SERMON IV.
SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

ASCENSION DAY.

EZEK. xxxiv. 26.

"I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season: there shall be showers of blessing."

S. LUKE tells us in one of the lessons for to-day, that when the time was fully come for our Lord to depart out of this world unto the Father, "He led" His disciples "out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His Hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, that while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." It was while He was blessing them: the evangelist repeats the word, as being something to be very much thought of. God the Son departed from His outward and visible home among men in the very act of pronouncing His solemn Benediction. He might have departed in thunder and lightning, in such a storm as might severely punish this whole wicked world, and especially the sinful city which had so rejected Him. He will so depart, when He ascends into heaven the second time, when the last judgement is over. He will leave the world burning under His feet.

But on His first Ascension it was far otherwise. All around Him was grace and blessing: so that to Mount Olivet and the disciples kneeling round, and to the precious unspeakable gifts, which our Lord poured down from heaven as He went up, we might very well apply the prophet's saying in the text, "I will make them and the places round My hill a blessing." As if He should say, "These who kneel around Me, as I go up from Mount Olivet: and not only they, but all the places within reach of that mountain, on every side of it, I will make them all a blessing; the Apostles first, and other Christians afterwards. All men that see and notice them shall say, that they are 'the seed whom the Lord hath blessed.'" And "there shall be showers of blessing." God's grace shall come down so abundantly, that it shall supply all men's wants, and satisfy all their desires, as we are taught in our Whitsunday Psalm: "Thou, O God, sentest a gracious rain upon Thine inheritance, and refreshedst it when it was weary." Christ our Saviour went up to His Father's Right Hand, and made haste to send down His "showers of blessing." If you can imagine all the blessings of departing parents, masters, governors, spiritual pastors, gathered together in the greatest possible perfection, and poured out without stint on those whom they leave behind: this will give you some faint idea of the treasures of joy and comfort which our Lord's Ascension opened to all believers.

Observe how He ordered the very outward circumstances of it, making them all as gracious as possible. As true loving friends, departing from their friends among men for any length of time, are very regardful of each others' feelings and wishes; they consider how they may leave them pleasant recollections, and contrive the manner of their parting accordingly, so did our Lord. He prepared them by degrees for His going; and when He went, He had provided such store of comforts, that, instead of sorrow filling their hearts, as might be expected when their beloved Master was departing, "they returned to Jerusalem," we read, "with great joy."

Consider the place which He chose for His Ascent. It was on the Mount of Olives, over against Jerusalem, hard by the village of Bethany. In leading them out thither from Jerusalem, He would have in the first place to go over the brook Kedron, and then across or very near the garden of Gethsemane; almost along the same ground as He had trodden with them on the night of His Agony. Think then what joy and comfort it must have been to them, as they went on, recollecting at every step, how sad and bitter the course of things had been, when they were with Him that night: what a happy and glorious change now!

Again, Bethany was the nearest village to the spot of His Ascension: Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha: where He had been used to lodge when He came near to Jerusalem: and where, a few weeks before, He had raised up Lazarus from the dead. From this place He chose to ascend to His Father's Right Hand. There, rather than any where else, He would leave His last footsteps on earth: continuing thus His favours to Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and giving a token to all whom He left behind, that He still loved with an everlasting love His own which were in the world. His favour and gracious remembrance still abode with those places and persons, which had been more especially devoted to His honour and service. The grave from which He had raised Lazarus was very near the spot from which He now ascended, so that the twelve, who were with Him in that miracle, could not fail to think of it: and it would help to carry their minds forward to the day when they should again hear His Voice, and come forth as Lazarus did; not however, as did Lazarus, to return again to corruption, but to ascend after their Lord into heaven with glorified bodies, and abide with Him for ever.

Thus the very place from which it pleased Him to go up was a token of His love to those whom He left behind. But a still more special token was the commission which He gave them to be always employed in His service: "cye shall be witnesses to Me both in Judsea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." As dutiful children and servants are never so well pleased as when he whom they love and reverence gives them something particular to do for his sake, something which may give them occasion to shew how truly they long to be dutiful and thankful towards him: so must the Apostles have felt greatly honoured and encouraged, when their Lord, at parting, promised them that they should be His true witnesses everywhere: especially as He accompanied the charge with an assurance of the help, without which it could not be fulfilled:" ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost hath come upon you;" "behold I send" Him, "the Promise of My Father, upon you." "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you." My brethren, these sayings do not belong to those only, who were kneeling round and gazing after our Saviour as He went up. They belong to us also; for we too by our baptismal vow are called Him to be witnesses to our Saviour in all the world, and we too have "the Promise of the Father," the Holy Spirit come down to dwell in our hearts. These sayings then of our Lord on His departure are "showers of blessing " for us also; showers of blessing coming down on those who follow Him through Gethsemane to Bethany, through His sufferings to His works of love and mercy: showers of blessing on those who gather around Him in His holy hill, which is the Church, and there on their knees humbly look after Him, trusting in His gracious intercession, and patiently wait His return to take them unto Himself.

To such persons, as well as to the Apostles, His farewell blessing was no doubt pronounced. We are not told the words of that blessing: we only read that "He lifted up His Hands and blessed them." He used the same action, with which before He had been accustomed to seal His gracious benedictions: reaching forth His Divine Hands, and laying them on the sick or the infants who were brought to Him for that purpose; and sometimes without actual touch, only stretching forth His hands towards them: as in the sermon which S. Luke relates, He stretched forth His hands towards His disciples, and said, "Blessed be ye poor, for your's is the kingdom of heaven." This then was the outward sign, with which He accompanied His farewell: thereby sealing as it were afresh, and renewing for ever, all the solemn blessings, which He had at any time pronounced over any one during His abode on earth. And His blessing looked forward also. In that one action of His, and in the solemn words which accompanied it, were gathered together the force and virtue of all the solemn blessings, which His Bishops and Priests have ever since pronounced in His Church. That blessing is continued and repeated to us in every sacramental act: as when the water of our Baptism is sanctified, when we are signed with the Sign of the Cross, when the Priest solemnly blesses us, at home or in Church, in sickness or in health, when he says over us, believing and penitent, the gracious words of Absolution and remission of sins. But what more especially seems to remind us of Christ on Mount Olivet lifting up His Hands to give a blessing, is the lifting up the hands of His servants the Bishops, when persons are confirmed, or ordained, or otherwise solemnly blessed by them. In all such holy and Christian actions, done according to the mind of the Church with true faith in Jesus Christ, we may discern the Presence of Him our only Saviour, blessing us as He goes up, and continuing to bless us after He has gone up. Every one of them, by His mercy, may help to prepare us for that final and eternal blessing, which He will pronounce over His elect at the Last Day: "Come, ye blessed of My Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world." As this was the great farewell, so that will be the great welcome. We have had by His distinguishing mercy our portion in the first; may we so live as not to miss of the second! We know that as our Lord went, so He will return. Be it our care to receive Him then with hearts, if possible, as true and perfect, as were the hearts of His Apostles and followers when they parted from Him. Let us be found of Him on our knees, or at least on the knees of our hearts; looking up steadfastly towards Him by heavenly thoughts and holy prayers. Let us be found in Bethany, in the home of His true servants, such as Mary, Martha and Lazarus: employed in works of Christian love, not in the wild businesses and vanities of the world; or else may He find us in the Mount of Olives, the place of holy and heavenly contemplation, repenting of our sins and humbling ourselves under His Cross. In a word, when His last message, sent at this time by His Angels to His Apostles, is fulfilled, and He shall come again into our sight on His cloud of glory; then may He grant us to be found waiting for Him in His Church, and waiting on Him in His poor and afflicted. So be it, through His mercy, Who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of all blessing! May He bless us now with the gift of His Body and Blood, and hereafter with that perfect unspeakable Union, which He is preparing for us at His Father's Right Hand!

Project Canterbury