CHAPTER VI.

THE TRANSFIGURATION.

Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and, behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. MATT. xvii. 1–9.

THE lifetime of Jesus divides itself simply and naturally into three different periods. The first, spent in the common relations of the family, closes with his baptism; a period of which the historical notices are few and brief, leaving it chiefly for the religious imagination to supply. The second, a short season, described also briefly but in representations full of meaning, intervenes between the baptism and the commence

ment of his public activity.

The third opens

with the annunciation of the approaching reign of God, and ends with the last prayer, in which his spirit passes into the hands of his Father. This third period is characterized by the constancy wherewith he fulfilled the service to which he was destined, for which he had been prepared through earlier disciplines, and to which he freely gave himself, all his endowments, all his powers, his entire being. This same great period seems to be divided again into two parts by the peculiar and magnificent scene of the Transfiguration. It comes, bespeaking in its outward splendor the real inward glory to which he has advanced, and may be considered, perhaps, as the reverse of the Temptation. In that, he conquered in lowliness the tempter from infernal realms; in this, he receives in height of worth the significant messages and homage from heaven. To pass over other contrasts, we may simply remark this correspondence: that, as the former closes with angelic services, so the latter closes with the voice which from heaven proclaims, not the greatest of older prophets, but only him, true Son of God.

Not alone as emblem of his attained elevation is this scene to be viewed. Before him in the future, now becoming near, approaches the last awful hour. The martyrdom of life is

How

soon to end in the martyrdom of the cross. much of his destined suffering, and with what distinctness of sight, he foresaw, we are nowhere told; only he perceived, this is reported to us, and showed unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised, that also he knew and spake, he should be raised again the third day. This assurance is solace, if the suffering be so full of sorrow. But in the near sight of the overwhelming baptism, even that trust might need support; and the support comes. The splendors from the mountain throw their celestial radiance forward over the dark valley, and reveal at once the benignant presence there, and the unspeakable glory beyond. The strength, moreover, which it ministered to Jesus, might descend also to the hearts of his disciples, sustaining them in their desolation, and remaining permanently with them as image of the Truth which they bore to the nations. Nor less may it come down from them to us, as symbol of the Everlasting Reality.

We have seen the spiritual birth into nature; we have seen the filial life opening into heaven; we have seen the celestial power victorious over the prince of darkness, and passing from that victory to bless the earth with words of truth,

with healing and quickening deeds: we see now the sunlike form shining in its own brightness, resting in its eternal sabbath. It is as if we had gone through one and another of the outer courts of the temple, and marked the wonders, and rendered our worship, and all at once the shrine itself is thrown open, that we find ourselves in the holiest place, and the everlasting light breaks in silence forth, out of the mystery spreading to gladden our hearts with the beauty and the repose. Here, we too think, it is good for us to be; here, where the peace may fold us in for ever, we would, if so we might, fix our abode. So does the Transfiguration, the vision of one fugitive day, stand to us as type of the unchangeable glory. The days of humiliation ending in death, through which Jesus lived, are to us like little, thin vapors floating off from the surface of a smooth mirror; the mirror itself, reflecting the calm image, gives us Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

Nor stop we here. The Christ in the Transfiguration, the image of God in the sunlike splendor, the second man, when Moses retires with his shadowy law, when Elias leads back the long train of prophets, remaining alone, immortal Son of the Highest, is the great promise to the world, the true type of a race redeemed from thraldom and darkness, elevated into free

dom and glory. So long as man strives, he may perhaps fail and go astray; so long as his ignorance remains, he may wander and mourn in his uncertainties, his doubts, his deceiving hopes and appalling fears; so long as earthly and infernal lusts pollute and debase him, or rouse him into frenzy, he must, in every moment of true consciousness, feel himself leprous and diseased and demoniac; but in the Christ conquering without strife, in the Christ teaching as the sun shines, in the Christ pure and making pure, whole and making whole, touching everything with the finger of God, and dwelling evermore in him, we find ourselves before we are aware on the high mountain, not risen, not glorious, not boasting in ourselves, but raised and rejoicing in the attraction and the brightness of that sun which never sets nor grows dim. The Transfiguration, as it gives us the essential and unchangeable being of the Lord, so likewise promises that of which it is type, the essential and imperishable life of Man when once he comes to love and obey the Father.

The vision has not passed. That old mountain in Palestine is there still, rising from the same lower ground, resting beneath the same morning and evening and midday sky; but for ages since, as for ages before, it has looked down on nothing holier than the earth and the