unto men. This glorious event was thus prophesied of by the Psalmist, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive," Psalm lxviii. 18; and thus applied by St. Paul, "Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity, and gave gifts Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things." Thus is his ascension into heaven recorded by St. Luke, "And while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven." So the Apostle to the Hebrews, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself." 'And sitteth on the right hand of God.'-" The Lord said unto my Lord, (we read in the hundred and tenth Psalm,) Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." So our Lord himself, "Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God." The fulfilment of which prophecies we may read in Mark xvi. 19, Acts ii. 34, Heb. i. 13, 1 Peter iii. 22. The posture of sitting denotes rest, quiet, possession; and the Right hand, the post of honour, power, blessedness. See Phil. ii. 28, Matth. xxviii. 18, Ephes. i. 20. 6 Of God the Father, Almighty. The word Almighty, seems to be added here for the confirmation of our faith, as we meditate upon those wondrous matters of our Lord's ascension ; that every feeling of amazement, like that of the Apostles when they stood gazing up unto heaven, may give place when we look upon all as the work of one with whom nothing is impossible; whose all-sufficiency is the security for the performance of every promise, which faith anxiously looks for the fulfilment of, in its season. From the knowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ is ascended into heaven we draw the comfortable assurance that all the purpose for which he came down from heaven at first is accomplished-that he is gone to prepare the mansions of glory for his disciplesthat he is entered into heaven itself, there to plead before the throne the price paid on earth for the redemption of his people-that he ever liveth to make intercession for them that come unto God by himthat we that believe have therefore an Advocate with the Father, to whom all power is given, and who is able therefore to save to the uttermost; so that putting our cause into his hands, our souls are secure, our cause must prevail, for "who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." So that we may be persuaded, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Our faith too in an ascended Saviour, while it quiets every fear, shall cause our souls to ascend by faith where he is gone before to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God; that being there often in spirit and affection whilst here below, we may be still fitting and preparing for that day when our warfare is over, and our last enemy subdued, to sit down with him on his throne, as he hath promised, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne." SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS. "And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, sleep on now, and take your rest." INDEPENDENTLY of the deeply solemn interest of this scene to every child of Adam, there is something very remarkable in the awful stillness wherein our Lord visited his disciples; which seems to bear a great analogy to that of his last coming. It is midnight, and silence, and darkness. And notwithstanding the occasion is one of such momentous concern and consequence, the disciples were weighed down heavily with sleep and sorrow, and the arts of the tempter. There is something in it similar to that of his awakening his disciples at the Transfiguration, when in like manner they were heavy with sleep, and awakened by his divine touch and voice. And as that scene of the Transfiguration appears to represent the great and general resurrection, so this also carries on our thoughts to that time, which is so often described as our Lord's coming at midnight, and finding mankind asleep in the dead stillness of night. His last advent is especially likened to the coming of a thief, which is closely and literally applicable to the approach of Judas. And when our Lord now comes to his disciples with his warning voice, the agonies of that night appear to be over, and succeeded by a calm. So it is supposed that the distress and tumult of the last age will be over, and men shall say, "Peace and all things are safe," when in the night of Antichrist and of darkness, He will be at hand. In the mean time the Spirit of Christ in his Church, who intercedeth for us, and in us, with groanings that cannot be uttered; is ever calling on his disciples to watch and pray with him. He it is in his church, the great keeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, who is represented as perceiving the approach of the Judge, who is drawing near as a thief in the night, before a sight or a sound of his presence is heard by the slumbering world. It is he who gives the midnight cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh." And his Church also is ever ready for his coming, saying, at the end of his revelation, "Even so, come." awakened by him, will be able to lift up her head and behold that her "redemption draweth nigh;" and, before its actual appearance, to discern that the time is at hand. And It will be observed that there is something in many of the descriptions of our Lord's return which partake of this very awful and quiet stillness which characterises this scene that precedes the coming of Judas, and is to the disciples our Lord's warning and visitation. Let us take, for instance, the parable of the ten virgins; which being put in the persons of virgins, seems to represent the state of professors in God's visible Church. It is the dead of night, when all expectation of Christ's return seems to have ceased: so still and quiet that not only the unfaithful servants but even the good and faithful are slumbering; for it is expressly said, "While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept." There is no sound without, and no thought within, that rouses them up as if they heard a step approaching-the well-known step of their Lord returning--the sound of the thief in the night-the movement of the angelic armies. But it is all dead stillness and sleep when the midnight cry is heard; and at the same time there is already present One who bears "the key of David, the keys of death and of hell." The voice that awakened them seemed to say, "Could ye not have watched with me one hour?" They are awaked from sleep, and the door is closed! kind is the case with other events that typify or prefigure this great coming of God. Thus in the taking of Babylon, that city which so often is the representative of the world, it is at midnight; and if not actually in a state of sleep, for they are eating and drinking at a feast, yet it is in that spiritual slumber which Scripture describes. But what is to be observed is, that the same still and awful quietness pervades this visitation of God, and the warning that announces his coming. Not a voice is heard; not a form seen; but a hand is perceived quietly writing in fiery letters on the wall, to tell them that their time of trial is over and finished-they had been already "weighed in the ballance and found wanting!" He whom Christ had called by name," and appointed to save his people, was already at the gate. The same was the case also in Egypt. It was there also |