be

spirit in the church are essentially incompatible with true moral greatness. Christ intimates that two things are essential to greatness. First: Religious allegiance to one master. "One is your Master," &c. No authority is to be acknowledged but that of Christ; but the haughty spirit thinks of his own authority, and the servile spirit bows to the dictates of pretenders. There cannot be greatness in either. Secondly: Self-sacrificing service. "He that is greatest among you shall your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." It is clear that both the lordling and the hireling in religion are miserably selfish, and therefore cannot be great according to the Divine idea. The lower the spirit falls in loving prostration before the Infinitely Great and Good, the higher Heaven exalts it; the greater the divine servant, the greater the soul. The path of true greatness is not that over which the Cæsars in proud daring rode; but that over which, with humble mien and world-wide love, the Howards pursued their self-denying course. Its mission is to minister, not to master; to give, not to govern. Its sceptre is love, not force; its throne is in the heart, and its empire over souls.

Germs of Thought.

CHRIST'S TEN

APPEARANCES* AFTER HIS
RESURRECTION.

"To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs; being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."-Acts i. 3.

INTRODUCTION.

CHRIST seems to have made ten distinct appearances of Himself to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead. The first was to Mary Magdalene, recorded in Mark xvi.

* It is our intention to give a sketch of each appearance in successive numbers of the "Homilist."

and John xx. ; the second was to Cleophas, and another of the disciples on the way to Emmaus (Mark xvi. 12; Luke xxiv. 13-32); the third was to Simon Peter (Luke xxiv. 33—35; 1 Cor. xv. 5); the fourth was in the evening of the same day to the eleven in the absence of Thomas, and at Jerusalem (Luke xxiv. 36–43; John xx. 19-25); the fifth, when "eight days afterwards," He appeared to the eleven at Jerusalem, Thomas being present (Mark xvi. 14; John xx. 26-29; 1 Cor. xv. 6); the sixth, when He appeared to all, or part of, the women who had first visited the sepulchre, and sent a command by them to the disciples to depart unto Galilee (Matt. xxviii. 1—10); the seventh, when He appeared to the apostles, and probably to the whole body of disciples, on a certain mountain in Galilee (1 Cor. xv. 6); on the eighth He appeared to certain of His disciples while fishing on the Lake of Galilee John xxi. 1-24); the ninth, when He appeared to James, "the Lord's brother," in Galilee (1 Cor. xv. 7); the tenth, on the morning of His ascension, when He appeared to the apostles assembled in Jerusalem (Luke xxiv. 43–51; Acts i. 4—8).

We offer four general remarks on these ten manifestations of Christ after His resurrection.

I. THEY START QUESTIONS WHICH ARE LEFT UNANSWERED. Looking at the "forty days" of His sojourn on the earth after His resurrection, during which time He made these appearances, curiosity is excited, at least on two points. First: How did He spend the whole of this period? All that we have recorded concerning Him would scarcely occupy more than a day or two at most;-how then did He employ Himself during the remainder of the period? How much we should like to have known how every hour of these "forty days" was occupied. But we are left in ignorance on the point. To the cries of our curiosity there is no response. The other point on which our curiosity is excited is-Secondly: Why during this period does He seem to avoid all intercourse with the unconverted? Before His death He was with the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians,

and the multitudes of sinners; but after His resurrection He seems to have confined Himself entirely to His disciples, and to have left the world entirely alone. Why was this? There is no answer.

II. THEY DEMONSTRATE THE FACT OF HIS RESURRECTION. First: These appearances in themselves were "infallible proofs." We might challenge, with the utmost confidence, the most shrewd and intelligent enemies of Christianity to produce any fact in history so well attested as these appearances attest the fact of Christ's resurrection. Those appearances took place not only in the evening, but in the morning, and in the full blaze of day. They were not made to one or two individuals, superstitiously disposed to believe in His resurrection, but to several, and even hundreds, all of whom were incredulous, and some of whom, like Thomas, sceptical to the highest degree. Those appearances were not shadowy and intangible; He appeared in a veritable corporeity. Thomas felt His wounded side; He ate and drank with His disciples, and talked to their conscience and their hearts. Secondly: The witnesses of these appearances were indisposed to believe in the fact of His resurrection. The disciples to whom He showed Himself expected that He would establish a visible kingdom upon the earth. When He died their hopes for the hour were entirely dissipated; black disappointment had enshrouded their spirits; they never supposed that He would rise again. "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead" (John xx. 9). Hence Thomas said, "Except I shall see," &c. In fact, they were so incredulous on this subject, that they regarded the first information they received as entirely fabulous. "Their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not" (Luke xxiv. 11). Thirdly: Though the witnesses were indisposed to believe in the fact of His resurrection, they were thoroughly convinced. Not one of the witnesses ever seemed to have doubted the fact; it was universally admitted; they proclaimed it publicly at

Jerusalem, and before the

Sanhedrim. They thundered Peter, for example, stand(Acts ii. 24-32.) His

very
out their conviction on the point.
ing up, said, "Whom God," &c.
appearances, then, were "infallible proofs."

"Twice twenty days he sojourn'd here on earth,
And show'd himself alive to chosen witnesses,
By proofs so strong, that the most slow-assenting
Had not a scruple left. This having done,
He mounted up to heaven. Methinks I see him
Climb the aerial heights, and glide along
Athwart the severing clouds."-—BLAIR.

III. THEY INDICATE THE RESURRECTION BODY OF THE GODLY. We are told that "our vile bodies shall be fashioned and made like unto His glorious body." "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept;" -not only the pledge, but the pattern. Christ, after His resurrection, had a body, for He ate and drank, and was handled. "A spirit," saith He, "hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." But it was a body so sublimated as to be superior to material obstructions and graviating forces. He enters the room while the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled. (John xx. 19.) He moved upwards through the air, penetrated the clouds, and entered into the heavens. These vile bodies are to be made like His body. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption," &c. The weak frame will become strong, the gross ethereal, the mortal deathless, the degraded glorious.

IV. THEY MANIFEST THE IDENTITY OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER BEFORE HIS DEATH AND AFTER HIS RESURRECTION. He "that ascended, is the same also that descended." Christ's exquisite tenderness of sympathy, His universal benevolence, and His exalted emotions, survive the agonies of His crucifixion; survive the darkness of the grave, and reappear in

all their divine charms, after His resurrection from the dead. The tenderness which He showed for example to Mary Magdalene, who washed His feet with her tears before His death, He shows to her now after His resurrection, in the loving tone in which He pronounces her name,— "Mary!"—and in the assurance that His father was her father, His God her God. His forgiving spirit is now shown to Peter, who denied Him, in the distinguishing commission He now gave him-" Feed my lambs." That unbounded compassion for His own countrymen, which before His death came out in the lamentation, "Oh, Jerusalem," &c., now, after His resurrection, comes out in the commission He gave to His apostles ;- "Preach repentance for remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem." The same devout spirit which came out on the night in which He was betrayed by His disciple, appears on the morning when, from the Mount of Olives, He pronounced His benediction upon His apostles and then ascended to heaven.

This is a delightful thought; it makes us feel that the Christ of Galilee and Jerusalem is the Christ of Heaven; that all the feelings of love and mercy which He displayed while on earth, reign in His nature now; it inspires the belief that death will not destroy our best feelings and tender affections for those we love.

CHRIST'S APPEARANCES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION. No. I.

SUBJECT:-His appearance to Mary Magdalene in the Garden.

"Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils," &c.-Mark xvi. 9-11.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and Thirty-ninth.

WE have already in the Homilist made some remarks on the first appearance of Christ.* Our observations at present * See "Homilist," Vol. x., p. 253.