happen to thee." With a flash of sudden indignation our Lord rebuked his worldliness and presumption. Turning away from him, fixing His eyes on the other disciples, and speaking in the hearing of them all-for it was fit that they who had heard the words of vast promise should hear also the crushing rebuke-He exclaimed, "Get thee behind me, Satan! thou art a stumbling-block unto me; for thy thoughts are not the thoughts of God, but of men." This thy mere carnal and human view-this attempt to dissuade me from my "baptism of death"-is a sin against the purposes of God.1 Peter was to learn-would that the Church which professes to have inherited from him its exclusive and superhuman claims had also learnt in time!-that he was far indeed from being infallible— that he was capable of falling, aye, and with scarcely a moment's intermission, from heights of divine insight into depths of most earthly folly.

"Get thee behind me, Satan!"-the very words which He had used to the tempter in the wilderness. The rebuke was strong, yet to our ears it probably conveys a meaning far more violent than it would have done to the ears that heard it. The word Satan means no more than "adversary," and, as in many passages of the Old Testament, is so far from meaning the great Adversary of mankind, that it is even applied to opposing angels. The word, in fact, was among the Jews, as in the East rendered in the LXX. by un yévoiro and undaμŵs (Josh. xxii. 29; 1 Sam. xii. 23; xx. 2). (See Schleusner, Lex. in N. T., s. v.)

1 "Those whose intentions towards us are the best," says Stier, "are the most dangerous to us when their intentions are merely human” (ii. 332). How often, alas! are a man's real foes they of his own household; his friends, who love him best, become in their worldliness his worst enemies. They drag him down from heights of self-sacrifice to the vulgar, the conventional, the comfortable.

A ROCK OF OFFENCE.

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generally, and to this day, a very common one for anything bold, powerful, dangerous-for every secret opponent or open enemy.1 But its special applicability

in this instance rose from the fact that Peter was in truth adopting the very line of argument which the Tempter himself had adopted in the wilderness. And in calling Peter an offence (okávdaλov), Jesus probably again alluded to his name, and compared him to a stone in the path over which the wayfarer stumbles. The comparison must have sunk deeply into the Apostle's mind, for he too in his Epistle warns his readers against some to whom, because they believe not, the Headstone of the Corner became "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (TÉτρа σxavdáλov, 1 Pet. ii. 8).

But having thus warned and rebuked the ignorant affection of unspiritual effeminacy in His presumptuous Apostle, the Lord graciously made the incident an occasion for some of His deepest teaching, which He not only addressed to His disciples, but to all. We learn quite incidentally from St. Mark, that even in these remote regions His footsteps were sometimes followed by attendant crowds, who usually walked at a little distance from

1 For instance, in Numb. xxii. 22, 32, the same Hebrew word is twice used of the angel who went to withstand Balaam; in 1 Kings xi. 14 it is used of Hadad, and in verse 23 of Rezon; in 1 Sam. xxix. 4 the Philistines use it of David. See too Ps. cix. 6, marg., &c. (v. infr., Vol. I., p. 236). The same remark is true of the Koran. Among the Rabbis are to be found such expressions as, "When the bull rushes at a man, Satan leaps up between his horns." They always drag the notion in when they can, as in Targ. Jonath., Exod. xxxii. 19, &c. 'If a woman's hair is uncovered," says R Simeon, "evil spirits come and sit upon it" (Wetstein, ad 1 Cor. xi. 10). "If that young Sheit. ,' I exclaimed, about to use an epithet gene. rally given in the East to such adventurous youths,""&c. (Layard's Nineveh, i. 287). Layard adds in a note that Sheitan is usually applied to a clever, cunning, daring fellow.

2 Luke ix. 23.

3 Cf. Mark viii. 34; vii. 24.

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Him and His disciples, but were sometimes called to Him to hear the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And alike they and His disciples were as yet infected with the false notions which had inspired the impetuous interference of Peter. To them, therefore, He addressed the words which have taught us for ever that the essence of all highest duty, the meaning of all truest life—alike the most acceptable service to God, and the most ennobling example to men-is involved in the law of self-sacrifice.1 It was on this occasion that He spoke those few words which have produced so infinite an effect on the conscience of mankind. "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" And then, after warning them that He should Himself be judged, He consoled them under this shock of unexpected revelation by the assurance that there were some standing there who should not taste of death till they had seen the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. If, as all Scripture shows, "the kingdom of the Son of Man" be understood in a sense primarily spiritual, then there can be no difficulty in understanding this prophecy in the sense that, ere all of them passed away, the foundations of that kingdom should have been established for ever in the abolition of the old and the establishment of the new dispensation. Three of them were immediately to see Him transfigured; all but one were to be witnesses of His resur

1 The metaphorical sense of "taking up the cross" is well illustrated by Plato, De Rep. ii. 362 A., àvaoxivdvλevbhσetai. 2 Cor. iii. 18; Rom. xii. 2 could lead to no mistake.

2 The translators of our Bible seem to have understood the Transfiguration as the first fulfilment of the prophecy, by separating it from the verses which procede it in St. Mark (ix. 1), and making it introduce the

rection; one at least the beloved disciple-was to survive that capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple which were to render impossible any literal fulfilment of the Mosaic law. And the prophecy may have deeper meanings yet than these-meanings still more real because they are still more wholly spiritual. "If we wish not to fear death," says St. Ambrose, “let us stand where Christ is; Christ is your Life; He is the very Life which cannot die."

following narrative. Cf. 2 Pet. i. 16: "eye-witnesses (óra) of His majesty" is there referred expressly to the Transfiguration, and appealed to as the confirmation of the preaching which had proclaimed "the power and coming" of Christ. See, too, 1 John i. 1; iv. 14.

"And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount."-2 PETER i. 18.

NONE of the Evangelists tell us about the week which followed this memorable event. They tell us only that "after six days" He took with Him the three dearest and most enlightened of His disciples,1 and went with them the expression implies a certain solemnity of expectation2-up a lofty mountain, or, as St. Luke calls it, simply "the mountain."

The supposition that the mountain intended was Mount Tabor has been engrained for centuries in the tradition of the Christian Church; and three churches and a monastery erected before the close of the sixth century attest the unhesitating acceptance of this belief. Yet it is almost certain that Tabor was not the scene of that great epiphany. The rounded summit of that picturesque and wood-crowned hill, which forms so fine a feature in the landscape, as the traveller approaches the

1 Matt. xvii. 1—13; Mark ix. 2-13; Luke ix. 28-36. The "about eight days after" of St. Luke (ix. 28) is merely an inclusive reckoning, but is one of the touches which are valuable as showing the independence of his narrative, which gives us several new particulars.

dvapépei. Comp. Luke xxiv. 51.