This exquisite idyl of the Resurrection is too lifelike and natural to have been invented. The sorrowful walk; the reasonings; the wonder that anyone could have been for ever so short a time in Jerusalem without knowing of the events that filled their souls; the lingering hope; the despair that the third day was waning and he had not come; the clue of the morning announcement which had not been followed up; the burning heart—all these touches are full of natural pathos.

How swiftly the seven and a half miles must have sped in such company; and what new light illumined the pages of the Old Testament! All the Bible is full of Him, but we need to be shown its meaning. It is only through suffering that we shall come to the glory. But why should not life be one sweet walk of fellowship with One whom we cannot see, but whose presence fills our hearts with burning love, until suddenly the veil shall part in twain! See 1 Pet. 1:8.

Luke 24: 28-85. Our Lord must be invited and constrained. He will not impose himself on an unwilling host; but how glad he is to enter where a welcome awaits! He turns ordinary meals into sacraments; common rooms into royal chambers: and the homeliest things into symbols of the eternal. He sat with them, then vanished; but he was no less truly with them when he ceased to be seen—and all to teach them that when he had passed permanently from their sight he would be nearer than ever.

When you have had a great vision of the Lord, be sure to tell it. Do not wait in the interior of your own

chamber, hugging the joy and comfort of his presence. Hasten back to your fellow-believers. They also have much to tell. This appearance to Simon Peter is referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:5. When men really love the Saviour, they will love the ordinances of the Church, the fellowship of the brethren, and especially the holy supper, where he makes himself known.

Luke 24:386-43. Jesus himself! We need nothing else when we are terrified and afraid. You may be fearing the consequences of your sin; fearing the approach of your enemy; fearing the future with its unknown contingencies; but Jesus himself is the antidote of fear. He keeps the soul that trusts him within the double doors of peace. See Iso. 26: 3.

This was not an apparition, but the clothing of the spiritual body, which evidently repeats the general outlines of the physical body, though in a rarer and more subtle substance. Does this incident not teach us that when we also are clothed in the spiritual body we shall not be wholly dissimilar from what we are today? We shall be recognizable by our beloved and they by us, 1 Cor. 15: 44.

Luke 24:44-53. The risen Saviour is the key to Scripture. The pages of Holy Writ need the illumination that falls from his face. Whenever you open the Old Testament, described here under its customary Hebrew threefold division, be sure to ask him to open your understanding also!

Repentance is turning from sin. It is the act of the

will. In remitting sin Christ not only forgives, but stands between the sinner and the consequences.

The “beginning” must be Jerusalem, because the Jew is first in the divine order, Rom. 1:16. But the end is the uttermost part of the earth. We are not called to be defenders, but witnesses of the truth. We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. Our fellow-witness is the Holy Spirit, Acts 5: 32.

Those outspread hands have never been withdrawn. They are still extended over us in benediction, and from heaven itself rain down perennial blessing. Let us rejoice in him with great joy; may each lowly home be a temple full of praise!

(a) What are the main divisions of this Gospel? (b) What important events and parables does it alone

record? INTRODUCTION. (c) How does this Gospel compare in length with the others?

(d) What is known about the author? (e) How is his character shown in his writings?

(Bach question applies to the paragraph of corresponding number in the Comments.)