Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be now and ever acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.

After that he was risen, Jesus appeared to the eleven and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white

apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

HEN our blessed Lord had finished the work which He had come to this world to do, He went back again to His home in heaven, and to His Father. He took His disciples with Him to the top of a mountain, and there He spoke His last words to them. How every word must have sunk into their hearts-how they must have made up their minds to obey each loving command-and how they must have felt that they would live and die for Him Whom they adored!

Then He lifted up His Hands, those Hands which bore on them the scars made by the cruel nails, those Hands which had worked for our salvation, which had lifted up the dead and given them life, had opened the eyes of the blind with one healing touch-those Hands which are ever outstretched to each one of us, willing and able to draw us away from the sins which are keeping us from Him. And having lifted up those dear Hands, He blessed His disciples; and as the words of blessing were ended, He rose up towards heaven, and a cloud hid His Form from their eyes. How they gazed after Him and longed to follow Him now, Whom they had followed so long on earth!

But He was gone. They would no more hear His voice, nor follow His steps; they would witness no more acts of tender loving-kindness; nor of Divine power. His Eyes would no longer be turned on them in warning or encouragement. In their daily struggle to live as their Master, they would have only the memory of that perfect Life to guide them. And as they knelt and looked longingly at the heavens where they had so lately seen their Lord ascend, two angels stood by them in shining garments, and bade them no longer gaze after Him, for that they would not see Him till He came again in great power and glory, to judge them and all mankind.

And the disciples remembered that their Master had told them that He would send them the Holy Spirit, to bring to their minds what He had taught them, and to give them strength and courage to bear and do all things that He would have them to do. And they went back to Jerusalem to wait for the fulfilment of that promise.

Why did they not at once begin their work of baptizing and preaching to all nations? Because their Lord had bade them tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high-that is, until the Holy Ghost had come upon them. Without that Blessed Spirit they could not have obeyed their Lord's last commands, but with Him they could do all things.

And so they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, praising and blessing God, and waiting with faith and patience until the first great Whitsunday dawned upon them.

What do we learn from this? For you may be sure that there are lessons for us in every action of our Lord, in every event of His Life.

For one thing, we are taught how to bear sorrow. When it pleases God to take our nearest and dearest away from us, we are perhaps tempted to gaze after them too longingly, to wish for them unduly. You see how even the disciples fell into this mistake. To them an angel was sent to reprove them; and not they only were reproved, but all who sorrow overmuch.

It was perhaps but natural that the great grief which the disciples felt at losing their Divine Master made them forgetful at first; but as soon as the angel spoke to them, they remembered Christ's command. And they went back to Jerusalem directly, although, no doubt, they longed to linger on the spot where they had last seen their Lord. They would have felt that it was good for them to be there. They would dread going back to the busy city where ignorant men neither knew nor cared about that which filled them with love and faith, and the great sorrow brought on them by Christ's departure.

But at once their own feelings were set on one side. Obedient and self-forgetful, they returned to Jerusalem, but not to mingle with the crowd, not to pass their days in business or pleasure. In the world, but yet not of the world, they all remained together waiting in prayer and supplication for the Holy Spirit.

They

And so we also must live as they did. kept together, you see, just as Christ's children do in His Church now, joined together by the sacred waters of baptism that made us one with Christ in our infancy, and all uniting in prayer that God may send us His Holy Spirit to help us to be worthy members of the great Head of the Church, Who has gone before us into heaven, and Who ever lives to make intercession for us.

PRAYER.

O Christ, Thou King of Glory, Who didst ascend with great triumph unto Thy kingdom in heaven ; we beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless; but send Thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and bring us to the same place whither Thou art gone before, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be