to them than ever He could be before. By His Presence within themselves they felt themselves to share the glory and the joy of His ascent. He was parted from them in outward intercourse, but His glory held them in growing closeness of power, held them in the unity of indissoluble life.

Warned by two angels not to stand gazing on the outward sky, not to forget the heaven within, they returned to Jerusalem from Olivet. As they were continually in the temple, blessing God, they felt a thrill of heavenly worship hitherto unknown. He was their High Priest going up beyond the veil. He was their life. Their temple now was not the stately building whose doom had been declared. Their true, their living temple, was His glorious Body, raised from the dead. This is the sanctuary of which the prophet spake (Is. viii. 14). Its ministrations were no empty form. The covenant of the Spirit should henceforth be known as a covenant of life. The Blood of Jesus ministered in ordinances of grace should purge all those who sought its cleansing power. They felt within themselves the unction of that Spirit of gladness which hereafter they were to minister to others. The unction poured out upon the Head flowed forth on them as once the symbolic stream suffused the beard and clothing of Aaron with its holy fragrance (Ps. cxxxiii. 2). Christ is entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, and His members shall henceforth have boldness to enter into the holiest in the Blood of Jesus through the veil, that is to say His Flesh' (Heb. x. 19, 20). As Haggai prophesied, so has it come to pass.

The

temple of the returned captives has obtained a greater glory than the former house. In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts' (Hag. ii. 9).

O Jesu, establish Thou me evermore in Thy covenant of peace.

My son, thou must look to Me seated on the Right Hand of the Father. So shalt thou never be moved from thy steadfastness.

Yea, Lord Jesu, now dost Thou reign as the Christ victorious over all. Let me not rebel against Thee. O let me contemplate Thy triumph, look to Thy protection, rest on Thy support, feel Thee ever near, and rise above the earth in the fellowship of Thy Life.

Vide Bishop Andrewes' Devotions for the Second Day of

the Week.

MEDITATION LIV.

Christ Receiving Gifts for Men.

And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.-Acts li. 1-4.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith,

When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive,

And gave gifts unto men.

(Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.Eph. iv. 4-13.

1. THE WAVE-LOAVES OF PENTECOST.

THE gift of Pentecost is the consummation of the resurrection-life throughout the Body of Christ, both in the ascended Head seated at the Right Hand of God, and in his members living along with Him by this fellowship of His glory.

So of old the giving of the law on Mount Sinai completed the covenant into which Israel was brought by the paschal deliverance from Egypt. By this

covenant the people were brought near to God, as God had promised to Moses, This shall be a token to them that I have sent thee; when thou hast brought the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain' (Ex. iii. 12). Accordingly three days before Pentecost God spake to Moses, saying,

If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Ex. xix. 5).

The people thus consecrated to God under the law of the Ten Commandments were a spiritual harvest of which the Exodus was the commencement. St. Paul speaks of Christians in like manner, as being redeemed from all iniquity' by Christ's resurrection, that they might be purified unto Himself as a peculiar people zealous of good works' by the law of the Spirit and the gift of Pentecost (Tit. ii. 14).

Beautifully did this image harmonise with the physical aspect of the two festivals. Indeed the earlier Jews, thinking of nature, lost sight of themselves as being God's harvest. It was not wonderful, for the law was weak through the flesh. The harvest could not be gathered in under the old dispensation. The Sinaitic law was a law of bondage and fear. Until the Spirit was given at the Christian Pentecost, the festival could not fulfil its design either of human joy or Divine satisfaction. The righteousness of the law had to be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit' (Rom. viii. 4) before

Pentecost could be that spiritual harvest of saints which should be worthy of heaven's jubilee.

The idea, however, was present as we have seen. It was God's primary object in that solemnity.

This festival hallowed nature's abundance. Annually during the ages of ignorance the typical joy of harvest was kept up with holy rites before God, although its spiritual promises were forgotten.

At Passover the harvest began. The sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was to be waved before the Lord (Lev. xxiii. 10) on the sixteenth day of the first month. From this day were to be counted the seven sabbaths which should usher in the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, upon the fiftieth day following. Then were the people to bring out of their habitations, i.e., out of the land in which they dwelt, two wave-loaves, of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour: they shall be baken with leaven: they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. The priest shall wave them before the Lord.' Seven lambs of the first year, one bullock, and two rams were to be offered as a burnt offering. One kid of the goats was to be sacrificed as a sin offering. Two lambs of the first year were to be waved before the Lord along with the two wave-loaves, as a sacrifice of peace offerings (Lev. xxiii. 15-20).

With the barley-sheaf there was to be a he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord' (xxiii. 12). There was no sin offering with this Easter sheaf: at Pentecost there was.

The wave-sheaf of barley was the type of our Lord rising from the dead on the sixteenth day.