hing baffling in His appearance,
suggesting a well-known face, and yet not quite the same. The marks on
the body, or some characteristic action or movement or utterance, were
needed to complete the identification. The properties of the body also
were not reducible to any known type. He could eat, speak, walk, yet He
could dispense with eating and could apparently pass through physical
obstacles. His body was a glorified, spiritual body, not subject to the
laws which govern the physical part of man in this life. These
characteristics are worth noticing, not only as giving us some inkling
of the type of body which awaits ourselves, but in connection with the
identification of the risen Lord. Had the appearance been the mere fancy
of the disciples, how should they have required any identification?

Having saluted them and removed their consternation, He fulfils the
object of His appearance by giving them their commission, their
equipment, and their authority as His Apostles: "As the Father hath sent
Me, even so send I you"--to fulfil still the same purpose, to complete
the work begun, to stand to Him in the same intimate relation as He had
occupied to the Father. To impart to them at once all that they required
for the fulfilment of this commission He bestows upon them the Holy
Spirit, breathing on them, to convey to them the impression that He was
actually there and then communicating to them that which constituted the
very breath of His own life. This is His first act as Lord of all power
in heaven and on earth, and it is an act which inevitably conveys to
them the assurance that His life and theirs is one life. Impulse and
power to proclaim Him as risen they did not yet experience. They must be
allowed time to settle to some composure of mind and to some clear
thoughts after all the disturbing events of these last days. They must
also have the confirmatory testimony to the Resurrection, which could
only be furnished after repeated appearances of the Lord to themselves
and to others. The gift of the Spirit, therefore, as a spirit of
powerful witness-bearing, was reserved for six weeks.

With this perfect equipment our Lord added the words: "Whosesoever sins
ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained." These words have been the occasion of endless
controversy.[31] They certainly convey the ideas that the Apostles were
appointed to mediate between Christ and their fellow-men, tha