In 1764, Dr. Lardner published, but without his name, a letter to Dr. Macknight, objecting to, the view which that writer had given in his Harmony of the history of our Lord's resurrection. The problem of harmonizing these accounts, that is, of combining the reports of all the four Evangelists into one distinct and consistent narrative, has always been found a difficult one; and it may be doubted whether any solution that has been proposed is in all points satisfactory. Macknight's idea of a visit by the women to the sepulchre on the preceding evening after the close of the Jewish sabbath, is certainly very improbable, and quite unauthorized by the account of any one of the Evangelists. On the other hand, Lardner's supposition of only one appearance of our Lord to Mary Magdalene in the presence of the other women is equally arbitrary and gratuitous, and apparently contradicted by the narrative of Mark, if not by that of John. It may be practicable, but it certainly is not easy, to put all the four accounts together, in such a manner as to include every particular mentioned by each of them, and thus remove all ground for the imputation of contradictions. But it must be remembered that we derive our knowledge of these particulars from witnesses who beheld them under the influence of strongly excited feelings, which left them little leisure to attend to the minutiae of
