shore of the lake, and was the birthplace and early residence of two of the disciples, namely, Andrew and Peter. Here Jesus found them, and drew them into his band of followers. Hither one of them has come again, and probably both, having travelled from Jerusalem in anticipation of the meeting upon "the mountain." In company with Peter have come Thomas, Nathanael, and the two brothers James and John, who revisit the shore where Jesus first found them "mending their nets," and called them into his train. These are all waiting together, probably at Bethsaida, thinking of the marvellous events they have just witnessed at Jerusalem, and looking forward with eager hopes to the appointed day. The converts all along the Galilean shore have doubtless heard the strange rumors, and they, too, have been warned of the spot and the hour at which they are to assemble, when the Crucified will appear among them.

Before the appointed day has arrived, Peter, with his fellow-travellers, looking out at evening on the expanse of waters over which they have sailed so often, is reminded of his old business, and proposes that they try their skill at it again. It must have been now in the last quarter of the waning moon, whose light, therefore, glimmered rather feebly upon the lake. They row all night without success, and seeing the morning glance

over the hills and begin to purple the waves, they make for the shore. As they near it, they discern in the twilight a stranger's form standing on the banks, who calls to them, and asks if they have caught anything. Being answered in the negative, he tells them to drop the net on the right side of the ship. They obey, and the net is immediately filled; whereupon John whispers to Peter, "It is the Lord." Peter cannot wait for the ship to come ashore, but snatches his upper garment, which in rowing he had thrown off, girds it about him again, and plunges into the water and swims ashore in his impetuous haste to greet his Master. The incident is strikingly characteristic, and Peter's whole character appears in it. The others come up afterward in the ship and step ashore, when Jesus invites them to a repast on the fish they had caught, and, taking up his usual representative style, he charges Peter while they are eating, "Feed my sheep, feed my lambs." They feared to ask him, "Who art thou?" and the inference from the whole cast of the narrative is, that they saw and felt that there was something supernatural in his appearance, and that it overshadowed their minds with an indescribable awe.

All this, however, is only preparatory to that meeting upon "the mountain," where all the Galilean converts are to have an opportunity of

seeing the Lord. Probably the eleven were there, with divers others from Jerusalem. Would that Matthew or John might have given us another stroke of the pen in describing it, though without any description we readily conceive with what throbs of feeling they hastened up to the spot. It has been supposed that this was the assemblage of the "five hundred brethren," who Paul says were at once made witnesses of the Lord's resurrection. We are convinced from all the circumstances that it was probably so. There is some slight ground for conjecture that the appointed mountain was the very one which had been the scene of the transfiguration. "Tell the vision to no man, till after I am risen from the dead" ; words possibly suggested by the thought that on this very height there would then be another transfiguration, not privately, but before the assembled people. "Say nothing of this now, they would not believe your story about it, but they shall be eyewitnesses of another." Be that as it may, they come; the five hundred brethren throng the summits of the mountain at the appointed hour, and he appears to them much as he did to the three disciples, amid the dazzling glories of that former scene. His personal appearance on this latter occasion is not described, but his words imply, that in first things and last, in his inmost nature and outermost form, he had

put on the power of the Highest. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world!" John says of one of these occasions, and we infer from the connection that it applies also to this: "He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." We think the commentators are signally at fault in moiling at this passage. It does not mean that he breathed on them with his mouth, as if the air out of his lungs was the Holy Ghost. It means that his outward form had become so glorified as to fit the Divine plenitude within and become perfectly transmissive. So that when he appeared, the power that went from him was the Divine breathing from his whole person, and it came to his disciples like pulsings of celestial air. The language of Paul implies that this meeting of the five hundred was ever memorable, and was afterwards recounted over and over as unimpeachable testimony, so long as any of them survived to tell the story. Such was our Lord's appearance that the multitude, with few exceptions, bowed down their faces and worshipped.*

*Compare Matt. xxviii. 16, 20; John xx. 21-23; 1 Cor.

xv. 6.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LAST MEETING, AND THE ASCENSION.

NEARLY forty days have now passed since the thrilling incidents of the great morning, during which time Christ has frequently manifested himself to his disciples. We have no right to infer that the Evangelists, in their exceedingly brief narratives, have told us of every meeting that took place. On the other hand, it is reasonable to suppose that his communications to his rising Church, and his charge to his chosen Apostles, embraced a great many things which have not been specially recorded. A last meeting with them is appointed at Jerusalem. The Feast of Pentecost is now close at hand. The eleven hasten back from the familiar scenery around the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and some of the Galilean converts go with them, probably some of the "five hundred brethren," on their way to a last meeting with their risen Lord. The meeting may have taken place in that same" upper room," which