birth and watched His grave, should proclaim His Second Coming to
earth.

It was gracious that, in the moment of keenest sense of desolation
and loss, the great hope of reunion should be poured into the hearts
of the Apostles. Nothing can be more distinct and assured than the
terms of that angel message. It gives for the faith and hope of all
ages the assurance that He will come; that He who comes will be the
very Jesus who went; that His coming will be, like His departure,
visible, corporeal, local. He will bring again all His tenderness,
all His brother's heart, all His divine power, and will gather His
servants to Himself.

No wonder that, with such hopes flowing over the top of their sorrow,
like oil on troubled waters, the little group went back to the upper
room, hallowed by memories of the Last Supper, and there waited in
prayer and supplication during the ten days which elapsed till
Pentecost. So should we use the interval between any promise and its
fulfilment. Patient expectation, believing prayer, harmonious
association with our brethren, will prepare us for receiving the gift
of the Spirit, and will help to equip us as witnesses for Jesus.



THE THEME OF ACTS

'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that
Jesus began both to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which He
was taken up.'--ACTS i. 1, 2.