SERMON XV.
THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION.

WEDNESDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.

ACTS i. 13.

"And when they were come in, they went into the upper room."

THESE ten days, which come between Ascension Day and Whitsunday, are called, sometimes, the days of Expectation: because, you know, the disciples were so long waiting for our Lord to fulfil His promise of sending them another Comforter. They are, in some respects, like the time of betrothal before a marriage, or like the time which passes, when any dear friend, father or mother, son or daughter, wife or husband, brother or sister, is gone away, and has fixed the day to come back. At such times, we know, affectionate spirits are fully taken up with the one thought, how happy they shall be when the promised blessing comes: and so, we may be quite sure, the disciples' minds were quite full, during those ten days, of our Lord's promise to come to them by His Spirit. They lived, as it were, all those days upon that one thought. In all they did, they were preparing themselves to receive the Holy Ghost.

Now we are in a manner, as the Apostles then were. Christ our Lord did in a manner depart from us last Thursday, and we are waiting to receive the Holy Ghost, by His great mercy, in next Sunday's Communion. How can we do better than try to spend these days, these ten holy days of joyful yet longing expectation, in the same way as the friends and Apostles of the Holy Jesus spent their ten days? The fulness of the blessing, we know, came upon them: on us, who call ourselves His friends and disciples now, it will come in such measure as we try to be like them. For that unspeakable blessing, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, is not in any wise wasted or worn away. The Lord's hand is not shortened; the holy Fire is not burned out, nor the holy Water dried up, neither has the Breath of the Lord ceased to breathe. The promise was unto those first Christians and to their children, and to all that were afar off: and to us, by His great mercy, among the rest. Therefore we have but to prepare ourselves as the first friends of our Saviour did, and we shall have the same blessing to crown our Pentecost that they had. The Holy Ghost will come upon us also, and we in our several ways shall be enabled to glorify God far more worthily than we have yet done.

Now as Jesus Christ after His Resurrection kept Himself apart and out of sight of ordinary men, only appearing from time to time to His chosen witnesses as His and their work required, so it appears that these ten days were spent by His friends and disciples in religious retirement. Before His death, when He sent them out, and was for a while to be parted from them, He sent them out for a course of active employment, to be much among their fellow-men, and to work in their sight: to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Then they were to make a circuit of all the chief towns and villages of Judea and Galilee: now His express command was, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Some of them, it is likely, after all the wonderful things they had seen, would be eager to publish His great Name, and to tell friends and relations at a distance, how He had died for them and risen again and ascended up to heaven in their sight. But they put by all such inclinations for the present, and staid joyfully and contentedly where He bade them.

They staid where He bade them, and did exactly as He bade them. That was their main and most necessary preparation for receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Let it be our preparation also. If we would have grace, we must, as well as we can, put ourselves in the way of it. It is true, no man, properly speaking, can deserve grace: yet our Lord speaks of some who are fit and some who are unfit for the kingdom of God; of some who are near to it and some who are far from it: and what little we can do, to put ourselves in His way, we are sure He will graciously accept, and help us to do more. If but for these few days we set ourselves a strict rule, to watch all our ways, and do nothing that we know will displease Him: to think of Him as much as we can, at all leisure times, and to look away from the world; no one can say how much good that little effort, if sincere, may do us: how abundantly the good Spirit may bless us when He comes down next Sunday: how He may cause that little leaven to leaven the whole mass of our earthly time and doings, and give unto the whole the taste of eternal life.

Observe, where the Apostles tarried. Not in any place chosen by themselves, but in the city of Jerusalem, which still continued to be the chosen place of God's temple and worship. So must we tarry and abide in His Church, if we expect Him to come among us by His Spirit. Our own Bishops and Priests, and our own Prayer-Book; with them and in them, our Lord has promised to be: even as to the Israelites He had promised to be at Jerusalem; and that from Mount Sion and no other place, His Word, full of His Spirit, should go forth. As they then had to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Ghost, so we have to wait for the same gift in the holy Catholic Church, in communion with our own Church, and in devout use of the Prayer-Book.

Moreover, see where the disciples went in Jerusalem. As soon as they returned from Mount Olivet, as it were on Thursday afternoon last week, they went to the house where, before our Lord's death, and in all likelihood many times since, they had assembled together with Him: a house somewhere on Mount Sion; the house to which, on the day of the Passover, they had been directed by a man bearing a pitcher of water. Thither, S. Luke seems to tell us, they returned straight from the scene of His wonderful Ascension, full of great joy: and when they were come in, they went into the Upper-room. What Upper-room? No doubt the very same, in which on that other holy Thursday they had sat down with our Lord to His last Passover; in which room, whilst they were eating, He took bread and blessed and brake it, and solemnly ordained the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. That was the room which He had most highly honoured: there He had been and had promised to be in the midst of them in an unspeakable manner, so as the world cannot receive Him. He had promised to be among them and within them by the power of His Holy Spirit. There He had spoken all those comfortable words, to cheer their hearts nearly broken at the thought of His departure from them: there He had promised them another Comforter, Who should abide with them for ever, and by Whom the Father and the Son should come unto them and make Their abode with them. There, again, He had stood in the midst of them, and had lifted up His eyes to heaven, and had offered in their and in our behalf that most merciful prayer to the Father, which we read in the seventeenth of S. John: thereby fulfilling His Word just given, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter:" "I will pray the Father for you." From that same Upper-room He had led them forth into the garden by the Mount, where His Passion was to begin. There, most likely, it was that He shewed Himself to them on the night of His Resurrection, coming in while the doors were shut, and on Low Sunday: and thence, we may well believe, He had led them out to Bethany and the Mount of Olives the second time, that very Thursday morning, not to suffer, but to be glorified. Whither else then should they return, or what other place on earth could be so like a home to them, as that Upper-room? Where else might they so naturally abide, waiting for the great Gift which was so soon to come upon them?

They might not stay in the mountain, gazing after Him: they were expressly forbidden to do that; and they were also commanded to stay in Jerusalem: and this was their home in Jerusalem, the home of their hearts. Here therefore they abode together. Their place of waiting for the Holy Ghost was the Upper chamber where their First Communion had been given them: where, besides, all their Lord's farewell sayings and doings, His heavenly words and looks and actions would seem yet fresh and present to them. Where they had most helps to remember Him, there they waited for His Spirit.

And does not this tell us something of the best way in which we can prepare for Whitsunday? Surely, as the friends and followers of Christ, the Apostles and holy women, loved to be in that Upper-room, so it is good for us at this time to be as much as we can in those places, where our Lord has at any time specially come to us by His grace and spiritual favour: and if the places be too far from us, or we hindered from visiting them, it is good that we should muse on them and be there in spirit. What I mean is like this: we should be as much as we can in Church, because the Church is the special place where He has met us again and again: and if we cannot go to Church, we should think, all we can, of it and of Him Who is there. In thought we should do well to go back to our Baptism, wherever that took place, and to consider again and again the inestimable love of God our Saviour in so taking us into His arms, and washing us from our sins in His own Blood. If there are any of us, who have unhappily fallen into grievous sin, for a short or a long time, and by God's exceeding mercy have truly repented and confessed arid received Christ's Absolution, now is a good time to recollect with all possible thankfulness that miraculous loving-kindness of our Judge: now, I say, whilst we are humbly waiting for Him to seal it by a new gift of His sanctifying Spirit. And the mention of that Upper-room seems to remind us, that very much of these ten days might well be spent in meditation on Holy Communion: in recollecting, as we may, all His mercies vouchsafed unto us in that Sacrament from our Confirmation until now: in fear and trembling to think, how little our hearts and lives have answered to this great love of His: and in earnest consideration, how we may now become and continue, ever after, more worthy communicants. Any Christian who should so employ himself would, I suppose, be in God's sight spending this time of expectation, as the Apostles spent it in that blessed Upper-room: and when the Day of Pentecost shall be fully come, such an one may humbly hope that the heavenly Gift then vouchsafed to the Apostles will be poured out even on him, unworthy as he feels himself, and grievous as his sins may have been.

I would particularly suggest, as a sort of spiritual exercise likely to be very useful to many of us, that we should at this time go over in our thoughts the providential dealings of our God, whereby He has helped us all along hitherto. As, for example, if at any time we have had dear friends and relations, who, having been lovely in their lives, did in their last sickness and departure draw nearer than ever to their Saviour: if we have heard them speak words which sounded almost as messages of Angels in our ears: now is the time to remember them, and think over all that happened, all the signs and tokens which God gave us when we were waiting on them, that He is indeed very near, and that our way to Him is to follow their faith, as the disciples in that Upper-room remembered all Christ's parting words. If we have been ourselves at any time brought very low, deeply distressed in body or in mind, or both; and after many thoughts and misgivings, sore agony and wondering what would become of us, it pleased the Lord to raise us up, and give us more time and strength to serve Him: now is a good time seriously to review both our trouble and His mercy: as S. Peter and the rest, no doubt, reviewed all that passed on the night of our Lord's Agony: how near they were casting themselves away, and how graciously He interfered to save them.

By such thoughts as these, my brethren, I advise you to prepare for Whitsunday. I would we might all put ourselves in the way of grace; for that is the way to have grace come abundantly to us, Retire as much as you well can from the world: sit alone and keep silence: go over in your minds our Lord's gracious dealings towards you: remember past Communions, how unworthy you were, and how merciful He was. Thus may you abide in the Upper-room, the place of high and heavenly meditation, until His Spirit be poured upon you, to strengthen and refresh you more abundantly than ever for all that you have to do and suffer for His Sake.

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