doors of Peter's prison), and to walk into the room, like another man. To my own mind there is no proof positive either way, and I must leave it to my readers to choose for themselves. One thing alone we must not forget. Even if our Lord did ap- pear in the room, without unfastening the doors, it is no proof that He can be literally, and locally, and corporally present in the Lord's Supper, under the forms of bread and wine. More- over, it does not follow, because He could move from place to place invisibly, that His body could ever be in more than one place at one and the same time. When He rose from the dead. He rose with a body of a far more spiritual kind than He had before, but a body for all that which was a real human body, and not a mere seeming and shadowy body, like that of a ghost or a spirit.
The first words that our Lord spake to the disciples afford a beautiful proof of His loving, merciful, tender, thoughtful, pitiful, and compassionate spirit. He said, " Peace be unto you." That expression, in my opinion, must on no account be taken as a mere formal salutation, without meaning. It was intended to reassure and cheer the minds of the disciples, by exhibiting at once His mind towards them. Not a word of re- proof, or rebuke, or fault-finding, or blame falls from our Lord's lips, notwithstanding all their sad faint-heartedness and deser- tion on the preceding Thursday night. All is forgiven and for- gotten. The very first word is " Peace." This was almost the last word that our Lord had spoken on Thursday night before He prayed : " These things I have spoken, that in Me ye might have peace," (John xvi. 88.) This was the last legacy He had left His disciples : " Peace I leave with you : my peace I give unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled," (John xiv. 27.) Can we doubt that this comfortable word would cheer and calm the minds of the little company, when our Lord suddenly ap- peared?-" Once morel stand among you: and once more I proclaim peace ; — not excommunication, not rejection from my friendship, not rebuke, but peace." We cannot realize the ful- ness of comfort which the word would supply, unless we bear in mind the events of the last few days, and especially the con- duct of the Apostles on the night before the crucifixion, when, after loudly professing their faithfulness, they all " forsook Him and fled,"
The parallel account in St. Luke would lead us to conclude that there were others present on this occasion beside the Apos- tles. He speaks of " Them that were with them." (Luke xxiv. 33.)
20. — [And when He had so said, etc.] After speaking, our Lord proceeded most graciously to supply tangible evidence that He had really risen from the dead, and stood before His disciples with a material living body. When it says He " showed them His hands and side," we cannot doubt that He bade them touch Him. lu fact St. Luke, when describing this very same inter