to do, when left alone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable.

The prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they would
have done so if left to themselves; and it would have been small
wonder if they had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, their
home, and to shake from their feet the dust of the city where their
Lord had been slain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst of
wolves when He had gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officers
ringed them round. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they had
broken and scattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem, and
the fact that nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audience
for their witness, made their 'beginning at Jerusalem' necessary. So
they were to crush their natural longing to get back to Galilee, and
to stay in their dangerous position. We have all to ask, not where we
should be most at ease, but where we shall be most efficient as
witnesses for Christ, and to remember that very often the presence of
adversaries makes the door 'great and effectual.'

These eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard task
and no help. He bade them 'wait' for the promised Holy Spirit, the
coming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room He
spoke to them of 'the Comforter.' They were too feeble to act alone,
and silence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they had
been plunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen,
and transform them.

The order in which promise and command occur here shows how
graciously Jesus considered the Apostles' weakness. Not a word does
He say of their task of witnessing, till He has filled their hearts
with the promise of the Spirit. He shows them the armour of power in