Geographical settings of biblical events attract much interest. Foundations fund expeditions to study, photograph or search out various sites. People of different faiths travel on vacations, study programs or specialized tour groups to visit places of significance in the Holy Land. Articles and books are published about places such as Mount Sinai, Jericho, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee and the Mount of the Beatitudes. Biblical geography teems with thousands of places where sacred events transpired.

At Easter, Christians generally turn attention to those New Testament lands where Jesus lived, taught and ministered, where He spent His last days of mortality, and the sites where He underwent His atoning sacrifice and resurrection.

Two roads figure prominently in the New Testament accounts of testimonies of His resurrection and post-mortal ministry: the Road to Emmaus and the Road to Damascus.

On the day of His resurrection from the tomb, the Savior appeared to many people, including Mary, to other women at the tomb, to Peter and, that evening, to ten of the Twelve Apostles.

At some time during that day of His resurrection, the Risen Lord walked and talked with two disciples on their way to Emmaus. They did not recognize Him; their "eyes were holden," or restrained. (Luke 24:16.) Certainly, they did not expect to see Him.

When the Resurrected Lord asked why they were sad, they told Him of the events of the past days in Jerusalem: the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion and the empty tomb. It was not until they sat to share a meal, when "he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them" that "their eyes were opened, and they knew him." (Luke 24:30-31.)

They returned to Jerusalem, where they added to the testimonies of others their own eye-witness account of the Resurrected Christ: "And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread." (Luke 24:35.)

Paul added to previous testimonies his personal witness of the Resurrected Lord. To the saints at Corinth, he wrote of knowledge of the Resurrection gleaned from others' accounts, saying that the Risen Lord was seen of Cephas, the Twelve, "above five hundred brethren at once," some of whom were still living at the time Paul wrote to the Corinthians. James and the remaining 11 Apostles had seen the Savior after His resurrection. (See 1 Corinthians 15:5-7.)

Paul then added his personal witness:

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time." (1 Corinthians 15:8.)

Paul was referring to his experience on the way to Damascus, an experience that led to his conversion from a persecutor of the Savior's followers to one of the greatest advocates of His teachings.

It was not enough to tell others of just the teachings of Jesus. Paul bore testimony of His resurrection. The Savior's divine mission included not only His atoning sacrifice but also His resurrection.

May we ever stand with those who walked the Emmaus and Damascus roads and all those who have borne witness that Jesus lives, that He overcame death that all might live. At the April 1953 general conference, President David O. McKay said:

"Religious leaders since history began have taught virtue, temperance, self-control, service, obedience to righteousness, and duty; some have taught a belief in one supreme ruler and in a hereafter; but only Christ broke the seal of the grave and revealed death as the door to immortality and eternal life. To the unimpeachable evidence of the ancient Apostles to the resurrection of our Lord we add the sublime declaration of the Prophet Joseph Smith:

" 'And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!' (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22)."