Lord, purge our eyes to see Within the seed a tree.
Within the glowing egg a bird, Within the shroud a butterfly.
Till taught by such, we see Beyond all creatures Thee,
And hearken for Thy tender word, And hear it, "Fear not: it is I."*
» J. I. Vance, Tendency, 214. » F. W. Lewis, The Work of Christ, 139.
■ Christina G. Roasetti.
I JOHN III. 2 285
11.
The Tkansfigukation of Chakacter.
1. Much concerning our destiny yet remains unrevealed. The Gospel is a light shining on the dark shore of eternity, like the lighthouse that gleams on a dark and stormy coast, to reveal the haven to the ocean-tossed mariner. It shines afar over the swelling flood, but only penetrating a darkness it was never intended to expel. It reveals to us almost nothing of the land to which we go, but only the way to reach it. It does nothing to answer the thousand questions which we would ask about that world, but it tells us how we may see it with our own eyes. It tells the mariner there is a haven there, and how he may reach it, and no more. It does not tell us all about the past, about our own mysterious being, or where in the wide range of the Divine dominions will be the sinless paradise of the redeemed; but it would guide us to God's holy hill and tabernacle, where in His light we may see light, and where what is now obscure may become as clear as noonday.
^ There is a sublime reticence in Scripture. The man who was nearer than all others to the Source of eternal life is content to say, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be " ! I think this is a typical silence — typical of the whole Bible. Men often say that the evidence of the Bible is the things it tells us. Doubtless that is one evidence. But I have often thought there is another — the things it does not tell us. The speech of the Bible may be golden, but its silence is at least silver. Many a book professing to bring tidings from God would have mistaken imaginings for realities, would have published the dreams of the heart as the very descriptions of heaven. The Bible commits no such mistake. Its reticence is sublime, as sublime as that of the starry sky. Enoch speaks not in his translation moment. Elijah speaks not in his chariot of fire. Lazarus speaks not in his hour of resurrection. The child of Jairus speaks not on her bed of revival. The youth of Nain speaks not from his arrested bier. Moses alone does speak from beyond the grave ; but it is not of the things beyond ; it is of the things " to be accomplished at Jerusalem." ^
^ 6. Mathesou, Leaves for Quiet Hours, 286.
286 WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE SHALL BE
I know not where that city lifts
Its jasper walls in air, I know not where the glory beams,
So marvellously fair.
I cannot see the waving hands
Upon that farther shore; I cannot hear the rapturous song
Of dear ones gone before :
But dimmed and blinded earthly eyes,
Washed clear by contrite tears, Sometimes catch glimpses of the light
From the eternal years.
2. This we know — we shall be like Him. Jesus Christ was transfigured before His disciples. That was a glorious manifesta- tion, and when the three privileged disciples who beheld His glory on the Mount were permitted to do so, when the period of enjoined silence had passed, they testified to that glory in glowing words. And here we are told by one of their number that Jesus Christ's disciples are to be transfigured, not now and here, but in the future life, at the termination of the present dispensation, at His appearing or coming. We are told that in that day they shall be like Him, like Him whose face when He was transfigured was like the sun, and whose raiment was white and glistering, and who will come forth in His second appearing in His own glory and in the glory of His Father and of the holy angels. In that day His disciples shall be glorified together with Him. Not all men, but His disciples, they who have received Him, who believe on His Name, and to whom He gives power to become the sons of God.
*[| Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, being killed in the battle of Lutzen, left only a daughter, Christina, six years of age. A general assembly, consisting of deputations from the nobles, the clergy, the burghers and the peasants of Sweden, was summoned to meet at Stockholm. Silence being proclaimed, the Chancellor rose. "We desire to know," said he, "whether the people of Sweden will take the daughter of our dead King Gustavus Adolphus to be their queen."
" Who is this daughter of Gustavus ? " asked an old peasant. " We do not know her. Let her be shown to us."
I JOHN III. 2 287
Then Christina was brought into the hall and placed before the old peasant. He took Christina up in his arms and gazed earnestly into her face. He had known the great Gustavus well, and his heart was touched when he saw the likeness which the little girl bore to that heroic monarch. " Yes," cried he, with the tears gushing down his furrowed cheeks ; " this is truly the daughter of our Gustavus ! Here is her father's brow ! Here is his piercing eye ! She is his very picture ! This child shall be our queen ! " ^