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That ceaseless in­tercession remains necessary for as long as we commit sin. In doing this, Christ prepares a place for us.

The perfect merits of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross must be presented to the Father. The first of these is His high priestly intercession for His saints. The benefits of the ascension of Christ are among the most pre­cious gifts of the Savior to His Church. It would be gain, not loss, for then the Com­forter could come who would teach them all things. How emphatically and lovingly Christ had reassured them that His de­parture would be a blessing in­stead of a calamity. They understood now what He meant when He had told them: The farewell discourses of their Lord on the night of His betrayal had not been spoken in vain.

In Luke 24, when Jesus departed from His disciples and was carried into heaven, they returned to Jerusa­lem with great joy. The return of Christ into heaven was not a sad event. Why should the return of Christ into glory be of less interest to us than His coming to us from glory? From a Scriptural point of view Ascen­sion Day is no less important than Christmas Day. How thoughtless we have become to­ward this holy day! If our estima­tion of the significance of this day depends upon whether or not Hallmark has latched onto it, we, indeed, are to be pitied! Rather let us return to the real importance of this day and its intrinsic value in light of the Word of God. If the balmy breezes of Spring and the indifferent attitude of an unbelieving world toward the ascension of Jesus account for our indifference to this important event, then our spiritual life must be at a very low point. His immediate reply was, “I suppose then we got Pentecost wrong, too.” I hesitated to point out that the day his church had planned for the worship service was a week early. He re­gretted that other churches were not honoring the day as they should. I recall several years ago an elder bemoaning the fact that his church was the only one that had advertised an Ascension Day Ser­vice in the newspaper. Those who have to plan services for this day are found counting the forty days following Easter to make certain that the worship service is on the right day. In fact, few calen­dars even list Ascension Day any­more. Unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other holidays, Ascension Day is scarcely mentioned in the newspapers. The second excuse is that there seems to be a total lack of inter­est in the ascension of Christ on the part of the general public. The lure of nature with its field work, gar­dens, and the like, beckon us to be outdoors rather than in church. The first excuse given is that the Ascension Day Service happens to fall on a weeknight, in the spring of the year. Two of the reasons given as to why people fail to worship on Ascen­sion Day are insignificant, to say the least. What is the explanation for this? The reason certainly cannot be that the ascension of our Lord was an event of minor importance when compared to His birth, death, and resurrection. Other religious holidays on the church calendar from Christmas to Good Friday and Easter are better attended, as are a the gatherings that meet for the non-holy days of the year, such as New Year’s Day and Thanksgiv­ing. With the pos­sible exception of Prayer Day, the Congregation is smaller on As­cension Day than on any of the times the Elders of the Church call the congregation to gather for worship. In many of our churches, if not all, the attendance at the Ascen­sion Day Service has become rather slim.