THE MOUNT OF ASCENSION. 33 occasionally and very suddenly, and for a brief | which suggests the probability that they had space of time, to his disciples, in order to satisfy relinquished all hope of the speedy establishthem of the certainty of his resurrection that ment of the kingdom of God, as promised by they might be witnesses of it; and for the their lately crucified Master. As they had been purpose of instructing them concerning the called by the Lord from the shores of the Sea mission he was about to commit to them for of Galilee, so now, in their disappointment, publishing his gospel to the world. His ap- they return thither; and, after consultation, pearances to his disciples, and his intercourse Peter said to them, "I go a-fishing," that is, I with them after his resurrection differed very will resume my former occupation, since I see strikingly from those before his crucifixion. Before his crucifixion he always appeared as no signs of the kingdom of God; and it is now more than a month since the crucifixion of one of them, and subject to the same conditions Jesus of Nazareth. and accidents, except sin, and entered fully The other disciples said, into their feelings, and freely into conversation "We also go with thee." We too will resume with them. After his resurrection his body despondency, and heard their consultations. our former occupation. The Lord saw their seemed to have new and wonderful properties, The sun went down, and thus screened from which belong not to matter. He appeared the intense heat of an eastern sun (for it was among them in closed rooms, suddenly, with- in the month of May), "they went forth, and out opening the door, and as suddenly vanished entered into a ship immediately, and that night out of their sight, as a spirit is supposed to they caught nothing." vanish into thin air.* As the day dawned, His conversation was brief, solemn, and accompanied with a peculiar stranger standing on the beach. The mildness and they neared the shore to rest, they saw a awe and power. His body was no longer the and majesty of his mien, and the gentleness natural body that was crucified on the cross and laid in the sepulchre, but it was now a and tenderness of his address threw a spell spiritual body; for, as St. Paul says, "there He said, "Children, have ye any meat?" They over the wearied and desponding fishermen. is a natural body, and there is a spiritual answered, "No." "Cast," said he, "your net body." The change in him from a natural to a spiritual body by the resurrection, is the illus- sudden and miraculous success opened their on the right side, and ye shall find." The tration of the change which will take place in eyes, and one said, "It is the Lord." Peter, his children. His soul also participated in the wonderful advance which the resurrecwith his characteristic impetuosity, threw himtion made in the condition of his being, and his Master. self into the sea, and hastened to the feet of hence gave forth the heavenly manifestations the effect of this sudden appearance of the So profound and convincing was witnessed in his occasional intercourse with Lord, that the disciples durst not converse his disciples. tions. with him, only as he drew them on by ques And yet even these wondrous appearances of the Lord failed to keep the disciples free from doubt. So slow were they to admit the miraculous story, instead of eagerly following cunningly devised fables, that they seem to have resolved on resuming their former occupation, *The Evangelists convey the same idea of the appearances and disappearances of our Lord, after his resurrection, as is found in the ancient classics, and still entering tained, concerning the appearances and disappearances of departed persons, or supernatural beings. Our Lord had the power to become visible or invisible at pleasure. Luke says, "And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." Not that he removed from their vicinity, but that he became invisible to them. So Eneas, in the sack of Troy, was separated from his wife Creusa, who perished unexpectedly. While he was searching for her, Virgil makes Eneas say, the mournful ghost and shade of Creusa appeared before his eyes, her figure larger than the life, and spoke to him. As he was about to reply to her, and throw his arms around her neck, tenuesque recessit in auras, she vanished into thin air. In the same manner, Shakespeare makes the witches vanish. His followers and friends seem after this to have assembled at Jerusalem in expectation of kingdom of God. Doubtless the mysterious insome decisive event connected with the promised fluences of the Divine Master had drawn them to the city. The time of his ascension was at hand. Preparatory to this, he joined them and gave them more particular instruction concernthe mission he was about to commit to them. As Jerusalem was to be the centre of this divine mission, he commanded them that they should not depart from the city upon their mishigh to qualify them for it. sion until they should receive power from on But this divine power, the Holy Spirit, which was to be given them, and which was wonderfully shed upon them on the day of Pentecost, was not sufficient to qualify them for their heavenly work. It is particularly recorded, "Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scripture." How long the Lord "assembled together with them at Jerusalem" is not certain. The impression made by the Sacred History is, that he was with them for several days, ex plaining "all things written in the law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning himself." (Luke, xxiv. 44.) When he had fully instructed them in the Messianic Scriptures, he prepared for his ascension. The power of his presence drew his friends as well as his disciples close around him. And in the dusk of the evening, that he might escape the notice of the multitude, he passed out of the city eastward, crossing the Kidron, and wound round the southern flank of Mount Olivet, all following slowly and in silence, while he announced to his disciples the import and prospect of their perilous mission. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Go ye, therefore, into all the world, teach all nations, and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth, and lo! I am with you always even unto the end of the world." As he pronounced these words he had advanced round the southern flank of the mountain, leading his disciples, "as far as to Bethany." There, as he uttered the last words of the divine benediction, he lifted up his hands, spreading them out, perhaps over, and perhaps touching the heads of his apostles. While in this act he was parted from them. He threw aside the restraint which for the time weighed down his glorious resurrection body, and it rose majestically and was carried up into heaven; and the clouds received him out of their sight, into that spiritual and glorious world where he sat down on the right hand of the throne of God, to make intercession for us. It was at nightfall, and the parting was so solemn and glorious, and his pathway to heaven so resplendent, and the majesty and benignancy of his ascending person so enrapturing, that his friends stood motionless and speechless, "gazing up into heaven," through the bright opening which his ascension had left in the sky. There probably they would have continued to stand had not the spell been broken by two of the heavenly visiters who had descended to witness the ascension. From the midst of the illuminated clouds, where they lingered in pity and admiration of the astonished and bereaved disciples, they descended to the earth, and "stood among them in white apparel, and said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The charm was broken. Ascending Mount Olivet from the edge of the village of Bethany (for this was as near, and a more private way back to the city), they halted on the summit to look once more into the heavens, after their ascended Lord. But the sky had recovered its usual serenity, and spread out its calm blue canopy, lit up with the countless stars of heaven. On the spot where they halted, the piety of subsequent ages erected a magnificent church, and that same piety, sublimated into enthusiasm and credulity, transferred the scene of the ascension from the humble village of Bethany, far down on the southern flank of the mountain, to its summit. Hence the church, which is seen in the engraving, is called the Church of the Ascension. It is about half a mile due east from St. Stephen's gate, and about three hundred feet above the city. It is alone; neither tent nor hut is near it. And the only worshippers in it are a few monks; sometimes of the Greek order, and sometimes of the Armenian; as the gold of the one outweighs, in the judgment of the Pacha of Jerusalem, the gold of the other. And not unfrequently very unchristian contests occur for the possession of the church; and in these contests, it has more than once been reduced to ashes. The traveller sees it from the northeast part of the city, sitting beautifully on the sacred Mount of Olivet; and if his piety or curiosity should lead him to ascend to it, he will be shown the footprint of our Lord, impressed in the solid rock, as he made the first bound towards Heaven. To this he will kneel, and will kiss it, if his faith waver not; or will turn away with regret and sorrow at the weak superstition that guards and worships an object so obviously apocryphal. In the general uncertainty, and frequent absurdity of the sacred places shown to the traveller in the Holy Land, the free and intelligent Christian will see the wisdom and goodness of God. Had he designed those spots to be reverenced and worshipped, he would have provided for the certain knowledge of them. But in the kingdom of his Son he has made the divine glory and power to appear in the new and divine life which the gospel imparts to individuals and to nations, and not in sacred localities, or buildings, or relics. MADELENA'S CONFESSION. BY EDITH MAY. THE Bride of Christ! oh, at those words there swept The lattice where the black-veiled nuns looked through, It seems not long since I, a little child, It seems not long, Jacopo, since we twain Have patience, Father, Thou knowest well my father was a noble, Clasped on her throat, and round, pure, dewy arms. I loved my nurse to bear me to the window, But this was for a season-Many months Or Stephen, stoned and prone; perchance, to mark And red drops trickling from the crown of thorns! What sorrow, like a tearful angel, rent Bearing the marks of thorns, and on her face None looked, except to breathe a sigh that tracked Paced the long galleries, where ranged silver sconces I listened, while the stealthy-footed night I remember Once more Ginevra stood From her brow We knew bright, silent angels Had gently loosed the clinging arms of life, Thou camest, Jacopo, Playmate and friend! Do you remember now How, while you twined the vine leaves in my hair, Still my sister's chamber Seemed hallowed by her presence. Crumbling wreaths To that place I crept at noonday. There I treasured all I peopled all the dark nooks of the palace Thrilled with the rapturous history. I could dream The first star Was a true prophet of thy step, Jacopo! Her white hand freely, while her laughter mixed Did homage to his strength. The life that coiled His footfall ring. Oh, Father, when he left, I was a child. Ginevra fled the world, So to her heart, rent, filled with bitter dust, Youth was too mighty! I grew faint. My heart I strove to read; or if I knelt to pray, My aimless thoughts went wandering blindly on, I stood within Saint Peter's But through my soul the slow-paced, cloistered thoughts That from the shores of that hushed music stretched Like a black-throated chasm! I grew sick On one bruised wing, athwart the chapel roof As 'twere a scimitar quick bared, a shaft I saw the darkness cloven by wings that took This was April; And ere my dumb soul spake again, the grape Was purple on the hills. Oh, I was weak As a young child! Jacopo in his arms Would bear me to the sea-shore, where I sat Long, vacant hours, numbering the waves, Counting the drifting clouds. They sang me songsThe music pleased me, but the married words |