XIII. CHRIST ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN. "And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven."-LUKE xxiv. 51, with MARK xvi. 19, and ACTS i. 1–12. THIS Article, like the one on the Resurrection of Christ, is a simple question of fact supported by testimony and by theological argumentation. It implies the truth of Christianity, and Christianity involves its truth as an essential part of itself. The same line of historic evidence and of theological reasoning that proves the truth of our Lord's resurrection, proves also his Ascension. Still, I am quite willing this Article should rest on an independent investigation, and on its own evidence, in the light of this nineteenth century. In the early ages of the Church, the Ascension and Assumption of Christ meant the same thing, and, like the solemn days of the Nativity and the Passion, the feast of the Ascension was kept as a great day. Chrysostom calls the feast of the Assumption an illustrious and refulgent day, and describes our Lord's exaltation as the grand proof of God's reconciliation to sinners. Our Lord's emphatic words to Mary, after his resurrection, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go CHRIST'S RETURN TO HEAVEN. 275 to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God," are especially worthy of attention. Here our risen Saviour expressly declares that He would ascend to his Father, and it is clearly implied that something of peculiar importance was involved in his ascension. And this inference is abundantly borne out by history. It is in evidence that it was not until after Jesus was glorified, by ascending into heaven, that the Holy Spirit was given with such marvellous and unparalleled power. The festival of the ancient Cappadocian Christians in commemoration of Christ's ascension, was not an unmeaning one. This festival they called Episozomene, because they observed it as a proof that on this day our salvation was perfected, JESUS CHRIST having finished the great mission He came to fulfil on earth, and having returned to heaven. In our Lord's resurrection from the dead, we see Him receiving from the High Court of Heaven and the hand of Eternal Justice his discharge from prison in full for the payment of the debt He had assumed for us; and in his Ascension, we see the Father recalling him, as an ambassador who has fully succeeded in accomplishing his mission in a foreign country is called home to his native land to enjoy the honors and fruits of his labors. The ceremonies of Ascension Day in Papal churches are somewhat after this style: After the Gospel, the Paschal taper is put out, to denote that on this day our Saviour left the earth and returned to heaven. Flowers, images, and relics are then heaped upon the altar. The priests are robed in white. On this day the Pope used to curse all heretics, and pronounce his blessings on the faithful. It is still one of the three solemn days on which his Holiness pronounces blessings, but the cursing is now confined to Holy Thursday. The old and the East ern churches make a much greater display of ceremony on this day than is known among us. At one time, in many of the ancient churches, it was usual to represent Christ's Ascension by drawing up an image of him to the roof of the church edifice, and then cast down an image of Satan, in flames, to represent his falling like lightning from heaven before our Lord. Nor are there wanting historic evidences that the most ridiculous pageantry was often resorted to in the early ages of the Church in celebrating this day. Ceremonies that we regard as nothing but a wicked travesty—a blasphemous commemoration of one of the greatest events in the history of our redemption. For ages, also, Christians used to travel into the Holy Land to adore the footprints of Jesus' feet where He last stood, and from whence He ascended into heaven, just as they do now to kiss the marble tomb that represents the place of his burial, and to witness the lights that are kindled on Ascension Day in the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, which are so many and so brilliant that it looks as if the whole of the sacred mount was on fire. Such historic traditions concerning such an event are only valuable, however, as presumptive evidence of the truth of the fact commemorated. It is, accordingly, an undisputed fact that Christians have always contemplated our Lord's ascension with the most profound satisfaction. Poetry and painting have vied with each other in celebrating this event in our Lord's history as the most perfect triumph of His humanity over every adverse power. The only variation I find in this Article: "He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty," is, that in some of the ancient Creeds the name of God and the attribute Almighty are omitted. In such copies as I refer to, the Article reads in this way: THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. 277 "He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father." The sense is the same. The only part of the Article I design to consider this evening is the first part: "He ascended into heaven." The history of our Lord's ascension is given in Mark xvi. 19; Luke xxiv. 51, and in Acts i. 1-12. In this history you see, I. We have the place from which He ascended. It is nothing to my purpose to prove or disprove that the church or mosque on the Mount of Olives marks the exact spot from which our Lord ascended; yet I have so much reverence for what is called the religio loci, that I could not enter that church, and climb to its summit, and then look up into the clouds that hung over the whole region, without feeling that I was indeed looking on the very pathway my Saviour had used when He ascended into heaven. It will not be understood, however, that I receive as true the foolish stories found in the legends of saints, and the traditions of the Church of Rome, about the building of the splendid chapel by the Empress Helena on the place whence Christ ascended to heaventhat miracles were wrought to protect the dust that last received the prints of our Lord's sacred feet—that the marks of his feet are still there to be seen-and that it was found impossible, as Jerome reports, to cover and arch over the summit of the building, and that hence it was circular, leaving an open dome, where the Lord's body had passed, and that thus the passage-way along which our Lord's body went, in his ascension from earth to heaven, still continues open. It is of no consequence to me, as a traveller, to be shown the marks of footsteps that are said to be the prints of our Lord's foot, either on the earth or on the rock, nor is it of the least concern to me which has the best claims to the oldest foot-marks, the monks or the Mohammedans, for both claim the original stone on which our Lord's foot last rested at the moment when He began his ascent; but it is of importance to me that it is historically true, that the Empress built a chapel on the Mount of Olives, and such a chapel stands there to this day as a monument of the truth of the faith of the Church on this subject, nor is there any shadow of doubt but this Church of the Ascension, if not covering the precise spot, still overlooks the real spot and the whole surroundings of the glorious Ascension.* And I candidly admit I do not envy any one who is such a skeptic that he is not in sympathy with the poet who says: "I cannot look above and see Yon high-piled pillowy mass Of evening clouds, so swimmingly, In gold and purple pass, And think not, Lord, how Thou wast seen On Israel's desert way Before them, in thy shadowy screen Pavilioned all the day! "Or, of those robes of gorgeous hue Which the Redeemer wore, When, ravished from his followers' view, Aloft his flight he bore, When lifted, as on mighty wing, He curtained his ascent, And wrapt in clouds, went triumphing Is it a trail of that same pall Of many-colored dyes, That high above, o'ermantling all, Hangs midway down the skies- *This subject is quite fully presented by Witsius and Lightfoot, and often cc.umented on by moder travel'ers. |