These appearances were never repeated after the ascension. None of the disciples under any excitement ever again saw their Lord as the man Christ Jesus walking the earth as before; or saw him coming to the earth, although they all believed that he would speedily return in like manner as they beheld him going into heaven. Stephen saw him not upon the earth, but “standing on the right hand of God.” Paul saw him, and “was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” (Acts xxvi. 19). John saw him, in vision, not only as “the Son of Man” in glorious array, but as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” and also as a “Lamb standing as though it had been slain,” in the “midst of the throne” (Revelation i. 12-20, and v. 5-8). Their subsequent experience is consistent, if they had been dealing with realities. But if all their interviews during those forty days were a delusion, and the ascension a delusion, it is wholly inexplicable that their imagination or senses never played them false afterward. They believed that he would soon return, just as strongly as they believed that he had ascended, and yet they never saw him returning, or as having returned. If delusions created the faith, how much more should the faith multiply the delusions, and such appearances (as Godet[8] has well put it) “go on increasing as the square of the belief itself.” Yet at the very time when they should have multiplied, if they were _not_ real, they ceased altogether! We have, as the disciples had, our Lord’s predictions[9] of his death _and_ resurrection (for the two events were generally referred to in the same discourse), and the prophecies concerning him.