whom in his spirit he had blessed? Were none found to give glory to God? none in whose hearts recent sufferings and ignominy had failed to obliterate former acts of kindness and of love?— There did some few such remain; let us go and observe them :-what! surely! can this little company, scarce a hundred and twenty persons, be the sole relics of that host of worshippers? Alas! for the deceitfulness of the human heart, that can so fairly colour desertion and ingratitude! these, indeed were all; desperate in fortune, more desperate in hope, they clung, with what an indifferent observer would have called, a wild and insane devotion, to the memory of him whom all had forsaken and fled; but they had reasons for what they did more than the world knew of. He who was reputed dead; he whose last breath had, to all human conception, been breathed out, amidst the insults and reproaches of his persecutors; "he* shewed himself alive after his passion. by many infallible proofs," being seen of the apostles and others "forty days." Think! through the whole space of forty days, not once appearing, and then in the instant disappearing, but present continually with them through this great length of time, "and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, 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 heard of me.' The world might ridicule them for their credulity---the world I dare say did ridicule them, but they had something within to support them, stronger than the world's ridicule; they had beheld and companied with their Lord; they * Acts i. knew him to be the very same flesh and blood as before his crucifixion: it was no phantom that deceived them; the cravings of a natural appetite had been satisfied before their eyes; they had seen the prints of the nails in his hands and feet; and, what was even greater assurance, they had handled them too; nothing was wanting to substantiate his claims to be the person he represented himself to be-he that should come into the world, the true and eternal Messiah, He foretold his crucifixion, and he was crucified; he declared on the third day he would rise from the dead, and he did so rise; on Mount Olivet, which was a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem, it was ordained their eyes should behold him for the last time. Just had he delivered to them promises of the power they were to receive, and how they should become witnesses of him in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, the detested Samaria,-and unto the uttermost part of the earth, "when he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight; and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel"men they seemed, but they were angels "which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?"as though ye would pierce the very clouds which intercept your master from your view 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." You saw him borne away from you in the clouds of heaven, you shall also, in another state, and with other eyes, see him coming back in the clouds of heaven as well. Mournful obedience did they yield to this supernatural mandate; they returned slowly to Jerusalem, pondering over the things which they had heard and seen, but most of all wondering how, and at what time, the Holy Ghost, which they had been taught to expect not many days hence, would be administered to them. In some probably mean and obscure quarter of the city, the eleven apostles abode together in an upper room; hither they bent their steps, and communicated the joyful tidings with which they were charged to such as were expecting their coming; "these all continued, with one accord, in prayer and supplication:" they had indeed great encouragement to pray, and their master had instructed them how to pray aright, "with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." See, it is worth observing, his brethren believed on him at this time, at Nazareth they had rejected him; but while the time they could spare from the exigencies of their daily subsistence was appropriated to these holy uses, a festival was approaching of mighty in |