it was on the next first day.* Mr. Gurney thinks that the ascension was on the first day of the week.† And it is quite certain that the descent of the Comforter was upon that day.

The disciples were commanded by their Lord to tarry at Jerusalem until they were "endued with power from on high," being assured, at the same time, that this should be "not many days hence." Then followed the ascension; then, in the exercise of the authority conferred upon them, the appointment of Matthias to the apostleship in the place of Judas; and then the waiting for the promised Comforter. This Comforter was to be to them in the place of Christ. He was to guide them into all truth. He was to

* Hammond, Gill, Grotius, &c., in loc.; and compare Luke IX. 28 with Matt. xvii. 1, and Mark ix. 2.

+ Mr. Gurney says, pp. 78, 79, "The period which elapsed between our Lord's resurrection and ascension, is described as forty days. Acts i. 3. This is a period of which frequent mention is made in the sacred history. The flood was forty days upon the earth; Moses was forty days in the mount; Elijah went forty days in the strength of the meat which the angel provided for him ; Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness. Now, as the Hebrews were accustomed to reckon their time by weeks, from Sabbath to Sabbath, it seems very probable that the term forty days denotes a round number, and is in fact a mere synonyme for six Sabbaths or weeks. If so, the ascension took place six weeks after the resurrection, and therefore on the first day of the week. This conclusion is in some measure confirmed by the very fact that the disciples were then assembled; for not only do we find them meeting together on the first day of the week, twice before. this event, but we shall presently see that they maintained the same practice on the very week following."

qualify them for the work to which Christ had commissioned them. He was to direct them in the exercise of their authority, to instruct and to regulate the order, institutions, and worship of the church. He was to be, in all these respects, the same to them as a present Christ. So that under his guidance their instructions would be as correct, and the order, institutions, and worship, they should prescribe for the church, as wise and authoritative as if they were under the immediate personal guidance of Christ himself. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." This descent of the Holy Ghost on them, like his descent on Christ at his baptism, was their public anointing to the work which Christ began, and which he had now devolved on them to carry out and complete. It was, like his, their official recognition and introduction to it. It was also the formal and public commitment of the work to them, and the pledge that they would do their part of it, as Christ had his, according to the mind and will of God. And all this transpired on the first day of the week-"the Lord's day." Christ's last paschal supper was on the evening of the fifth day of the week. That fifth day was the 14th of the month Nisan, on which the passover was slain. Christ was crucified on the sixth day. The seventh day was of course the second of the feast, and was the day on

which the wave-sheaf was offered to the Lord. Pentecost (Lev. xxiii. 15, 16) was fifty days after this. And as this was on the seventh day, the fortyninth day from that was the seventh Sabbath, and the next, or fiftieth day, was of course the first day of the week. The immediate result of this anointing was, that the apostles, especially Peter, preached with such power, that about three thousand souls were added to the church on that single day. It was emphatically the beginning of days to the infant church. And thus was the first day of the week again honored and blessed of him who was at once Head of the church, and Lord of the Sabbath.

Here, then, to say nothing of the intermediate interviews, we have, in the first instance, the resurrection, the exposition of the Scriptures concerning himself, the evidence of the identity of his resurrection body, the commission of the disciples, and their investment with apostolic authority; and, in the second instance, that of Pentecost, the mission of the Comforter, with all of official recognition and endowment that it involved. And what are all these occurrences, but just what we should expect them to be, on the supposition that Christ meant to honor the first day of the week, as, by way of eminence, the day of religious worship under the new order of things? The events in question had more immediate and direct concern with the establishment and progress of the new religion, than any other. They were, in fact, its official, formal, and full introduction, in the first instance to the disciples, and in the second to the world. Why should they, in both cases, trans

pire on the first day of the week, except it were that he, who, as Head of the church, was, in these events, officially and fully instituting a new dispensation, was also, as Lord of the Sabbath, instituting a new day as Sabbath-day for his people-a day to be thenceforward observed by them, in distinction from other days, as "LORD'S DAY"?

CHAPTER IV.

THE SANCTION OF THE APOSTLES AND THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

WHAT is the evidence of the "law and the testimony" in the case of the apostles and primitive disciples? First, what was "THE LAW"?

Answer. Christ gave his apostles express authority to regulate the faith, institutions, order, and worship of the church, and declared that whatever they might teach or prescribe in the case should be authoritative and binding. On a certain occasion, (Matt. xvi. 13-19,) Christ inquired of his disciples, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" And when Peter said, in reply, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," he commended him, and declared, "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." On another occasion, (Matt. xviii. 18,) when the discipline of the church was the topic of discourse, Christ said to all the apostles, as he had before said to Peter, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Both