and
to-morrow he was on his cross. Yet in the upper room he had in his
heart a most blessed joy. Even in the terrible hours that came
afterwards, that joy was not quenched; for we are told that for the joy
set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame. This joy
also he bequeathed to his friends. "These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy may be in you." We remember, too, that they really
received this legacy. The world wondered at the strange secret of joy
those men had when they went out into the world. They sang songs in
the darkest night. Their faces shone as with a holy inner light in the
deepest sorrow. Christ's joy was fulfilled in them.

He also put within the reach of his friends, as he was about to leave
them, the whole of his own inheritance as the only begotten Son of God.
He gave into their hands the key of heaven. He told them they should
have power to do the works which they had seen him do, and even greater
works than these. He told them that whatsoever they should ask the
Father in his name the Father would give to them. The whole power of
his name should thus be theirs, and they might use it as they would.
Nothing they might ask should be refused to them; all the heavenly
kingdom was thrown open to them.

These are mere suggestions of the farewell gifts which Jesus left to
his friends when he went away,--his peace, his joy, the key to all the
treasures of his kingdom. He had blessed them in wonderful ways during
his life; but the best and richest things of his love were kept to the
last, and given only after he was gone. Indeed, the best things were
given through his death, and could be given in no other way. Other men
live to do good; they hasten to finish their work before their sun
sets. God's plan for them is something they must do before death comes
to write "Finis" at the end of their days. But the plan of God for
Jesus centred in his death. It was the blessings that would come
through his dying that were set forth in the elements used in the Last
Supper,--the body broken, the blood shed. The great gifts to his
friends, of which he spoke in his farewell words, would come through
his dying. He must be lifted up in order to draw all men to him. He
must shed his blood in order that remission of sins might be offered.
It was expedient for him to go away in order that the Comforter might
come. His peace and his joy were bequests which could be given only
when