And, according to these promises, we find that the apostles were waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit and expecting it when the day of Pentecost arrived. They had not been told how long they were to wait. All that had been said about the time of his coming was that it would be “not many days hence.” After Jesus left them and went to heaven, they seem to have met together every day, engaging in prayer and praise. No doubt they read the scriptures on these occasions, and talked together about their ascended Lord and the fulfilment of the promise he had left them. Day after day, they had met for this purpose, waiting for the Holy Spirit. But one day passed by after another and the Spirit did not come. Still they felt sure that he would come. They were waiting for his coming: and when at last he came, we may well say of it, that it was an _expected_ coming. It was a _sudden_ coming. We know how often it happens that something we have been expecting for a long time comes suddenly at last. And it was so with the disciples on this occasion. They had met once more for their daily worship. As they came together, on the day of Pentecost, there was no more sign of the coming of the Spirit on that day than there had been on any of the previous days; but he came at last. We are not told whether it was at the beginning, or the middle, or the close of their meeting, that he came. The Holy Spirit did not send a messenger before him, to tell of his coming, as kings and great men in the East were in the habit of doing. No trumpet was sounded. No signal was given. But, all at once, the promise of the Father was fulfilled; the expectation of the disciples was met—the Holy Ghost came down from heaven. But it was a _sudden_ coming. Acts i: 2.