‘toil and turmoil of earth, from the business and bustle of the world, from the sorrows and sufferings of this mortal life and strife. There, too, was enjoyment of the unclouded sunshine and untroubled rest of heaven. There was a ravishing foretaste of the joys of heaven. No wonder, then, that Peter proposed to perpetuate the happi- ness, continue the enjoyment, and carry on the fellowship, erecting tabernacles and dwelling on the mount. But, on the other hand, there was something selfish, if not exclusive, in the proposal, for he was leaving behind his friends and fellow-worshippers on the plain below; he was speaking in forgetfulness of the bodies of the saints that slept ; he was acting unreasonably in requiring Moses to forsake the Divine presence, after the uninterrupted enjoyment thereof during fifteen centuries, for a tent-like dwelling, and Elijah to forget the car of fire in which he had gone up, and now abide below ; he was strangely overlooking the recent subject of discourse with which Moses and Elijah had been so occupied—the decease that was to be accomplished, the death to be endured, the redemption to be effected, the sacrifice to be offered, and the salvation to be procured. In entire obliviousness of, or indifference to, all this, his proposal was to forestall the future and have a present heaven upon earth. In momentary rapture he forgot he was still in a scene of pilgrimage and in a state of sojourn; he forgot he was a stranger in a strange land, which was neither his rest nor his home, and where no abiding city is to be found. He forgot that the Christian’s life is a journey ; and what traveller can reach his destination without the toil of travelling? He forgot life is a race; and where is the racer who is rewarded without a struggle, and who, without running, yet obtains the prize? He forgot that life is a warfare, in which a fight, a hard fight, is to be fought before the combat is ended and the conqueror crowned, It is only when we shall have fought the good fight, and finished our course, and kept the faith, that we may say with Paul, “ Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of glory, which God, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day.” But Peter wist not what (AaAfcy) he should speak; he wist not even what he (Aéye:) actually does say; so enraptured was he with delight, so carried out of himself by the extraordinary occurrence, and so bewildered with terror at the same time. 3. Due in part to sleep, Farther, and finally, they had been “heavy with slsep,” but either kept awake thiough? out it, or awoke after an interval, or rather started all at once into perfect wakefulness, now wide awake and fully alive to all that was seen or said. They had been asleep, wrapped perhaps in their abbas, according to Oriental fashion, on the ground, when the celestial light, bursting upon them, roused them thoroughly so as to witness all that transpired. 4. Miscellaneous remarks. (1) The disciples thought this was the pre- dic coming of Elijah, but our Lord corrects their mistake, and tells them he had already come in the person of John the Baptist ; and as the prediction relating to John has been fulfilled, a fortiori will the prediction of Messiah’s sufferings be fulfilled. Thus the seemingly awkward clause, “and how it is written of the Son of man,” is best explained (a) as a parenthetic exposition of the preceding clause, and an a fortiori confirmation of the succeeding one. There is, however, (6) another explanation which takes “how” as directly interrogatory ; thus, “ But how is it written of the Son of man ? inat he must suffer many things, and be set at nought ; ” so that, after the coming of Elijah had been stated, ‘he object of Messiah’s coming is specified by way of question and answer: “ For what purpose is it written that Messiah cometh?” In order that he may come to suffer as a malefactor, not to conquer as a warrior. (2) The apostles were sorely puzzled about “the rising from the dead.” This does not refer to the general doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which must have been known to them and believed by them; but they regarded that resurrection as far off, and understood, and rightly understood, our Lord to speak of a resurrection near at hand, affecting himself in some mysterious way which they did not then comprehend, and which they were
48 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on.1x. 1—650.
only convinced of by that wondrous event itself when it actually occurred. (3) The conversation before and the miracle after the Transfiguration are equally recorded by all three synoptists. In the narrative the prostration through fear is peculiar to St. Matthew ; the subject of conversation to St. Luke, as we have seen; while the sudden departure of the heavenly visitants, and the perplexed questioning about the risi from the dead, are only related by St. Mark. (4) His teaching henceforth turn towards the cross; while his miracles between this and his passion were confined to five.—J. J. G.
Vers. 14—29, Parallel passages: Matt. xvii. 14—21; Luke ix. 37—43.— Healing of a demoniac youth, after the disciples’ failure, I, Steixina contrast. We can scarcely imagine a greater contrast than that which is here presented between the Scene on the mountain and that in the plain below—the tranquillity of the one, the tumult of the other; the calm repose of the one, the unrest of the other; the blessedness of the one, the distress of the other; the gladness of the one, the sadness of the other; the glory of the one, the gloominess of the other; the heavenly quietude of the one, the unseemly wrangling of the other; the happiness of the one, the
i of the other; the ecstatic rapture of the one, the excruciating pain of the other; the confidence and comfort of the one, the disputatious unbelief oh ile other. The contrast was just that which we can couceive to exist between the holiness of — heaven and the sinfulness of earth. The contrast is transferred to the canvas and made visible and palpable in the great picture of “The Transfiguration,” by Raphael.
IL. Duscarprioy oF THE ILLNESS. This illness may be distributed into three elements—the supernatural, the natural so called, and the periodical. By the super- natural we understand the demoniac possession. This poor boy was under the influence of a foul and fiendish spirit that made him deaf and Aden The natural element, if natural may be applied in any sense to a state that is abnormal and unnatural because the result of sin, consists in the fearful manifestations, consisting of epileptic fits, madness, convulsions, grinding the teeth, foaming at the mouth, and pining away, The periodical element is the fitful paroxysms, the crises of which were synchronous with the changes of the moon, so that “demoniac ” and “ lunatic” were both applied, aud properly applied, to this peculiar case.