Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/142

 met under such delightful and unexpected circumstances; only leaving somebody to take care of the boats and fish. Peter following his Lord as he was commanded, turned around to see who was next to him, and seeing John, was instantly seized with a desire to know the future fortunes of this apostle, who shared with him the highest confidence of his Master, and was even before him in his personal affections. He accordingly asked, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" or more properly, "What shall become of this man?" But the answer of Jesus was not at all calculated to satisfy his curiosity, though it seemed, in checking his inquiries, to intimate darkly, that this young apostle would outlive him, and be a witness of the events which had been predicted in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem, and the second coming of Christ in judgment on his foes of the Jewish nation. This interesting scene here abruptly closes,—the Savior and his followers passing off this spot to the places where he remained with them during the rest of the few days of his appearance after his resurrection.

The mountain appointed for his meeting, &c.—It would be hard to settle the locality of this mountain with so few data as we have, but a guess or two may be worth offering. Grotius concludes it to have been Mount Tabor, "where," as he says, "Jesus formerly gave the three a taste of his majesty;" but I have fully shown, on much better authority, that Tabor was not the mount of the transfiguration; nor can we value highly the fact, that "habet veteris famae auctoritatem," for we have abundant reason to think that in such matters, "the authority of ancient tradition" is not worth much.

There are better reasons, however, for believing Tabor to have been the mountain in Galilee, where Christ met his disciples. These are, the fact that it was near the lake where he seems to have been just before, and was in the direction of some of his former places of resort, and was near the homes of his disciples. None of the objections that I brought against its being the mount of the transfiguration, can bear against this supposition, but on similar grounds I now agree with the common notion.

Paulus suggests Mount Carmel, as a very convenient place for such a meeting of so many persons who wished to assemble unseen, it being full of caverns, in which they might assemble out of view; while Tabor is wholly open and exposed to view; for it is evident that all the exhibitions of Christ to his disciples after his resurrection, were very secret. For this reason Rosenmueller remarks, that Jesus probably appointed some mountain which was lonely and destitute of inhabitants, for the meeting. But Tabor is, I should think, sufficiently retired for the privacy which was so desirable, and certainly is capable of accommodating a great number of persons on its top, so that they could not be seen from below. The objection to Carmel is, that it was a great distance off, on the sea coast, and should therefore be rejected for the same reasons which caused us to reject Tabor for the transfiguration.

THE ASCENSION.

The only one of his other interviews with them, to which we can follow them, is the last, when he stood with them at Bethany, on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerusalem, where he passed away from their eyes to the glory now consummated by the complete events of his life and death. Being there