apostles only'? If two pilgrims, who had seen the Lord on the road, had come all the way from Emmaus to tell their strange story, would an apostle have told them that he was sorry, but he could not ask them to join the company, for it was strictly a company of apostles? Depend upon it, this company was not a row of twelve ecclesiastical dignitaries, each with a nimbus round his head, and the embroidered symbols of his office on his shoulders, such as I have seen in an old Greek fresco; it was only a family, met in an informal way, at the time of a great family sorrow, and in the common family room. There was no ceremony; there was no division between clerical and lay; no upper and lower apartments were appointed-one for apostles, one for ordinary disciples; homely, unpretending people were there, and all were there on the same terms:

There were fishers, young and old,
On the deep who cast their lives;
A few husbands, grey and old,

And certain aged wives;

Faces wrinkled as the sand,

Hands rough from the rope and oar;
Hearts set heaving on the land

By each wave that shook the shore.1

Through all this weary day, some of these

1 George Macdonald.

simple people believed; and some could not believe, though they had tried. Even those with most faith had suffered many changes in the joy of their conviction. Early in the morning, when John had told them of the order of the grave-clothes in the empty tomb, and had said that he himself was now convinced, his report left but a faint and fluctuating impression; when Mary, speaking for the other women as well as for herself, told them of the wonders that had been seen and heard; the unknown summarist, who has added the twelve last verses to the Gospel by Mark, informs us that They mourned and wept.' He adds, that They, when they heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.' When the melting message was brought to Simon personally, he doubtless wandered out in the direction of the spot that was, of all spots on earth, most sacred; and when, later in the day, he came in again, face flushed and lighted, 'fire and water in his eyes,' voice faint-I think he would be strangely still, impenetrable, and unlike his old, loud self; but one thing was certain-' he had seen the Lord; ' though what passed between himself and the loving, forgiving Lord was then, and so must for ever be, a secret. Late in the evening the two arrived to whom allusion has already been made, and found them saying, 'The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon!'

Then these last comers told what things were done in the way, and how He was known unto them in the breaking of bread.' This was the company, and thus was it stirred with mingled hope and fear, faith and unbelief, when Jesus appeared.

II. The fast closed doors.1 Most likely this was at the house of John, the beloved disciplethat to which he had conveyed Mary in obedience to the word of the dying Christ. He must have been, we should think, a thriving man of business, to have had this house in Jerusalem, besides the old home at the fishing station. And we may assume that it was built in a style and on a scale common to dwellings occupied by persons in fair circumstances. There would be a court, covered with an awning, though now, perhaps, open to the sky; and in the four sides of this court there would be rooms or sheds opening on to it. In this court the company would be assembled; and, as its door was closed for fear of the Jews, of course it was fastenedperhaps by a great wooden key, perhaps by a great iron bar dropped inside across its two leaves.

What did they fear? Did they fear the bursting in of constables to arrest them on the lying charge of stealing a body out of its grave?

1 John xx. 19.

They knew that such a charge had been lodged against them before the magistrates only that very day. Did they fear a mob? It was the way of the Jews thus to storm the house of one who was unpopular. We have read of such things. Here is an instance of what happened some years later: The Jews, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, and gathering a crowd, set the city on an uproar; and assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them forth to the people.'1

Did they fear an assault like that? They had heard the Blessed One say to the Jews, just before His death, 'This is your hour, and the power of darkness;' then, all at once, in their tremendous crime, hell burst open, and out flew the flames! They had seen what fury had gathered into the stroke that fell on Calvary, and which seemed to dash into indistinguishable ruin all human hopes; they knew now what Jews could do; they could now set no limit to the possibilities of their wicked madness; they thought of them as lunatics let loose in a passion of ungovernable vengeance, and with whom there could be no reasoning, as there could be no reasoning with wolves ready to spring upon the trembling sheep, whose shepherd grim death

1 Acts xvii. 5.

had just stricken. Perhaps they had no distinct plan of defence, and no particular thought of saving their lives; but mainly out of unreasoning, half-instinctive impulse, they barred the court

gates.

III. The greeting of the Master. His greeting to the first company had been in the word 'Rejoice!' His greeting the second was in the phrase, 'Peace be to you!' And this He said twice over. There is a distinction between the two greetings which cannot fail to excite our attention, and we cannot think was accidental. Chrysostom's remark is, 'To the women He proclaims joy; because they, after their sort, were plunged in grief. With a suitable interchange, therefore, He gives peace to the men, on account of their strife, but to the women joy, on account of their grief.' These appear to be, not fanciful, but most suggestive words, holding a clue to the meaning intended. We should keep in mind the difference between the first company and the second. The first was a small detachment of the general society, and consisted of women only. The second was the general society itself, including all the men; and all the men had in one moment of panic forsaken their Master.

1 John xx. 19, 21.

2 Chrysost. Homil. in Joannem, lxxxvi,

2