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Dear Father:—With emotions that nearly deprive me
of the power to hold my pen, and with trembling
fingers that make the words I write almost illegible, I sit
down to make known to you the extraordinary event,
which will mark this day in all future time as the most
worthy to be noted among men.

In my last I informed you that Jesus, after his wonderful
resurrection, which was declared to all men by infallible
proofs, gathered once more his amazed and adoring disciples
about him, and taught them, with more than mortal
wisdom and eloquence, the great truths appertaining to
his kingdom, which he now appointed them to extend
throughout all the world.

On the fortieth day, my dear father, early in the morning,
he left the house of Mary and Lazarus, where he had sat
up with us all night, (for none of us thought of sleep
within the sound of his heavenly voice) speaking to us of
the glories of heaven, and the excellency of heart and purity
of life required of all who should enter it.

“Lord,” said Martha, as he went forth, “whither goest
thou?”

“Come and see,” he answered. “Whither I go ye
shall know, and the way ye shall know: for where I am
ye shall also be, and all those who believe in me.”

“Lord,” said Mary, kneeling at his feet, “return at
noon, and remain with us during the heat of the day.”

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“Mary,” said Jesus, laying his hand gently upon her
forehead, “I am going to my Father's house! There thou
shalt one day dwell with me in mansions not made with
hands. Follow me, and thou shalt know the way thither!
Through temptation I have first trodden it, through suffering,
through death, and through resurrection from the
dead. So also must thou and all who love me follow me.
To my friends, the gate of the tomb opens into the world
of life eternal.”

Thus speaking, he walked slowly onward towards the
hill of Bethany, not far from the place where Lazarus
was buried. He was followed not only by Mary, Martha,
Lazarus, and John, my cousin Mary and myself, each of
us expecting from his words and manner, some new and
great event to take place; but by all the disciples, who
had presently joined him near the cemetery, at the foot
of the hill. There were at least five hundred persons in
all, moving on with him ere he reached the green hill-side
beyond the village; for all followed him, expecting to
hear more glorious revelations from his lips of the life
beyond this.

“He goes to the hill to pray,” said one of his disciples.

“Nay,” said Peter, “he prays not since his resurrection
as before. He has no need of prayer for himself, who has
conquered sin, Satan, death, the grave and the world!”

“He goeth to show us some mighty miracle, from the
expression of power and majesty in his aspect,” said
Thomas to me, gazing upon the Lord with awe; for each
moment as he ascended the hill, his countenance grew
more glorious with a certain God-like majesty, and shone
like the face of Moses descending from Mount Sinai. We
all hung back with adoring fear, and alone he proceeded

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onward, a wide space being left by us between ourselves and
him. Yet there was no terror in the glory which surrounded
and shined out from him; but rather a holy
radiance, that seemed to be the very light of holiness and
peace.

“So looked he,” said John to us, “when we beheld
him transfigured in the mount with Elias and Moses.”

The hill, which is not lofty, was soon surmounted by
his sacred feet. He stood upon its apex alone. We kept
back near the brow of the hill, fearing to approach him,
for his raiment shone now like the sun, while his countenance
was as lightning. We shaded our eyes to behold
him. All was now expectation, and looking for some
mighty event—what we knew not! John drew nearest
to him, and upon his knees, with clasped hands, looked
towards him earnestly; for he knew, as he afterwards told
us, what would take place; Jesus having informed him
the night before. Joy and yet tears were on his face, as
he gazed with blinded eyes, as one gazes on the noon-day
sun, upon his Divine Master. It was a scene, dear father,
impressive beyond expression. The hill-top was thronged
with an expectant, awe-stricken multitude, which knew
not whether to remain or fly from the glorious majesty of
the presence of the Son of God. The blue sky spread out
its illimitable concave above the hills without a cloud.
At the foot of the eminence towards the holy city, slept
the gardens of Gethsemane, where Jesus loved to walk,
and where he was arrested. Jerusalem, with its towers,
pinnacles, palaces, and gorgeous Temple, glittered in the
distance; and Calvary, studded with fresh Roman crosses,
stood out boldly in view, in the transparent air. The tall
cypresses which grew above the tomb of Joseph, where he

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had lain, were also visible. Jesus seemed for a moment
to survey these scenes of his suffering, of his ignominy and
death, with the look of a divine conqueror. He then
turned to his disciples and said:—

“Ye have been with me in my sorrows, and you now
shall behold my glory, and the reward which my Father
doth give me. To-day I take leave of you and ascend to
my Father and your Father. Remember all things which
I have taught you concerning my kingdom. Go forth and
teach the glad tidings of salvation to all men, and baptize
all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost; and lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world.”

Thus speaking, in a voice that thrilled every bosom
with emotions indescribable, he extended his hands above
their heads and blessed them, while we all fell upon our
faces to the ground, also to receive his blessing.

He then lifted up his eyes to the calm blue depths of
heaven, and said:—

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was!”

As he spoke, we raised our faces from the ground, and
saw him leaving the earth, rising from the hill-top into the
air, with a slow and majestic ascension; his hands outspread
over us beneath, as if shedding down blessings
upon us all. The loud burst of surprise which rose from
five hundred voices at seeing him soar away into the
atmosphere, was followed by a profound and awful silence,
as we watched him rise and still rise, ascending and still
ascending into the upper air, his whole form growing
brighter and brighter, as the distance widened between
his feet and the earth!

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Upon our knees, in speechless amazement, we followed
his ascent with our eyes, not a word being spoken by any
soul; and hearts might have been heard beating in the
intense expectation of the moment.

Then in the far off height of heaven, we beheld appear a
bright cloud, no longer than a man's hand, but each instant
it expanded and grew broader and brighter, and swift as
the winged lightning, it descended through the firmament
downward, until we beheld it evolve itself into a glittering
host of angels, which no man could number, countless
as the stars of heaven. As these shining legions descended,
they parted into two bands, and sweeping along the air,
met the ascending Son of God in the mid sky! The
rushing of their ten thousand times ten thousand wings,
was heard like the sound of many waters. Surrounding
Jesus, like a shining cloud, they received him into their
midst, and hid him from our eyes, amid the glories of their
celestial splendor.

Now came to our ears the sounds of heavenly song, a
sublimer chorus than earth ever heard before. From the
squadrons of Seraphim and Cherubim encircling with their
linked wings the Son of God, came, like the unearthly
music one hears in the dreams of night, these words,
receding, as they mounted upward with the Conqueror of
Death and Hell:

This chorus seemed to be answered from the inmost
heavens, as if an Archangel were standing at its portals,
keeping watchful guard over the entrance facing the earth.

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“Who is the King of Glory?”

“The Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle against
principalities and powers,” was chaunted back from the ascending escort of
Jesus, in the sublimest strains of triumphant joy. “Lift up your heads, O
ye gates! and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
shall come in.”

Upon this we heard a mighty voice, as it were in heaven,
accompanied by the sound of a trumpet, and ten thousand
voices about the throne of Jehovah seemed to say:

“God is coming up with a shout. He rideth upon the heavens! He
ascendeth on high! He hath led captivity captive and received gifts for men.
O clap your hands all ye people of earth, shout his triumph, ye hosts of heaven!

“Fling wide your gates, O City of God! Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, for the King of Glory enters in!”

Ascending and still ascending, receding and still receding,
fainter and fainter, came down to earth the angelic
choruses, when at length the brightest cloud of angels
faded away into the upper heaven, the Son of God shining
in their midst, like a central sun, surrounded by a luminous
halo; till finally, like a star, they remained visible a
few moments longer, and then the heavens received him
out of our sight. While we stood gazing up into the far
skies, hoping, expecting, yet doubting if we should ever
behold him again, two bright stars seemed to be descending
from the height of heaven towards us. In a few
seconds we saw that they were angels, alighting on the
place Jesus had left; they said to the eleven, “Why gaze
ye up into heaven, ye men of Galilee? This same Jesus
whom ye have seen go into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have now seen him ascend!” Thus speaking,
they vanished out of our sight! * * *

The above account, my dear father, of the ascent yesterday
into heaven of the Christ, our Blessed Lord Jesus, I
wrote the same evening, while all the circumstances were

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present and vivid upon my mind. Upon inquiring of others,
who were also present, I find that only a few of the disciples
of Jesus, besides the eleven, heard the heavenly chorus,
and saw the cloud to be living angels. To the greater
part, these glittering legions seemed to be only a cloud of
unusual brightness. But to us, his dear friends, it was
permitted to behold his glory, and to witness his reception
heavenward by the angelic servants of his Father. Oh,
what a sublime spectacle! What human language can
describe it! But one thing I have presented clearly to
you, dear father, and that is the fact that Jesus has
ascended into the heaven of heavens! Oh, amazing
reality! Overwhelming truth! What, oh what is earth?—
What is Judea?—What is man?—that God is mindful
of him—that He should so have visited him! And when
He has visited us—when His Divine Son, the brightness
of the glory of the Father, has descended to earth, and
assumed our nature, to reconcile us to God, and obtain an
eternal life for us, how has He been received? Shunned
for his voluntary poverty—despised for his humble human
parentage—hated for his holiness—tried before tribunals
for crimes unknown to him—scourged and spit upon,
mocked, and buffeted, and crucified with thieves, as if his
enemies would render his death as ignominious as it was
capable of being made!

But behold the issue! See, when he had paid the debt
of death for us, the change in all things! He awakes to
life! He bursts the tomb! He walks forth from the
sepulchre! Angels are his servants! After forty days
on earth, unfolding to his disciples the mysteries of his
gospel and the splendor of his kingdom, he ascends visibly
to heaven at mid-day from Bethany, in the sight of many

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hundreds, and is escorted by armies of angels to the right
hand of the Majesty on high!

Such, my dear father, is the appropriate crowning event
of the extraordinary life of Jesus, both Messias and Christ!
His ascent from this earth into the heaven of heavens,
not only is proof that He came from God, but that God is
well-pleased with all that He has done in the flesh. If in
any one thing He taught, He spoke what was not true,
either concerning the Father or concerning himself, he
would not have received such a welcome back to the
heavenly abodes! All that Jesus said of himself is therefore
true! Jehovah attests it! We must then believe,
or we can have no interest in the kingdom which He has
gone to prepare for us, and which we can enter only as
He has traveled through it, through humiliation, suffering,
death, the tomb, resurrection, and also ascension! Thus
did He truly say, “The way I go ye shall know, for ye
must follow me!”

His kingdom is, therefore, my dear father, clearly not
of this world, as He said to Pilate, the Procurator; but it
is above. To it He has triumphantly ascended, attended
by legions of Cherubim and Seraphim, an ascent which
David foresaw in vision, when he wrote:

“God has gone up with a shout, He has ascended on
High!”

Doubt, then, no longer, dearest father! Jesus, the son
of Mary in His human nature, was the Son of God in
His Divine Nature; an incomprehensible and mysterious
union, whereby He has brought together in harmony the
two natures, separated far apart by sin, by sacrificing His
own body as a sin-offering, to reconcile both in one Immaculate
body upon the cross. There is now no more

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condemnation to them who believe in Him and accept Him;
for in His body He took our sins, and with His precious
blood, as that of a lamb without blemish, cleansed them
forever away.

But I cannot write all I would say to you, dearest father.
When we meet, which you rejoice me in saying, will be
on the first day of the week, at Jerusalem, I will unfold to
you all that the Divine and glorified Jesus has taught me.
Doubt not that He is Messias. Hesitate not to accept
Him; for He is the end of Moses, and of the Law, and of
the Prophets, the very Shiloh who should come and restore
all things, to whom be glory, power, dominion, majesty,
and excellency evermore.