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It is quite certain that, in the manhood of Christ, there was, in a very large degree, the truest poetry of the heart. His sympathies with nature — His love of the beautiful everywhere — His tenderness to childhood and to weakness — the delicacy of His action — the play of His fancy — all show that vivid imagination, and fervent glow, and quiet sensibility, and creative habit, and deep perception which, I speak it humanly, always make life a poem. Can we wonder that to such a mind as His, that country, so endeared, so sanctified, — lovely in nature, but lovelier still in all its sacred recollections — should have such an attraction that He could scarcely consent even to go to heaven without another look at its beauty, and a last taste of its sweetness! And did my Saviour — did He — even thus? Then forever He has consecrated the pious memories of early years, and the yearnings of our manhood after the sacredness of the past!

II. But, as far as we may presume to judge, this was not the only feeling which led the risen Jesus back to Galilee. We know, indeed, from St. Peter's words to Cornelius, that when "God raised up Jesus, the third day, He showed Him openly indeed, but not to all the people, only to chosen witnesses, chosen before of God, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead." Indeed we know that "He appeared to above five hundred brethren at once," and this manifestation was most probably on that mountain in Galilee, where He had made such a special appointment for the reunion. We may well believe — and it is in complete accordance with the whole mind of Christ — that He went down to Galilee for this very object — to gather, and assure, and comfort, and strengthen those to whom His miracles and teaching had been already blessed in that part of Palestine. And it was only like our dear Master, and consistent with all His faithful love, that He should thus pause, before He went on further — to reassure and bless His own in distant places.

III. And of this, more and more, be quite sure, that Christ will always come back to His own work in the soul which He has once made His own. And this blessed lesson again I read in that loving journey to Galilee. Whom Christ calls, to them He returns. No time dims, no changes reach, no distance appals, that love!

IV. I see, too, in the visit to Galilee, a probation and discipline to His own more immediate followers. They were to have the joy of His presence, but they must make an effort. They must show their constancy and their faith by an act of toil and trust. They must go — at His word — all the way to meet Him in Galilee. "He went before them." He always goes before His people. And sometimes precedence looks like desertion. Obey and believe, and the recompense will be a full and mantling cup. "Go where I send you;" — this is His constant language — "Go where I send you; I shall be there."

V. One, and perhaps the greatest, cause why He passed those "forty days" on earth — after He had finished His great work — was to show and prove His identity; to demonstrate that the Risen was the Crucified; that nothing was changed of His love and being. He was the same! the same Man! the same Brother! the same Saviour! the same God! And there were the very wounds to bear their evidence! This visit to Galilee was singularly fitted to evidence the oneness. He goes the very same journey which He had taken often before, to the same places, where He had spent the greater part of His life, and where the witnesses to the identity would be the greatest in number, and the most competent to attest. He seeks the same lake, which He had made the centre of His previous ministry. He stands with His disciples — on the very shore where He had spoken to them and called them. The voice, the accent, the manner, the spirit are the same, They recognize it in a moment. He eats food, where He had so often eaten it before. And how much we owe to that identity, I need not say. The Man of Weakness is the God of Power. The Crucified is the Intercessor. Sure proof that the ransom is accepted, and the whole debt is paid by Christ! Positive evidence that we have now a God in sympathy. And one more voice I hear from Galilee. The risen Christ walked the whole land — from Dan to Beersheba: He revealed His authority: He showed His power: He made all His own! An earnest of that day when He shall come and "reign in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously;" and "His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives;" and then "there shall be one Lord, and His name One," and "all Israel shall be saved."

(James Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.

WEB: However, after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee."