heaven and on earth, is but beyond eyesight, has a
perfectly distinct view of all we are doing and knows when to give us
the success we seek.

This, then, explains why it was that our Lord appeared only to His
friends after His resurrection. It might have been expected that on His
rising from the dead He would have shown Himself as openly as before He
suffered, and would specially have shown Himself to those who had
crucified Him; but this was not the case. The Apostles themselves were
struck with this circumstance, for in one of his earliest discourses
Peter remarks that He showed Himself "not to all the people, but unto
witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with
Him after He rose from the dead." And it is obvious from the incident
before us and from the fact that when our Lord showed Himself to five
hundred disciples at once in Galilee, probably a day or two after this,
some even of them doubted--it is obvious from this that no good or
permanent effect could have been produced by His appearing to all and
sundry. It might have served as a momentary triumph, but even this is
doubtful; for plenty would have been found to explain away the miracle
or to maintain it was a deception, and that He who appeared was not the
same as He who died. Or even supposing the miracle had been admitted,
why was this miracle to produce any more profound spiritual effect in
hearts unprepared than the former miracles had produced. It was not by
any such sudden process men could become Christians and faithful
witnesses of Christ's resurrection. "Men are not easily wrought upon to
be faithful advocates of any cause." They advocate causes to which they
are by nature attached, or else they become alive to the merit of a
cause only by gradual conviction and by deeply impressed and often
repeated instruction. To such a process the Apostles were submitted; and
even after this long instruction their fidelity to Christ was tested by
a trial which shook to the foundations their whole character, which
threw out one of their number for ever, and which revealed the
weaknesses of others.

In other words, they needed to be able to certify Christ's spiritual
identity as well as His physical sameness. They were so to know Him and
so to sympathise with His character that they might be able after the
Resurrection to recognise Him by the continuity of that character and
the identity of purpose He maintained. They were by daily interco