Christ's Departure as the Disciples' Greatest Gain

Maclaren invites us to strip away nineteen centuries of Christendom and stand with eleven terrified men in an upper room. They possessed nothing—no influence, no numbers, no world support. 'Outside these four walls there was scarcely a creature in the whole world that had the least belief either in Him or in them.' Their own hearts worked against them. Sorrow had dimmed their eyes so thoroughly that they could not perceive the truth Christ had labored to teach them.…