§ 305. Christ appears for the last Time near Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives.

The minds of the disciples were eagerly directed to the feast in commemoration of the giving of the Law of the Old Covenant (Pentecost); the new relation established between God and man naturally connected itself with the idea of the old. It was a reasonable expectation that at this feast the promise of the Holy Spirit, by which they were to be 436made powerful organs of their Divine Master, would be fulfilled. They went to Jerusalem a week before the time of the feast. As they were walking to the Mount of Olives, just forty days after Christ’s first appearance, they were joined by Christ, and he repeated the promise for the last time.

Still cleaving to their worldly Messianic hopes, they asked the Saviour whether he intended then to found his kingdom in its glory (Acts, i., 6). In reply, he declared, as he had always done during his life on earth, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” It was enough (he told them) for them to know their own calling in reference to the kingdom of God, and how they were to obtain power to fulfil it, viz., by receiving the Holy Ghost. With this last reply, and this last promise, he was removed from their eyes.