' J. E. Roberts.
240 IN FASHION OR IN FAVOUR
had in it the veiy radiance of heaven, and of which it might be said without exaggeration that it was " as it had been the face of an angel " ? Did you never see goodness making men and women beautiful ? Did you never see some noble emotion stamp its own nobility on the countenance, and seem to dilate a man's very form and figure, and make the weakest like an angel of God ? Have there not been other faces like the face of Moses, which shone as he came down from the Mount of Communion with God? Or, as Milton puts it,
Oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind.
Even as the fashion of His countenance was altered, so the inner life of Christ, deep and true in a man's heart, will write its presence in his countenance, and show how awful and how blessed goodness is.^
^ Do you remember the scene in Roderick Hudson, a story written by Henry James ? The hero, who is a young artist, has wandered to Eome, and there drifted into a life of selfish in- dulgence. But far away from the old American home a mother's prayers had followed him. Her absent boy made her forget self in those moments when she kneeled at the throne of Grace ; then face and soul become strangely plastic. She was conscious of no change as the years sped, hut when at last she crossed the ocean in search of her son, and they met in the foreign city, the artist asked in surprise : " What has happened to your face ? It has changed its expression." " Your mother has prayed a great deal," she replied. " Well, it makes a good face," answered the artist. " It has very fine lines in it." ^
3. Now, how is this transfiguration to take place in our lives ? We are not left in doubt as to the power which is to produce the change. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind ; the change must begin within ; we must invoke spiritual influences, power from on high. It will not be denied us if we seek it. " Ask, and ye shall receive." We must not begin trying to correct outward habits till we have implored inward grace. We must believe that the Holy Spirit is willing to make His abode in our hearts.
•fl Have you ever thought about the large place the New Testament gives to our mind ? In the very next verse to this ^ A, Maclaren. ' A. G. Mackinnon.
ROMANS XII. 2 241
St. Paul goes on to say, " For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think ; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith." That is characteristic of New Testament teaching. " Set your mind on the things that are above." When St. Peter was try- ing to lead Jesus Christ into temptation, Jesus said to him, " Thou miudest not the things of God." And when St. Paul is describing people who are alienated from God, he says they " mind earthly things." You and I become like the things we think about. If we let our mind be a caravansary for all sorts of evil thoughts, we shall become evil. If we iix our mind upon worldly things, we shall become worldly. If we fix our mind upon things that are above, where Christ is, we shall become like Christ. We grow like the things we think about, and the renewing of the mind means that there is implanted in our heart, if we will have it so, a Divine power that will enable us to think about the things that have praise and virtue until we are changed into their image. We can be transformed by the renewing of our mind.^
% The real secret of a transfigured life is a transmitted life — Somebody else living in us, with a capital S for that Somebody, looking out of our eyes, giving His beauty to our faces, and His winningness to our personality .^
III.
The Motive.
" That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God."
1. These remarkable words give the reason or motive why those to whom St. Paul wrote should seek for such a change. The meaning of the words is this : that we may, each one in our own experience, prove — that is, make proof of — that will of God which is good, and acceptable, and perfect.
^ Good, acceptable, perfect. These adjectives may either qualify the " will of God " as in the Authorized Version, or be in apposi- tion to it, as in the Picvised Version margin. The latter con- struction agrees better with the rhythm of the sentence. The will of God is identified with what is " good " in the moral sense ; 1 J. E. Roberts. 2 S. D. Gordon.