The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 25

with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." That great sight was to prepare them for the awful agony that was to follow. God gives from time to time glimpses of the blessedness of heaven to bis saints• the Saviour manifests himself to his chosen as he doth not unto the world. And som'etimes those who are most highly favoured with the vision of his love are called to be in a special manner partakers of his suffering, to bear about with them in the body the dyincr o( the Lord Jesus. But the three apostles did not only behold the glory as of the o''nly Begotten from the Father; a further heavenly witness was vouchsafed. A voice uttered by the excellent glory was borne out of the bright cloud to the transficrured Lord; H was borne along towards him, as if riding on the cherubim, flyincr o~ the wings of the wind; it came like a living thing, a strange startling reality, a v~ice such as no other man had heard except the holy Baptist. Borne along in majestic course it came to the transfigured Jesus, and recognized him as the eternal Son. "This j; my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased." None other than God the Father could have uttered that voice; the emphatic I (eyd,) announced his presence. He was well pleased in the adorable Son; ever from all eternity bad the love of the Father beamed upon the everlasting Son of God. Now, in his i!icamation, in his voluntary humiliation, the Father was well pleased; he had declared his good pleasure at the baptism, he declared it again at the Transfiguration. The Lord Jesus might be despised and rejected of men; he was owned by the Lord God Omnipotent as the Son of God most holy. And surely, as God was well pleased in him who humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, so he is well pleased now with those to whom the only begotten Son bath given power to become the children of God, when they abase themselves, when they learn of the Lord Christ humility and submission of will, and pray in his holy words, "Father, not my will, but thine be done." The chosen three heard that august voice as it was borne from heaven; they heard it, as the emphatic .;,µ.Eis signifies, themselves, with their own ears; there was no room for doubt, no possibility of error. The voice was borne from heaven; it was borne to Christ; the three chosen witnesses heard it, as they were with him in the holy mount. We have their testimony, the testimony of eye-witnesses, who declare unto us that which they saw and heard. The witnesses were men whose truthfulness could not be impeached. They had nothing to gain in this world, but everything to lose; all were persecuted, two of them suffered the death of martyrdom. We may well thank God for the strength and certainty of the evidence of Christianity. 4. The testimony of prophecy. The Law and the prophets testified of Christ. 'l'he Lord himself appealed to that testimony when, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded the things concerning himself" (Luke xxiv. 27). All the varied testimony of all the prophets converges in the Person of Christ, and finds its fulfilment there. No other deliverer has arisen answering to ancient prediction ; in the Lord Christ only meet all the voices of the prophets. Many recognized the power of this testimony in apostolical times: the eunuch who was reading the great prophecy of Isaiah when Philip drew near to his chariot; the multitudes who listened to the apostles as they persuaded them out of the prophets, witnessing, as they did a.gain and again, that "all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." This testimony of the prophets, so convincing in itself, so especially woighty and sacred to Hebrew believers, was rendered surer by the most august and authoritative of all testimonies, the direct testimony of God the Father, given in the voice that was borne from heaven. None who heard that voice could entertain one moment's doubt that the Lord Jesus was indeed he "of whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write." 6. The value and use of prophecy. It is good to give heed to prophecy, to study the prophetic Word. The external evi- dences of our religion are very helpful to inquirers arter truth; ancient prophecy is an important factor of those external evidences. It is like a lamp that shineth in a dark place. The world is e. dark dreary place; we could not find the strait path and narrow way that leadeth unto life without the guiding light of the holy Word of God, 'l'he heart is a dark place, gloomy, dry, and squalid, when it is not illumined by the Holy Spirit of God. In that dark place the light of prophecy shincth. It guided the steps of many an anxious inquirer in the early days of Christianity; doubtless the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah led many tboughtf\u men, besides tho II, Pl!:TEII, 0  18 THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. [on. 1, 1-21