s. For a little while they have been in communion with
One who has spoken as never man spoke, and who has touched the deepest
springs of their being. He has lifted them out of the narrow limits
of their previous lives. From the Receipt of Customs, and the Galilean
lake, he has summoned them to the interests and awards, the thought and
the work, of a spiritual and divine kingdom. At first following him,
perhaps they hardly knew why, conscious only that he had the Words of
Eternal Life, the terms of this discipleship have grown into bonds of
the dearest intimacy. Their Master has become their Companion and their
Friend, and their faith has deepened into tender and confiding love. But
still, theirs has been the belief of the trusting soul, rather than the
enlightened intellect. From the fitness of the teaching, and the wonder
of the miracle, they have felt that he was the very Christ; and yet,
from this conviction of the heart they have not been able to separate
their Jewish conceits. Sometimes, it may be, the language of the Saviour
has carried them up into a broader and more spiritual region; but
then, they have subsided into their symbols and shadows;--only,
notwithstanding the errors that have hindered, and the hints that have
awed them, they have steadily felt the inspiration of a great hope, the
expectation of something glorious to be revealed in the speedy coming
of the Messiah's kingdom. And now, does not the account immediately
connected with the text picture for us exactly the state of men whose
conceptions have been broken up by a great shock, and yet in whose
hearts the central hope still remains and vibrates with mysterious
tenacity?--men who have had the form of their expectation utterly
refuted and scattered into darkness, but who still cherish its spirit?
Christ the crowned King,--Christ the armed Deliverer,--Christ the
Avenger, sweeping away his foes with one burst of miracle,--is to
them, no more. They saw the multitude seize him, and no legions came to
rescue;--they saw him condemned, abused, crucified, buried; and so,
in no sense of which they could conceive, was this he who should
have redeemed Israel. And yet the suggestion of something still to
come,--something connected with three days,--lingered in their minds.
And, in the midst of their despondency, striking upon this very chord,
the startling rumor reached them that Christ had risen from the dead. It
was in this mood that Jesus found the two discip