The Ascension of our Lord into the glories of his Father's kingdom was a spectacle vouchsafed to his faithful disciples alone. Many wonderful miracles had been seen and denied by the Jews; who, when they had consummated their wickedness by crucifying Him who had wrought those miracles before their eyes, deserved not that the goodness of God should condescend to set before them any further proofs of the Messiahship of his Son. But the visible and glorious assumption of Jesus to himself, was a sight permitted to those who had adhered to him in his state of humiliation; as a ground of encouragement, and an opportunity of instruction. When admonished by the angels, that He who was taken up from them into heaven, should so come, in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven, they could not but experience much refreshment and joy, in the recollection of his own promise, which now for the first time they understood, I pare a place for you; that where I am, there ye may be also.* That promise was also made to us: and in general, while we are to be cautious not to apply to ourselves, according to the strictness of the letter, all the precepts delivered by our Lord to his Apostles, or by the Apostles to

* John xiv. 2.

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their immediate followers, without making due allowance for change of circumstances; yet, on the other hand, we are not to imagine, that we have no part at all in any one of those promises of grace and glory, which were made to them; but rather to rejoice in the assurance of our participation in the same spiritual consolations which they enjoyed; provided that we be followers of them, as they also were of Christ.*

Upon their return to Jerusalem, to wait for the fulfilment of the promise, the Apostles continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. How touching a spectacle is presented by the infant Church of Christ! A little flock chosen out of an unbelieving world, who had seen within the short space of scarcely more than forty days, their Master and Teacher ignominiously nailed to the cross, and taken up triumphantly into heaven. Behold them waiting with earnest anxiety, but with humble and holy confidence, for the advent of that Comforter, who was to supply his place the faithful and teachable disciples, the mourning mother, now resigned and consoled, and the brethren of Jesus, utterly disappointed in their hopes of temporal * 1 Cor. xi. 1.

advancement, but more than comforted by the glorification of their Master, and their own designation as his witnesses to the world. Let those who, under a sense of their own infirmity and ignorance, long for the gifts of the Spirit-and he who feels no such longings has yet to learn what Christ requires, and what he himself is able to do-let them, I say, wait for those gifts, as the Apostles did, in prayer and supplication. But let their prayers be general, for such a measure and kind of spiritual influence, as God may see to be sufficient for his present purposes towards them; and, especially, let them beware of marking out the precise direction and method in which the Spirit of truth shall be called upon to illuminate their minds.

Some caution is required to guard a pious mind against the danger of misapplying the example of the eleven Apostles, who, after having prayed to God to show whether he had chosen Barnabas or Matthias to the Apostleship, decided the question by lots. The question was one, in which the Holy Ghost was immediately concerned; the method of its decision was one appointed in certain cases by God himself in the law; but it is rashness and presumption to imagine, as I fear some Christians do, that they

are at liberty, first to determine the importance of a particular question; then to fix upon some contingent alternative, as the method of deciding it; and, lastly, to be confident, that by the issue of that alternative, in answer to their prayers, God will certainly determine their doubts.

I have already remarked, that the promise of the Comforter was to be fulfilled at Jerusalem, in order that the Jews might witness an unquestionable attestation to the divine commission of the Apostles, as they had before witnessed many to that of Jesus, but in vain. But there was another and a very important reason for our Lord's command, that they should await the fulfilment of his promise in the holy city; which was, that at that season of the year, not only Jews, but devout men, worshippers of the true God, although not observers of the Mosaic law, from every part of the civilized world, were gathered together in Jerusalem at the great solemnity of the Passover; that as the Apostles were commanded to be witnesses to Jesus unto the uttermost part of the earth, they themselves might have witnesses, in every country and city, whither they should go, who could bear testimony to this miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit.

I need not dwell upon the circumstances of

that astonishing event; the awful sound from heaven, and the brightness which played around the heads of the Apostles, and denoted that the Spirit had found in these holy men a fit habitation for himself. Yet it may be proper to remark, that when Elijah was summoned to the presence and more immediate converse of Jehovah, amongst the symptoms and indications of the divine presence were a great and strong wind, and a fire*; and still more appropriately may the cloven tongues of fire be compared to the glory of the Lord, which rested on the tabernacle, and denoted the indwelling of the Deity. As in the earlier ages of the old covenant, that symbol of brightness indicated that the Lord had chosen a peculiar people to protect and bless; and a particular place to set his name there; so at the feast of Pentecost, in the dawning of the Gospel dispensation, the cloven tongues of fire, which sat upon each of the Apostles, and the first manifes tation of divine power in the gift of various languages, proclaimed the universality of the Gospel dispensation, and the certain fulfilment of those ancient prophecies which foretold the pouring forth of the Spirit upon all flesh. It is easy to imagine the wonder and awe which filled the * 1 Kings xix. 11. + Acts ii. 17.