that this lowly man, doomed to an undying humiliation on earth, was in very deed the Son of God. But when he has been visibly taken to heaven, and welcomed by rejoicing angels; when the pillar of fire, after many centuries' absence from Jerusalem, descends to carry him in its chariot of glory to the upper skies; and when he is unveiled to us at the martyrdom of Stephen, and in the visions of the Apocalypse, as at the right hand of God and in the midst of the throne, we have no difficulty in believing that he is indeed "God over all, blessed for ever." Hence, just so far as a revelation of the Divinity of the Son is needful to man, was the Ascension, by which that evidence was made complete, a necessary event.

4. Another necessity for it is found in its connection with the work of the Holy Spirit. What the reason of this connection is, we are probably unable to comprehend, but the fact is very clear that the Ascension of Christ was a necessary preliminary to the descent of the Holy Ghost. This he asserts himself in the most explicit terms:

"It is

go not

expedient for you that I go away; for if I away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." John xvi. 7. So also in John vii. 39, it is stated, "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Why this is true we cannot tell with any degree of certainty, for we see but dimly the

wondrous arrangements of the Divine economy. It may be that this Spirit could not work, in its plenitude, until the redemption was completed, and the Son acknowledged in heaven as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But the fact is clear, that the Ascension must take place before the Spirit could descend in his New Testament power. Then just as priceless to the world as is the work of the Blessed Paraclete, inspiring the tongues and pens of holy apostles and evangelists; regenerating and converting the thousands that were dead in trespasses and in sins; comforting and sanctifying the suffering people of God; and dwelling in the hearts of the saints, and making their very bodies to be temples more hallowed than that of Moriah-just as absolutely necessary to the Church and to the world as are the gifts and graces of the Holy Comforter, so necessary was that Ascension of Jesus, without which he could not descend in pentecostal or in New Testament power. Hence, the very offices of the Church to which men are called by the Holy Spirit, are placed by the apostle, in Eph. iv. 8-12, as among the Ascension gifts of our Lord, when he led captivity captive and obtained gifts for men.

5. Another reason that the Scriptures give for the Ascension is, that Christ might make intercession for us. Paul assures us in Heb. ix. 24, "that Christ is entered into heaven itself, now to appear

But

in the presence of God for us ;" and (vii. 25) that he "ever liveth to make intercession for us ;" and Rom. viii. 34, that he is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. He is also said to be "an Advocate with the Father." What is the precise nature of that mysterious transaction which is here alluded to, we in our blindness cannot tell. it is a sweet thought to the trembling sinner, who fears, like the publican, to come even near to the altar, that there is One beside the throne who is interceding for him with that "blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel ;" and that "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous." We come then, in our feebleness and frailty, to a throne of grace, with a more cheering encouragement, when we know that we come not alone, but that a heavenly Pleader is interceding for us, presenting our prayers and struggles before the throne covered with his own infinite merits, and that him the Father always heareth. To enable him to thus intercede, it was needful that he should ascend.

6. Another reason that he gives himself is, that there was a work of preparation for his people to be done in heaven. "In my Father's house are were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv. 2. Here again we are at fault as we attempt

many mansions: if it

to grasp these high themes. What is meant by preparing a place for us? Is not heaven already garnished with a glory that was from the foundation of the world? Is it not the perfection of beauty? How, then, could it be prepared for us more gloriously than it always has been? The answer to these queries is probably found in the fact that our place in heaven will be determined by our lives on earth. He whose pound has gained ten pounds shall have rule over ten cities; he that has gained five, but five; he that has gained two, but over two cities. As is the cross, so shall be the crown. As is the burden and heat of the day on earth, so is the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory in heaven. Oh! it is a blessed thought to the toiling and faithful servant of Jesus, that though homeless and penniless below, without a place to lay his head, as he labours for his Master, that precisely as his place on earth is lonely and weary by reason of his faithful working for Christ, by the same, yea, an infinitely greater ratio is that blessed Saviour preparing a place of peopled loveliness and eternal glory for him above. Then we can see why he told his sorrowing disciples, who shrank from the toil and trial before them, that it became them rather to rejoice that he was about to leave them and ascend to his Father's house, with its many mansions; for there, as they were toiling in weariness and tears, he was preparing

for them a warmer, brighter welcome, that they might be glad according to the years in which they had been made to see sorrow. For this work of preparation, it was needful that he should ascend.

7. Another reason given by Paul is, that as our forerunner and great example, it was needful that he should enter the rest of heaven after he had finished the labours of earth. We are prone, in dwelling on the character of our Lord, to overlook the fact that he was truly man, in contemplating the fact that he was truly God. As man, he had all the feelings of a sinless humanity. He could be touched with a feeling of all our infirmities that were without sin. He was weary, hungry, thirsty, faint, lonely, sorrowful, indignant, as he encountered the various trials of his earthly life. Hence, even without any specific assurances, we would have inferred that he felt the same longing for heaven that the lonely and weary often have on earth. But we have such assurances most explicitly given. Paul declares to us that he, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. xii. 2. Hence, this Ascension or return to heaven was a thing that cheered and sustained him in his sorrows on earth. To him the hope of heaven was something far more vivid and bright than to any other soul that has ever longed for it. We know not how