(2.) Another theme of Christ's converse, when within sight of Bethany, was _the nature of His Kingdom_--"Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?" was the inquiry of the disciples. "And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power."[43]

The thoughts of His followers were clinging to the last to the dream of earthly sovereignty. How difficult it is to get even the renewed and regenerated mind to understand and realise Heavenly things, and to wean it from what is of the earth earthy! He checks their presumption--He tells them these are questions which they may not pry into. There is to be no present fulfilment of these visions of millennial glory. That day and that hour are to be wrapt in unrevealed and impenetrable secrecy.

The Church may not attempt rashly and inquisitively to lift the veil.

She is not to know the _time_ of the Saviour's appearing, that she may live every day in the frame she would wish to be found in when the cry shall be heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh." The apostolic band are, in the first instance, to be cross-bearers, as He their Master was,--witnesses to His sufferings, earthen vessels, defamed, persecuted, reviled,--before they become partakers of His purchased happiness and bliss!

Nevertheless, it was a grand and glorious mission He sketched out for them. How worthy of HIMSELF--of his loving, forgiving, unselfish Spirit--was the opening clause in that wondrous Missionary Charter He then put into their hands. Even at the moment when all the memory of Jewish ingrat.i.tude was fresh on His heart, He inserts a wondrous provision of mercy and grace. They were to proclaim His name through the wide world; but was JERUSALEM (the scene of His ignominy) to form an exception? Nay, rather they were to _begin there_! The Gospel-Trumpet was to be sounded in its streets. The a.s.sa.s.sins of Gethsemane, the murderers of Calvary were to listen to the first offers of pardon and reconciliation--"And He said unto them ... that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, _beginning_ at _Jerusalem_!" Precious warrant, surely, are these words to "the chief of sinners" to repair to this gracious Saviour. If even for "_the Jerusalem sinner_" there is mercy, can there be ground for one human being to despair?

But "_beginning_" at Jerusalem, the Gospel Commission did not _end_ there? It was to embrace, first, "Judea," then "Samaria," then "the uttermost parts of the earth."[44] The ascending Redeemer's expansive heart took in with a vast sweep the wide circle of humanity. From the elevated ridge of Olivet, on which He now stood with the arrested group around Him, He might tell them to gaze, in thought at least, far north beyond the Cedar Heights of Lebanon and Hermon;--Southward to the desert and the Isles of the Ocean;--Westward to the fair lands washed by the Great Sea;--Eastward across the palm-trees of Bethany and the chain of Moabite mountains on unexplored continents, where heathenism still revelled in its rites and orgies of impurity and blood. With Palestine as their centre and starting-point, the vast World was to be their circ.u.mference. The Gospel was to be preached "as a witness to all nations." The Great Mission-Angel was to "fly through the midst of Heaven," having its everlasting truths to "preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

Are _we_ faithfully fulfilling our Lord's farewell Apostolic Commission?

As members of the Church of G.o.d, component parts of the Royal Priesthood, are we doing what lies in our power, that His name, and doctrine, and salvation, be proclaimed to the uttermost parts of the earth? Or is it so, that we are looking coldly, suspiciously, indifferently on the Church's efforts in the cause of Missions, suffering her funds to fail, and her schemes to languish, and her devoted servants to sink in discouragement? Or rather, are we prepared to incur the responsibility of heathen souls, through our neglect, pa.s.sing hour by hour into eternity, with a Saviour's name unheard of, and a Saviour's love unknown? Go to the Rocky ridge above BETHANY, and listen to the parting injunction of our Great Master. His last words, ere the cloud received Him to glory, were _Missionary_ words, a _Missionary_ appeal, a pleading for the Gospel being sent to heathen sh.o.r.es. Ah! _our own Britain_ was then among the number! If the Apostolic Company had in these days, like many among ourselves, refused, on the ground of the _home-heathen_ in Judea, to send any of their band abroad, where would _we_ have been at this hour? With our Druids'

altars, our b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices, our cruel rites! But their best and n.o.blest were commissioned to speed from port to port in the Mediterranean and the Isles of the Gentiles, with the Gospel errand on their lips, and the blessing of G.o.d on their labours! All honour to these leal-hearted men, who, in spite of national and hereditary prejudices, implicitly followed the will of their Lord and Master, who had given to them, as He has given to us, a great Missionary motto--"THE FIELD IS THE WORLD!"

And now His themes of instruction and comfort are over--He is about to Ascend! The symbolic cloud--(invariable emblem of Deity)--comes down to conduct Him to His throne. What a moment was that! Glory in view--the hallelujahs of angels floating in His ear--the air thronged with celestial hosts waiting as His retinue to bear Him upwards;--all heaven in eager expectancy for her returning Lord. And yet--how is He employed?

Is the world, that had so disowned Him, disowned now in return? Are the disciples, who have so oft deserted Him, now deserted in return?--their name forgotten in the thought of the loftier spirits who are to gather around Him in the skies? Nay, His every thought is centered on the weeping band of earth. "He lifted up his hands and blessed them!"[45]

His last words are those of mercy--His last act is outstretching His arms to bless! It was an act replete with meaning to the Church of G.o.d in every age. Jesus, when He was last seen on earth, wore no terror on His lips--but He left our world pouring a benediction on His redeemed people.

There is something, moreover, significant in the recorded fact that "WHILE He blessed them, He was parted from them!" The Benediction was unfinished when the cloud bore Him away! As they gazed upwards and upwards till that glorious form was diminishing in the blue sky above, still His hands were extended;--the last dim vision which lingered on their memories was the True High Priest blessing the representative Israel of G.o.d! It would seem as if He wished to indicate that the act begun on earth was to be carried on and perpetuated in heaven--that though parted from them, His outstretched arms would still plead for them on the Throne. His _voice_ could no longer be heard--but His blessing still would continue to descend till He came again!

Wondrous close to a wondrous life! We have traversed in thought many other memorials of Bethany. We have stood by the gate where Martha met her Lord--the silent sepulchre which listened to the voice of Omnipotence--the holy home where friendship was realised such as earth never before or since beheld. But surely not less sacred or hallowed than any of these is the scene presented on the green ridge rising to the west of the village, overlooking its groves of palm. Before superst.i.tion ventured to raise its c.u.mbrous monument on the heights of Olivet, may we not think of the scene of the Ascension, rather in connexion with three _living_ Temples? May we not think of it as oft and again visited by Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus? May we not well imagine it would form a hallowed retirement for solemn meditation! Amid more sorrowful thoughts, connected with their Lord's absence from them, would they not there often muse in holy joy over the now fulfilled prophetic strains of their minstrel King?--"Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, _for_ the rebellious also, that the Lord G.o.d might dwell among _them_."[46]

Do _we_ love also to linger in spirit on that spot, and listen to that benediction?--"Blessed," we read, "are they that know the joyful sound."

In these words there is a beautiful allusion to the sound of the pendant bells on the vestment of the High Priest in the Jewish temple of old.

When the a.s.sembled mult.i.tudes in the outer court heard their music within the holiest of all, it conveyed the a.s.surance that the High Priest was there, actively engaged in his official duties--sprinkling the Mercy Seat with blood, and pleading for the nation. They felt "blessedness" in hearing and _knowing_ "that joyful sound." Beautiful type of JESUS the Great High Priest within the veil! We seem, as we behold Him standing on the crest of Olivet, to listen to the first note of these gladsome chimes. He leaves His Church proclaiming nothing but blessings. As He rises upwards, and the diminishing cloud recedes from sight, still the music of benediction seems to float on the calm morning air. The Golden Bells are sounding--and though the celestial notes cease, it is only distance which renders them inaudible. They are still pendant at His Royal Priestly robes, telling us that still He intercedes! Oh, let us now hear His benediction! Let the comforting thought follow us wherever we go--"_Jesus is pleading for me within the Veil._" He left this world _blessing_--He is engaged in _blessing_ still. "HE EVER LIVETH TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR US."

XXII.

ANGELIC COMFORTERS.

The Lord has ascended. The disciples are left alone in wondering amazement. The bright cloud which formed His chariot had swept majestically upwards--till (dimming on their view) the gates of heaven closed on Him, who, a moment before, had been breathing upon them farewell benedictions of peace and love. Are they to be left alone?

Terrible must have been the feeling of solitude on that lone mountain-ridge, as the voice of mingled Omnipotence and Love was hushed for all time. "Alone, but yet _not_ alone!" While their eyes are still directed up to the spot where they got the last glimpse of the vanishing cloud--transfixed there in speechless Sorrow, lo! "two men stood by them in shining vestures!" The Saviour has departed; the sunshine of His own loving presence is gone--but He leaves them not unsolaced. The vision of the patriarch is again realised. When, like that weary pilgrim, dejected, disconsolate, and sad--a ladder of comfort is stretched down from the heaven on which they gaze, and "the Angels of G.o.d are ascending and descending on it!"

Ah! whenever the Lord removes one comfort, He is ready to supply another. He Himself leaves His disciples--but no sooner _does_ He leave, than Angels come and minister to them; and this is immediately followed by a mightier than Angelic Comforter--even the fulfilled promise of the Holy Spirit. "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." How graciously does Jesus thus adapt Himself to the character and trials of His people! What compensations He gives when they are suffering tribulation! One blessing is taken away--it is only that they may be brought more fully to value others which remain. A beloved friend is removed by death--the household is saddened at the stroke--its aching hearts are smitten and withered like the gra.s.s--but new spiritual consolations are imparted, unknown before--brighter manifestations of the Saviour's grace and mercy are vouchsafed--the Promises of G.o.d, like the ministering angels on Mount Olivet, are sent to hover around these stricken spirits. They are made to sing of "mercy" in the midst of "judgment!"

Is Hagar in the desert? There is a fountain (though at first unseen) at her side! Is Elijah trembling in the dark cave of h.o.r.eb? There is a "still small voice" amid the long-drawn breath of the tempest, and earthquake, and storm;--"The Lord is _there_!" Be a.s.sured He will never leave nor forsake any that truly seek Him. To all desolate ones, who, like the Olivet disciples, lift the steadfast eye of faith heavenwards, bending like them in the silent att.i.tude of resignation and faith--G.o.d will send comfort. He will have his angels ready to wipe weeping eyes and soothe sorrowful hearts.

We cannot grapple with this doctrine. We who are creatures of sense, who are cognisant through a corporeal organism only of what is tangible and material, cannot grasp what relates to the immaterial, invisible, spiritual. We strive in vain to realise the truth of Angelic Beings compa.s.sing our earthly path, joying with us in our joys--aiding us in our perplexities, and mingling their accents of comfort with us in our seasons of sorrow. But though mysteriously invisible, we believe there are hosts of these blessed messengers thronging around, profoundly interested in all that concerns us--"bearing us up in all our ways"--following us, as Jacob saw them, step by step up the ladder of salvation, till we reach our thrones and our crowns! Angelic agency is no mere gorgeous dream of inspired poetry--no mere symbolic way of stating the doctrine of Divine Providence, and the peculiar care which G.o.d takes of His Church and people. The Bible gives us too many positive statements on the subject to permit a figurative interpretation. These bright and holy Beings are there represented as having witnessed all along with profound interest the gradual unfolding of the plan of salvation--from the hour when, at creation's birth, the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of G.o.d shouted for joy--onwards to the eventful night when they met over the plains of Bethlehem and chanted a responsive anthem at the advent of the Prince of Peace! Now that Redemption is completed--they have gathered once more on Olivet to form a royal retinue to conduct their Lord to His crown--to summon the gates of Heaven to "lift up their heads" that "the King of Glory may enter in." If G.o.d, in bringing in His first-begotten into the world, said, "Let all the angels of G.o.d worship Him;" much more, when His work is done, and the moral Conqueror, laden with the spoils of victory, is about to return to His throne, may we expect that "the chariots of G.o.d"

("twenty thousand, even thousands of angels") are waiting to grace His triumph.

Nor were they merely employed on earth as His servants and attendants during the period of His incarnation--leaving our world, when _He_ left it, to "serve him day and night in His heavenly temple." A portion of this glorious bodyguard we find now, at the hour of Ascension, left behind to certify to the disciples and the Church in every age, that Angels were still to continue their loving watchfulness and interest over the Pilgrims in a Pilgrim world--still to be sent forth on errands of mercy to "minister to them who are heirs of salvation!"

Is it the House of G.o.d--the gates of Zion--the Holy place of Solemnities? The scene now before us on Mount Olivet forms a miniature picture of what takes place Sabbath after Sabbath in every meeting of Christian disciples. As we are a.s.sembled like the apostles in our Sanctuary--looking upwards to Heaven, there are glorious Spirits, we may well believe, cl.u.s.tering around us--hovering in silence over our a.s.sembly--engaged, it may be, in unseen conflict with the emissaries of evil--a.s.sisting us in our prayers--joining with us in our praises--waiting to waft these upwards, and get them perfumed with the incense of the Saviour's merits.

Nor is it the Sanctuary alone they overshadow with their wings of light.

The lowliest homestead of the believer is oftentimes made a MAHANAIM ("a Host"). The dwellers in the world's thousand Bethany-homes of simple faith and lowly love are "entertaining angels unawares." In the hour of sickness they are there unseen to smooth our pillow. In the hour of danger they are at hand to "shut the lions' mouths." In the hour of bereavement they are employed bringing messages of solace from the Intercessor within the veil, and enabling us to "glorify G.o.d in the fires." In the hour of death they are waiting to lend their wings to the Immortal tenant as it bursts its earthly coil. Oh, if the _return_ of the Repentant Sinner be to them an hour of joyous jubilee;--if their songs of triumph greet the Believer _justified_;--what must it be to exult over the gladsome consummation--the Believer _glorified_; to be engaged on the Great Day as Reapers at the ingathering of the sheaves into the heavenly garner--throwing open, at the bidding of their Great Lord, the Golden Portals that the ransomed millions may enter in!

"Oh never, till the clouds of time Have vanish'd from the ken of man, And he from yonder heaven sublime Look back where mystic life began, Will gather'd saints in glory know What blessings men to angels owe.

"This earth is but a th.o.r.n.y wild, A tangled maze where griefs abound, By sorrow vex'd, by sin defiled, Where foes and friends our walk surround; But does not G.o.d in mercy say, Angelic guardians line the way?

"Sickness and woe perchance may have Ethereal hosts whom none perceive, Whose golden wings around us wave When all alone men seem to grieve; But while we sigh or shed the tear, Their sympathies may linger near.

"When gracious beams of holy light From heaven's half-open'd portals play, And from our scene of suffering night Melts nigh its haunted gloom away; Each doubt perchance some angel sees, And hovers o'er our bended knees!

"And when at length this wearied life Of toil and danger breathes its last, Or ere the flesh, with parting strife, Is down to clay and coldness cast; The struggling soul can learn the story, How angels waft the blest to glory."[47]

But, after all, can Angels really impart comfort? They cannot. They are but servants and delegates of a Mightier than they. Like all ministers and messengers, if they can dry a human tear and soothe a human sorrow, it is by pointing, not to themselves, but to their glorious and glorified Lord. What was their message now? Was it, "We are come to supply the place of your Ascended Redeemer--we are henceforth to be your appointed helpers--the objects of your faith, and hope, and confidence, in the house of your pilgrimage?" No! The eyes of the disciples are gazing upwards and heavenwards. The Angels tell them not in anywise to alter the direction of their thoughts and affections. They are musing (as in vain they still wistfully look for any relic of the chariot-cloud) on "_Jesus only_." They are to think of "_Him only_"

still! The Celestial Visitants seem to say, "Ye men of Galilee, _we_ cannot comfort you;--_we_ would prove but poor solaces and compensations for the Adorable Saviour who has left you. _We_ come not to take His place--but to speak to you still regarding Him. He has left you! but it is only for a season; and better than this, although He has left you, He loves you as much as ever. Even in that distant glory to which He has sped His way, His heart is unchanged and unchangeable--His name is 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'"

Here then was their first theme of comfort. It was the NAME of _Jesus_.

That "name of their Lord" was still to be their "strong tower!" Oh, there is something touchingly beautiful about this angelic address. What a simple but sublime antidote for these stricken Spirits, "THAT SAME JESUS." "That _same_ Jesus,"--He who laid His infant head on the manger at Bethlehem--He who walked on the Sea of Tiberias, and hushed its angry waves--He who spoke comfort to a stricken spirit at the well of Sychar, and at the gate of Nain--He who, in yonder palm-clad village sleeping in quiet loveliness at their feet, soothed the pangs of deeply afflicted hearts, and made death itself yield its prey--He who had first shed His tears and then His blood over the city He loved--He who so freely forgave, so meekly suffered, so willingly died! "THAT SAME JESUS" was still on High! The Brother's form was still there! The Kinsman-Redeemer's sympathy was still there! Though all heaven was then doing Him homage--though He had exchanged the chilling ingrat.i.tude of earth for the glories of an unsullied world of purity and love--yet nothing could blot out from His heart the names of those whom He had still left for a little season behind, to be bearers of His cross before they became sharers of His crown!

What a comfort, amid all earth's vicissitudes and changes, this motto-verse! _Earth may_ change. Since the Lord ascended, earth _has_ changed! There are "Written rocks"--manifold more than those of Sinai--that bear engraven on their furrowed brows, "The world pa.s.seth away." Ocean's old sh.o.r.es have transgressed their boundaries--kingdoms have risen and fallen--thronging cities have sprung up amid desert wastes--and proud capitals have been levelled with the dust. _Friends_ may change; our very lot and circ.u.mstances, in spite of ourselves, may change. Our fondly planned schemes and cherished hopes may vanish into thin air, and the _place_ that now knows us know us no more! But there is ONE that changeth not--a Rock which stands immutable amid all the ceaseless heavings and commotions of this mortal life--and that Rock is Christ!

Has he ever failed us? Ask the _tried_ Christian. Ask the _aged_ Christian. That gray-haired believer may be like a solitary oak in the forest--all his compeers cut down--tempest after tempest has sighed and swept amid the branches--tree by tree has succ.u.mbed to the blast--there may be nothing but wreck and ruin and devastation all around. Friend after friend has departed; some have _altered_ towards him; kindness may have given way to alien looks and estranged affection; others are removed by _distance_--old familiar faces and scenes have given place to new ones;--others have been called away to the silent grave--sleeping quiet and still in "the narrow house appointed for all living." That aged lonely Christian can clasp his withered hands, and exclaim, through his tears, "_But_ THOU art the same, and _Thy_ years shall have no end."

"Heart and flesh do faint and fail, but G.o.d is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

"My G.o.d, I thank thee, Thou dost care for me; I am content rejoicing to go on, Even when my home seems very far away; And over grief, and aching emptiness, And fading hopes a higher joy ariseth.

In nightliest hours one lonely spot is bright, High over head, through folds and folds of s.p.a.ce; It is the earnest star of all my heavens, And tremulous in the deep-well of my being, Its image answers. * * * * I WILL THINK OF JESUS."[48]

But, in addition to the name and nature of Jesus--the Angels added a promise of comfort regarding Him. "He shall _so come_ in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."[49] _Jesus shall come again!_

When a beloved brother or friend whom we love is taken from us by death, how cheered we are by the thought of rejoining him in a brighter and better world. Even in earthly separations, how cheering the prospect of those severed by oceans and continents meeting once more in the flesh--the a.s.sociations of youth renewed and perpetuated--and the long-severed links of friendship welded and cemented again! What must be, to the bereft and lonely Christian, the thought of being restored, and that _for ever_, to his long-absent Saviour? _Jesus shall come again_!--it is the Church's "blessed hope"--the day when her weeds and robes of ashen sorrow shall be laid for ever aside, and she shall "enter into the joy of her Lord?" It is His return, too, in a glorified manhood. That _same Jesus shall SO come_! Yes! "_so_ come," in the very body with which He bade the sorrowing eleven that sad, farewell! He left them with His hands extended, and with blessings on His lips. He will return in the same att.i.tude to greet His expectant Church, with the words, "Come, _ye blessed_ of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

And if it be a comforting thought, "Jesus _still_ the _same_, now seated on the Mediatorial throne,"--equally comforting surely is the prospect that it will be in all the unchanging and undying sympathies of His exalted humanity, that He will come again as Judge. "G.o.d hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by _that_ MAN whom he hath ordained." He shall come, not arrayed in the stern magnificence of G.o.dhead! As we behold Him, we need not crouch in terror at His approach. _Humanity_ will soften the awe which Deity would inspire. We can rejoice with Job not only that our Kinsman Redeemer "_liveth_," but that, _as_ our Kinsman Redeemer, "He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth!"

_Would_ that we more constantly lived under the realising power of this elevating thought--"Soon my Lord will come!" "Of the times and the seasons ye need not that I write unto you." It is not for us to dogmatize on the unrevealed period of the "glorious appearing." The millennial trumpet may in all probability sound over our slumbering dust--the millennial sun shine on the turf which may for centuries have covered our graves!--But _who_, on the other hand, dare venture to question the _possibility_ of the nearer alternative?--that the Judge may be "standing before the door"--the shadow of the Advent Throne even now projected on an unthinking and unbelieving world! "He that _shall_ come _will_ come, and will not tarry!"--Although it be true that eighteen hundred years have elapsed since that utterance was made, and still no gleam of the coming morning streaks the horizon--although the calculations and longing expectations of the Church have hitherto only issued in successive disappointments, yet the hour _is_ nearing! As grain by grain drops in Time's sand-gla.s.s, it gives new significance and truthfulness to the Divine monition--"Behold, I come quickly!"

Ah! if He _may_ come _soon_--if He MUST come at some time, how shall I meet Him? Will it be with joy? Am I shaping my course in life--my plans--my schemes--my wishes with what I feel would be in accordance with His will? Am I conscious of doing nothing that would lead me to be ashamed before Him at His coming? It would save many a perplexity--it would soothe many a heart-ache, and dry many a tear--if we were to make this great culminating event in the world's history, with all its elevating motives, more our guide and regulator than we do;--living each day, and _all_ our days, as if _possibly_ the very next hour might disclose "the sign of the Son of Man in the midst of the Heavens!" Not building our nests too fondly here--not too anxious to nestle in creature comforts, but occupying faithfully the talents to be traded on which He has committed to our stewardship; straining the eye of faith, like the mother of Sisera, for His approaching chariot; and amid our griefs, and separations, and sorrows, listening to the sublime inspired antidote--"Stablish your hearts, FOR _the coming of the Lord draweth nigh_."

Blessed--glorious--happy day! And as His _first_ coming was terminated by His Ascension, so will there be a second Ascension at His _second_ Advent, with this important difference, however, that, as in the former, He left His Church behind Him, orphaned and forlorn, to battle in a world of sorrow and sin; in the other, not one unit among the rejoicing myriads, bought with His blood, will He debar from sharing in the splendour of His final entrance within the celestial gates. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout--with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of G.o.d; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then they who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

"We must not stand to gaze too long, Though on unfolding heaven our gaze we bend; When lost behind the bright angelic throng, We see Christ's entering triumph slow ascend.

"No fear but we shall soon behold, Faster than now it fades, that gleam revive, When issuing from his cloud of fiery gold, Our wasted frames feel the true Sun and live.

"Then shall we see Thee as Thou art, For ever fix'd in no unfruitful gaze, But such as lifts the new created heart Age after age in worthier love and praise."

XXIII.