ST. MATTHEW xvi. 24 333
of an ancient chronicler, has commemorated the names of this little band, " who thus, in the face of difficulties unexampled in history, with death rather than riches for their reward, preferred it all to abandoning their honour, and stood firm by their leader as an example of loyalty to future ages." *
1 W. H. Prescott, The Conquest of Peru, bk. ii. chap, ir.
The Transfiguration.
Literature.
Bruce (A. B.), The Training of the Twelve, 191.
Campbell (W. M.), Foot-Prints of Christ, 182.
Curling (E.), The Transfiguration, 1.
Deshon (Q.), Sermons for the Ecclesiastical Year, 138.
Gray (W. A.), The Shadow of the Hand, 217.
Gregg (D.), Our Best Moods, 73.
Gunflaulua (F. W.), The Transfiguration of Christ, 93.
Jeffrey (R. T.), Visits to Calvary, 89.
Jones (J. D.), The Gospel of Grace, 189.
Kingsley (C), Village, Town, and Country Sermons, 207.
Nixon (W.), Christ All and vn All, 246.
Ritchie (D. L.), Peace the Umpire, 146.
Vernon (E. T.), The Holy Mount, 13.
Waugh (T.), Mount and Multitude, 117.
Wolston (W. T. P.), Night Scenes of Scripture, 46.
Christian Age, xlii. 290 (F. G. McKeever).
Christian World Pulpit, liv. 182 (R. Thomas) ; lv. 32 (H. S. Holland) ;
lix. 364 (G. C. Morgan) ; lxxii. 154 (G. A. J. Ross) ; lxxvi. 85
(R G. Parsons;.
The Transfiguration.
And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart : and he was transfigured before them : and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light.— Matt. xvii. i, 2.
1. Very little is said in Scripture concerning the glory and majesty of Christ. A stranger reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, would be impressed far more with the majesty of the Messiah's character, and the glory of His moral qualities, than with anything else. This, undoubtedly, was part of the Divine plan ; for the search of men was rather for tokens of material glory than for signs of moral excellence. His coming was principally for the display of the latter, and such signs as might have appealed to the desire of the men whose only conception of glory had come to be that of manifested splendour were denied. The word of the prophet spoken in another connexion had a supreme fulfilment in the Person of Jesus, " There was the hiding of his power." Consequently, that which arrests one in the study of the life of Christ is not outward magnificence, not pageantry or pomp, but something more wonderful, and without which mere outward pageantry and pomp would be nothing worth, even His moral glory. It is the beauty of His character that lays hold upon the inmost spirit, and commands its admiration. To see the Christ in the glories of His character is to lie prostrate before Him in adoration.
2. Yet, while the glory of His power is hidden, and the radiant splendours of His person are veiled, occasionally during His so- journ upon the earth they flashed into prominence. Here upon the mount, before the eyes of the disciples, there flamed forth the magnificence and the majesty of Him who, in order that the weakest and most trembling might hold intercourse with Him, had veiled these splendours behind the human.
ST. MATT. — 2 2
33$ THE TRANSFIGURATION
TJ To any one who remembers who Jesus Christ is, and what He has been and will be to men, no incident of His life is more credible. In all likelihood Jesus was often transfigured in His nights of lonely prayer, although there were no eyes to see Him. ]STo experience set down in the Gospels more entirely becomes the Lord of glory. To one who walked with God and spoke face to face with Him as a child to a father, round whom God's angels continually hovered, on whom the thoughts of all God's saints were set, it is only natural that the fashion of His face should alter, His raiment become as white as snow, and men of God commune with Him.1
Let us look at —
I. The Setting of the Transfiguration. II. Its Significance. III. Its Practical Suggestions.
I.
The Setting of the Transfiguration
1. " After six days," — or, as Luke in less definite language says, "About eight days after these sayings," — " he bringeth them up into a high mountain apart." The point of time at which the Transfiguration occurred is given by all the three Synoptists, and what they tell us is that at a definite point of time in the progress of His public ministry the Lord meditated deeply upon His coming death, and sought to familiarize His disciples with the idea of His atoning death, and to get some sympathy from them in regard to the idea of that death. When He broke the news of it to them first, Peter resisted the idea, saying, " Be it far from thee, Lord : this shall never be unto thee," and with pain and distress Jesus saw that Peter was at this time out of sympathy with the idea of His suffering for him. Six days passed. We do not know how these six days were filled up. It may be that they were filled up by patient conversation between our Lord and His disciples as to the place which this atoning death of His should occupy in the whole scheme of God's dealings with men. It may be that He set forth to them the relation of the previous efforts of God for men, symbolized by the life-work of Moses and Elijah.