bout to ascend to his Father and their
Father. In Luke's later book, however (Acts i. 1-11), he gives a full
account of a last meeting of Jesus with the disciples, and of
his ascension to heaven before their eyes. This withdrawal in the cloud
must be understood as an acted parable; for, in reality, there is no
reason for thinking that the clouds which hung over Olivet that day were
any nearer God's presence than the ground on which the disciples stood.
For them, however, such a disappearance would signify vividly the
cessation of their earthly intercourse with their Lord, and his return to
his home with the Father. The word of Jesus to Mary (John xx. 17) may
fairly be interpreted to mean that Jesus had ascended to the Father on
the day of the resurrection, and that each of his subsequent
manifestations of himself were like that which later he granted to Paul
near Damascus. In fact it is easier to view the matter in this way than to
conceive of Jesus as sojourning in some hidden place for forty days after
his resurrection. What the disciples witnessed ten days before Pentecost
was a withdrawal similar to those which had separated him from them
frequently during the recent weeks, only now set before their eyes in such
a way as to tell them that these manifestations had reached an end; they
must henceforth wait for the other representative of God and Christ, the
Spirit, given to them at Pentecost.

222. The faith with which the disciples waited for the promised spirit was
a very different faith from that which Peter confessed for his fellows at
Caesarea Philippi. It had the same supreme attachment to a personal friend
who had proved to be God's Anointed; the same readiness to let him lead
whithersoever he would; the same firm expectation of a restitution of all
things, in which God should set up his kingdom visibly, with Jesus as the
King of men. Now, however, their trust was much fuller than before, and
they looked for a still more glorious kingdom when their friend and Lord
should come from heaven to assume his reign. They expected Christ to
return soon in glory, yet his death and victory made them ready to endure
any persecution for him, certain that, like the sufferings which he
endured, it would lead to victory. These disciples had no idea that in
preaching a religion of personal attachment to their Master, in filling
all men's thoughts with his name, in building all hope on his return, and
guiding all life by his teac