of the heart they have not been able to separate their
Jewish conceits. Sometimes, it may be, the language of the
Saviour has carried them up into a broader and more
spiritual region; but then, they have subsided into their
symbols and shadows; --only, notwithstanding the errors that
have hindered, and the hints that have awed them, they have
steadily felt the inspiration of a great hope, the
expectation of something glorious to be revealed in the
speedy coming of the Messiah's kingdom. And now, does not
the account immediately connected with the text picture for
us exactly the state of men whose conceptions have been
broken up by a great shock, and yet in whose hearts the
central hope still remains and vibrates with mysterious
tenacity? --men who have had the form of their expectation
utterly refuted and scattered into darkness, but who still
cherish its spirit? Christ the crowned King,-- Christ the
armed Deliverer, --Christ the Avenger, sweeping away his
foes with one burst of miracle,--is to them, no more. They
saw the multitude seize him, and no legions came to rescue;-
-they saw him condemned, abused, crucified, buried; and so,
in no sense of which they could conceive, was this he who
should have redeemed Israel. And yet the suggestion of
something still to come, --something connected with three
days, -- lingered in their minds. And, in the midst of
their despondency, striking upon this very chord, the
startling rumor reached them that Christ had risen from the
dead. It was in this mood that Jesus found the two
disciples whose words I have selected for my text; -- faith
and doubt, disappointment and hope, alternating in their
minds; their Jewish conceit laid prostrate in the dust, and