The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 239

Iulo communion with tho High e.ncl Holy under the commission of the Moat Highest, 0110, e. new e.ncl etwnge benuty. Very many kept alight the t.orch or the know led~e of hnve noticed at times this peculiar and the one true Goel. And (2) because theao lovely olmuge pass over the faces of God's men alone of the race of Israel apparently true sninte ne they prayed-faces perhaps olcl had kept thoir earthly bodies as the ahrin, •a ancl withered, grey with years and wriukled of tLeir immortal spirit;,.. l\1ijnh, we know, with oe.re. A yet highor degreo of trans- wns tranolated ali1,e into the other and the flguration through communion with God is grander world; and as for Mo,es, God, hie recorded in the case of Moses, whoAe face, l,~avenly Friend, closed his eyes, and then after he had been with his God-Friend on hicl his body from mortal sight, and, the the mount, shone with so Dright a glory mysterious words of J nde ( ver. 9) would thnt mortnl eye could not benr to gaze on it seem to tell us, from mortal corruption. until the re.dianoe began to fade nway. A And apake of his deceaae which he should 1imile.r che.nge is recorded to have ta.ken accomplish at Jerusalem. Why Wfis thu plnoo in the cnse of Stephen when he pleaded the chosen subject of the august conference his Divine Master's cause in the Sanhedrin between the Lord and the heavenly pair? he.II at Jerusalem with such rapt eloquence (I) In all reverence we may feel that one that to the by-standers his face then, we renaon for the visit of these blessed spirits read, "we.a as the fe.ce of nn angel." Stephen on that solemn night was the strengthening told •his audience later on, in the course of the sinless Sufferer him,elf. The vista -that earnest and impe.ssi0necl pleading, that which lay immediately before Jesus, or to him the very heavens were opened, and rejection, desertion, the death of agony, and that his eyes were positively gnzing ou tLe the clreadFul sufferings whio:h preceded it, beatific vision. Yet a step higher still was -all this had been very present before him this transfiguration of onr Lord. St. Luke lately. He had dwelt upon these thinga, tells us siwply that, "a.a he prayed, the we know, to his own. He had pondered fashion of his countenance was altered." St. over them, no donbt, ortcn when alone. It Matthew tells us how it was altered when was not only in Gethsemane that his ·• soul he writes that "his countenance shone as was sorrowful even nnto death." As in tha the sun." And his raiment was white and garden-agony "appeared to him an angel glistering; literally, lightening jOTth, as if from heaven strengthening him," so hne from so!lle inward source of glorious light. on the mount came to him these glorified The earthly robes were so beautined by spir,te for the same ble,;sed purpose of contact with this Divine light that hume.n ministering. And (2) it was to help the le.nguage is exhausted by the evangelists to three disciples. Their wavering fo.itu would find terms and metaphors to picture them. surely be strengthened if thA words which Bt. Matthew compares these ~arments of they heard from those heavenly visit,rnts the Blessed Oue to light; St. Mark, to the dwelt with reverent a.we and admiration nn Bnow; St. Luke, to the flashing lightning. the circumstances of their Mn.'lter's self- Ver. 30.-And, behold, th·ere talked with sacrificing career of agony and suff<cring. him two men, whioh were Moses and Elias; It most be remembered that a few days literally, there were tallcing. Evidently earlier they had listened to him, when hc1 these two glorified beings htl.d. been con- spoke to them of these things, with shrink- versing witll Jesus some time before the ing terror and incredulous amazement. three apostles, heavy with sleep, he.d noticed They would now know what was thougLt their presence; wearied and tired, slumLer of all this in the courts of heaven. had overtaken them; we are not told how Ver. 32.-And the two men that etmd long they slept. The glorious light which with him. It has been llBked-How did 1he environed them and the murmur of voices disciples know the names "hich those probably roused them, and in aFter-days glorified ones had once borne? Three they kcounted whut, after they were awake, replies are at least probuole. (I) They they saw, and something of whnt they heard. may have heard thdr Master ndrlress thc·m Ver. 31.-Who appeared in glory. Why by their old earthly uames. (2) In subsc- were these two ohosen as the Lord's com- q ueut co11verst1tions the Lord may hnvi, ponions on that solemn night? Probably disclosl'd them to the three. (3) ls it nat (I) Leca use they wero what may be tormed a very thinkable thought tlJat tl,e blessed lho two great ropresentative men of the bear upon their spirit-forms their old oh11een raoe of Israel. Tile ono we.a the individuality transfigur0<l and gloril1e,I? humun nnthor of the Divine Lnw whioh for "'ere suoh e. vision vouchsafed to oa, should so nmny centuries had been the guide e.n<l wo not in a. moment recognize l:l Peter. _. teacher of the oovetrnnt people. The other Mary, or a Paul? hRd been tile most iilusl.dous or that great Ver. 33.-And 1t came to pass, as t:i.~y or<ll·r of prophots who, dnrillg llrn rellti1ries departed from him, Peter said unto J cs•1s, of thnir creutful 1,ilitury ,i.s u naliou, liad, Master, it is good for us to bo h~!"e, a"1d  240 'l'TIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [on. 1x. 1--62.