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The Glorious Reunion in Heaven, March 7
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of
glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.... He
is the King of glory.
Psalm 24:7-10
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Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity. He ascended
to heaven as the King of saints. His ascension was worthy of His exalted
character. He went as one mighty in battle, a conqueror, leading captivity
captive. He was attended by the heavenly host, amid shouts and acclama-
tions of praise and celestial song.... All heaven united in His reception
The most precious fact to the disciples in the ascension of Jesus was
that He went from them into heaven in the tangible form of their divine
Teacher.... The last remembrance that the disciples were to have of their
Lord was as the sympathizing Friend, the glorified Redeemer.... The
brightness of the heavenly escort and the opening of the glorious gates of
God to welcome Him were not to be discerned by mortal eyes.
Had the track of Christ to heaven been revealed to the disciples in all
its inexpressible glory, they could not have endured the sight. Had they
beheld the myriads of angels, and heard the bursts of triumph from the
battlements of heaven, as the everlasting doors were lifted up, the contrast
between that glory and their own lives in a word of trial, would have been
so great that they would hardly have been able to again take up the burden
of their earthly lives....
Their senses were not to become so infatuated with the glories of heaven
that they would lose sight of the character of Christ on earth, which they
were to copy in themselves. They were to keep distinctly before their
minds the beauty and majesty of His life, the perfect harmony of all His
attributes, and the mysterious union of the divine and human in His nature.
It was better that the earthly acquaintance of the disciples with their Saviour
should end in the solemn, quiet, and sublime manner in which it did. His
visible ascent from the world was in harmony with the meekness and quiet
of His life.
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9
S.D.A. Bible Commentary 6:1053
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10
S.D.A. Bible Commentary, 6:1053, 1054
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