r ever! The Angels, too, have sped away, and the eleven
pilgrims begin their solitary return back to the city and temple from
which the _true_ Glory had indeed departed!

_And how did they return?_ What were their feelings as they rose to
pursue their way? Had we not been told far otherwise, we should have
imagined them to have been those of deep dejection. We should have
pictured to ourselves a weary, weeping, troubled band; their
countenances shaded with a sorrow too profound for words;--the joyous
melodies of that morning hour, all in sad contrast with those hearts
which were bowed down with a bereavement unparalleled in its nature
since a weeping world was bedewed with tears! They were going too, as
"lambs in the midst of wolves," to the very city where, a few weeks
before, their Lord had been crucified,--the disciples of a hated Master,
"not knowing the things that might befall _them_ there." Could we
wonder, if for the moment these aching spirits should have surrendered
themselves to mingled feelings of disconsolate grief and terror. But
_how different_! Sorrow indeed they _must_ have had; but if so, it was
counterbalanced and overborne by far other emotions; for of the
_sorrow_, the Evangelist says _nothing_; the simple record of this
mournful journey is in these words, "They returned to Jerusalem WITH
GREAT JOY." Most wonderful, and yet most true! Never did mourner return
from a funeral scene--(from laying in the grave his nearest and
dearest)--with a heavier sense of an overwhelming loss than did that
widowed orphaned band. And yet, lo! they are _joyful_! A sunshine is
lighting up their faces. The "Sun of their souls" has set behind the
world's horizon. But though vanished from the eye of sense, His glory
and radiance seem still to linger on their spirits, just as the orb of
day gilds the lofty mountain-peaks long after his descent. They tread
the old footway with elastic step! As Gethsemane, and Kedron, and the
Temple-path, are in succession skirted, while "_sorrowful_, they are
alway REJOICING." Why is this? It was God Himself fulfilling in their
experience His own promise, "_As thy day is, so shall thy strength be._"
He metes out strength IN the day of trial, and FOR the day of trial.
When _we_ expect nothing but fainting and trembling, sadness and
despondency, He whispers His own promise, and makes it good, "My grace
is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness."

Who so faint as the