XLI.
"THIS JESUS SHALL SO COME AS YOU HAVE SEEN HIM GOING INTO HEAVEN."
And now His work on earth was done; the day was
come for Him to return to the Father.
The Eleven were again in Jerusalem, in the Upper Chamber sanctified by so many mysteries. St. Luke tells us that He appeared to them as they were at table. And eating together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which "you have heard," saith He, "by My mouth; for John indeed baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
And He led them out as far as Bethania.
How they must have thought as they followed Him up the slope of Olivet, of that night six weeks ago when He had led them from the Supper Room through the streets of Jerusalem to the scene of His lonely Agony, the beginning of His Passion. Now His sufferings are over, and He is going up Olivet to mount thence to His Throne.
They pass Gethsemane. The glory of the noonday sun is on the olive trees beneath whose shade He prayed that awful night. Here is the path down which they came on the day of palms when He wept over poor Jerusalem. Higher and higher they go, and now they stand on the summit.
He looks around. To the north is Galilee and Nazareth and the Lake. Six miles to the south, Bethlehem and the Cave. At His feet Jerusalem; and over there,
