M. 2 AND, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from 3 heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His coun- 4 tenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keep- ers did shake, and became as dead men.

Mk. 1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

L. 1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning when it was yet dark, as it began to dawn, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had

Mk. 3 prepared, and certain others with them. And they said among themselves, Who shall 4 roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.

J. 1, 2 And Mary Magdalene seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved.

L. 3 And they [the other women] entered in [the sepulchre] and found not the body of 4 the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. And they saw a young man sitting on the 5 right side, clothed in a long white garment: and they were affrighted. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: be not affrighted: for I know that ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, 6 which was crucified. Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here; for he is risen, as he said: come, see the place where the Lord lay. Remember how he 7 spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered

M. 7 into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And go quickly, and tell his disciples, and Peter, that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you: lo, I 8 have told you. And they remembered his words, and they departed quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man: for they were afraid; and with fear and great joy did run to bring his disciples word.

J. 2 And [Mary] saith unto them [Peter and John], They have taken away the Lord out of 3 the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, 4 and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and 5 the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping 6 down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes laid 7 by themselves: and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, 8 but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which 9 came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the 10 scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home, wondering at that which was come to pass.

JESUS CHRIST proves himself the Redeemer of the human race, in the act of enduring death himself, and then rising victorious over it. This one event proves, by the majesty of facts, and not by uncertain reasoning, that the Being who invites our faith in himself has shown that Death is disarmed; that there is a power superior to his dread and cold touch. We come to the sepulchre now, though it be with reverent step, sorrow bearing her burden there with a most becoming awe; yet it is with thanks to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Come to the vacant sepulchre of Christ, and sing for joy. Death is abolished; let us rejoice and be glad. Angels, those spirits of purity and love, hasten to meet us here with their message of joy. They too are interested in the redemption of Christ; for they sung on the night of his advent; they ministered to the sufferer in the garden of agony; they rejoice over every sinner that repenteth; and they bear the spirits of the righteous to the bosom of God. Heaven and earth, angels and men, meet happily together at the open tomb of Christ. Sorrow may be for a night; joy cometh in the morning. With grateful hearts, with a head lifted up, and with a full-toned voice should we ever repeat the great articles of our faith: “I believe in Jesus Christ, who was crucified, who died, and was buried; who rose again from the dead; and who is now at the right hand of God: I believe in the forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” W. A.

OUR LORD’S INTERCOURSE WITH THE DISCIPLES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION (Sections 160-166).

OUT of the forty days there were but six on which he held intercourse with any human being, and in those six days he did not give more than as many hours to fellowship with those to whom he showed himself. How brief, too, and abrupt the meetings! In the twilight of the garden; in the dim-lighted upper chamber; in the gray dawn of the lake-side—he appears, speaks but a few sentences, and vanishes as mysteriously as he had appeared. What impression was all this studied distance and reserve fitted to make upon the minds of his disciples? Remember that not one of them before his death had risen to any thought or belief in his divinity; that from all their earlier earthly notions of him they had to be weaned; that after days and years of the easiest companionship with him, they had to be raised to the belief that it was the very Lord of heaven and earth with whom they had been holding converse; yet that belief was to be so formed within them as not to militate against the idea of his true and proper humanity. See, then, what an important part in the execution of this needful but most difficult task must have been fulfilled by his mode of dealing with them during the forty days.

For let us only conceive what should have happened if one or other of two alternatives had been realized: If at once, after a few interviews, sufficient simply to do away with all doubt as to his resurrection, Jesus had passed up into the heavens; let us imagine that the descent of the Spirit had immediately ensued; that the day of Pentecost had followed immediately on the day of the resurrection; that the eyes of the apostles had thus at once and fully been enlightened, and the great truth of their Master’s Godhead had been flashed upon their minds—the danger undoubtedly would have been that, seen in the blaze of that new glory, the man Christ Jesus had been lost, the humanity swallowed up in the divinity; nor would it have been so easy to persuade those men that, ascended up on high, seated at the right hand of the Father, he was the same Jesus still—a brother to them as truly as when he lived among them, equally alive to all human sympathies as when he walked with them by the way, or sat down with them in the upper chamber.

Take, again, the other alternative: That, after his resurrection, Christ had immediately resumed and continued—even, let us say, for no longer a time than these forty days—the exact kind of life that he had led before—would not such a return on his part to all the old familiarities of his former intercourse have had a tendency to check the rising faith in his divinity; to tie his disciples down again to a knowing of him only after the flesh; to give to the humanity of the Lord such prominence as to make it overshadow the divinity? Can you conceive a treatment more nicely fitted to the spiritual condition, to the spiritual wants of those men at that time, than the very one which the Lord adopted and carried out—so well fitted as it was, gradually, gently, without violence, to lead those disciples on from their first imperfect, unworthy ideas of his person, character, and work, on and up to clearer, purer, loftier conceptions of him? In what better way could a faith in their Master’s divinity have been superinduced upon their former faith in him as a man, a friend, a brother, so that the two might blend together without damage done to either by the union; their knowledge of him as human not interfering with their trust in him as divine; their faith in him as God not weakening their attachment to him as man? H.

The various manifestations which the Saviour made of himself to his disciples, as recorded by the Evangelists and Paul, may be arranged and enumerated as follows:

1. To the women returning from the sepulchre. Only by Matthew. 2. To Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre. Reported by John and Mark.

3. To Peter, perhaps early in the afternoon. By Luke and Paul. 4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus, toward evening. By Luke and Mark. 5. To the apostles (except Thomas) assembled at evening. By Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. N. B. These five appearances all took place at or near Jerusalem, upon the first day of the week, the same day on which the Lord arose. 6. To the apostles, Thomas being present, eight days afterward at Jerusalem. Only by John. 7. To seven of the apostles on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias. Only by John. 8. To the eleven apostles and to five hundred other brethren, on a mountain in Galilee. By Matthew and Paul. 9. To James, probably at Jerusalem. Only by Paul. 10. To the eleven at Jerusalem, immediately before the ascension. By Luke in Acts, and by Paul.

Then follows the ascension. R.

[The numbers 1 and 2 in the above outline we have exchanged in our arrangement. J. G. B.]

Any one who will attentively read the narratives of these appearances on the first day of the resurrection will see that they have only been preserved for us in general, interblended, and scattered notices, which, in strict exactness, render it impossible to produce from them a certain narrative of the order of events. Our belief in the resurrection as an historic fact, as absolutely well attested by subsequent and contemporary circumstances as any other event in history, rests on grounds far deeper, wider, more spiritual, more eternal, than can be shaken by divergences of which we can only say that they are not contradictions, but of which the true solution is no longer attainable. As Lange finely says, the great fugue of the first Easter tidings has not come to us as a “monotonous chorale,” and mere verbal criticism cannot understand the common feeling and harmony which inspire the individual vibrations of those enthusiastic and multitudinous voices. Westcott points out the differences in the narrative of the four Evangelists. Matthew dwells chiefly on the majesty and glory of the resurrection; Mark insists upon it as a fact; Luke, as a spiritual necessity; John, as a touchstone of character. F.

It is not possible to determine certainly the order of events in this and in the following section. The fair inference from the four accounts is, that Mary Magdalene came with the other women to the sepulchre, saw that the stone was rolled away and the sepulchre empty, but saw not the angels; then instantly turned and went to report to Peter and John. The interview of the women with the angels having taken place, they had scarce gone when Peter and John, running in advance of Mary, came, saw the empty tomb, and turned homeward again. (Thus far this section.) Then Mary comes again, Jesus appears to her, and gives her a brief message. A little afterward, before the other women had found the now scattered disciples, Jesus meets them, and confirms the specific message already given by the angel in the sepulchre. It may be added that, while there are differences (readily perceived in our arrangement of the text), seeming discrepancies in the four accounts, there are no contradictory statements. J. G. B.

Mk. 1. No writer of a fictitious story, had he previously put into Christ’s lips such distinct foretellings of his death and resurrection, would have attributed to his followers such an entire forgetfulness of these predictions, such an utter prostration of all faith and hope, as that which the Evangelists describe as coming upon all our Lord’s disciples immediately after his death. Yet, after all, is it not true to human nature, that upon the minds and hearts of those simple, uncultivated men and women, filled as they had been with other quite different expectations, the shock of such a shameful death, coming in such a way upon their Master, was so sudden and stunning, that all power of forming a new conception of their Master’s character, and taking up a new faith in him, was gone; the power even of remembering what he had said about himself beforehand for the season paralyzed? But love lives on, even where faith dies out, among those disconsolate and utterly hopeless friends and followers of our Lord. H.

It was night in the disciples’ hearts. Their love was crucified, their glory dishonored, their hope destroyed, their life was waste and desolate. The seven stars of those words from the cross were fading fast away behind the stormy clouds of their soul. They wept and lamented. Scattered without hope, united again without hope, one thing alone occupied their thoughts and sight and words, and that was his grave. R. B.

L. 1. First day. The portion, however brief, of this day (according to Jewish reckoning) that Jesus remained in the tomb is reckoned as one day, like the brief interval between his burial and the Friday’s sunset, and thus he remained three days in the earth. S.

Mark says, “at the rising of the sun.” These various popular forms of expression present some of the finer points in proof of the truth of the narratives. Their meaning is substantially the same—somewhere between the night and the sunrising, in the morning twilight. J. G. B.—Mark first specifies the time by very early. He used the phrase “rising of the sun” in a broad and less definite sense. As the sun’s earliest rays produce the contrast between darkness and light, between night and dawn, so the term sunrising might easily come in popular language to be put for all that earlier interval, when his rays, still struggling with darkness, do nevertheless usher in the day. R.

On Sunday he chose to rise, because on this day began the creation of the world with the calling into being of light: the light which is the life of the created world was to have one birthday with the life which is the light of the restored world. Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection, is the Lord’s day (Rev. 1: 10); this day has been set apart by the Church gathered together through the preaching of the resurrection, as the day for their services of divine worship. R. B.

As the resurrection of Christ is the great fact, so the day of its occurrence is the great day of Christianity. From the time of the apostles its weekly return has been called by the name of the LORD’S DAY; and to this epoch of the new creation of all things, marked by the new life of Christ, all the permanent sanctity of the primeval Sabbath was transferred. S.—Henceforth it was not only God the Creator that was to be chiefly remembered, but God the Saviour and Regenerator of mankind. To mark this great event the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week—changed most clearly by our Lord. The early Christian Church, those who received the gospel direct from the apostles, kept this day. Hence the apostles must have kept the first day as the Sabbath. They were Jews, and would not have changed the day themselves. Christ only is Lord of the Sabbath. He only could have given the necessary authority. And now we are to keep the Sabbath-day holy, in remembrance of both Maker and Redeemer. The obligation therefore is twofold. Bartlett. (Read Section 184.)

Mk. 4. Altogether secret, the exact time and manner unnoticed and unknown, was that great rising from the dead. The clearest and amplest proof was afterward given of the fact that, some time between sunset of the last and sunrise of the first day of the week, the resurrection had taken place; but it pleased not the Lord who then arose to do so under the immediate eye or inspection of any human witness. H.—In the dark recesses of the sepulchre, through almighty power, his spirit revived, unseen and unknown to every mortal eye. Angels ministered unto him, and opened before him the door of the tomb. R.

His cross was surrounded by thousands of beholders of his shame, many saw his sufferings, observed how he bowed his head and gave up the ghost; John, from the wound of the spear, saw blood and water flow: but his resurrection was to have no beholders but the angels—he was already risen when the women came. The rising Christ is King of a kingdom which comes not with outward observation, whose glory is an inward glory, and whose visible form is the cross. And not to all the people did the risen one appear, but only to those in whose hearts he had already found a place as the crucified one. R. B.

J. 2. The disciple whom Jesus loved. Through the whole fourth gospel, while the Apostle John is never named, there moves an unnamed, as it were, veiled form, which sometimes comes forward, yet without the veil being entirely lifted. How natural to suppose that he designates himself with that name which expresses the highest contents and the whole joy of his life—as “that disciple whom Jesus loved!” The objection of Weisse, that this would have been an arrogant assumption, shows that he has not entered into that joyous pride, mingled with all humility, which grows out of the consciousness of having been loved, without desert on his part, by him who is the object of his own supreme love. Hase.

L. 4. Two men. Mark and Luke describe the persons as “men,” according to the appearance; Matthew and John as angels, according to the reality. That there were two angels is clear from John’s more minute account, confirmed by Luke. Matthew and Mark mention only one angel, perhaps because they knew only of one, not getting the details fully, perhaps because one was prominent as the speaker. L. A.

Stood. The difficulty as to the position of the angels (Mark, sitting) vanishes when we take this word of Luke in its appropriate and acknowledged usage: they suddenly appeared, were suddenly present. R.—A young man. The angel of the Lord described just as he appeared to the eye, in the bloom of a life that knows no decay. 7. Remarkable it is to hear angels quoting a whole sentence of Christ’s to the disciples, mentioning where it was uttered, and wondering it was not fresh on their memory, as doubtless it was in theirs. B.

M. 7. Tell his disciples. The disciples, after their Lord’s crucifixion, appear to have entertained no hopes of his resurrection. Shocked and confounded, dismayed at finding him condemned to the ignominious death of the cross, they forgot everything he had said to them respecting his rising again. Most of them seem to have given themselves up to sorrow and despair. They had not even the courage or the curiosity to go to the sepulchre on the third day to see whether the promised event had taken place or not. Thus it is perfectly clear that nothing but the most irresistible evidence would convince them of a fact which they seemed to think in the highest degree improbable. P.

There is in the apostles no impassioned enthusiasm, no exaggeration in their trustfulness and devotedness. Even with them Jesus sees himself confronted by all the vacillations and weaknesses of humanity. He persuades them, he wins them, he preserves them only by great exertion. They only really believe in him after having witnessed the accomplishment of his sacrifice and his last miracle, when they had seen his crucifixion and his resurrection. Only then they believed; but from that moment their faith became absolutely superior to all perils and all trials; full of the Holy Spirit, and associated in a certain measure to their divine Master, they pursue his work with unshaken confidence and firmness, without pretending to any merit, without any impulse of personal pride. F. G.

And Peter. Mark’s Gospel being drawn up (as all the earliest tradition states) under the eye of Peter, or from materials chiefly furnished by him, there is something deeply affecting in the preservation of this little clause by Mark alone, as well as in the clause itself, which it is impossible not to connect with the cloud under which Peter lay in the eyes of the eleven, not to say in his own also. B. —Was it not most wonderful that there should be such a remembrance of Peter by that Master whom he had so lately denied? Peter had his rising hopes confirmed, his doubts and fears all quenched, when, some time in the course of that forenoon, waiting till John and he had parted—waiting till he could meet him alone, and speak to him with all the greater freedom and fulness—Jesus showed himself to Peter. Before he met the others to speak peace, he hastened to meet Peter to speak pardon. One of the first offices of the risen Saviour was to wipe away the tears of the penitent.

J. 6, 7. Linen clothes. . . . napkin by itself. Who had arranged them thus? Was it the hand of the great Sleeper himself, on his awakening within the tomb? or was it some angel’s hand that took the death-garments as they dropped from around the risen one, and thus disposed them? Whoever did it, there had been no haste; all had been done calmly, collectedly. Neither earthly friends nor earthly foes had done it: the one would not have stripped the garments from the body; the other would have been at no pains so carefully to arrange and deposit them. H.

8. He saw, and believed.** Evidently, that the Lord had not been taken away out of the sepulchre, but that he had gone forth out of it. R. B. —It is especially to be observed, that although Christ had actually arisen and was there, these two men, Peter and John, did not see him. They went back into the city, not knowing what had taken place. And it is only then, when they have gone, that to other eyes than theirs, to another kind of nature, of finer mould and quicker sight, a woman—a soul in which the mighty wonder of another resurrection had been first achieved, weeping because they seemed to have taken away her Lord, and she knows not where they have laid him—it is to her that the Lord first appears. F. D. H.

10. The disciples went to their own home.** [To the home of John.] The love and tender charity of John’s character came out beautifully in his affection for Peter, even after his denial of Christ. He clings to him, and has him under his own roof, wherever that was. All through the Gospels and Acts, Peter and John seem to have been peculiarly drawn together, and to have been close friends and companions. J. C. R.

WE have all a nearer, a more special interest in this deserted tomb of Jesus Christ. For us he died, and for us he rose again. Firm and fast as the grave now seems to hold the buried generations of our race, it is doomed, as a fruit of Christ’s resurrection, to relax its grasp and yield them up again. Empty as was Joseph’s sepulchre when the angel spake to the women, so empty shall be every grave of earth when another angel shall sound his trumpet, and it shall ring through the regions of the dead, and stir all to life again. Blessed was that morning which dawned upon the empty tomb at Calvary, but more blessed to us shall that other morning be which shall dawn upon the empty graves of earth, if only now we live in Christ; if at death we sleep in Jesus; if at that resurrection we be numbered with those who shall share the resurrection of the just. H.

Fit is it that we sing unto the Lord a new song! and with thankful hearts, on his own day and on every day, congratulate the triumph of his rising from the dead, and rejoice in this birthday of our hopes! Now is the justice of God amply satisfied, or the prisoner had never been released. Now is the reproach of the cross ceased, and turned into glory. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is now, through the death and resurrection of his dear Son, become our Father and our God. D.

Section 161.—Appears to Mary, then to the other Women. Watch bribed. Disciples disbelieve.

Mk. 9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

J. 11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept she stooped down 12 and looked into the sepulchre; and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the 13 head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away 14 my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she 15 turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where 16 thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned 17 herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Mk. 10 Mary Magdalene came to the disciples, as they mourned and wept, and told them that 11 she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

M. 9 And as they [the other women] went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, say- 10 ing, All hail. And they came, and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

11. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed 12 unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled 13 with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, 14 Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this 15 come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

L. 9 And [the women] returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, 10 and to all the rest. It was Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women 11 that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

BEFORE he descended to the tomb, Messiah had finished transgression and made an end of sin. There was nothing to take him thither, except the Scripture which must be fulfilled, and the last enemy which must be destroyed; and except the great stone and the pontifical seals, there was nothing to keep him there. Vainly did the King of Terrors watch over his strange captive, and vainly did the grave boast of its mysterious and mighty inmate. He opened his eyes, and death was abolished; he stood up, and the grave had lost its victory; and yielding to the touch of heaven’s herald, the seals and the great stone gave way, and Jesus was “declared the Son of God, with power in his resurrection from the dead.” Delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification: and along with him rose all his ransomed—that glorious Church of countless members which left the grave of Jesus acquitted, accepted, legally justified, virtually saved. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 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.” Because he lives, they shall live also. From the great life-fournain, the Mediator’s person, their souls have imbibed immortality, and their union with Christ secures them an eventual share in Christ’s own resurrection. Hamilton.

Two of the most unqualified declarations of Christ’s essential deity were made to him, and sanctioned by him, after his resurrection: this one of the actual paying of divine honors to him, which was repeated by the disciples just before the ascension, and Thomas’s hearty confession, “My Lord and my God!” We see in this just that steady development of gospel truth which is most natural. Up to the time of his death on the cross, marvellous as the tokens of the Lord’s superhuman character were, both in his words and in his acts, it was the human side of his nature that was kept constantly in view. A being having all the visible attributes of a man, subject in the body to mortal limitations—to weakness, pain, fatigue, sleep, hunger, tears—moving and feeling as other men move and feel, must leave on all about him the impression of a human nature; nor would it be very strange if the daily sight of these external qualities should partly obscure, for the time, the marks of a loftier origin, and make a belief in his divinity difficult. But the sepulchre had now put a different aspect on all these mortal signs; the resurrection had transfigured them and, as it were, divinized them. It had never been heard before that a man lifted himself, by his own will, out of the grave and asserted his superiority to all the forces of destruction. Surely here must be nothing less than the Creator’s majesty. The divinity broke through the mortal investiture. In the glorified form the “Son of God” stood revealed not less than the “Son of man.” They worshipped him, and he received their worship. F. D. H.

Is not the fragmentary character of each of these four separate accounts just what we might have expected, considering the time and manner of the events narrated—the obscure light, the women coming, it may have been singly, or in different groups by different routes, the surprise, the terror, the running in and out, to and from the city—all this within the compass of an hour or two? Which one of the spectators or actors in these busy and broken movements, if asked afterward to detail what occurred, but might have given an account of it differing from that of all the others? H.

The confusion which confessedly exists in this part of the narrative, and the consequent difficulty of reducing it to one continuous account, is not the fault of the historians, but the natural effect of the events themselves, as impressed upon the senses and the memory of different witnesses. If it had pleased God to inspire a single writer as the historian of the resurrection, he would no doubt have furnished as coherent and perspicuous a narrative as any other in the sacred volume. But since it entered into the divine plan, as a necessary element, to set before us not a single but a fourfold picture of our Saviour’s life and death, we must purchase the advantage of this varied exhibition by submitting to its incidental inconveniences. Among them is the difficulty, just referred to, of combining all these views, taken from different points of observation, into one complete view to be seen at the same moment. The historical problem is as hard to solve as the pictorial, not more so; and the seeming inconsistencies, resulting from the effort to amalgamate the narratives, ought no more to destroy our faith in their eventual harmony, than similar points of disagreement in four photographic views of the same edifice or landscape ought to make us question either the identity of the object or the absolute truth of the delineation. J. A. A.

Mk. 9. First to Mary Magdalene. She had gone with the other women to the sepulchre; parting from them before their interview with the angel, and finding Peter and John, she had followed them back to the spot; and it was then that Jesus appeared to this Mary. To a woman was this honor given to be the first that saw the risen Redeemer; and that woman was not his mother. B.

A great injustice has been done to Mary Magdalene, in identifying her with the woman who was a sinner, who anointed the Lord’s feet with ointment, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. The name of that woman is not mentioned in the record of the incident in which she took so prominent a part. The incident occurred not in Magdala but at Nain. It was after Christ had left Nain that the first mention of this Mary meets us in the gospel narrative: “And the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” Named thus along with one whose husband held an important office in Herod’s household, named as one of those who ministered to our Lord of their substance, Mary Magdalene does not appear to have been a woman of a low or poor condition. (Section 46, page 185.)

J. 11. Mary stood weeping. The Master had been to her the kindest and best of friends. Her grateful love, living in her sorrow, makes her cling, even when John has left it, to the spot where in death he had reposed. Mary Magdalene, standing alone weeping thus before the empty sepulchre, presents herself to our eye as the saddest and most inconsolable of all the mourners for the Crucified. H.

12,13. Seeth two angels.** The whole character of this representation seems to show clearly, that Mary had not before seen the angels; and also that she had not before been told that Jesus was risen. R.

14. She turns away even from an interview with angels, from converse with those who may have had as their purpose, in putting to her that question, to tell her about her risen Lord. She turns away even from them, to weep out, without further interruption, her most bitter grief. But now, from other lips, the same question, “Woman, why weepest thou?” salutes her ear. She sees, but scarcely notices, the person who thus speaks to her. He is not directly before her, and she cares not to turn, or make any scrutiny of his person. Even had she done so, seeing him through the veil of dropping tears, she might have failed to recognize him. She cares as little, in fact, about who this speaker is, as she had cared about who those angels were. H.—So absorbed in her sorrow, and so utterly without hope or expectancy of such a blessing, that she speaks to the supposed stranger without recognizing him. E.

Her heart was covered by so thick a cloud of sorrow, that she could not recognize him whom she yet was so earnestly seeking. And believers are often as near to Jesus as their soul is to their body; their tears and sighs, their love and longing, testify to the faith that is in their heart; and yet at times they cannot perceive him whom their soul loves and seeks. Scriver.

15,16. Woman, why weepest thou?** The first word from the mouth of the risen Lord! This is what Christ’s resurrection exclaims to every troubled sinner; for therefore is he risen, that our sorrow might be turned into joy. R. B.

Mary. With one word, and that word her name, the Lord awakens all the consciousness of his presence: calling her in that tone doubtless in which her soul had been so often summoned to receive divine knowledge and precious comfort. (That she turned herself seems to imply that she had not been looking full at him before.) A.

Since that day when the Lord had healed her and received her among his own, she had with blessed joy often heard her name from his lips. Who but He could it be, whose cry of Mary now struck upon her heart? Who could it be but he, the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and is known of his—who calleth his own sheep by name and they know his voice? R. B.

They that were spiritually best prepared, by affection, by earnestness, by sympathy with the spirit of his life and cross, and by love for him, had the clearest and earliest disclosures of his glorified presence. It is just so now. They that are least occupied with themselves, least engrossed with a business that is all of this world, or with a social life and its fashions that are all afar off from the simplicity of his beatitudes, they that are trying to do and bear his will in their houses, they that are busy looking after his lost sheep, they that are ready to believe more because they use the faith they have, they that repent most sorrowfully and put not their boast in anything that they do—these are the souls to which he will unveil the glory of his face, whose eyes he will touch and open that they may see more and more of his truth, and in whose hearts he will dwell, as he dwells in no temple that is made with hands. F. D. H.

17. In the very difficult words, “Touch me not,” two things seem clearly implied: a solemn declaration of changed relations of intercourse with the risen Lord, and a consolatory assurance that what is prohibited now shall (in another form) be vouchsafed hereafter. E.—It meant that the day for personal, physical presence, for merely human affection, for the grasp of human tenderness, was over now. Henceforth he was to be with his people more nearly, more intimately, because in spirit. F.

He allowed a physical touch to the fear of the other women and to the unbelief of Thomas; but he taught the higher spiritual truth to the unfearing, believing Mary, when he gently disallowed a similar touch to her ardent love. J. G. B.—The “Touch me not” was a prophetic protest against all the miserable forms which mistaken devotion has invented in the course of ages. De P.

She would have touched him, as if he had been the same as he was before; but he was not the same, and the season for such touching was over. Another kind of touching must begin; and when his disciples shall apprehend him as he is—when they shall fully realize the spiritual glory of him who has as yet been little more than a loved companion and friend—when they shall “see” that he has gone to his Father, they shall behold him, hear him, touch him, as those who are indeed his “brethren.” W. M.

“I am not risen from the dead that I may again in body walk the earth, but in order that I may ascend up to the Father. Therefore, believe that I am going to the Father, where I shall rule and reign with him forever, and bring you also out of your death and out of every sorrow. Then will ye have me with you to be truly seen and touched by you; then will ye forever enjoy an everlasting communion with me and with my Father.” Luther.

Brethren. Indirectly to assure the disciples that the Lord was still truly man, and in this respect still stood on the same relations with them as before. E. —“My brethren.” Blessed Jesus, who are these? Were they not thy followers? yea, thy forsakers? How dost raise these titles with thyself? At first they were thy servants; then disciples; a little before thy death they were thy friends; now, after thy resurrection, they were thy brethren. Bp. H.

A name of yet closer fellowship, a glorious, a precious name, is here given to believers—brethren of Jesus Christ. How must this brother’s greeting have comforted and refreshed the scattered disciples, so wholly unworthy of it, they who had forsaken and denied the Lord! And to all of us poor sinners also belongs this tender name of brethren, and not to the first disciples alone; for the apostle tells us we are predestinated to be conformed to the likeness of the Son of God, “that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” R. B.

I ascend. His stay in his then form was to be but transient; only after his ascension could he remain permanently, and that in another form. Therefore he did not commission Mary to announce his sensible coming, but his ascension to the Father, and his subsequent revelation to them; making no mention of the intermediate and brief manifestation that was only to prepare the way for the higher and permanent one. N.

The Lord does not here send word to his disciples respecting his already accomplished resurrection, but proclaims to them his speedy ascension. The disciples were to turn their thoughts toward those heavenly blessings which Christ dispenses in his kingdom; they were to see in their risen Lord the only-begotten Son of the Father and his glory. His resurrection was to be followed by no fresh dying; the risen one ascends to heaven, and lives and reigns forever. R. B.

My Father and your Father: my God and your God. All the deepest of the Church fathers were wont to call attention to this, as expressly designed to distinguish between what God is to him and to us—his Father essentially, ours not so; our God essentially, his not so; his God only in connection with us; our God only in connection with him. B.

Christ desires to “proclaim to his brethren,” that his passion and his rising again have obtained this for us, that his Father has also become our Father, his God also our God. The Lord himself brings into view this fruit of his resurrection, that we may now venture, as Christ’s brethren, to call God our Father with a good conscience, as Peter speaks. The other fruit of the Lord’s resurrection, namely, our resurrection, is bound up in this comforting discourse. Since God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live before him; for God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. So Christ teaches the resurrection of the dead. Here he calls God our God. Even, then, as it was impossible that Christ should be holden of death because God is his God, just so is it also impossible that we should be holden of death because God is our God—a God, not of the dead, but of the living. R. B.

• Paul answers the question, “Who is he that condemneth?” by saying, “Christ hath died—yea, rather hath risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” The death, the resurrection, the ascension, the intercession of Christ, are four great facts that should never be separated. J. C. R.

M. 9. Jesus met them. The second appearance of Jesus was to the other party of women, as they returned to the city, and, perhaps, separated to find out the different apostles, to whom when assembled they related the whole of their adventure. H. M.

Saying, All hail! Words of exulting congratulation to mourners weeping for the dead. His work was done, a new era had begun; death was conquered in his person; life and immortality were brought to light for the world. But what will be his joy when he returns in glory to utter a last “All hail!” to sea and land, to the graveyard of the world, to the dust of every one which has been marked by his eye, and precious to his heart! N. M.

Worshipped him. By a variety of persons, and on a variety of occasions, was he worshipped upon earth, nor do we once read of his rejecting these honors; he received them without a single mark of disapprobation: on the contrary, when worship was offered to Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, they rejected it in the most pointed terms of abhorrence; nor would an angel suffer John the Divine to fall down at his feet to worship him: “See thou do it not,” says he, “for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets: worship God!” Nares.

Those institutions and movements in the world, however moral or religious their object, and however brisk their activity, seem to have no deep or strong or permanent life in them which are without this living and conscious connection with the presence and person of Christ, so as to draw their constant supplies of power from him. Those, on the other hand, however few their numbers, or scanty their treasuries, or apparently insignificant their results, which are rooted and grounded in him, animated by the daily breath of prayers to him, in their members and leaders consecrated to him personally, holding him by the feet and worshipping him—these seem to have in them a certain tranquil and immortal power for good, and to be the salt of the earth. So too with the souls of men. With whatever good intentions, honorable aims, charitable feelings, and abundant energy, they that are without this conscious connection with the living and personal Head seem like streams, however full, which run from a cistern and not from the fountain in the hills. They have all that human goodness and zeal can have without that one secret and ineffable element of Christian love, eternal and inexhaustible; and therefore, while they are never to be judged uncharitably, they are not to be trusted as we trust what Christ holds in his almighty hand and stamps with his cross. He does not say to them, “All hail!” and they do not hold him by the feet and worship him. F. D. H.

The Messages by Mary and by the Women.—Christ had said to the eleven, “I leave the world and go to the Father.” To inform them that, though now risen, he had not yet ascended—gone to the Father—but that he would soon ascend, was the object of the word to Mary, “Go, say to them, I ascend.” Besides this information, it was essential that they should understand, before he showed himself, that with him this was a brief transitional period, a passage-time from the earthly and natural to the heavenly and spiritual; and that during this brief interval until his ascension, the terms of their intercourse with him, especially the old familiar personal relations, were to be changed, to accord with his own changed relations to nature and humanity. The communication of this fact was made directly to Mary Magdalene in the gentle prohibition “Touch me not,” and in the reason assigned, “For I am not yet ascended;” and it was conveyed through her indirectly to the disciples. This double message to Mary was the first, because the most important. And it was conveyed through Mary, who had neither fear of the angels, nor fear or question of the risen Saviour; through Mary, because her spiritual susceptibility and perception were signally deep and clear, as her faith was exceptionally simple and strong, and her devotion true and pure. And without demur this unfearing, discerning, trusting Mary of Magdala received and conveyed the word, and the enacted instruction, to the disciples.

But these dull-minded, disheartened men needed a positive, strong assurance of the Lord’s actual resurrection; to know directly, by unquestionable testimony, fortified by sight and hearing and touch, that he was indeed risen in the same body. Hence the double message to the fearing, half-believing women. First they had a direct assurance from the angel: “Fear not—go, tell his disciples that he is risen, and goeth into Galilee!” Then, a little after, Jesus presented himself to their vision, allowed their touch, and with his own voice repeated the angel’s word, “Fear not; go tell my brethren.” And so, with their feebler faith strengthened, and fear allayed, they could, as they did, convey this double assurance of the fact of his actual resurrection in the body. Thus the significance of those two appearances of our Lord may be interpreted. Through Mary the disciples were instructed, first, that the ascension was yet to come; and second, that during the brief transition interval there would be no recurrence to the former familiarity of intercourse. Through the women they were directly and positively assured that the Master had risen from death and the grave, and lived again in the body. J. G. B.

11. Thus these heathen soldiers became the first preachers of Christ’s resurrection, and witnesses of the truth of it to the most inveterate of his enemies. But neither soldiers nor priests were affected by what the one saw or the other heard.

13. Stole him away.** It was absurd to pretend to say with any certainty what passed while they were asleep; so that this was in effect only hiring them to say that they knew nothing of the matter. D.

L. 11. As idle tales, they believed them not. Nothing appears more clearly on the face of every narrative than the total want of expectation, the incredulity, the unwillingness to be convinced, which marked the disciples. Yet how often the Saviour intimated not only his death but his resurrection to his followers! But it is their doubts that make their after-faith so valuable and so satisfying to us. They were not too anxious, they were only too unready to believe. On the other hand, the enemies of Jesus attached more meaning to what he said of his approaching resurrection than his friends. W. M.

How could those who were so slow to believe in the resurrection have been its inventors? And yet they did believe, and this faith in the resurrection became their lever to move the world. De P.—Within six weeks of the resurrection, that great event was the unshaken faith of every Christian; within a few years of the event the palpable historic proofs of it and the numerous testimonies of its reality—strengthened by a memorable vision vouchsafed to himself—had won assent from the acute and noble intellect of a young Pharisaic zealot and persecutor whose name was Saul. F.

THE ascension itself began in the resurrection. It is in the tomb that we find the great dividing line between humiliation and exaltation; and when, on the third morning, Jesus burst the bands of death, his glorification had begun. He was, indeed, still to appear from time to time on the earth, but that was in itself no humiliation. The labor, the suffering, the sorrow, had ceased forever. W. M.

That resurrection light illumines all things. It reveals to us the righteous love of God, the all-sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, the certainty and glory of eternal life, and the redemption of the body new and transfigured. The day has dawned that shall never end; and in the heaven of heavens, on the right hand of God, we behold him, the God-man, as our Intercessor, Advocate, sympathizing Friend, and glorious Head. A. S.

Section 162.—Walk to Emmaus with Two Disciples.

M. 16 THEN the eleven disciples went away into Galilee.

J. 1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias: 2 and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two 3 other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the disciples 5 knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? 6 They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for 7 the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s 8 coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hun- dred cubits) dragging the net with fishes. 9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid 10 thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty 12 and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? 13 knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, 14 and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. 15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee. 16 He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love 17 thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou 18 knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 19 shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. 20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following (which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?). 21, 22 Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto 23 him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 24 to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.

PRAISED be God, he stands ready with his help close to the sea where his servants are fishing; his voice reaches across to them from the shore, forwarding the work of their hands. But when, at the end of the world, the great draught of fishes, taken in the unbroken net of the one gospel, shall be gathered in the harbor of peace, then, at the sight of the redeemed around the throne of the Lamb, they will clearly perceive that the Lord had indeed no need of their labor; and will adore the graciousness of his free love, which has so ordered it, that lost sinners are to be turned to righteousness by means of pardoned sinners.

The personal love which exists between the believing soul and the Saviour is the deep working of the Holy Spirit, of which no one knows anything save the soul which experiences it; and he who is favored with the blessed assurance of loving with true actual love him who is God’s and Mary’s Son, who though in heaven is yet infinitely near to faith; he who embraces him and lays himself on his breast, crying, “My Lord Jesus!"—such a one rejoices with trembling, and rests his sure comfort on this, that the Lord knows what is the mind of the Spirit, when the Spirit’s unutterable “groanings” are the only language we can employ. R. B.

Lovest thou me? All down through time, the question, in various ways, is presented to living souls. The human race is, and will be, divided by that one test. It will be uttered again from the throne of judgment, that throne high and white, before which a departed world shall pass to his right hand and his left. That throne will be occupied by the resplendent form of incarnate Love, and the destiny of every man will be—must be—as are his affinities in regard to Him. He that loveth is of God; and they who are like God shall be gathered to his bosom. W. A.

THE gospels have been brought to a fit and, it seems, an intended conclusion, at the end of the twentieth chapter of John; but yet another chapter is added, as if dictated by some after-thought, which in its effect links the whole gospel record to the book of Acts which succeeds it. The miracle which had already foreshadowed the work of the fishers of men is repeated, but with altered circumstances, typical of the change which was at hand. For now the Lord is no longer with them in the ship, but stands dimly seen upon the shore; yet from thence issues his directions, and shows the presence of his power working with them in their seemingly lonely toil. Then the charge is left to feed his sheep, and lastly the future destinies of the two chief apostles are suffered to be faintly seen. T. D. B.

Third appearance of Jesus to the apostles (seven of them) by the Lake of Galilee—the seventh in all. Their meeting with Jesus in the mountain he had appointed them must have been subsequent to that morning by the Lake of Galilee, of which John has given us so full and touching an account. S.

Sea of Tiberias.

Bethsaida beach recalled bright pictures of our Saviour’s life. Here was the cradle of Christianity, and years afterward here again was “the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead.” Almost the same persons are this time on the shore again: Peter, and Thomas, and Nathanael, and James, and John; but only “that disciple whom Jesus loved” could at first recognize his Lord. Peter, who had before cast himself into the same sea to go to Jesus, now did so again; but the Lord now thrice called him “Simon,” as if the unstable one had by his three-fold denial lost his better title. J. M.

He would recall to the memory of his disciples all that they had witnessed in the early days of his ministry. Above all he would stir the hearts of Peter and James and John, by saying some of his last things to them, at the place where he had first called them to leave their boats and nets, to follow him, and to become fishers of men. J. C. R.

1. There is a significance to be found in the words, “Jesus showed,” or manifested, “himself,” that his body after the resurrection was only visible by a distinct act of his will. From that time the disciples did not, as before, see Jesus, but Jesus appeared unto or was seen by them. The language is changed, and in language of this kind all his appearances after the resurrection are related. It is the same with angels, and all heavenly manifestations: men do not see them, as though it lay in their will to do so or not; such language would be inappropriate: but they appear to men; are only visible to those for whose sakes they are vouchsafed, and to whom they are willing to show themselves. T.

He appears in such a manner as to prove to them most conclusively that he is their risen Lord, yet with an air of strangeness about him which inspires them with awe, and which admonishes them that former familiar fellowship is not to be renewed. N. C. B.

3. That night they caught nothing. Three years before, in the same place, Simon Peter and his companions had also labored a whole night and taken nothing. 5. Children. He calls them by the tender name of children; they were his brethren, his friends, his dear children. He is indeed called “the Everlasting Father.” 6. This time the net did not break, but came whole to land, although they had not at hand the crew of a second ship to help them to draw. R. B.

On both occasions the miraculous success was given after a night of disappointment. In the former case, there was no record of the fish; in this they were carefully counted. Then the fish were taken into the boats on the lake; now they are drawn at once to the shore. Then the net was in danger of breaking; here there was no sign of any such weakness manifested. After the first miracle they were called to be fishers of men; after the second, they are invited to eat with Christ. W. T.

Multitude of fishes. The correspondence of this account with the former fishing is very remarkable, as is their entire distinctness. The disciples must have been powerfully reminded of that; and after the “fishers of men” of the former, the whole could not but bear to them a spiritual meaning in reference to their apostolic commission: their powerlessness without Christ, their success when they let down the net at his word. A.

7. That disciple whom Jesus loved. This is John’s modest way throughout his gospel: he hides himself whenever he can; and when he must refer to himself at all, he leaves out the name. The noblest spirits are the meekest. Those who have most in them that is worth showing are least anxious to show it. This best-beloved apostle is always thinking of his Saviour, not of himself. That is one reason why he is the best-beloved. And so, although he is to have all Christendom, in all ages, for his vast and admiring audience, he is altogether unconscious and natural in his narrative, as we all are when we are describing something because of the feeling and impression in ourselves, and not trying to produce an effect for ourselves. F. D. H.

Girt his fisher’s coat. In this hot climate it is common to fish with nothing but a sort of shawl or napkin tied round the waist. The fisher’s coat which he girt about him was the short ‘abdyeh which they now wear, and which they very often lay aside while fishing. They can doff and don it in a moment. When worn, it is girt tight about the loins with the zunnar, and Peter did this when hastening to meet the Lord. W. M. T.

Five fishermen came to my camp in their boat by invitation, and were most courteous and intelligent in their talk. All wore the same kind of dress—a cloak, or scarf (the “fisher’s coat”), and below it a short kilt. When a man had only this latter garment on, he was said to be “naked.” J. M.—In all the languages of the East a person is said to be “naked” when he is simply divested of his outer garments. Van Lennep.

Both apostles come out in their proper characters: he of the eagle eye first detects the presence of the Beloved, and Peter, the foremost in act, as John is profoundest in speculation, unable to wait till the ship should be brought to land, throws himself into the sea that he may find himself the sooner at the feet of his Lord.

10. As that large capture of fish was to them the pledge and promise of a labor that should not be in vain, so the meal, when the labor was done, a meal of the Lord’s own preparing, and upon the shore, was the symbol of the great festival in heaven with which, after their earthly toil was over, he would refresh his servants, when he should cause them to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. And as they were bidden to bring of their fish to that meal, so should the souls which they had taken for life help and contribute to their gladness then. And after the Lord has opened the eyes of his apostles to the greatness of their future work, and given to them in type a prophetic glimpse both of their successful labor and their abundant reward, he declares to them the conditions both of accomplishing this work and inheriting this reward. Love to Christ, and the unreserved yielding up of self to God—these were the sole conditions. T.

12,13. As they were now dining, and the Lord Jesus, in the fatherly way which had been his wont, was to-day also distributing among them the bread and meat, none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. The infinitely condescending manner, like their own Jesus, in which the Lord of glory was here dealing with them, drove away every doubt which might still have been stirring within them; and foolish and slow to believe as their hearts were by nature, inclined as they were to be again affrighted, and to suppose that it was a spirit before them, yet to-day such thoughts durst not spring up; Satan no longer ventured to disturb the joy of this meal. Those are blessed hours in the Christian’s life, when the soul, filled with the love of God which by faith she has tasted, ventures not to ask, Who art thou? knowing that it is the Lord, in whose love she is reposing. R. B.

15–17. What so searching as love, so intense in its requirements, so severe in its tests, because so pure, so rich, so free in its outgoings? Jesus, who had loved Peter so strongly, that by the energy of prayer he had rescued him from the fate of Judas; who had loved him so tenderly, that neither from the cross nor from the open sepulchre had he upbraided him with his fall—now puts to Peter the simple question, “Lovest thou me?” The look which the Redeemer had cast on Peter after his denial was still burning in his soul; and now, like a triple hammer-stroke, the question falls on his heart. Severe and searching from its association, it was the more so from the words in which it was phrased. The first time, our Lord used a word that expresses only a reverential love—putting Peter, as it were, in the place of a servant or disciple. Peter responded with a word that expresses the warmest personal devotion. The same distinction is repeated in the second asking. But the third time, as if to take Peter back to his heart, our Lord adopts his own warmth of utterance, and makes such love the qualification for feeding the flock. Not to precede in rank, but to excel in love, should be the ambition of the Christian preacher. And the one test of the believer’s preparation for duty or for death is, Lovest thou me? J. P. T.

15. Lovest thou more than these,** “thy brethren, my other disciples, do?"—a gentle yet distinct enough reminder of that former saying: “Though all men should be offended, I never will;” a delicate yet searching probe, pressed kindly but firmly home into the depths of Peter’s heart; a skilful method of testing and exhibiting the truth of Peter’s repentance, without the painful humiliation of having the terrible denials of his Master dwelt upon, either by Jesus in the way of charge, or by himself in the way of confession. H.

What appears surprisingly beautiful on the part of the now humbled disciple is, that in simplicity he passes over the more, and says, “Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee.” R. B.—Failure had taught him humility, and therefore he will neither claim a preeminence in affection, nor adopt the word of the Saviour’s question, which involved deep honor and devotion and esteem; but will substitute for it that weaker word, which yet best expressed the warm human affection of his heart. F.

Thou knowest that I love thee. He ventures no longer to trust himself, no longer to trust his own conviction of the sincerity and strength of his love, but he appeals to the knowledge of Christ. The Lord knows that Simon, son of Jonas, loves him; for he says to him, “Feed my lambs!” He commits what he loves to the care of the man who loves him. R. B.

It is according to usage to understand by the “lambs” young and tender disciples, whether in age or Christian standing, and by the “sheep” the more mature. B.—Both sheep and lambs the Saviour calls his, thereby commending their weakness and helplessness to the shepherd’s fostering love. R. B.

There is one indispensable qualification for all genuine Christian work—a supreme, constraining love to Christ. The first, the second, the third prerequisite for all true feeding of the lambs, the sheep of the Saviour’s flock, is attachment to himself—a love to Jesus Christ running over upon all who believe in him. To know and believe in the love that Christ has to us, to feel ourselves individually the objects of that love, to open our hearts to all the hallowed influences which a realizing sense of that love is fitted to exert—this is the way to have our spirits stirred to that responsive affection to him, which gives to all Christian service purity and power. H.

16. The second time.** In this repetition of the question, though the wound was meant to be reopened, the words “more than these” are not repeated; for Christ is a tender as well as skilful physician, and Peter’s silence on that point was confession enough of his sin and folly. Feed my sheep. The word here is studiously changed, from one signifying simply to feed, to one signifying to “tend” as a shepherd, denoting the abiding exercise of that vocation, and in its highest functions. B.

17. The question, “Lovest thou me?” is thrice repeated, that by three solemn affirmations the apostle may efface his three denials of his Lord. T.—He was grieved; for he remembered that three times he had denied him who had now been three times asking him whether he loved him. But this is that sadness which forgiven sin awakes in the soul, as often as Jesus reminds us what we once were, and what we should be without him. “Thou, my Lord, knowest all things; not only my weakness, but likewise the sincerity of my soul.” His own heart would at last condemn Peter; but from this verdict he appeals to one who “is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.” R. B.

In the Greek, two different words are used for the one translated feed. Jesus first commits the feeding of the lambs to Peter, then the general guidance or oversight of the whole flock that he had purchased with his blood; and finally he returns to the simple idea of feeding, as applied to this whole flock. H. —Feed them as being my sheep, and not thine; seek in them my honor, and not thine own honor; my authority, not thine own; mine, not thine own gain. Aug.

Perhaps the feeding of the lambkins was the furnishing of the apostolic testimony of the resurrection and facts of the Lord’s life on earth to the first converts; the shepherding, or ruling of the sheep, the subsequent government of the Church as shown in the early part of the Acts; the feeding of the sheeplings, the choicest part of the flock, the furnishing of the now maturer Church of Christ with the wholesome food of the doctrines contained in his epistles. A.

The prayers, the warnings, the look of love, the angel’s message, the private interview, this conversation by the lake-side—these all told Peter of the thoughtfulness, the care, the kindness, the pitying sympathy, the forgiving love, of which he had been the object. Thus had he been treated by Jesus; let him go and deal with others as Christ had dealt with him. H.

18,19. The activity of Peter, as a missionary to the Jews, and in the guidance of the Jewish Christians, extended over a wide sphere. But of the particulars of his career very little is known. In the year 52 he is at Jerusalem, on the occasion of the apostolic conference. Subsequently we find him at Antioch in conjunction with Paul. His first epistle is written from Babylon. In that region Jews were very numerous, and it is natural that the leading apostle to the Jews should be found among them. Whether he had visited the Christians of Asia Minor, to whom his epistle is directed, is uncertain. It became an established tradition that he perished as a martyr at Rome. That he died as a martyr seems evident from the prediction of verses 18, 19. G. P. F.

Not alone as a shepherd is he to follow the Shepherd, but also as a sheep for the slaughter is he to follow the passover Lamb. The Lord rises up and walks on before Peter, who follows in his footsteps: an image of what was the case with both spiritually. But he who was walking on before

Peter was the risen and ascending One: Peter therefore might boldly and gladly walk after him; for not only to his suffering was he called to follow him, but to his glory also. When, shortly before his death, he calls to mind this “showing” of his Lord Jesus Christ, it leads him to speak of dying as in the presence of a joyful resurrection: “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle.”

The martyr’s cross stands not at the end of every Christian’s life; but to no Christian is it permitted to finish his course without being exercised in the way of the cross, in which all his own willing must cease and die, in order that the subdued and quieted heart may rest upon the heart of God in passive self-surrender, in the real feeling of sacrifice, in short, in true love; and that thus he may be magnified, who, according to the riches of his glory, works such miracles in us poor sinners. R. B.

22. What is that to thee? A rebuke is implied: “His appointed lot is no element in thy onward course; it is Me that thou must follow.” A. —Observe the absolute disposal of human life which Christ claims: “If I will that he tarry.” B.

Beneath these words of our Lord to Peter, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me,” there is a principle that is applicable in many circumstances still. The speculative, the unrevealed, the insoluble—these belong to God; and if we would have the greatest enjoyment in our lives, and make the best out of them for ourselves and others, we shall leave these to God, and be content, each one for himself, to work in his little portion of the great pattern of history, ignorant of its bearing upon the rest, but believing that, if we follow Christ, all will be right at last. Do the work which the Lord has plainly set before you. Cultivate the Christian character, and give yourselves to the advancement of the gospel of Christ. That is yours—all else is God’s. These intricate matters will become hopelessly tangled in your hands. Let God unwind them in his own time, and he will keep them clear. Ah, how much happier we should be if we should trouble ourselves less about the government of the world, and concern ourselves more about our own personal duty! W. T.

Till I come. Seems to intimate that, alone of all the apostles, John should survive that catastrophe of the old dispensation in the destruction of Jerusalem, which made way for Christ’s coming in his kingdom. S.

That “coming of the Lord” is meant which is so often alluded to in the three gospels, viz., the establishment in full of the dispensation of the kingdom by the destruction of the nation and temple of the Jews. Then began that mighty series of events of which the Apocalypse is the prophetic record, and which is in the complex known as the “coming of the Lord,” ending as it shall in his glorious final advent. A.

In John two eras met, so that the mysterious promise of his Master was fulfilled, as he “tarried till the Lord came” in power and judgment, to sweep away the ensigns of the old theocracy, and appear in the Christian body. “The world” might well seem to be “passing away,” as the shifting scene in some great tragedy, or rather as the veil which is cast over the Eternal, to one who had passed through the crisis of the first age. He who had anxiously followed Jesus into the judgment-hall lived to know that his name was preached from India to Spain; he who had frequented the temple, even after he was filled with the might of Christ, survived its ruin, and died in a city consecrated to the service of a heathen deity; he who would have called fire on the heads of the Samaritans, at last speaks in our ears only the words of love. His love was no soft feeling, but a living principle, an absolute devotion to truth, as he had seen and known it in the person of his Lord. He stands forth as the ideal of a thoughtful Christian, relentless against evil, and yet patient with the doubting. He who leaned upon the breast of Jesus was naturally most qualified to record the deepest mysteries of his doctrines. He who had outlived the first earthly forms in which Christianity was clothed must have been able to see most clearly, and set forth most fully, its unchanging essence, “as he soared like an eagle above the clouds of human infirmity, and contemplated with keen and steady gaze the light of eternal truth.” B. F. W.

According to the Lord’s prophecy, John was tarrying long after Peter had finished his course. He was tarrying when there was no other apostle left in the Church. He was tarrying when the Lord had come in judgment upon Jerusalem. And the Lord himself taught him to understand his word when he gloriously fulfilled it in him. For even before he came to receive him to himself, he granted him to know by experience for what end it was that he should tarry till such extreme old age, longer than all his fellow-apostles, namely, for this, that he might behold in holy visions the coming of the Lord in his kingdom, and, as the prophet of the New Testament, might deliver to its people the Revelation, which commences thus: “Behold, He cometh with clouds!” and ends thus: “Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” R. B.

Section 165.—Final Interviews in Galilee and Jerusalem.

M. 16 AFTER that the eleven disciples went into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them; C. 6 there he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once. And when they saw him, M. 17 they worshipped him: but some doubted. C. 7 After that he was seen of James; then of all the apostles: to whom also he shewed A. 3 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. 4 And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have L. 44 heard of me. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law 45 of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their 46 understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all 48, 49 nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until A. 5 ye be endued with power from on high. For John truly baptized with water; but ye 8 shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And 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 the uttermost part of the earth. M. 18 And Jesus spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in

19 earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 20 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

HE speaks as if his feet were already standing within the throne of universal sovereignty—as if the Father had already set him on his own right hand in the heavenly places, and had put all things under his feet. It is from the lofty elevation thus attained, it is as clothed with supreme, limitless authority and power, that Jesus issues the great commission to the Church, Go ye therefore and teach, make disciples of, all nations! A mission so comprehensive was as novel as it was sublime. At that time the very idea of a religion equally addressed to all nations, equally needed by and suited to every child of Adam, was wholly new, had never been broached, never been attempted to be realized. He not only announced the project, but he devised the instrument by which it was to be accomplished; he put that instrument in its complete form into the hands of those by whom it was to be employed. The instrumentality employed has never asked for, because it never needed, improvement or change. We have it now in the same form in which it was put by Christ himself into the hands of the first disciples of the faith. The experience of so many centuries has detected no flaw, revealed no weakness, provided no substitute.

It is the distinction, the glory, and the power of the gospel that it holds out to us at the very first, as a gratuity, which it has cost Christ much to purchase, but which it costs us nothing to acquire—the forgiving, loving favor of the Most High. It asks us to dismiss here all our doubts and fears; to know and believe the love which God has to us; to see in Jesus one who is absolutely to be depended on, on whom it is impossible that too much confidence can be reposed; who by every way that love could devise, or the spirit of self-sacrifice achieve, has tried to get us to trust alone, unhesitatingly, habitually, forever in him. And that simple gospel of the grace of God preached, proclaimed, made known among all nations, to every creature, has it not proved itself fitted for the work? H.

M. 16, Cor. 6. It was the will of Christ to show himself after his resurrection once only to the body of his disciples; to as many, at least, as could conveniently be congregated in one place. It was in Galilee that this purpose could best be accomplished. H.

It would seem probable that this time and place had been appointed by our Lord for a more public interview, not only with the eleven whom he had already met more than once, but with all his disciples in Galilee; and that therefore it was on this occasion when, according to Paul, “he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once.” That the interview was not confined to the eleven alone, seems evident from the fact that “some doubted;” for this could hardly be supposed true of any of the eleven, after what had already happened to them in Jerusalem and Galilee, and after having been appointed to meet their risen Lord at this very time and place. The appearance to the five hundred must at any rate be referred to Galilee; for even after our Lord’s ascension, the number of the names in Jerusalem were together only about a hundred and twenty. It was a great and solemn occasion; the closing scene of his ministry in Galilee. Here his life had been spent. Here most of his mighty works had been done and his discourses held. Here his followers were as yet most numerous. He therefore here takes leave on earth of those among whom he had lived and labored longest. R.

Writing more than twenty years after this time, Paul gives us the remarkable testimony that the greater number of these eye-witnesses of the resurrection were yet alive, and that some only were “fallen asleep.” F.

M. 17. Some doubted. Surely no dishonest writer would, in the very last place where he mentions the resurrection, and in the conclusion of his book, have suggested such a cavil to unbelievers, as to say that “some doubted.” This passage shows, among many others, that the Evangelists were plain men who, conscious of their own integrity, have related what they knew with admirable simplicity. Had they been deceivers, they would have written with more caution and art, and have endeavored to obviate every cavil. Watson.

No remarks are thrown in on any occasion by the sacred writers to anticipate objections: no endeavor to reconcile the mind of the reader to what may be extraordinary in the narrative. Beattie.

Acts 3. Forty days. During those forty days his body had not been liable to merely human laws, nor had he lived during those days the life of men. The time had now come when his earthly presence should be taken away from them forever, until he returned in glory to judge the world. F.

4. As in Galilee he had gathered his disciples, so there he appoints a place of general meeting. But he cannot ascend to his Father from Galilee. As he went up to Jerusalem to die, he now goes up thither again, that from the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Holy City and the Temple, he may ascend to his Father’s right hand to receive the kingdom. Andrews.

L. 44. When he met with the eleven in the course of that day on which he was taken up into heaven, our Saviour occupied himself with showing them how needful it was that all things that had been written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms regarding him should be fulfilled; how exactly many of their ancient prophecies had met with their fulfilment in the manner and circumstances of his death; how it behooved him to suffer, and through suffering to reach the throne of that kingdom which he came to set up on the earth; at once unfolding the Scriptures, and opening their minds to understand them. As on the first, so now on the last day of his being with them, this was the chosen theme on which he dwelt; this the lesson upon which a larger amount of care was bestowed by our Lord after his resurrection than upon any other. What weight and worth does this attach to these Old Testament testimonies to his Messiahship! What a sanction does it lend to our searching of their prophetic records, in the belief that we shall find much there pointing, in prophecy and type and figure, to the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world! H.

45. Opened he their understanding. A statement of unspeakable value expressing, on the one hand, Christ’s immediate access to the human spirit and absolute power over it, to the adjustment of its vision, and permanent rectification for spiritual discernment; and, on the other hand, making it certain that the manner of interpreting the Old Testament which the apostles afterward employed has the direct sanction of Christ himself. 47. Beginning at Jerusalem. 1. As the metropolis and heart of the then existing kingdom of God: “to the Jew first.” 2. As the great reservoir and laboratory of all the sin and crime of the nation, thus proclaiming for all time that there is mercy in Christ for the chief of sinners. B.

Acts 8. His Messiahship, his death, his resurrection, were not matters in which they and their nation alone were interested. Now that the needful work of suffering and death was over; now that the wonderful exhibition at once of the sacredness of the divine law, the holiness of the divine character, the deep unutterable love of God, had been given; now, wide over the world, were repentance and remission of sin to be proclaimed in his name; and they, the men to whom Jesus was then speaking, were to be the heralds, the preachers of this all-embracing gospel of peace on earth, and goodwill on God’s part toward all the children of men. They were to receive power from on high to execute that great mission; and beginning at Jerusalem as the centre were to go forth, not as prophets of the future, but as witnesses of the past, witnesses for Christ, to carry the glad tidings abroad through all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

The life and death of Jesus of Nazareth have now been for centuries before the world, as the life and death of one who claimed to be the eternal Son of God, the equal of the Father; of one who said, that as the Father knew him, so knew he the Father; that whatsoever things the Father did, the same did the Son likewise; that the Father had delivered all things into his hand; that all power was his in heaven and in earth. And no one has ever been able to show anything in the character, the sayings, the doings of Jesus Christ, inconsistent with such extraordinary pretensions; all is in harmony with the claim, all goes to sanction and sustain it. H.

M. 18-20. Careful study of the order of the events and utterances included in Sections 163 and 165, leads to the placing of this formal commission here, as the last utterance of the Lord to the eleven disciples. In the absence of other and positive indications, this place is both natural and fitting, as a sequence to what precedes, and as a closing communication to the apostles. As the genuineness of the less complete form of commission given by Mark, with accompanying special promises (Mk. 16: 15-18), is doubted, it is placed where it reads naturally, and where it may be regarded as preliminary to this complete instruction and command—in Section 163. J. G. B.

This glorious commission is twofold: 1. MISSIONARY—“Go, teach (make disciples of) all nations;” and when gained, set the seal of visible discipleship upon them by “baptizing them in (into) the name”—the whole fulness of the grace—“of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” as theirs. 2. PASTORAL—“Teaching them,” these baptized members of the Church visible, “to observe all things whatsoever,” during the three years ye have been with me, “I have commanded you.” B.

All power is given unto me. The word rendered power embraces the ideas of both power and authority—power coupled with right. . . . Observe that the power given to Christ is alleged by him as a reason, not for subduing, but for teaching, all nations. His power is exercised in patience, long-suffering, and love. L. A.—Jesus, in his divine nature, had all power from eternity: but it was now to be exercised in his human nature also, which, from a state of humiliation, from “the form of a servant,” was soon to be exalted to the highest dignity, and placed at the right hand of God (Eph. 1: 20; Phil. 2: 9). P.

19. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Literally into the name. It is a profession of subjection, in a new and special sense, to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; a profession of being God’s peculiar property, and of entire devotion to his service. The use of the word name in the singular emphatically expresses the unity of the Godhead, as the words Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, denote the tri-personality. The names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, refer to the offices which the Sacred Three sustain in the work of man’s redemption; and in which offices the only revelation of the Trinity which we have is made. One person, in consequence of official superiority, is called Father; the person who stooped to the condition of inferiority is correlatively styled Son; while the other person of the Trinity, from his office as Regenerator and Sanctifier by his communicated influence, is called Spirit. These are the relations brought to view in the Word of God. In no instance is the term Son applied to the second person in the Trinity except in his office-work of Messiah, Mediator, King in Zion. And baptism into the covenant of grace is here designated baptism into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, i. e., into the duties and privileges of that covenant of redemption, which was founded on the provisions of grace, denoted by these official names of the persons of the Trinity. Beyond this we cannot go. The mode of the divine existence we cannot fathom. J. J. O.

The natural interpretation of the words is, that by being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we are dedicated and consecrated equally to the service of each of those three divine persons, and are consequently bound to honor, worship, and obey each of them equally. This evidently implies that they are equal in their nature, and that “all the fulness of the Godhead” dwells in each. P.—This form of baptism, while it proves the divinity of each person, proves also their unity in the Godhead. For we hear in it but of one name. We are baptized, not in the names, as of many, but “in the name,” as of one: one name, and one nature or essence. Andrews.

What is Christianity but a manifestation of the three divine persons, as engaged in the great work of man’s redemption, begun, continued, and to be ended by them in their several relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, three persons, one God? If there be no Son of God, where is our redemption? If there be no Holy Spirit, where is our sanctification? Without both, where is our salvation? And if these two persons be anything less than divine, why are we baptized equally “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?” Horne.

Our faith is summoned to the three persons of the one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. No hint is given that there is any difference of nature, dignity, duration, power, or glory between them. There is nothing in the situation, the relations, or the contents of the divine formula to suggest that either of the three is less than the others, or less than God. The obvious, unforced, natural interpretation is that the three are persons, and that the persons are three. Each of them is elsewhere in the Scriptures referred to as God. Each of them is distinguished from the others by the personal pronouns. To each of them divine attributes and divine acts are ascribed, and to each divine worship is offered. So, by a vast preponderance, the Church of Christ has received and held these words. So all the parts and powers and operations of the entire gospel agree. F. D. H.

It is worthy of notice that the Saviour does not here give the name of God directly, but the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the exalted object to which the votary of baptism becomes pledged. This is the only passage in the gospels in which the Lord himself names the three divine persons together. In many passages the Saviour, it is true, describes both the Son and the Holy Ghost individually as divine personalities. Here, however, they appear together, and are styled in common the object to which believers bind themselves by baptism. The elements of the doctrine of the Trinity are thus given in Christ’s identical words. The established doctrine of the Church on this subject is essentially that of the Bible also, but the symbolically derived term person involves a degree of inconvenience, and may easily lead to error. Human language, however, furnishes no expression by which the connection between a unity of essence with an independence of consciousness in Father, Son, and Spirit can be more appropriately indicated. The chief error to which the word “person” leads, and which has constantly been opposed by all the more profound teachers of the Church, and especially by Augustine, in his acute and profound work on the subject of the Trinity, is this: We are led by it to conceive of Father, Son, and Spirit as locally or mechanically distinct from one another, while we should view them as livingly interpenetrating one another. O. (Read Section 167.)

To be baptized into that name is expressive, not of a mere formal confession of our faith in the divinity under that mysterious distinction of a threefold personality, but of an inward and spiritual union and communion with the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Closest, loftiest, most blessed of all fellowships, that to which in Jesus Christ we are elevated, and of which our participation of the two sacraments of the Church is the external sign.

20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.** The crowning glory of the gospel—of its proclamation of a free and full justification before God, alone through the merits of the Saviour—is this: that it opens the way and supplies the motive to a right discharge of all commanded duty. Enthroning Christ in the heart, planting deep within a supreme love to him, it produces an obedience which springs not from fear but from love. If the sincere and honest effort be put forth to obey the precepts he has given for the regulation of our heart and life, each new attempt to do his will shall reveal something more of the lovableness of the Redeemer’s character. The loving and the doing shall help each other on, till the loving shall make the doing light; and by the doing shall the loving be itself made perfect. H.

Section 166.—The Ascension. Close of the Gospel.