At the conclusion of this interview, of which we have so brief a recital, Jesus said, “These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then,” writes Luke, “opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you;but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.”[86]
Paul testifies, that, after this, Jesus “was seen of above fivehundred brethren at once.” But we have no record of that interview, or of one which he mentions with James alone.
We have but a brief account of the last and most sublime of all these interviews. Jesus met the eleven in Jerusalem. Their prejudices so tenaciously clung to them, that they again asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power; but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judæa and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Going out from Jerusalem, they walked together over the Mount of Olives on the road to Bethany. When near the summit of that sublime swell of land which had ever been one of his favorite places of resort, Jesus stopped on the greensward, at a point where one could obtain an almost unbroken view of the horizon and of the overarching skies, and, raising his hands, pronounced a final earthly blessing upon his apostles.
Then he began slowly to ascend into the air. As he rose higher and higher, they all gazed upward upon him in silent amazement. At length, far away in the distance, a dim cloud appeared, perhaps a cloud of clustering angels, which received him out of their sight. As the apostles stood lost in wonder, still gazing into the skies, two angels, clothed in heaven’s “white apparel,” stood by them. One of them said,—
“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
The apostles returned to Jerusalem, there to await “the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE CONVERSION AND MINISTRY OF SAUL OF TARSUS.
The Baptism of the Holy Ghost.—Boldness of the Apostles.—Anger of the Rulers.—Martyrdom of Stephen.—Baptism of the Eunuch.—Saul’s Journey to Damascus.—His Conversion.—The Disciples fear him.—His Escape from the City.—Saul in Jerusalem.—His Commission to the Gentiles.—The Conversion of Cornelius.—The Vision of Peter.—Persecution and Scattering of the Disciples.—Imprisonment and Escape of Peter.—Saul and Barnabas in Antioch.—Punishment of Elymas.—Missionary Tour to Cyprus and Asia Minor.—Incidents and Results.