but " my Father and your Father." He thus shows that there is a certain distinction between His relation to the Father and ours. Believers are not naturally sons of God : they only be- come so by grace, by adoption, and by virtue of union with Christ. Christ, on the contrary, is in His nature the Son of God by an eternal generation.
When our Lord speaks of " Your Father and your God," He seems to me to speak with a special view to the consolation of His disciples. It is as though He said, " Do not be troubled be- cause I go away. He to whom I go is your Father and your God as well as mine. All that He is to me, the Head, He is also to you, the members."
It may well be doubted, when we read this verse, whether Christians, as a rule, assign sulficient importance to the great truth of Christ's ascension into heaven. Let us never forget that if our Lord had not ascended into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God, His resurrection would have been but of little value. It is His going into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us. that is the great secret of Christian comfort. It is not for nothing that St. Paul answers the ques- tion, " 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." (Rom. viii. 34.) The death, the resurrection, the ascension, the inter- cession of Christ, are four great facts that should never be sepa- rated.
It ought not to be forgotten that there seems to be a close connection between the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. This, at least, seems to be the meaning of the text in the Psalms, quoted by St. Paul : " When He had as- cended up on high. He led captivity captive, and received gifts for men." (Psalm Ixviii. 18. Ephes. iv. 8.)
18. — \Mary Magdalene came and told, etc.] In this verse we see the effect that our Lord's words had on the loving disciple to whom He first appeared. She meekly accepts the reproof of her over-forward zeal to touch Him, without gainsaying or an- swering again. Like a good servant, she proceeds at once to do what she is told. The use of the present tense shows the promptness of her obedience. The Greek words would be more literally rendered, " Mary Magdalene cometh, telling or declaring to the disciples that she has seen the Lord, and that He has said these things to her," — that He has given her this message to carry to them, and that He calls them His brethren. The use of the participle makes the words sound as if she went open-mouthed, telling every disciple as she went, and hardly stopping to sit down, till she had told every one whom she could find in Jerusalem. We need not doubt that the first house she went to was that where Peter and John lodged, and one of the first persons to whom she told the joyful news was
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