated.
III. This darkness as indicating the sufferings which were then endured.
IV. This darkness as indicating the evils which were then removed.
V. This darkness as indicating the judgments that were then incurred. (W. Urwick, D. D.)