The testimony of the apostles to the fact of the resurrection was "confirmed by" miraculous "signs following."

And, lastly, perhaps, the most conclusive evidence of the Resurrection of the Lord is the existence of His Church, for the great doctrine on which it stands is His Deity, and the great fact is the Resurrection. It could never have existed and prevailed and continued if those foundations had not been sure.

The Resurrection is the central miracle of all the miracles of the Gospels and Acts. If that be rejected, all the others go with it; if that be established, all the others are easy after it. If Christ did not rise, then we are of all men most miserable; if Christ rose, then shall we also rise through Him.

The second characteristic of the Forty Days in St. Luke's summary is that the Lord was speaking to them of the things pertaining to "the kingdom of heaven."

He had said a little time before, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now." His death and resurrection had, however, done much to disabuse their minds of traditional misconceptions, and to prepare them to appreciate more truly the plan of Redemption and the nature of the kingdom. And now, in this interval, having done upon earth all that was needed to establish the broad and ever-during bases of the kingdom, and

being about to quit the world, and leave to His apostles the duty of building up the kingdom on the foundation He had laid, it was natural that He should speak to them about its principles, and give them directions as to its organisation. Not that our Lord necessarily, or probably, gave them minute directions as to all details. He promised that when the Holy Ghost came, He should guide them into all truth; and, doubtless, the organisation of the Church grew under the apostles' hands on the lines already laid down by the Lord, guided, as the occasion arose, by the Holy Ghost.

When we examine the words of the risen Lord, as recorded in the Gospels, we see how they fall into the order of St. Luke's summary.

Some of them are on the evidences of the Resurrection (4, 5, 6), the rest are all directed to the affairs of the kingdom. And this fact should not be passed over without notice, that what He talked to them about-or, at least, what the Holy Spirit has caused to be recorded of His conversations for our edification-is not the wonders of the under world, through which He had just passed, or the glories to which He was immediately going, but the affairs of the kingdom.

A very brief examination of the summary of the appearances on p. 528 will be enough to remind us. of the various sayings pertaining to the kingdom.

At the first appearance (5) to the apostles whom He had long before selected and ordained, He gives them this mission, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you;" and the afflatus of the Holy Spirit ; and the Power of the Keys.

In the appearance (7) at the Sea of Galilee, the miracle and the meal are both symbolically prophetic of the future of the kingdom, and the discourse to Peter relates to the pastoral office.

In the appearance to the whole body of disciples (8), He bids the Church preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations,

Baptize1 those who should believe, and declares belief and baptism the condition of salvation,

Teach all things which Christ had taught them; Gave them the power of miracles for confirmation of their preaching,

Gave the promise of His continual presence with His Church.

In the last appearance (10) gave the promise of the Holy Spirit,

Prophesied the universal spread of the Gospel,
Ascended in their sight,

Gave by two angels the promise of His second coming.

He had previously instituted the other Sacrament, and in several of the appearances there seem to be Eucharistic allusions, e.g., at Emmaus, and at the Sea of Galilee.

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE RISEN LIFE.

N reading the narrative of these appearances, we are impressed with a sense that some

mysterious change had taken place in our Lord's physical constitution and mode of life. Before, He was as to His manhood-like other men, and lived like other men. Now, we are expressly told of two appearances (5, 6), that when "the doors were shut," He suddenly "stood in the midst;" of another (4), we are expressly told that He suddenly "vanished. out of their sight;" and the narrative of the other appearances seems to imply something of the same. mysterious kind in His appearance and disappearance. Again, in the appearance on the way to Emmaus, we are expressly told that "He appeared in another form," as well as that "their eyes were holden;" in that to Mary Magdalene the narrative seems to imply something of a similar kind.

It is the general belief of the Church that the

"It is," says Stier ("Words of the Lord Jesus"), "the universal tradition of the Church," "the universal belief of Christendom, that our Lord did not ascend to heaven on the

explanation of all this is that in our Lord's resurrection that change took place in the constitution of His body which will take place in all human bodies in the general resurrection; and that these mysterious phenomena are only consequences of the natural properties and powers of the "raised" or "spiritual," or "glorified" body.

This removes one difficulty in comprehending the declaration of Holy Scripture, that He was "the firstfruits of them that slept," whereas we have on record, three in the Old Testament and three in the New, who have been raised again from the dead. Theirs were cases of resuscitation, the soul returned into its old body, and they resumed their former life; His was the only true resurrection, for He rose with a spiritual body, and entered upon the higher phase of human life. His was not now (and henceforward) a sublimated and unreal humanity; He was still as truly, entirely, perfectly, man as when He lay in the cradle, or hung upon the cross; only He had entered into that higher phase of human nature which the redeemed will also enter into at the "Regeneration." 1

morning of the Resurrection, that He did not ascend until Ascension Day." The Forty Days were (probably) not merely for the sake of the Apostles and of the Church, but had some primary natural reason in the economy of the Lord's human life, or saving work.

1 Matt. xix. 28.