10 — Christ's Ascension

Chapter 10 CHRIST’S ASCENSION GLORIOUS The history of Christ during his residence on the earth, was, as we have seen, a wondrous history; everything is worthy of notice that relates to it. The manger where he was born — the Temple where his parents consecrated him to Israel’s God — the village where he was brought up — the chamber where he instituted the Supper — the garden where he agonized — the cross on which he hung — the sepulcher from which he rose, and the Mountain from which he ascended, all awaken in our bosoms the most lively emotions, because they bear so intimate a relation to Him, to whom, if we are Christians, we have committed our immortality, and on whom we rest all our hopes. Sacred spot of earth! where those feet last stood that were nailed to the accursed tree. The Empress Helena, the mother of the great Constantine, is said to have here erected a temple, in honor of his Ascension. There is no doubt a superstitious and unchristian reverence for what are called holy scenes and holy places; nor that they have given rise to observances and rites which are hostile to the simplicity of the gospel, and ruinous to the souls of men. Yet is it human to be affected by them; and it may be Christian without regarding them as the symbols of Antichrist.

We are creatures whose thoughts are formed, in no small degree, by associations of thought. Great events consecrate and impart a portion of their own greatness to all that surrounds them. Were a Christian traveller to visit the Holy Land, next to Gethsemane and Calvary, he would go to the Mount of Olives, and there turn to the New Testament, and read the short narratives which so beautifully describe the circumstances of his divine Lord’s final departure from this sinning and suffering world. With lingering and fond delight, he would dwell on the minute and apparently trivial circumstances which bring this delightful, but too often forgotten scene, to his remembrance. Christians of every age have contemplated this event with deep interest, not merely because it is the bright commencement of that brighter future upon which the Son of Man was then ushered, but for its intrinsic importance, and the halo of glory which it throws around his Person and his throne.

Allusions to his ascension are found in various parts of the Sacred Writings, but the only detailed account of it is given in the short narrative of the Evangelist Luke, in the closing paragraph of his gospel, and in the introduction to his historical treatise, called " The Acts of the Apostles." The narrative in his gospel, is in the following words: " 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." In the " Acts of the Apostles," he adds, that "a cloud received him out of their sight," and that his disciples " looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up." About forty days after his resurrection, he met with his disciples at Jerusalem for the last time, where he uttered those lessons of heavenly wisdom which none but he knew how to utter, and gave them important instructions with regard to that spiritual kingdom which he had set up in the world. It was forty days after his birth, that he was brought into the Temple, and presented to the Lord; and now, it is forty days after his resurrection, which was a sort of second nativity, that he presents himself before the Lord in the temple above. It was after his forty days’ temptation in the wilderness, that angels came and ministered unto him; and now, forty days after he left the wilderness of the grave, angels minister to him before his throne. Having reiterated to his disciples the assurances of his continued love, and having instructed them to "tarry in Jerusalem until he should send upon them the promise of his Father," he " was received up into heaven, and set on the right hand of God."

They were at no loss as to the place to which he ascended. The question as to any intermediate state where the souls of the righteous have been supposed to exist between death and the resurrection, is settled by the fact that he ascended to the heaven where God dwells, and that " where he is, they shall be also." It is perfectly obvious that it was not to any such intermediate state that he himself went. " A little while," says he, " and ye shall not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." Still more explicitly he says, " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.’’ The evidence of his ascension depends, in the first place, on his own declarations. He frequently declared that he was going back to the heaven from which he came, and persisted in that declaration to the last. We have just as much reason to believe his testimony as we have to believe that he was true. It depends also on the testimony of his disciples, who saw him rise. He did not ascend alone, but took his disciples with him from Jerusalem to Bethany, so that they might be witnesses of this great event. He does not shun the face of day, and amid the secrecy and silence of the night, fly back to his native heaven; but in the open light of the sun, he ascends through the astonished firmament, and in the presence of adoring disciples. He does not disappear and " vanish out of their sight," as he did on some other occasions; but in solemn majesty moved up before them into heaven, while their eyes were fixed upon him and they " steadfastly looked up" as he rose, till the bright object they were gazing at became smaller and more small, and all farther distinct vision was precluded by the " cloud which received him out of their sight." Nor was it from some obscure valley or mountainous ravine that he ascended; but from the mountain top, near Jerusalem, where the whole city might have seen him. He selected this eminence that nothing might intercept the view. It was the spot where he often retired from the city’s strife, to hold intercourse with God, from which he rose to renew and perpetuate that fellowship. It was from Olivet because he there struggled in the garden, and he would have the scene of his greatest weakness, also the scene and the memorial of his divine power; that the place which was the beginning of his passion might be the beginning of his glory; and that from the spot where he had contended with the powers of darkness he might ascend as the mighty Victor, thus teaching all his followers in every age of the world that their severest conflicts secure their greatest victories. Other witnesses also there were, angelic messengers sent from heaven to give the assurance to his astonished disciples that he had gone to dwell with his eternal Father. There is evidence, too, of a different kind arising from the fact that the predictions which he himself uttered before his ascension were fulfilled by subsequent events. He predicted the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; and the Spirit was poured out. He predicted the signs which were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem; and not one of them failed. There were " false Christs who deceived many;" there were wars and commotions, " nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;" there were " famines and pestilences;" there were " earthquakes," and " fearful sights and signs from heaven;" there were persecutions, and his followers were " delivered up to councils and synagogues and prisons, and beaten and killed." He predicted that " the gospel must be published among all nations;" and it was preached to Jew and Gentile, and churches were organized and pastors settled in every part of the then known world. He predicted the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, and the trench that should be cast about it; and it was compassed on every side. He predicted the miseries of the Jews during and subsequent to the siege; and history assures us that never was there such strange and unparalleled suffering. He predicted the total destruction of the temple and the city; and they were both " laid even with the ground," nor was there "left in them one stone upon another." He predicted that the Jews should be led away captive into all nations; and they were led away. He predicted that "Jerusalem should be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" and so completely was Judea subjected, that its very land was sold, nor has the city from that time to the present ever been in possession of the Jews. And to add to this testimony there is the fact that the Son of Man, from the day of his ascension, has not been seen among men. From that memorable day, with the single exception of Saul of Tarsus, no eye has seen him save upon the throne of David and at the right hand of God.

Such, in few words, is the scriptural narrative of the ascension of Christ, and of the testimony by which it is established, so far as is consistent with our present design to present them. We say nothing now of the moral argument in proof of this great fact, as we may have occasion to advert to it hereafter. We are chiefly concerned with the importance of this fact, and with the great glory it confers on the ascended Saviour. There are several characteristics of this great event, by which this thought may be illustrated. In the first place, this ascension furnishes strong confirmation of the truth of Christianity, Christianity is not less a narrative of marvellous facts, than it is a statement of marvellous and heaven inspired truths. To speak with more precision, its great and distinguishing doctrines are but revealed statements of these great facts. We have before remarked the singular circumstance, that the primitive martyrs to the Christian faith, suffered martyrdom, not for their belief in speculative theory, not for principles and doctrines which they could substantiate by argument; but for unwavering testimony to facts which they themselves either saw, or which they received on the testimony of accredited witnesses. It has been our object to state these facts, from the descent of the Son of God to Bethlehem’s stable, to his ascension from the Mount of Olives. They are all miraculous, and indicate the interposition of supernatural power. Although each of them distinctly possesses this feature, and bears the seal and superscription of heaven, yet they are not narrated as distinct and isolated facts, but as the component parts of a perfected series. Christianity may not rest on any one of them; its Author never intended it should rest on any one of them. Not one of them can be spared from the series; every one of them is a link of burnished gold; but the brightest and purest of them does not alone form the golden chain of truth and love that binds earth to heaven. The true gospel is contained in those momentous facts, so forcibly bound together by Paul: " Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory; Christianity ends where it begins. The divine Author first came from heaven, and after his varied pilgrimage of love, and labor, and suffering, on the earth, went back to the heaven whence he came. The facts which constitute the sum and substance of it, form this beautiful circle, of which Christ is the centre, and from which so many subordinate truths radiate to the unbroken circumference. There is this consistency in it, that every part of it is adapted to every other part; and it is only in its relation to the whole, that any one part can be appreciated. This last miracle of Christ, his ascension from earth to heaven, suits well with his first miracle, his descent from heaven to earth. It suits well with his life, his preaching, his death, and his resurrection. They all stand or fall together. You cannot deny one without denying the whole. There is the same evidence in favor of every part, that exists in favor of the whole; and the same evidence in favor of the whole, that exists in favor of every part. You demolish Christianity, if you demolish the doctrine of the resurrection, because if he did not rise, he does not live and reign. So you make a wreck of Christianity, if he did not ascend; because he is no more than the risen Lazarus, if he lives not, reigns not. We must travel with him from the place where he was born, to the Mount of Olives; and there, on that sacred eminence, we may look back and see his glorious career. Olivet will not soon be forgotten, for the confirmation it furnishes of the truth of the gospel. In the next place, the ascension of Christ furnishes us an affecting view of the loveliness and the dignity of his character. We have more than a glimpse, both of his humanity and his divinity, in this wonderful scene. There are things in his Person and glory that are protected from all unhallowed curiosity; but in the circumstances of his ascension, we feel that, like the disciples who accompanied him from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olivet, we are permitted to inspect with more than ordinary familiarity, that contrasted yet combined loveliness and dignity which render him glorious. It was the last earthly interview he ever enjoyed with these holy men. Endeared as they had been to him, and he to them, the time had come of which he had often premonished them, when he must leave and go to his Father. Yet to remain with them as long as he might remain, " he led them out as far as to Bethany."

Eager as he was to return to his native skies, he trod this last path with no unmeasured steps. Here was the man Christ Jesus; the emotions, the look, the language of the man. And there was divine loveliness and divine light that spread around him, kindling within their bosoms thoughts and affections beyond the ordinary privilege of their fellowship even with their divine Master. Who is that wonderful Personage standing on the Mount of Olives, with his eye fixed on heaven, " lifting up his hands and blessing" his disciples? His words ever had been words of blessing; but now they fall with an emphasis and a tenderness that bespeak his departure. He began his career, he continued, and closed it in the same spirit of blessing. Just as he is about to ascend, the words of blessing are on his lips. His heart yearned toward them. All that he could give, he then gave, because all that he could feel he then felt. It was in the very act of blessing them, and while his hands were uplifted, and the blessing was on his lips, that " he was parted from them." He could not leave them to measure their bloody path through this vale of sorrow, without this last assurance that all their weakness and faults were forgotten, and that he bore them on his heart. Their allotment was to wait a little while here below; his cause demanded it; and that through fiery trials and great tribulation, they should enter the kingdom of heaven. They were the last words he uttered, when he thus blessed them. Thus ended his wonderful career on the earth; a termination which will be had in everlasting remembrance. Calvary, Tabor, and Olivet, will ere long melt away; this earth, with all its profane and sacred scenes will ere long be burnt up, and the places which now know them will know them no more; but this loving Saviour will not be forgotten.

We scarcely know which most to admire in this scene, his matchless loveliness, or his infinite dignity. Hear him speak, and see him ascend. It is not the Man Jesus who had not where to lay his head; nor is it the Living God before whom Moses trembled. It is the God-Man Mediator, that despised rejected One, putting on his robes of majesty, in order to terminate his earthly career in a manner befitting his high character. While he was pursuing the preliminary objects of his mission, his true dignity was slowly and gradually unfolded. At his resurrection the dawning light began to break forth; but it was at his ascension into heaven that he openly demonstrated before angels and men that the eternity of the Godhead is his; that he inhabits it; that he fills it, and that it is his own eternity. Such was his progressive and splendid path, that when he saw that his Mediatorial work on earth was accomplished, and when he had made all necessary arrangements for the extension and perpetuity of his kingdom among men; by his own almighty power — that power by which he stilled the tempest, cast out devils, and raised the dead — he " ascends up where he was before." There the dying Stephen saw him, when he " saw the heavens opened." There the exiled Apostle beheld him, where thousands and thousands of thousands bowed before him, and sung the song, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" And there he will remain " until the times of the fulfillment of all things, spoken of by all the Prophets since the world began."

We are told that the disciples who saw him ascend, after he had gone up worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing God." The scene they had just witnessed confirmed the views they had long cherished of the dignity of their Divine Master. In supreme love and profound veneration, they prostrated their souls before him, as their faithful Redeemer and rightful Lord, as the triumphant Conqueror over sin and death. They knew what he deserved. To him belonged all honor, glory, and praise, and to him they ascribed them. They could " now return to Jerusalem with great joy." Mount Olivet was one of the permanent memorials of their Master’s glory. From the spot where their own feet had stood with his, they had seen him rise; and though their transports of joy may have passed away, they were in that settled state of mind which constrained them to abide in the Temple, " continually praising and blessing God." The Bible has few facts more full of interest than this ascension of the Son of God; it has none more sublime or wonderful than his glory as here manifested. Human reason has nothing to do here but satisfy itself of the fact; the glory is infinite; it is above the reach of human comprehension. We worship and adore, as the disciples did, when they returned to Jerusalem. Men may have large and lofty views of his glory; but however large and lofty they may be, they fall short of his real dignity. It will employ eternity to make it all manifest. Nay, eternity itself cannot complete the development. It is easier to tell what he is not, than what he is. He is not man; he is not angel; he is not the highest of created beings. To know him perfectly, we must see him with the eyes, and know him with the intelligence of the Deity. The more we search into this unfathomed depth, the deeper we find it. The rays dazzle and overpower us with their splendor. As we see him go up, and recall his birth, and life, and crucifixion, we are hushed into the silent raptures of astonishment. His ascension furnishes us, in the next place, with a glimpse of his blessedness. If modest and humble piety is chastened by this view of the personal dignity of Christ, it is gratified by the view it presents of his begun blessedness. The blessedness of the Man when he ascended, we can better understand, than we can the blessedness of the ascending God. The infinity of the Deity is to us an inconceivable idea; nor can we comprehend his blessedness any more than his infinity. We must speak of that which we cannot comprehend when we speak of the heavenly blessedness of God manifest in the flesh, or we must not speak at all. His incomprehensible blessedness is one of the radiating splendors of his glory. He ascended up on high to behold his heavenly Father’s face without a veil and without a cloud, and with him to inhabit the same infinite plenitude of joy. We have seen enough of his degradation; other visions now greet us. The scenes of shame and suffering are over. The days of humiliation may be remembered, and even commemorated; but they are never to be realized a second time. It is not the Garden now, but the celestial Paradise. It is not now the scorn of kings and the derision of the people; but the alleluias of harpers harping with their harps. It is not the groans that rent rocks asunder and shook terribly the earth; but the voice of those " which were redeemed from the earth," as the " voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder." It is not One, who of all the miserable, is himself the most miserable; but One, who of all the happy, is himself the most happy. He is within the City where "nothing that defileth" shall enter. He has reached the shore, and wave after wave no more rolls over him. His last tear was shed when he wept for others’ woes; and now, on that same Mount where he wept over Jerusalem, he bids farewell to earth, and goes back to be "glorified with the glory he had with the Father before the world was." That glory he so often sighed for, how welcome! That joyful meeting with his Divine Father was itself a recompense for all his woes. That long sought home, that peaceful rest, that renewed intercourse with seraphim, and with the spirits of just men made perfect, and those acclamations of praise all found a response in his own divine bosom, and he was happy, infinitely and eternally happy.

How joyous must have been the scene when the early disciples thus saw him so far above the darts of this cruel world, and the more cruel darts of his earliest and latest foe! It was enough that their beloved Lord now lived, God blessed for evermore. They remembered the words which he spake, " If ye love me, ye will rejoice because I said I go to the Father." His glory was not eclipsed in the darkest night of his sufferings; he could suffer as no other ever suffered, and glorify his Father even in draining the bitter cup. Nor wag it obscured now that the darkness is passed, and the light of heaven shone upon him. His character was not such as to lose its lustre amid the fascinations of joy; on the other hand the fascinations of joy added lustre to his character. He who traveled in the greatness of his strength, in the deep valley of his humiliation, arrayed himself even in purer garments when he ascended to sit down on his throne. There was surpassing glory in that surpassing blessedness. What is more triumphant and glorious than the infinite blessedness of the infinite Saviour? blessedness as diffusive as it is infinite! blessedness that is identified with the blessedness of his ransomed ones, and that is the only source and guardian of all the blessedness in the universe! This leads me to remark, in the last place, that we cannot have just impressions of the glory of his ascension without associating it with the objects it was to attain. These were the same for which he clothed himself with humanity, and endured humanity’s curse. They were vast in their intrinsic importance, vast in their extent, and vast and interminable in their influence upon the destinies of men and the empire and glory of God. The work he had already accomplished on the earth was but preparatory to the work which, as the mediatorial priest and king, he was to carry on in his state of exaltation, until the final consummation of all things. It was a remarkable prohibition which the risen Saviour uttered to Mary in the garden, when he said, " Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my brethren and say unto them, ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God." His work was not accomplished, nor could it be until he ascended into heaven as the recognized and honored Priest and King.

There are emphatic predictions in the sacred writings of the perpetuity and glory of these high offices of the ascended Christ. " Thou art a Priest forever’’ says the Psalmist, "after the order of Melchizedec." He was designated to this high office by the decree and oath of him " who hath sworn and will not repent." The prophet Zechariah instructs us that "he shall be a Priest upon his throne." He was to unite the character of priest and king, and forever maintain his royal Priesthood and his sacrificial royalty. " I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor." The prophet Isaiah affirms, " When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death." Again, it is written, " the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." And again, " He shall drink of the torrent in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head." There, too, was that marvelously-retained inscription upon his cross, " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

These and other similar productions were fulfilled, not until he ascended to his Father. Then it was that he went up to offer oblation and intercession for his redeemed, and to give them his official benediction. " We have a great High Priest," says the Apostle, " that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God." Again he says, " Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus the Son of God." Jesus Christ, because he continueth forever, hath this unchangeable priesthood. Like the High Priest under the Levitical law, who with his splendid robes entered into the most holy place, so Jesus, not with the blood of bullocks and of goats, but with his own blood, and still bearing the marks of the Great Sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, entered into the " most holy place, not made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." The true church of God in every age, can now say, "We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." There he must present himself as their Advocate, pleading for them the merits of his sacrifice, supporting them under their trials, and conduct them safely to his and their heavenly home. There must he appear, presenting to the heavens from which he came the public demonstrations of his perfected sacrifice, and claim the fulfillment of that everlasting covenant of which his own blood is the seal. Under the dark and shadowy dispensation faith lived only on these predictions; now it lives on the predictions fulfilled, and consummated by the resurrection and ascension of the once foreshadowed and predicted High Priest. " Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us." Nor until he ascended, was he publicly invested with his kingly office. For the suffering of death, he " was by the right hand of God exalted." He was to become "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." " We see Jesus," saith the apostle, " for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor;" having a "name which is above every name." When he ascended into heaven, therefore, it was as the great Mediatorial King "principalities and powers being subject unto him," and to exert his power in the kingdoms of nature, providence. and grace, as " Head over all things to his church.’’ Thence he was to send down his Holy Spirit to perfect the work of redemption, and to perpetuate it to the day of his coming. His crown of thorns was the pledge of " many crowns" to be won from the enemy, and there cast at his feet. From his glorious, high throne, he was to spoil the Destroyer, and deliver his captives by means of his own ordaining, and by institutions and authority which he alone had a right to establish. He was to impart the power of working miracles to his apostles; he was to inspire them with the thoughts and words with which they were to reveal his will to mankind; and he was to conduct them by his Spirit and providence to the ends of the earth. By their preaching he was to overturn the altars of superstition; extend his gospel and kingdom over the world; plant his church amid arid sands and mountain snows; and be everywhere present with his people and his ministers, and repeat the triumphs of his power and grace, ever redeeming the promise, that " the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church." He was to introduce the period of Millennial glory, and fill the earth with the " knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea." And when all this is done, he is to come at last to judge the world in righteousness. This last fact was strongly impressed upon the minds of those who were the witnesses of his ascension, by special messengers sent from heaven. These apostles had seen him for the last time, until they should see him come in power and great glory. " As they were looking steadfastly toward heaven as he went up," behold two men stood before them in white apparel, saying, " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here 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!" As he had disappeared in the clouds of heaven, so the clouds of heaven should reveal him, when he would once more descend, to gather before him all nations. Descending angels met him in his upward flight; amid their acclamations he ascended, and by them conducted to the portals of the Heavenly City. What a glorious epoch was that in the history of Christ and of heaven, when the everlasting doors, for more than thirty years closed upon him, were opened! Who, in contemplating his ascension, can do otherwise than contemplate his glory? What a triumph was here! It was the Seed of the Woman bruising the head of the Serpent. It was the triumph of humanity over the malignity of Fiends, and the power of Hell. The Second Adam, the appointed and accepted representative of a redeemed humanity, was in heaven at last. In defiance of sin, death, and hell, he was there the grand proof and pledge of God’s reconciliation to man. Illustrious, refulgent day! It was the great consummation of his great work. And what a thrilling; welcome was that, when thousands clustered around this restored Son of God, and shouted the return of this mighty Conqueror, with all the scars of the great battle fresh upon him. What mean those heavenly voices? " Thou HAST ASCENDED ON HIGH; THOU HAST LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE; THOU HAST RECEIVED GIFTS FOR MEN, YEA, FOR THE REBELLIOUS ALSO, THAT THE LORD GOD MIGHT DWELL AMONG THEM!" Hark again! " LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O YE GATES, AND BE YE LIFT UP, YE EVERLASTING DOORS, AND THE KING OF GLORY SHALL COME IN!"

Thus glorious was the great Redeemer in his ascension into heaven. Christians in every age have contemplated this great event with high satisfaction. So ought we to contemplate it, and study its import. It is truly a remarkable event; as the closing event in a series, it is the most remarkable. Do you believe it ever took place? It is the great policy of Satan to prevent men from believing these facts, to make light of them, and treat them as a farce. You believe other things on far less testimony; but do you, believe these? You believe other things because you have no motives to disbelieve them, and your own minds are in a state which yields to the force of evidence. It is not so easy to believe this, because it involves such high interests, and affects your eternal well-being. I ask therefore again, Do you believe that Jesus died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven as the King of the universe and the Judge of men? Perhaps you wish they were not true, because they disturb your consciences, alarm your fears, and demand so high a place in your thoughts, that they do not allow you to look to any other refuge than this Prince and Saviour. Do you doubt them? Do you love to doubt them? Are you willing to doubt them? There is no question of greater importance to be decided, than whether they are true or false; and if true, whether you believe or reject them? I entreat you not to live any longer without deciding this vital question. They are so far beyond the range of common truths, that nothing can satisfy you, or justify you in rejecting them, unless you can prove them false. This no man has ever done, and no man can do. Be he Jew or Gentile, it is something gained to be convinced that you cannot prove them false. If you look upon them as doubtful, O be implored, by all the glories of that heaven to which Jesus of Nazareth is gone, and all the solemnities of that Day of Judgment to which he will soon come, not to give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, till that doubt is removed!

You will say you do not doubt them. Well, then, how do they influence your character and conduct? You give your assent to them as facts; and just think what momentous facts they are. You could not believe that the sun shines, or is obscured; that the wind of heaven blows from the east or the west, without its influencing your conduct. And can you believe such momentous facts as these, facts on which hang an eternal heaven, or an eternal hell, and yet treat them as the idle wind? Ah no, perhaps you do not believe them, after all. Faith in such realities as these, would form your character, and fit it for the heaven where Jesus dwells. You would have new views, new affections, new hopes and fears. You would have sources of peace and joy you never had before. You would have found what the world cannot give you, and would no more go to the world as your chief good. You would love that Saviour who, though he knew no sin, became sin for you, that you might be made the righteousness of God in him. Your faith in such realities would form the elements of a new and holy life, and do for you what nothing else can do. This is the reception we solicit for this great fact in the Saviour’s history. Let it bring near the realities of eternity, and make those realities precious. The ascended Saviour is as near to us as he was to his early disciples; and the heaven where he dwells as near to us as it was to the Mount of Olives. There is indeed a heaven; it is but a few hours’ distance from us, when once our spirits receive the Saviour’s bidding to "Come away." The eye of faith can see it; through the grave and all its circumambient clouds, it can descry the Heavenly City. He still speaks the assurance, " Because I live, ye shall live also." They are his lips which still affirm, " I go to prepare a place for you." Just as certainly as his disciples beheld him ascending through the clouds, will all those who love his appearing " ascend to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God." Take courage, then, ye trembling saints. "To him that overcometh," saith he, " will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne." Christians are apt to fear, because they do not see their Lord, nor hear his voice, nor receive his sensible benedictions as they once fell as it were from his own lips, that he is unmindful of them. Like an inexperienced and fretful child, because it does not see its mother’s countenance, nor hear her voice, concludes that it is forsaken, so we, because the ascended One is out of sight, sometimes complain, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But absent though he is in body, he is present in spirit. Well we know what he can do for us, and how he can fill us with the consolations of his love. Well may we live above the world and walk with Jesus. Well may we seek often to be alone with Jesus, and well may other objects be lost sight of and swallowed up in the thoughts of Jesus. Well may we, with the exulting disciples, meet often in his temple to praise and bless the God of our salvation; and at his table also, and drink at that fountain of living waters. One would think we should have no heart to speak of anything but Christ, nor any other language but that of praise. Delightful employment! Come Christians, let us unite with these holy men who returned from the Mount of Olives with so much joy, and let the heaven where our Master dwells bear witness to our vows, and record our thankfulness, while we say, " My soul DOTH MAGNIFY THE LORD, AND MY SPIRIT DOTH REJOICE IN GOD MY SAVIOUR; FOR HE THAT IS MIGHTY HATH DONE GREAT THINGS, AND HOLY IS HIS NAME!"