version, which was suddenly thrown open to the Church. So spoke the Spirit of God by the Psalmist, when he exclaimed, with reference to that extraordinary period, 'The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.'* Very important it was for those who were carrying abroad the tidings of a Saviour crucified and raised from the dead, to have themselves seen that Saviour after his resurrection. On the truth of this one fact turned the whole weight of their Gospel report. Besides which, by thus bringing together more than five hundred of his disciples before his ascension, our Lord not only provided them with a very valuable qualification for the ministry; but furnished an occasion for the establishment of a communication amongst all the believers. To this it may be attributed, that they were found assembled in so large numbers on the day of Pentecost, ready for the extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost. Prepared at once by the privilege of being eye-witnesses of the resurrection, and also by the eminent endowments, which were bestowed through the effusion of the Spirit on that day, they constituted a class of disciples qualified, beyond all future ordinary converts, for immediate appointments; and out of these, no doubt, went forth the first promulgators of the faith, Matthias and Barnabas, Stephen and Philip, and others named and unnamed in the inspired annals.

*Psalm lxviii. II.

JESUS APPEARS TO PETER (third appearance) AND ALSO TO JAMES (ninth appearance.)

I Cor. XV. 5, 7.

He was seen of Cephas.James.

-After that, he was seen of

That Peter was favoured with a special interview by Jesus risen, is recorded in St. Luke's narrative, and here again by St. Paul, who adds that James had the same privilege accorded to him. If James the brother of John be intended, it was an additional instance of that preference which Jesus had, on several occasions, shewn to him conjointly with Peter and John. They only were present, it may be remembered, at his transfiguration. They were selected from the whole number to witness his restoring Jairus's daughter to life. They, too, were called on to attend and sympathize with him in that most distressing scene of his ministry -his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. We do not learn that John was, like the other two, selected for a separate manifestation to him of his risen Master; but neither was he without a token of that special favour which he had heretofore shared with them. For him alone it was reserved to witness our Lord's coming in the establishment of his spiritual reign; and it was made the subject of a distinct prophecy. Of the importance and gratifying character of this privilege, no words can give a livelier idea than the fervent language of the apostle himself, when hailing

the event on its near approach: He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'*

JESUS ASCENDS INTO HEAVEN.

(Tenth and last appearance.)

Mark xvi. 19, 20. Luke xxiv. 50-52. Acts i. 1-II. (See also I Cor. xv. 7.)

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. And he led them out as far as to Bethany; and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him.- -The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me: for John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto

*Revelation xxii. 20.

i

the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Our Lord having manifested himself, on various occasions, and having given proof of his return to life the same, in all respects, as he died, met his disciples, lastly, in Jerusalem, led them forth as far as Bethany, and there, in their presence, ascended into Heaven.

We readily discern the fitness and importance of this his formal departure from the world. He had so frequently, from the day of his resurrection, up to that moment, visited the apostles and others of his disciples and again departed, that it was quite requisite to fix, by some significant act, that departure which was to be final-final, I mean, as related to his manifestation in the flesh. Thenceforward his followers were no longer to expect his guidance and comfort in the flesh, but another Comforter was to come, the Holy Spirit. Him, the Immanuel, the heavens were to receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.'*

In reading the account of this solemn and impressive act of our Redeemer, there is one false notion, against which some may require to be cautioned.

*Acts iii. 21.

Jesus was seen ascending into the heavens; but we must not suppose, therefore, that the Godhead was subject to the local accident of ascending with his body, and again descending with the mysterious tongues of flame on the day of Pentecost. God must, at all times, be equally omnipresent. Locality is not a condition of the divine, as it is of our human existence. His nature cannot be circumscribed by place. When, therefore, He is said to come or to go-to ascend or descend-to visit the world or to depart from it-these expressions can only mean, that He has ceased to be manifested-that He has begun again to be manifested that He has ceased to operate on us— that he has begun to do so-and the like. In the present instance, the visible and bodily ascent of Jesus into the heavens, could only be an expressive token that God was ceasing to be manifested to us in the Person of Jesus Christ; and, in like manner, the opposite token of descending fiery tongues, signified that God was beginning to be manifested in a new way, even by the Holy Spirit.

Whenever grosser notions steal upon your mindand whose is the mind on which they do not sometimes operate?-ask yourselves the question, Whither was our Lord seen to ascend by the apostles, the witnesses of the ascension? To the heavens; that is, to the sky. But where is heaven? Not surely in the atmosphere that surrounds this world: it is not, surely, a place bounded by the lines of the astronomer or the geographer. Heaven, the abode of God, is not a place,