Fifth .4tpearance—to ten of the apostles and some others. —The two sacred writers together omit nothing to be desired in a perfect description. It is Sunday evening. The sacred company are as sembled in the hostile city with closed doors. The fear of the Jews without, and the perturbations of their own hearts within, as they oscillated between the despondency of the last three days and the in definite hopes of the last few hours, presented a case of painful suspense worthy of the merciful in terposition of the Heart-Comforter, and which none but he could soothe ! How timely then is the precious record of the two evangelists : Jesus himself came and stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you!' The last convulsion of unbelief arose from their fright rather than from wilfulness. Full of doubt whether more than the spith of him, whose body had been so wounded and pierced upon the cross, could be possibly now alive, they supposed that it was his ghost before them ! But he who had before death, at death, and since death, borne so long with them mildly meets this new development of their flagging faith. Why are ye troubled,' he kindly asks, 'and why do these thoughts arise in your hearts ? . . . handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.' The last remnants of their incredulity still flick ered in their hearts. Another gracious attempt is made to quench it. He asked for meat ; they gave nim a piece of their simple food ; he took it, and by eating, gave them the best proof of his cor poreity (Luke). Then,' adds the fourth Evan gelist with exquisite and forcible simplicity, Then were tbe disciples glad when they saw the Lord ' (xx. zo). Having thus, by the gradual steps of his admirable wisdom and gracious longsuffering, plucked out of their tardy nature the last fibres of unbelief which clasped their hearts, he begins to edify and instruct them for their glorious work. He renews his peaceful blessing ; opens to them the divine credentials of their mission (John xx. 21), and by the breath of his mouth, shedding on them the gift of the Holy Ghost, he consecrates them to the sublimest functions of ministry in his now approaching kingdom (vers. 22, 23). With this august ceremony ends the first and most won derful of all Easter days, during which the Lord vindicated his dominion over death and the grave, and, by the most interesting process of psycho logical and moral suasion anywhere on record, beat down the strongholds of the most obstinate incre dulity which had settled in the hearts of his de jected followers. Having traced, with unavoidable prolixity, the steps by which they mounted to the inflexible conviction of their master's resurrection, we may hasten to the end of our grand subject with greater brevity.
Events of the ensuins week, ending with the Sixth ilppearance--to the eleven, and, probably, some others. —We are not informed of any other intercourse of Christ with his followers during the remainder of the week. He might well leave them to ponder over the revelations of the Sunday. We cannot, however, suppose that those who had had the nappiness of being convinced of his resurrection would be indifferent about it. There was, no doubt, much effort on the part of the convinced to persuade others to accept the truth. St. Alark seems to intimate as much with respect at least to the two disciples of Emmaus (xvi. 13). Their labours were not always successful ; many with held their assent from their testimony. Even among the eleven there was still one unreclaimed from unbelief. The same man,' says Stier (1Vords of the Lora' Y'esus [Clark], viii. 177), who once would die with Jesus ( John xi. 16) continues resolutely in the same mind, and, as much as in him lies, will not rise again with Jesus.' Thomas was absent when Christ on Sunday evening appeared to his brother-apostles, and, notwithstanding their express assurance to him that they had seen the Lord, he was so oppressed with the image of His suffering and death that he peremptorily refused to believe them, unless he had not only the ocular testimony, which after all might have misled them to mistake a phantom for a man, but the demon stration of touch and feeling ; if he could see and touch the print of the nails which he had so surely seen fastening the sacred hands to the cross, and probe with his hand the spear-wound of the sacred side, he would be convinced. This was indeed a
harsh incredulity ! And for a week did the un happy man nurture his morbid and exaggerated feelings amidst the Easter joy of his brethren ; they would soon, he doubtless thought, be disenchanted of their spell, and would then relapse to his level, in the reminiscence of Calvary and the gloom of the grave. How painful must this isolation of their obstinate brother have been to them ! Their grief, however, received a solace on the next Sun day, when they found Thomas actually among them, on an occasion from the like of which they had themselves obtained their conviction and joy. Who could tell whether their merciful Master would not repeat his consolatory visit ! They were possibly intent on these thoughts, when Jesus came, the doors being shut as before, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Happy omen for the unbeliever, whose presence there argued his wish to believe! But long time is not allowed him ; his profound shame and confusion are cut short in grace, and the Lord presently Kra) pro ceeded to his milder and reconciling humiliation— he gives him back his own words, for he knows every-thing !' (Stier). Did Thomas, thus challenged by his I.ord, make the offered scrutiny? Probably not. He felt a gush of conviction ; the gracious ness of Jesus was enough to subdue him. In the ardour of a new devotion, he exclaims, My Lord and my God !' The spectacle of his dear Master's restored humanity proved him conqueror over that death in whose grasp he blindly feared he was inextricably bound ; and so vast a triumph as Mat brought with it the conviction that he was nothing short of divine ! Jesus accepted his dis ' ciple's magnificent confession, as aforetime he had received those of Nathanael (John i. 49) and Peter (Matt. xvi. 16); but the blessing which he accorded him was a modified one. How should it not be ! How many the degrees between the ready and modest faith of the beloved disciple, the first believer in the glorious resurrection, and the tardy and hardly achieved conviction of Thomas Didy mus ! But the loss of the primitive doubter is our gain, for his incredulity not only elicited fresh evi dence of Christ's resurrection, and another illustra tion of Christ's graciousness—but it drew from the Saviour his sanction of a happy truth, a great law of belief to his church for ever—' Blessea' are they that have not seen and yet have believed.' As we walk in imagination through these scenes of surpass ing beauty and interest, we may be apt to sigh that we are not privileged to see and hear what the first disciples saw and heard. But let us check that regret in the blessed compensation which the Saviour has himself provided ;.well assured that, in the administration of his kingdom, he will not forget his own considerate principle, and accord the especial blessing on the prompt and loyal believer, who, with the well-attested word of God in his hand, foregoes the demonstration of sight and touch (t Pet. i. 8) ! Christ in Galilee. —We have seen the stress which Jesus repeatedly placed on his wish to meet his disciples in Galilee after his resurrection (see Matt. xxvi. 32 ; xxviii. 7, ro ; Mark xiv. 28 ; xvi. 7). In this old scene of his labours, where many followers had latterly gathered around him, would he now demonstrate the truth of all his teaching by convincing them of his return from the grave. In this northern province, too, was the home ot his disciples who were about to leave Jerusalem at the termination of the passover ; and there he would be able to meet them often in the privacy which his mysterious and unworldly communica tions required, undistracted by the turbulent hos tility of the guilty city. In obedience, therefore, to his command by the women, the eleven disciples went away into Galilee' (Matt. xxviii. 16). The Lord's first interview with them was in a place full of old associations ; on that sea where everything would remind them of Jesus— the smiling bank of which, and even its dark waves, had borne his holy footsteps' (Jakobi in Stier, viii. 21 I).