all sides but that towards the south. From this there was an extensive view of the "land flowing with milk and honey." E. Now I shall fancy the history better. Mamma, I was thinking as I read those verses to you, how good it was of the Lord Jesus to allow Peter to be one of the three who saw these glorious things. I see now that He is very ready to forgive. M. It is indeed a remarkable proof of our Lord's compassion for the errors of His disciples, that Peter should be the first among the three who were chosen to see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom,—to behold Him already in His royal majesty. Nor did the favoured Apostle ever forget the lesson which he now learnt. Long after this he speaks of it as a most convincing proof of Christ's glory. You will see, if you turn to his Second Epistle, that he says to the Churches to whom he wrote, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For He received from God the Father glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” Here then our Lord began to fulfil His promise, that He would exhibit, to some then present, proofs of His kingly power, even before they should taste of death. Now we begin to understand what He then meant. On the mount of transfiguration He made them, as St. Peter says, "eye-witnesses of his majesty." Great, you know, were the trials to which their faith was ere long to be exposed; but firm were the grounds on which it was to rest. Should it ever for a moment be shaken, how would one thought of that excellent glory strengthen and refresh it! Consider what a wonderful sight it must have been !-the person of Christ transfigured, and the fashion of His countenance altered, so that His face did shine as the sun: whilst even His garments, so poor and mean, became exceeding glorious. The Evangelists seem as if they could not find words to describe the brightness of their appearance. One says, "His raiment was white and glistering," like lightning; another, that it "became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could white them ;" a third, that "it was white as the light." What then must be our Lord's glory in heaven, if a glimpse of it upon earth was so overpowering! And there talked with Him two men Moses and Elias,-individuals who had once dwelt among the trials and sorrows of this mortal life, and endured affliction with the people of God: but they too appeared now in glory. The servants of Christ are glorified as well, though not so much, as their Master. Even their bodies are sacred, and safe in the care of God. You may remember that neither of these highly favoured individuals had departed life in the usual way. Moses had died alone in the mount; and none of his friends were permitted to take charge of his earthly remains. They were not allowed to lay them with honour in the grave, and they might have feared that they were destroyed for ever: but the Lord buried Moses; the Lord preserved the remains of His faithful servant, and he now ap pears more glorious far than when he once came down from the mount after conversing so long with God. Here is sweet consolation for those who are obliged to lay their loved friends in the dust, and give up those forms so precious in their sight, to become the food of the loathsome worm. Though mortal, they have not perished for ever, but shall spring up again from the dust, only infinitely more glorious for this temporary defilement. "Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Nor had Elijah's chariot of fire guided him amiss: hidden, it soon was, from mortal sight, but only by clouds of ineffable glory: it had borne him safely to the bosom of his God; from whence he had now come, for a little moment, to minister to the consolation and honour of the Son of man. E. I wonder whether there was any other reason why Moses and Elijah should have been the chosen two to appear with our Lord upon the mount? M. Perhaps because Moses had been the giver of the law, and Elijah the chief of all the prophets. Their appearance now reminds us, how the law and the prophets both led to Christ, and how both were to be accomplished and fulfilled in Him. Add to this, both Moses and Elijah were distinguished servants of God in very trying times; and we know where it is said, "They that honour me I will honour." In this world the servants of God may often be in heaviness through manifold trials; but when Christ our Lord shall appear again in glory, we too, if we cleave to Him now, shall be like Him, and shall see Him as He is, more glorious still than when He manifested Himself to His disciples on the mount of transfigura tion. How should the knowledge of His glory, and the hope of being glorified with Him, support and animate us under the transient trials of this world, however severe they may sometimes be! How must the glimpse of heaven's glory, which was granted to these three disciples, have encouraged them, and through them, all the rest of His followers, notwithstanding what our Saviour had said of His approaching sufferings! How sure must it have made them feel of that resurrection of which He had also spoken! They saw now how great and glorious in Himself their Divine Master was, however He might submit for a time to reproach, and suffering, and death; they had a visible manifestation of His royal, His divine "Majesty." E. You said, Mamma, that Moses and Elijah talked with Christ. I wonder what they talked about? They point con- M. What indeed, my child, in the midst of all this glory was the subject on which these glorified saints conversed? It was none other than that which occupies the redeemed spirits around the throne of God for ever. "They spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." The Law and the Prophets together testify of Christ. tinually to the redemption which the accomplish for a fallen world. They speak of His triumphs over the enemy. They speak too of His death. Such had formerly been the best part of the office of Moses. Such too had been the great object of the prophets, of whom Elijah was the chief. And now on the mount of Transfiguration they read us the same lesson; "they speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." In the midst of His glory they spake of His death! They speak of it as the foundation of all their glory, as the sacrifice to which they are indebted for the blessings, as we are for the blessed hopes, of heaven. St. Chrysostom a most holy and eloquent writer whom Papa will teach you to read and to love, I hope, some day, has remarked that Christ never spake of His sufferings but after some great miracle, and our own excellent Bishop Hall has some very beautiful thoughts on this subject. He says, "A strange opportunity to talk of His passion! In His highest exaltation to speak of His sufferings, to talk of Calvary on Tabor! When His head shone with glory, to tell Him it must bleed with thorns! When His face shone like the sun, to tell Him it must be spit upon ! When His garments glistened with that celestial brightness, to tell Him they must be stripped and divided! When He was seen between two saints, to tell Him He must be seen between two malefactors. In a word, in the midst of His divine Majesty, to tell Him of His shame, and whilst He was transfigured on the mount, to tell Him that He must be disfigured upon the cross. Yet these two heavenly prophets found this the fittest time for this discourse; choosing rather to speak of His sufferings in the height of His glory, than of His glory after His sufferings." And so it is good for us in the midst of happiness, to remember that sorrow may come: in the midst of health, to think of sickness: in the midst of life, to think of death! It was good for the Apostles, even on the mount of Transfiguration, to hear still of those sufferings which Christ had already spoken of in the plain below. |