for again we are told,
"they were there abiding." Once more Luke gives their names, in the
Acts as he did in his Gospel. All except Judas answered, in that upper
room, to the roll call of the company scattered from Gethsemane, but
reunited in a closer union. In each of Luke's lists he begins with the
Bethsaidan band. But he does not preserve the same order. In the latter
he begins, not with the two pairs of brothers as such--Peter and Andrew,
James and John,--but with the Apostles whom Christ had drawn into His
inner circle, Peter, John and James, naming first the two who were
already becoming the acknowledged leaders of the Christian band. In that
list we find the name of Andrew recorded the last time in Holy Writ.

But the eleven were not alone: others resorted thither for the same
purpose. What was that purpose? and who were some of them? This is the
answer:--"These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer,
with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren."

It is here, for the last time, that we read of Mary, in the Gospels. In
what better place could we bid her farewell than in the room consecrated
by the presence of her Son. How we rejoice with her that in that place
the longing of her heart must have been satisfied as she joined "with
one accord in prayer ... with His brethren"--her sons who during His
life had not believed on Him. What a welcome to that room did they
receive from John, their adopted brother! May we not indulge the thought
that among "the women" were her own daughters; and that we hear her
joyfully asking the once carping question of the Jews concerning "the
carpenter's son," but with changed meaning, saying, "His _sisters_, are
they not all with us?" If so "His Mother called Mary," "and His
brethren," "and His sisters," and John the adopted son and brother, were
at last a blessed family indeed. Mary on her knees with her children
around her, rejoicing in God her Saviour, of whom she had sung in the
infancy of her Son--that certainly is a fitting scene to be the last in
which we behold the Mother of Jesus.

"When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one
place." They were united in feeling, purpose and devotion, in the "one
place," the home of the early Church.

The hour had come for the fulfilment of the promise of their Lord, for
which they were to tarry in Jerusalem and wait. There was a great
miracle,--a sound from Heaven as of the rushi