way across the mount to Jerusalem. The middle summit of Olivet, Jebel-et-Tur, is, however, the traditional place of ascent. He has led ourselves further than to Bethany, for he has led us all our life till now; while all the way by which he has led us has been strewn with blessings—blessings temporal and spiritual. When he had led them as far as to Bethany (€ws eis, or és wpds, as far as towards Bethany, or the descent that led down to the village, or over against it), he lifted up his hands and blessed them. The high priest of the Aaronic order had three things to do—offer sacrifice, make intercessions, and bless the people in the name of the Lord. What a beautiful bene- diction was put into his lips and pronounced upon the people, ‘The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gravious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace”! Better and more beautiful, if that be possible, are the blessings which our great High Priest invokes on our behalf and commands upon us. Of these we have a specimen in his iutercessory prayer, as contained in the seventeenth chapter of St. John.
Ii. Tue parting. “ He was parted from them,” or “ stood apart from them (8:¢erm),” as it is expressed by St. Luke. Amid certain cheerful tones one sorrowful note is struck, one sad word occurs, one painful sentiment is expressed. Some find the motto of this world in the words, “ Man weeps; ” others write it in the words, “ We part; ”a yet hivher and better authority has expressed it in the words, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” This last combines the other two, for this world is a vale of weeping and a place ef parting. What tongue could tell the painful partings that from time to time take pisos? Who could count the bitter tears that are shed? Those partings ofttimes wring the stoutest heart and wet the manliest cheek. At the railway station, or before going on board the emigrant ship, many & sorrowful separation we have all seen. The separation caused by death usually lasts the longest,,and is, therefore, in proportion sorrowful. Yet it is not all pain in the parting of a Christian; this passage suggests an element of pleasure. When our Lord was parted from his disciples, he was carried up to heaven; when the Christian is parted by death from friends, loving and beloved, he sleeps by Jesus, and them that so sleep the Lord will bring with him. The day, moreover, is coming when Christian friends, parted by death, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with one another, and with our Lord.
III. Tur Ascension 1TseELF. The expressions employed to describe our Lord’s ascension are, ‘“‘ He was received up into heaven,” St. Mark ; “ Carried up into heaven,” St. Luke ; whilein Acts we read (1) that “he was taken up,” an expression similar to that of either Gospel; and again, ) that “he went up” or “he went” (Revised Version). Here, then, we have the power of the Father and the Son. As he rose by his own and his Father’s power, he ascended by the same. Further, it may be implied that he went up with joy- fulness to those realms of glory whence he had descended while the Father welcomed him home, and took him to that paternal bosom where he had been before all worlds. It must have been a splendid sight to witness. Some time ago we stood where many thousands were assembled to see an aeronaut ascend. With gradual ascent the aerial machine rose; upward and upward it glided; higher and higher still it mounted, while majesti- cally and magnificently it moved. At length a silvery cloud received it, and screened it from the view; again, on emerging from the cloud, it pursued its way along the sky till it dwindled to a dark spot in the distance, and then passed out of sight. How grand, we thought, must have been the sight, apart from every other consideration, of our Lord’s ascent from that spot where his feet last stood on Olivet! If, when our Lord was transfigured, his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became white as the light—if on that occasion his face and figure assumed somewhat of heavenly splendour—equally or more resplendent and heavenly, we may well suppose, was his appearance as he rose from earth in his journey through the sky. The glory of heaven was round about him ; that glorified body shot upward with wondrous buoyancy. Enoch was translated—we are not told how ; Elijah was borne up amid a whirlwind by a chariot of fire and horses of fire; Jesus, who had walked upon the waves, now mounts upon the winds, making the cloud his chariot and upborne on the wings of the wind. Glorious in his appearance, glorious in his motion, glorious in all the indescribable grandeur of his heavenward ascent, he proceeded on his way till a cloud—a bright cloud, a cloud silver-lined and beautiful—coming underneath received (iaéAafev) him as in a chariot, and hid him from their eyes.
MARK—=IL 23
870 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. xvt 1—20.
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IV. His arrenpants. Neither went he alone; thousands of invisible beings formed his escort and carried him aloft. To this perhaps the psalmist, foreseeing it in prophetic vision, may allude when, in the sixty-eighth psalm, he says, ‘“ The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.” No conqueror ever enjoyed such a triumph, no monarch ever had such a train. At length they reach the high battle- ments of heaven; the accompanying angels demand admittance ; standing without the portals, they raise the voice like the sound of many waters as they say or sing, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” The angels within respond, making inquiry, “ Who is this King of glory?” Then both, uniting in full chorus together, sing, “The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.” The Father everlasting takes him by the hand, and sete him at his side, and there he sits for ever at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
“ Who is this King of glory—who? The Lord, for strength renown’d ; In battle mighty, o’er his foes Eternal Victor crown’d.
® Who is this King of glory—who? The Lord of hosts renown’d ; Of glory he alone is King, Who is with glory crown’d.”