Acts 1:11

ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN

‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’

Acts 1:11

The words contain a reproach. Christ had left His disciples not a barren legacy of sorrow and idleness, but an inexhaustible fund of joy and an inheritance of practical labours for His sake. And so with the angel’s words ringing in their ears they returned to Jerusalem and, after tarrying for the promise of the Holy Ghost, flung themselves into practical labours of Divine mission.

I. Gazing into heaven.

(a) It is possible to spend our energies in mourning over sin and in longing to leave the world in which God has placed us.

(b) We may regard heaven as a distant place, forgetting that God and Christ and heaven may be found here and in this life.

(c) We may spend our energies in thinking about heaven, forgetting the heaven that lies about us.

Men speak of the earthly and the heavenly life; but in this division there is the danger that men will forget God altogether.

II. The lesson of the Ascension.—Is it not expressed in the Collect ‘with Him continually dwell’? That is a prayer to enter heaven here and now. This can only be done by prayer and by realising His Presence more fully.

—Rev. H. G. Hart.