"Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." This they did, and so heavy did the net become with fishes that they were not able to draw it. Perhaps John remembered another day on the Lake when the nets broke with the weight of the fishes, and looking at the figure standing on the sh.o.r.e in the sunrise, he said to Peter,
"It is the Lord!"
Peter did not wait to reply, but tying his fisher"s coat around him he threw himself into the Lake to swim towards His Master on the sh.o.r.e.
The others followed in the ship dragging the net with them, and when they had landed they found a fire of coals there, with fish laid upon it and bread, and the Lord Himself standing there as one who served.
"Bring of the fish ye have now caught," He said. And Peter, first to obey, drew the net to land full of great fishes--one hundred and fifty-three--and the net was not broken. While they were silent for joy and wonder, knowing that it was the Lord, and yet not daring to question Him, He said, "Come and dine." And there upon the sands the Lord for the third time since He rose from the dead, broke bread with his disciples. John, the beloved disciple was there, but it is not recorded that Jesus spoke to him personally. His heart was wholly with his Lord, and he did not need the loving help that was given to doubting Thomas, and self-confident, wavering Peter. To Simon Peter He said after they had finished their simple meal,
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"
Peter must have remembered that he had vehemently declared, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. If I should die with Thee yet I will not deny Thee in any wise," and had straightway forsaken and denied Him. Now he said simply and humbly,
"Yea, Lord: Thou knowest that I love Thee." And the Lord answered, "Feed my lambs."
Again the Lord asked him the same question, and Peter gave the same reply. And the Lord said, "Feed my sheep."
When the Lord had asked this question the third time, Peter, full of love and grief cried,
"Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love thee." And the Lord answered again, "Feed my sheep."
By this Peter knew that the Lord trusted him to be an apostle, and teach the gospel of the kingdom to all men, but that he must have a steadfast love and faith. The Lord also said, "When thou wast young thou guidedst thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall guide thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." Afterward Peter was crucified as his Lord had been, and then John remembered these words of the Lord about him. As the Lord said to Peter, "Follow me," Peter saw John following also, and he said, wondering, perhaps, why the Lord had no word of counsel, of rebuke, or of prophecy for John,
"Lord, and what shall this man do?" And Jesus replied, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." And they went away from the Lake, following the Lord, as they had done three years before when He called them to be "fishers of men."
CHAPTER XLVII.
"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN."
Once more the Lord met His little company of followers and gave the apostles authority to found the Kingdom of G.o.d among men. "All power has been given to me," He said, "in heaven and on earth."
And this was the work that He gave them to do: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."
And this was His true word of promise to them: "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 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."
It was about six weeks after His death that the disciples were again in Jerusalem where the Lord had told them to go and wait for the coming of His Spirit. He led them out over the Mount of Olives as far as Bethany, where the house of Martha had been a place of rest and refreshment for the homeless Man of Sorrows while He was founding His Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.
As they ascended a hill just above Bethany, the Lord could see spread out before Him the Hebron hills toward Bethlehem where He was born: the great city with its golden Temple where He had taught and had been rejected; Gethsemane, where He had suffered, and had been betrayed; and beyond the western walls the place where He had been crucified. Not far from Golgotha was the garden and the tomb in which He had been buried, and from which He had risen.
He was about to leave the little group that He had made the founders of His Kingdom, and one of them ventured a question,
"Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?"
And the Lord replied,
"It is not for you to know the time and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
Then He blessed them, and while they were looking at Him He was lifted above them, and a cloud seemed to come between them and their Divine Master.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Ascension]
While they still gazed toward heaven hoping perhaps to see Him again, two men in white garments stood by them and 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."
Then they worshipped their ascended Lord, and returned to Jerusalem full of joy and praise, to meet the other disciples in the upper room, to tell them of what they had seen, and to wait for the Promise of the Father.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER.
While the disciples of Jesus waited in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit--the Comforter--who was to come and teach them all things, and bring all the Lord"s words to their remembrance, they were much in prayer, and looked to the Lord for direction about the things of the Kingdom.
Peter did much to help the others, for his faith had grown stronger, and he was no longer afraid. Many who had partly believed in Jesus before His crucifixion, and who had come to believe in the risen Lord, joined the little band, until they numbered one hundred and twenty at one of their meetings, and the mother of Jesus was among them. At this meeting Peter proposed that some disciple who could be a witness with them to the Lord"s resurrection should be appointed to the place that Judas once held in the circle of the twelve. The ten disciples agreed with Peter, and two were chosen--Joseph and Matthias. Then they prayed that the Lord Himself would show them which of these two He wished to be an Apostle, and when they cast lots the lot fell upon Matthias.
When the upper room became too small they went to a larger one that was more public, and did not try to guard their doors, for the priests had become afraid of the people as well as of the signs at the time of the Lord"s death, when the sky was darkened, the rocks rent by an earthquake, and the Temple veil by an unseen Hand.
The Feast of the Weeks came on, and at the end of May--the day of Pentecost (the fiftieth after the second day of the Pa.s.sover), the Lord"s little church had gathered in their large public room to pray and wait for the Promise. Suddenly there came a sound from the heavens like the rushing of a mighty wind, and with it came a flash of fire which was not lightning, but which divided into many, and sat above the brow of each like a soft, bright tongue of flame.
Then the silence was broken, and they all began to praise G.o.d in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance, for the Promise of the Father had been given, and the Lord Himself had come to dwell in His people--not only in these, but in all who should believe on Him through their word.
There were some good Jews present who had come from foreign countries to the Feast, and spoke other languages, and when each heard his own language spoken by these unlearned men they were astonished. The news spread and many came to hear. "Are not all these which speak Galileans?" they asked, "and how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? What meaneth this?" Others made light of it all, and said that they were full of new wine.
Then Peter, strong in the power of the Holy Spirit, stood up and spoke to the people. You will find Peter"s sermon in the second chapter of Acts, and his text was a wonderful saying of the prophet Joel, beginning, as Peter gave it,--
"And it shall come to pa.s.s in the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall dream dreams; and on my servants, and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And it shall came to pa.s.s that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Peter did not spare the enemies of our Lord in his sermon, nor did he fear them. He preached to them of Jesus of Nazareth, and whom they had taken and by wicked hands had crucified and slain: and whom G.o.d had raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. He closed by telling them that G.o.d had made that same Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and Christ.
There were many among the people gathered there who were p.r.i.c.ked in their hearts because of Peter"s words, which had the power of the Holy Spirit in them. They looked at each other and said,
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Peter encouraged them to repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, telling them that the promise was to them and to their children, and to all that were afar off.
It was a wonderful day for the Church of Jesus Christ, and for His Kingdom on the earth, for there were about three thousand who that day received baptism, and joined the little despised company of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. And all that believed were drawn together by the love of the Lord Jesus, and no longer lived for themselves, but for each other. That there might be no rich and no poor among them, they sold their possessions and parted them to all, as every one had need. In the Temple, in each other"s houses breaking bread together, wherever they were they were happy and strong in their new faith and in favor with all the people. Though great trials and persecutions came after awhile, they bore them as seeing their invisible Lord, and they joyfully met the loss of all things--even that of life itself with a smile, remembering the Father"s House with its many mansions, and their spiritual Elder Brother who had gone to prepare a place for them.
AN AFTERWORD.
_Dear Child_:--G.o.d"s Book is a Book of Ages, a Book of Races, and a Book of Nations; but it is far more, it is a Book through which G.o.d Himself speaks to the soul of man. We begin to read it thinking that He is speaking to the mind; afterward, when our conscience wakes, we believe He speaks to the heart, but at last we find that He speaks to the inmost spirit--the immortal soul. Then all that had seemed to be history, poetry, biography, philosophy, begins to be to us the voice of G.o.d in the inmost of the soul, speaking of the life of the spirit.