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CHAPTER II. DEPARTURE OF THE DISCIPLES FROM JERUSALEM. SECOND GALILEAN LIFE OF JESUS. The most earnest desire of those who have lost a dear friend is to revisit the places where they have lived with him. It was no doubt this feeling which, some days after the events of Easter, induced the disciples to return to Galilee. From the moment of the arrest of Jesus, and immediately after His death, it is probable that many of His disciples had already taken their departure for the northern provinces. At the period of the resurrection, a report was spread that it was in Galilee that they would see him again. Some of the women who had been at the sepulchre returned with the statement that the angel had told them that Jesus had already preceded them into Galilee.1 Others said that it was Jesus himself who had told them to meet him there.2 Sometimes they even fancied that they remembered how that He had told them so in his lifetime.3 It is, however, certain, that at the end of some days, perhaps after they had completed the solemnities of the Paschal feast, the disciples believed that they had received a commandment to return to their own country, and they returned accordingly.4 Perhaps the visions began to diminish in frequency at Jerusalem. A sort of homesickness possessed them. The short apparitions of Jesus were not sufficient to compensate for theenormous void left to them by His absence. They fancied that they were actuated by a melancholy affection for the lake and the beautiful mountains where they had tasted of the kingdom of God.8 The women, especially, desired at all hazards to return to the country where they had enjoyed so much happiness. It must be observed that the order forleaving Jerusalem came especially from them.6 This odious city weighed down their spirits ; th...
