It was a _visible_ ascension. There are only two other persons spoken of in the Bible as having gone up from earth to heaven in a bodily form. One of them was “Enoch, the seventh from Adam.” His ascension was not visible. No one saw him go. It took place in secret. We are told in one place that “he was not, for God took him.” In another place it is said, “he was translated.” This is all we know about the translation of Enoch. The other case mentioned in the Bible is that of the prophet Elijah. His ascension was visible, indeed, but it was only seen by one person, and that was the prophet Elisha. But it was different with the ascension of Christ. This did not take place in secret, but in public. It was not only visible, but was witnessed by a crowd of people. All the eleven disciples were there to see it. And there can be no doubt that a great many others, besides the apostles, were there too. And they all saw him, as he rose from the midst of them, and went up to heaven. It was a _visible_ ascension. It was a _calm and tranquil_ ascension. It was not done in a hurry. Solomon tells us, when speaking of God’s doings, that his “judgments are not executed speedily.” This means they are not done in haste. God never works in a hurry. After he gave to Adam the first promise, of a future deliverer from the effects of sin, he waited more than four thousand years before he sent him into the world. And, after Christ had risen from the dead, he was not in haste to leave the world, and go back to heaven. We might have expected that he would just have shown himself once or twice to his disciples, so as to make them sure of his resurrection, and would have left immediately for heaven. But it was not so. Instead of this he remained here for forty days. He did not spend all this time in the company of his disciples. He only showed himself to them from time to time, and talked with them “of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” And when at last these days were over, and the time came for him to go, still there was no haste about it. He did not go up with a rush, as a rocket goes up. That would not have been like him. But, as he stood on the Mount of Olives talking to his disciples, who were standing round him, he began to rise slowly and silently towards heaven. And as he began, so he went on. Slowly and silently he continued to rise. Upwards he went, higher—and higher,—till at last a cloud received him out of their sight. That cloud became, as it were, the chariot in which he was carried up in triumph to heaven. It was a _calm_ and _tranquil_ ascension.