returning Lord. And yet--how is He employed?
Is the world, that had so disowned Him, disowned now in return? Are the
disciples, who have so oft deserted Him, now deserted in return?--their
name forgotten in the thought of the loftier spirits who are to gather
around Him in the skies? Nay, His every thought is centered on the
weeping band of earth. "He lifted up his hands and blessed them!"[45]
His last words are those of mercy--His last act is outstretching His
arms to bless! It was an act replete with meaning to the Church of God
in every age. Jesus, when He was last seen on earth, wore no terror on
His lips--but He left our world pouring a benediction on His redeemed
people.

There is something, moreover, significant in the recorded fact that
"WHILE He blessed them, He was parted from them!" The Benediction was
unfinished when the cloud bore Him away! As they gazed upwards and
upwards till that glorious form was diminishing in the blue sky above,
still His hands were extended;--the last dim vision which lingered on
their memories was the True High Priest blessing the representative
Israel of God! It would seem as if He wished to indicate that the act
begun on earth was to be carried on and perpetuated in heaven--that
though parted from them, His outstretched arms would still plead for
them on the Throne. His _voice_ could no longer be heard--but His
blessing still would continue to descend till He came again!

Wondrous close to a wondrous life! We have traversed in thought many
other memorials of Bethany. We have stood by the gate where Martha met
her Lord--the silent sepulchre which listened to the voice of
Omnipotence--the holy home where friendship was realised such as earth
never before or since beheld. But surely not less sacred or hallowed
than any of these is the scene presented on the green ridge rising to
the west of the village, overlooking its groves of palm. Before
superstition ventured to raise its cumbrous monument on the heights of
Olivet, may we not think of the scene of the Ascension, rather in
connexion with three _living_ Temples? May we not think of it as oft and
again visited by Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus? May we not well imagine
it would form a hallowed retirement for solemn meditation! Amid more
sorrowful thoughts, connected with their Lord's absence from them, would
they not there often muse in holy joy over the now fulfilled prophetic
strains of their minstrel King?--"Thou hast ascended o