no rain upon it”; that is, he commanded his Apostles that they should preach no longer to the Jews, but should go to the Gentiles.  Thus, therefore, he sent away that multitude, and “went up into a mountain”; that is, to the height of the celestial kingdom, of which it had been written, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall rise up in his holy place?” For a mountain is a height, and what is higher than heaven?  There the Lord ascended.  And he ascended alone, “for no man hath ascended up into heaven save he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.”  And even when he shall come at the end of the world, and shall have collected all of us, his members, together, and shall have raised us into heaven, he will also ascend alone, because Christ, the head, is one with his body.  But now the Head alone ascends,—­the Mediator of God and man —­the man Christ Jesus.  And he goes up to pray, because he went to the Father to intercede for us.  “For Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

It follows:  “And when the evening was come, he was there alone.”  This signifies the nearness of the end of the world, concerning which John also speaks:  “Little children, it is the last time.”  Therefore it is said that, “when the evening was come, he was there alone,” because, when the world was drawing to its end, he by himself, as the true high priest, entered into the holy of holies, and is there at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession for us.  But while he prays on the mountain, the ship is tossed with waves in the deep.  For, since the billows arise, the ship may be tossed; but since Christ prays, it cannot be overwhelmed. ...

We may notice, also, that this commotion of the waves, and tottering or half-sinking of Peter, takes place even in our time, according to the spiritual sense daily.  For every man’s own besetting sin is the tempest.  You love God; you walk upon the sea; the swellings of this world are under your feet.  You love the world; it swallows you up; its wont is to devour, not to bear up, its lovers.  But when your heart fluctuates with the desire of sin, call on the divinity of Christ, that you may conquer that desire.  You think that the wind is then contrary when the adversity of this world rises against you, and not also when its prosperity fawns upon you.  For when wars, when tumults, when famine, when pestilence comes, when any private calamity happens even to individual men, then the wind is thought adverse, and then it is held right to call upon God; but when the world smiles with temporal felicity, then, forsooth, the wind is not contrary.  Do not, by such tokens as these, judge of the tranquillity of the time; but judge of it by your own temptations.  See if you are tranquil within yourself; see if no internal tempest is overwhelming you.  It is