_Bethany, Forty Days after the Resurrection._
My Dearest Father:
With emotions that nearly deprive me of the power to hold my pen, and
with trembling fingers that make the words I write almost illegible, I
sit down to make known to you the extraordinary event which will mark
this day in all future time as the most worthy to be noted among men.
On the fortieth day after the resurrection, my dear father, early in
the morning, Jesus left the house of Mary and Lazarus, where he had sat
up with us all night speaking to us of the glories of the life above,
and the excellency of heart and purity of life required of all who
should enter it.
"Lord," said Martha, as he went forth, "whither goest thou?"
"Come and see," he answered. "Whither I go ye shall know, and the way
ye shall know: for where I am ye shall also be, and all those who
believe in me."
"Lord," said Mary, kneeling at his feet, "return at noon, and remain
with us during the heat of the day."
"Mary," said Jesus, laying his hand gently upon her forehead, "I am
going to my Father's house! There thou shalt dwell with me in mansions
not made with hands."
Thus speaking, he walked slowly onward towards the hill of Bethany,
not far from the place where Lazarus was buried. He was followed not
only by Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and John, my Cousin Mary, and myself,
but by all the disciples. There were at least five hundred persons
in all, moving on with him ere he reached the green hillside beyond
the village; for all followed him, expecting to hear more glorious
revelations from his lips.
"He goes to the hill to pray," said one of his disciples.
"Nay, he goeth to show us some mighty miracle, from the expression of
power and majesty in his aspect," said Thomas to me, gazing upon the
Lord with awe; for each moment as he ascended the hill, his countenance
grew more glorious with a certain God-like majesty, and shone as the
face of Moses descending from Mount Sinai. We all hung back with
adoring awe, and alone he proceeded onward, a wide space being left
by us between ourselves and him. Yet there was no terror in the glory
which surrounded and shined out from him, but rather a holy radiance,
that seemed to be the very light of holiness and peace.
"So looked he," said John to us, "when we beheld him transfigured in
the mount with Elias and Moses."
The hill, which is not lofty, was soon surmounted by his sacred feet.
He stood upon its apex alone. We kept back near the brow of the hill,
for his raiment shone now like the sun, while his countenance was as
lightning. We shaded our eyes to behold him. All was now expectation,
and a looking for some mighty event--what, we knew not! John drew
nearest to him, and upon his knees, with clasped hands, looked towards
him earnestly; for he knew, as he afterwards told us, what would take
place. Joy and yet tears were on his face, as he gazed with blinded
eyes, as one gazes on the noonday sun, upon his divine Master. It was
a scene, dear father, impressive beyond expression. Jesus seemed for
a moment to survey the scenes of his sufferings, of his ignominy and
death, with the look of a divine conqueror. He then turned to his
disciples and said:
"Ye have been with me in my sorrows, and you shall now begin to behold
my glory. Remember all things which I have taught you concerning my
kingdom. Go forth and teach the glad tidings of salvation to all men,
and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world."
Thus speaking, in a voice that thrilled every bosom with emotions
indescribable, he extended his hands above their heads and blessed
them, while we all fell upon our faces to the ground also, to receive
his blessing.
He then lifted up his eyes to the calm blue depths of heaven, and said
in the same words he had spoken on the night of the Passover, as John
had told me:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was!"
As he spoke, we raised our faces from the ground, to behold him
leaving the earth, rising from the hilltop into the air, with a slow
and majestic ascension, his hands outspread over us who were beneath,
as if shedding down blessings upon us all. The loud burst of surprise
which rose from five hundred voices at seeing him soar away into the
atmosphere, was followed by a profound and awful silence, as we watched
him rise and still rise, ascending and still ascending, into the upper
air, his whole form growing brighter and brighter, as the distance
widened between his feet and the earth!
Upon our knees, in speechless wonder, we followed his ascent with our
amazed eyes, not a word being spoken by any soul; nay, hearts might
have been heard beating in the intense expectation of the moment!
Lo! in the far-off height of heaven, we beheld suddenly appear a bright
cloud, no larger than a man's hand, but each instant it expanded
and grew broader and brighter, and, swift as the winged lightning,
descended through the firmament downward, until we beheld it evolve
itself into a glittering host of angels, which no man could number,
countless as the stars of heaven. As these shining legions descended,
they parted into two bands, and sweeping along the air, met the
ascending Son of God in mid-sky! The rushing of their ten thousand
times ten thousand wings, was heard as the sound of many waters.
Surrounding Jesus, like a shining cloud, they received him into their
midst, and hid him from our eyes amid the glories of their celestial
splendor!
Now came to our ears the sounds of heavenly song, a sublimer chorus
than earth ever heard before. From the squadrons of Seraphim and
Cherubim encircling with their linked wings the Son of God, came, like
the unearthly music one hears in the dreams of night, these words,
receding, as they mounted upward with the Conqueror of Death and Hell:
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates!
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors;
And the King of Glory shall come in!"
This chorus seemed to be answered from the inmost heavens, as if an
archangel were standing at its portals, keeping watchful guard over the
entrance facing the earth.
"Who is the King of Glory?"
"The Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle against
principalities and powers,"
was chanted back from the ascending escort of Jesus, in the sublimest
strains of triumphant joy.
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of Glory shall come in!"
Upon this we heard a mighty voice, as it were in heaven, accompanied
by the sound of a trumpet, and ten thousand voices about the throne of
Jehovah seemed to say:
"God is coming up with a shout. He rideth upon the heavens! He
ascendeth on high! He hath led captivity captive, and received
gifts for men. O clap your hands, all ye people of earth! Shout his
triumph, ye hosts of heaven!
"Fling wide your gates, O City of God! Be ye lifted up, ye
everlasting doors, for the King of Glory enters in!"
Ascending and still ascending, receding and still receding, fainter
and fainter, came down to earth the angelic choruses, when at length
the brightest cloud of angels faded away into the upper heaven, the
Son of God shining in their midst, like a central sun, surrounded by a
luminous halo; till finally, like a star, they remained a few moments
longer, and then the heavens received him out of our sight.
While we stood gazing up into the far skies, hoping, expecting, yet
doubting if we should ever behold him again, two bright stars seemed
to be descending from the height of heaven above us. In a few seconds
we saw that they were angels. Alighting on the place where Jesus had
left, they said to the eleven, "Why gaze ye up into heaven, ye men of
Galilee? This same Jesus, whom ye have seen go into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as ye have now seen him ascend!" Thus speaking,
they vanished out of our sight!
Such, my dear father, is the appropriate crowning event of the
extraordinary life of Jesus, both Lord and Christ!
His kingdom is, therefore, my dear father, clearly not of this world,
as he said to Pilate, the Procurator; but it is Above.
Doubt, then, no longer, dearest father! Jesus, the Son of Mary
in his human nature, was the Son of God in his divine nature; an
incomprehensible and mysterious union, whereby he had brought together
in harmony the two natures, separated far apart by sin, by giving his
own body as an offering, to reconcile both in one immaculate body upon
the cross. There is now no more condemnation to them who believe in him
and accept him.
But I cannot write all I would say to you, dearest father. When we
meet--which you rejoice me in saying, will be on the first day of
the week, at Jerusalem--I will unfold to you all that the divine and
glorified Jesus has taught me. Doubt not that he is Messias. Hesitate
not to accept him; for he is the end of Moses, and of the Law, and of
the Prophets, the very Shiloh who should come and restore all things;
to whom be glory, power, dominion, majesty, and excellency, evermore.
Your loving daughter,
Adina.
[Illustration: THE END.]
=The New Sabbath Library=--(Continued from second page cover.)
No. 5. August, 1898.
=The Days of Mohammed=