His Apostles
upon terms very different from those on which He had previously
associated with them[10]. And though few records have been preserved
of His instructions to them during this period, we find this general
description, which very clearly shows the nature of those
instructions. In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, S. Luke records
that the time was spent in "speaking of the things pertaining to the
Kingdom of God" (Acts i. 3). Consequently, though we have not His
discourses in full, we know that the subject of them was still the
same as in the time past--the good news of "The Kingdom of Heaven."

During the years of His public ministry the Apostles frequently asked
their Lord to explain what they did not understand in His teaching.
And we may feel sure that, at this time, many things must have
appeared to them in a new light, and many sayings must have gained a
force and meaning which they had failed to perceive before. And if
"The Kingdom of Heaven," about which He had said so much, was to be a
real Kingdom, it is clear that there must have been many things on
which they would require instruction, about the order and government
of it, and about the practical carrying out of His loving designs for
the salvation of the world. And inasmuch as we find that, almost
immediately after their Lord's Ascension, the Apostles were fully
prepared not merely to preach, as He had done, the good news of the
Kingdom, but to call men into it as a Kingdom already established upon
earth, we conclude that all these matters must have been fully
explained to them during these days, and that these were "the things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God" of which He spake.

Passing by, for the present, other questions of difficulty which would
very probably arise in their minds, there are two passages in our
Lord's discourses recorded in the Gospels which we can hardly doubt
were discussed at this time; because some of His words have been
preserved to us which connect those passages with what afterwards
became the practice of the Church.

The first question of difficulty which would naturally arise out of
one of His former sayings, and to which He provided the answer, was
this--What was to be the form of admission into "The Kingdom of
Heaven"? He had said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
Kingdom of God" (S. John iii. 5). But what did the words mean? Wh