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also have a direct softening influence on the heart. The Dairyman's Daughter, from her sick room, has preached to half the world; and though long since in her grave, yet like the grave of Elisha, where the dust of the prophet whom a lingering illness had borne down to the tomb, when it touched the dead body of a man, restored it to life, from the grave of Elizabeth Wallbridge, there has gone forth a virtue denied to many a one who like Elijah has gone up in a chariot of fire to heaven. Then let none repine, if they tarry, for they are doing the will of God, and home at last will be but the sweeter for this season of lingering on the journey.

3. The cure of all anxieties for the future is the discharge of the duties of the present. "What is that to thee? follow thou me."

The Christian life is summed up in following Christ. We begin it by coming to him, we continue it by following him, we end it by going to him. And the answer to many of the perplexities that beset its entrance and ongoing is simply, Follow Jesus. Is it objected that there are difficult doctrines in the Bible? Follow Jesus, and they will be found no obstacle in the way. Is it said that professors of religion walk inconsistently? Follow Jesus, and this inconsistency will not be in your way. Are there business relations that trammel ? Follow Jesus, and do life's great business, and all these things shall be added unto you. Do you

ask leave to go and bury your father? Let the dead bury their dead, follow thou Jesus. Thus to every cavil, or excuse, the one and only reply is, Follow Jesus; and as you go up, the light will grow clearer, and what now perplexes will perplex no longer, and at each step in the journey, the footsteps of Jesus shall irradiate the path. And when that path goes down to the dark valley, even there his presence shall sustain, and on the other side, eternity shall be but a following of Jesus, for the Lamb shall lead us to the fountains of living waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE EIGHTH APPEARANCE-THE FIVE HUNDRED WITNESSES.

I. Place of this meeting. Probably the mount of transfiguration— Why in Galilee. II. Importance of this meeting. Thrice predicted -A meeting of the whole church then on earth-Preparation for coming conflicts by a revelation of Christ's glory-Why some doubted. III. Comparative silence of scripture concerning it. Reason for this silence-The transfiguration, why so little alluded to-Meeting Jesus on earth-Meeting him hereafter in heaven.

"When I can read my title clear

To mansions in the skies,

I bid farewell to every fear,

And wipe my weeping eyes.
Let cares like a wild deluge come
And storms of sorrow fall,
May I but safely reach my home,

My God, my heaven, my all."

"After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep."-1 Cor. xv. 6.

"Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted."-Matt. xxviii. 16, 17.

THIS appearance of our Lord, though a very important one, is but lightly touched upon in the New Testament, and we are left to gather its

meaning and circumstances by a careful study of the brief references that are made to it. There can be no reasonable doubt that the appearance to the five hundred, referred to by Paul, and the meeting on the mountain in Galilee, related by Matthew, are the same, for there is no other appearance or meeting with which either can be connected. Hence we consider them together, and it will be seen that they cast light on each other when carefully pondered. There are several distinct points that claim our consideration.

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I. The Place. It was a mountain in Galilee. What it was, or why Galilee was selected, must be left to conjecture. But there are reasons that suggest themselves for this meeting in Galilee rather than in any other region, It was in Galilee that Jesus spent the first thirty years of his life, in the obscurity of Nazareth, the obedient son, as he was reputed, of a lowly carpenter. It was in Cana of Galilee that he did his first miracle, and began his mighty works. It was in Galilee that he sat down on a mount, and delivered that wonderful sermon whose precepts and beatitudes, after eighteen centuries, the world is yet unable fully to meet. It was in Galilee that Nazareth, the home of his youth, and Capernaum, the home of his manhood, were found. It was in Galilee that the majority of his disciples were found, so that the very name Galilean became synonymous with that of a fol

lower of Jesus. It was also in Galilee that he was transfigured, and had that memorable interview with Moses and Elias, concerning which Jesus charged them, to "tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." Matt. xvii. 9.

In these words we believe there lies the clue to the place, the facts, and the meaning of this meeting with the five hundred. The transfiguration scene is connected by our Lord with something subsequent to his resurrection, and this meeting in Galilee is promised after the resurrection, as something of great importance, and there is really nothing after the resurrection to which the implied promise at the transfiguration can be referred, but this meeting with the five hundred. There is a remarkable silence concerning the transfiguration after the resurrection, difficult to explain, unless we suppose that it was linked with this scene as its great counterpart and public announcement to the church. If this scene is thus connected with the transfiguration, all becomes plain and significant. Other reasons for this opinion will be suggested when we come to look more narrowly at the actual facts of the meeting, but these general reasons will suggest the probability that it was the mount of transfiguration that was selected by our Lord, as the place of this great meeting.

He knew that he had left many devoted and

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