Lord and my God! recognizing and acknowledging thereby the divine nature thus manifested in the flesh. The reply of our Lord to Thomas is strikingly impressive and condemnatory of his want of faith: " Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed!" He and the other disciples, who were to be the heralds of the Lord's resurrection to the world as the foundation of the hope of the Gospel, refused to believe except upon the evidence of their own senses; while all who after them have borne the Christian name, have believed this great fact of the Gospel solely upon their testimony. God has overruled their unbelief for good, in making it a powerful argument for the truth of their testimony in behalf of this great fact, which they themselves were so slow to believe. Blessed, indeed, are they who have received their testimony.

§ 7. Our Lord's Appearance in Galilee.

John 21: 1-24. Matt. 28: 16-23, 1 Cor. 15: 6.

It appears from the narrative of Matthew, that while the disciples were yet in Jerusalem, our Lord had appointed a time, when he would meet them in Galilee, upon a certain mountain.1 They therefore left Jerusalem after the passover, probably soon after the interview at which Thomas was present; and returned to Galilee, their home. While waiting for the appointed time, they engaged in their usual occupation of fishermen. On a certain day, as John relates, towards evening, seven of them being together, including Peter, Thomas, and the sons of Zebedee, they put out upon the lake with their nets in a fishing-boat; but during the whole night they caught nothing. At early dawn Jesus stood upon the shore, from which they were not far off, and directed them to cast the net upon the right side of the boat. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of the fishes." Recognizing in this miracle their risen Lord, they pressed around him. Peter with his characteristic ardour, threw himself into the water in order to reach him the sooner. At their Lord's command they prepared a meal from the fish they had thus taken. "Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise." This was his third appearance to the eleven; or rather to a large number of them together. It was on this occasion, and after their meal, that our

1 See Matt. 26: 32.

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Lord put to Peter the touching and thrice repeated question, Lovest thou me?"

"

At length the set time arrived; and the eleven disciples went away into the mountain "where Jesus had appointed them." It, would seem most probable, that this time and place had been appointed of our Lord for a solemn and more public interview, not only with the eleven, whom he had already met, but with all his disciples in Galilee; and that therefore it was on this same 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, would seem 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 of 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 an hundred and twenty. I do not hesitate, therefore, to hold with Flatt, Olshausen, Hengstenberg and others, that the appearances thus described by Matthew and Paul, were identical. It was a great and solemn occasion. Our Lord had directed that the eleven and all his disciples in Galilee should thus be convened upon the mountain. It was 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 laboured longest; and repeats to all his disciples in public the solemn charge, which he had already given in private to the apostles: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations;-and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." It was doubtless his last interview with his disciples in that region, his last great act in Galilee.

§8. Our Lord's further Appearances at Jerusalem, and his Ascension.

1 Cor. 15: 7. Acts 1: 3-12. Luke 24: 49-53. Mark 16: 19, 20.

Luke relates, in Acts 1: 3, that Jesus showed himself alive to the apostles, "after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." This would seem to imply interviews and com

munications, as to which we have little more than this very general notice. One of these may have been the appearance to James, mentioned by Paul alone (1 Cor. 15: 7), as subsequent to that to the five hundred brethren. It may be referred with most probability to Jerusalem, after the return of the apostles from Galilee. That this return took place by the Lord's direction, there can be no doubt; although none of the Evangelists have given us the slightest hint as to any such direction. Indeed, it is this very brevity, this omission to place on record the minor details which might serve to connect the great facts and events of our Lord's last forty days on earth,-that has occasioned all the doubt and difficulty with which this portion of the written history of these events has been encompassed.-The James here intended was probably our Lord's brother; who was of high consideration in the church, and is often, in the later books, simply so named without any special designation. At the time when Paul wrote, the other James, "the brother of John," as he is called, was already dead.2

After thus appearing to James, our Lord, according to Paul, was seen "of all the apostles." This, too, was apparently an appointed meeting; and was doubtless the same of which Luke speaks, as occurring in Jerusalem immediately preceding the ascension. It was, of course, the Lord's last interview with his apostles. He repeats to them the promise of the baptism with the Holy Spirit as soon to take place; and charges them not to depart from Jerusalem until this should be accomplished.3 Strange as it may appear, the twelve, in this last solemn moment, put to him the question, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" How, indeed, were they to believe! Their gross and darkened minds, not yet enlightened by the baptism of the Spirit, clung still to the idea of a temporal Prince and Saviour, who should deliver his people, not from their sins, but from the galling yoke of Roman dominion. Our Lord deals gently with their ignorance and want of faith: "It is not for you to know the times and seasons; -but ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me-unto the uttermost part of the earth."

During this discourse, or in immediate connection with it, our Lord leads them out as far as to Bethany (ws sis Bŋðavíav); and lifting up his hands he blessed them; Luke 24: 50. This act of blessing must be understood, by all the laws of language, as hav

1 See Acts 12: 17. 15: 13. 21: 18. Gal. 2: 9, 12 al. To this interview belongs also Luke 24: 44.

2 Acts 12: 1.

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ing taken place at or near Bethany. The connecting particle is zaí not de, as in the beginning of the same verse. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." Our Lord's ascension, then, took place at or near Bethany. Indeed, the sacred writer could hardly have found words to express this fact more definitely and fully; and a doubt on this point could never have suggested itself to the mind of any reader, but for the language of the same writer, in Acts 1: 12, where he relates that after the ascension the disciples "returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet." Luke obviously did not mean to contradict himself; and the most that this expression can be made to imply, is, that from Bethany, where their Lord had ascended, which lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, a mile or more below the summit of the ridge, the disciples returned to Jerusalem by a path across the mount. Yet from this remark in Acts arose, probably early in the fourth century, the legend which fixed the place of the ascension on the reputed summit of the Mount of Olives. If that was indeed the true spot, then our Lord ascended from it in full view of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; a circumstance not hinted at by the Evangelist, nor at all in accordance with the life and character of the Saviour.1

As these disciples stood gazing and wondering, while a cloud received their Lord out of their sight, two angels stood by them in white apparel, announcing unto them, that this same Jesus, who was thus taken up from them into heaven, shall again so come, in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven. With this annunciation closes the written history of our Lord's resurrection and ascension.

§ 9. Results.

Having thus completed the discussion relative to the sequence of events, and the proper mode of harmonizing the accounts given by the four Evangelists of our Lord's resurrection, his ascension, and the accompanying circumstances, it may be worth while here to present a summary view of these events and circumstances, in the order resulting from the preceding considerations.

At early dawn on the first day of the week, the women who had attended on Jesus, viz. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome, and others, went out with spices to

For a full discussion of this topic, in reply to the objections of Mr. Newman, see an article by the writer, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843, No. I. p. 176 sq.

the sepulchre in order further to embalm the Lord's body. They inquire among themselves, who should remove for them the stone which closed the sepulchre. On their arrival they find the stone already taken away; for there had been an earthquake, and an angel had descended and rolled away the stone and sat upon it, so that the keepers became as dead men for terror. The Lord had risen. The women, knowing nothing of all this, are amazed; they enter the tomb, and find not the body of the Lord, and are greatly perplexed. At this time Mary Magdalene, impressed with the idea that the body had been stolen away, leaves the sepulchre and the other women, and runs to the city to tell Peter and John. The rest remain in the tomb; and immediately two angels appear, who announce unto them that Jesus was risen from the dead, and give them a charge in his name for the apostles. They go out quickly from the sepulchre and proceed in haste to the city to make this known to the disciples. On the way Jesus meets them, permits them to embrace his feet, and renews the same charge to the apostles. The women relate these things to the disciples; but their words seem to them as idle tales; and they believed them not.

Meantime Peter and John had run to the sepulchre; and entering in had found it empty; but the orderly arrangement of the grave-clothes and of the napkin convinced John that the body had not been removed either by violence or by friends; and the germ of a belief arises in his mind, that the Lord had risen. The two returned to the city. Mary Magdalene, who had again followed them to the sepulchre, remained standing and weeping before it; and looking in she saw two angels sitting. Turning around, she sees Jesus; who gives to her also a solemn charge for his disciples.

The further sequence of events, consisting chiefly of our Lord's appearances, presents comparatively little difficulty. The various manifestations which the Saviour made of himself to his disciples and others, as recorded by the Evangelists and Paul, may accordingly be arranged and enumerated as follows:

1. To the women returning from the sepulchre. Reported only by Matthew.

2. To Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre. By John and Mark. 3. To Peter, perhaps early in the afternoon. By Luke and Paul. 4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus, towards evening. By Luke and Mark.

5. To the Apostles (except Thomas) assembled at evening.