The only one of his other interviews with them, to which we can follow
them, is the last, when he stood with them at Bethany, on the eastern
slope of Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerusalem, where he passed
away from their eyes to the glory now consummated by the complete
events of his life and death. Being there with them, he commanded them
not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promised Comforter
from the Father, of which he had so often spoken to them. “For John
truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Ghost not many days hence.” Herein he expressed a beautiful figure,
powerfully impressive to them, though to most common perceptions
perhaps, not so obvious. In the beginning of those bright revelations
of the truth which had been made to that age, John, the herald and
precursor of a greater preacher, had made a bold, rough outset in
the great work of evangelization. The simple, striking truths which
he brought forward, were forcibly expressed in the ceremony which he
introduced as the sign of conversion; as the defilements of the body
were washed away in the water, so were the deeper pollutions of the
soul removed by the inward cleansing effected by the change which
followed the full knowledge and feeling of the truth. The gross and
tangible liquid which he made the sign of conversion, was also an
emblem of the rude and palpable character of the truths which he
preached; so too, the final token which the apostles of Jesus, when at
last perfectly taught and equipped, should receive as the consecrated
and regenerated leaders of the gospel host, was revealed in a form and
in a substance as uncontrollably and incalculably above the heavy water,
as their knowledge, and faith, and hope were greater than the dim
foreshadowing given by the baptist, of good things to come. Water is a
heavy fluid, capable of being seen, touched, tasted, weighed and poured;
it has all the grosser and more palpable properties of matter. But
the air is, even to us, and seemed more particularly to the ancients,
beyond the apprehension of most of the senses, by which the properties
of bodies are made known to man. We cannot see it, or at least are not
commonly conscious of its visibility; yet we feel its power to terrify,
and to comfort, and see the evidences of its might in the ruins of
many of the works of man and of nature, which oppose its movements. The
sources of its power too, seem to a common eye, to be within itself,
and when it rises in storms and whirlwind, its motions seem like the
capricious volitions of a sentient principle within it. But water,
whenever it moves, seems only the inanimate mass which other agents put
in motion. The awful dash of the cataract is but the continued fall of
a heavy body impelled by gravity, and even “when the myriad voices of
ocean roar,” the mighty cause of the storm is the unseen power of the
air, which shows its superiority in the scale of substances, by setting
in terrible and overwhelming motion the boundless deep, that, but
for this viewless and resistless agency, would forever rest, a level
plain, without a wrinkle on its face. To the hearers of Christ more
particularly, the air in its motions, was a most mysterious agency,――a
connecting link between powers material and visible, and those too
subtle for any thing but pure thought to lay hold of. “The wind blew
where it would, and they heard the sound thereof, but could not tell
whence it came or whither it went.” They might know that it blew from
the north toward the south, or from the east toward the west, or the
reverse of these; but the direction from which it came could not point
out to them the place where it first arose, in its unseen power, to
pass over the earth,――a source of ceaseless wonder, to the learned and
unlearned alike. This was the mighty and mysterious agency which Jesus
Christ now chose as a fit emblem to represent in language, to his
apostles, that power from on high so often promised. Yet clear as
was this image, and often as he had warned them of the nature of the
duties for which this power was to fit them,――in spite of all the deep
humiliation which their proud earthly hopes had lately suffered, there
were still in their hearts, deep-rooted longings after the restoration
of the ancient dominion of Israel, in which they once firmly expected
to share. So their question on hearing this charge and renewed promise
of power hitherto unknown, was, “Lord, wilt thou not at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?” Would not this be a satisfactory
completion of that triumph just achieved over the grave, to which the
vain malice of his foes had sent him? Could his power to do it be now
be doubted? Why then, should he hesitate at what all so earnestly and
confidently hoped? But Jesus was not to be called down from heaven to
earth on such errands, nor detained from higher glories by such prayers.
He knew that this last foolish fancy of earthly dominion was to pass
away from their minds forever, as soon as they had seen the event for
which he had now assembled them. He merely said to them, “It is not for
you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has appointed,
according to his own judgment.” Jesus knew that, though the minds of
his disciples were not then sufficiently prepared to apprehend the
nature of his heavenly kingdom, yet they, after his departure, becoming
better instructed and illuminated by a clearer light of knowledge,
would of their own accord, lay aside that preconceived notion about his
earthly reign, and would then become fully impressed with those things
of which he had long before warned them, while they were still in the
enjoyment of his daily teachings. Being now about to bid them farewell,
――lest by entirely cutting off their present hope, he might for a
time overwhelm them,――he so moderated his answer, as not to extinguish
utterly all hope of the kingdom expected by them, nor yet give them
reason to think that such a dominion as they hoped for, was to be
established. He therefore, to their inquiries whether he would at that
time restore the ancient kingdom of Israel, replied that it was not
for them to know the times which the Father had reserved in his own
counsels, for the completion of that event. But he went on to inform
them of something which _was_ for them to know. “You shall receive
power, when the Holy Ghost shall have come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses of these things for me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and in Samaria, and even to the farthest parts of the earth.” And when
he had spoken these things, he was taken away from them as they were
looking at him, for a cloud received him out of their sight. And while
they looked earnestly towards heaven, as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, and said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into
heaven.” They now understood that they had parted from their loved
Master forever, in earthly form; yet the consolations afforded by this
last promise of the attendant spirits, were neither few nor small. To
bring about that bright return, in whose glories they were to share,
was the great task to which they devoted their lives; and they went
back to Jerusalem, sorrowful indeed for the removal of their great
guide and friend, but not sorrowing as those who have no hope.
_To Bethany._――This place was on the Mount of Olives, probably
near its summit, and perhaps within sight of Jerusalem. See
notes on pp. 90 and 95.
Here ceased their course of instruction under their Divine Master;
laying down their character as _Disciples_, they now took up the higher
dignity, responsibility and labors of _Apostles_. Here too ceases the
record of “PETER’S DISCIPLESHIP;”――no longer a _learner_ and _follower_
of any one on earth, he is exalted to the new duties and dangers of
the APOSTLESHIP, of which the still more interesting story here begins;
and he must henceforth bear the new character and title of “Peter the
_teacher_ and _leader_.”
II. PETER’S APOSTLESHIP;
OR
PETER THE TEACHER AND LEADER.