now that they were
composed and receptive the Lord reminded them that all things that had
happened to Him were in accordance with what He had told them while He
had lived amongst them. In His divine presence their understanding was
quickened and enlarged so that they comprehended as never before the
scriptures--the Law of Moses, the books of the prophets and the
psalms--concerning Him. That His now accomplished death was a necessity,
He attested as fully as He had predicted and affirmed the same
aforetime. Then He said unto them: "Thus it is written, and thus it
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things." Then were the disciples glad. As He was about to depart the
Lord gave them His blessing, saying "Peace be unto you: as my Father
hath sent me, even so send I you." This specification of men sent by
authority points directly to the apostles; "And when he had said this,
he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose
soever sins ye retain, they are retained,"[1376]

DOUBTING THOMAS.[1377]

When the Lord Jesus appeared in the midst of the disciples on the
evening of the Resurrection Sunday, one of the apostles, Thomas, was
absent. He was informed of what the others had witnessed, but was
unconvinced; even their solemn testimony, "We have seen the Lord,"
failed to awaken an echo of faith in his heart. In his state of mental
skepticism he exclaimed: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of
the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my
hand into his side, I will not believe." Caution and charity must attend
our judgment in any conclusion as to the incredulous attitude of this
man. He could scarcely have doubted the well attested circumstance of
the empty sepulchre, nor the veracity of Mary Magdalene and the other
women as to the presence of angels and the Lord's appearing, nor Peter's
testimony nor that of the assembled company; but he may have regarded
the reported manifestations as a series of subjective visions; and the
absence of the Lord's body may have been vaguely considered as a result
of Christ's supernatural restoration to life followed by a bodily and
final departure from earth. It was the corporeal manifestation of th