III.
The Transformation.
This is the effect of beholding the glory of the Lord: "We are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." When any man, learned or unlearned, high or low, in sincerity and simplicity, turns his mind and heart to the glory of Jesus, he is transformed, he receives the impress of the glory. There is nothing unreasonable about it. In some respects it comes within the plane of common experience. All life that is simple and sincere is plastic. You can mould it. You can shape it. And all life that presents itself to the Lord Jesus as simple and sincere is plastic, and the glorified Jesus is impressive, and like a
1 Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Dee}).
2 COR. III. 1 8 95
seal on wax He conveys His glory to the mind and heart of those submitted to Him. And we are to be not merely transfigured but transformed, a very much deeper word. It is not that the Lord Jesus just sheds a lovely light on us. It is not merely that when we contemplate the glory a brilliant glow falls upon us like sunlight upon the waste. The glorified Lord does not regild us ; He refashions us. We change into the same image, and that word image means stuff of His stuff; quality of His quality; partakers of the Divine nature ; new creations in Christ Jesus.
Once let us learn to know ourselves and we cry with Seneca, " I would I were not so much bettered as transformed." Like Job, who had heard of God " with the hearing of the ear," and then beheld Him with open eyes, we "abhor" ourselves and "repent in dust and ashes." Nothing but a change that will remake us, and restore the beauty which has been defaced by sin, will satisfy a conscience which confesses with Isaiah, "Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." It is not enough that character should be patched up into a pitiable semblance of what it ought to be ; it is not enough that we should be, as it were, made up to act in the drama of life, carrying the while a corrupt soul within. The springs of evil are in our very natures, welling up from the depths of thought and will. The stream must be cleansed at the fountain, if it is to become pure ; the heart smitten with disease must be healed, if the life is to be made whole. Transformation is the only reasonable — nay, the only possible — way to attain to the holiness which must be ours if we are ever to live and walk in fellowship with God. This thought is constantly coming to the surface in St. Paul's Epistles. " Be ye transformed," he says, " by the renewing of your mind." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, they are become new." "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." The same idea of a complete transformation of character is present in the mind of St. John when, looking forward to the final perfecting of the saints in light, he says, " We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." With St. Paul there is a gradual change taking place in the experience of life ; his verb is in the present tense, "We are being transformed."
96 TRANSFORMED BY BEHOLDING
With St. John the process has reached its climax in the open vision of Heaven.
^ In every eye that beholds the flame of the lamp there is a little lamp-flame mirrored and manifested. And just as what we see makes its image on the seeing organ of the body, so the Christ beheld is a Christ embodied in us ; and we, gazing upon Him, are " changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit." 1
^ It is a truism that we grow, slowly but surely, into the likeness of the people we admire and deliberately associate with. Even physical nearness seems to have the effect of making two people look alike, but those who are living in close spiritual fellowship cannot fail to grow in similarity of soul. And of course the stronger nature draws the weaker into ever closer touch with it. That is the reason why it is very important to be par- ticular in one's choice of friends. As Moberley says, we gain un- speakably from friendship with those who are " exceptionally and conspicuously beautiful," One who lives continually in the sun- shine of God's presence cannot fail to reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord. To choose Christ as one's dearest Friend is to mould the whole life — not only consciously but unconsciously — into His image. The transformation is slow but sure ; working, as every life does, from within outwards. No one can deliberately and consciously lean back on God for years, without being transformed by His Spirit. He pours love, joy and peace into a soul that is careful to keep the avenues of communication open. One who keeps in touch with God can go out into the world and inspire his fellows, for the very Life of God is pouring through him into them. No one can walk with God, eagerly and persistently, with- out helping others to see His face more clearly.