A change most astonishing hath come over him. He who had walked with them in the simple attire of poverty, is now clothed with light as with a garment. The splendor of his own glorified form shines through his raiment, rendering it "exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them." A radiance not of earth encircles him, and a light above that of the meridian sun, beams from his countenance. Two shining ones are his companions. The amazed disciples, recovering from their first astonishment, discover these mysterious visitants, from their conversation, to be Moses and Elijah. Both exhibit their reverence for the glorified Jesus. Thus the law. and the prophets bear witness to him. He who brought the law of God from Sinai's quaking summit, and he who vindicated that law amid a generation wholly given to idolatry, now pay homage to Him, the great end and object of their prophetic and typical ministrations. And a still mightier testimony is given: "A bright cloud," the symbol of the divine presence, the same which had been wont to dwell in the holy place of the tabernacle, overshadowed the awe-struck disciples. "And a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him." Thus was Jesus manifested in his glory-shown in his unapproachable

* Mark ix. 3.

superiority to the chiefest of God's ancient servants; exhibited as the great object of attention and reverence to those whom Israel counted as the most honored of their prophets; confessed, by the Almighty voice, as the Son of the living God, to whom all must now hearken and obey. The three disciples witness somewhat of the inherent majesty of that Master, who was wont to treat them with such condescending kindness. They see how deep his humiliation in assuming the likeness of sinful man; to how vast an eclipse his glory is subjected, in hi o dinary appearance among mortals. They have a foretaste of his future manifestation. They can now better understand what he means when he speaks of "the Son of man coming in his glory." There is presented an impressive image of that his great appearing to judge the quick and the dead. For on the one side is Elijah, who never tasted death, but was borne heavenward in his car of fire, the type of those of whom the Apostle speaks: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." And, on the other side, is Moses, who submitted to the common doom of man, the type of the risen dead.

The dazzling splendors of the scene appear to have thrown the Apostle Peter into a sort of ecstacy. Ravished with the glorious vision he

would enjoy it without interruption. He would detain for ever on this mountain summit his Master, in this celestial guise, and these his mysterious visitants. "And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." "Not knowing what he said," adds St. Luke-as if the suggestion required excuse, and was to be imputed not to reflection and reason, but to trepidation and haste. It was indeed the impulse of inconsiderate rapture. It showed forgetfulness of the rebuke which he had just before received from his Master, for striving to dissuade him from the painful cross. And even the converse of Moses and Elias with his Lord, respecting the decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem, had failed to bring back to his mind the necessity of this solemn event. He had not yet become reconciled to the great mystery of a suffering Christ. And now, perceiving the real majesty of his Lord, he would not have him again lay aside his garments of glory. No! let him, as Messiah and Prince, hold his court upon Tabor, invested with dazzling splendors that would compel the world to admit his Lordship and pay him homage. Or let them continue in that ecstacy of delight, into which the contemplation of a scene so heavenly had thrown them, forgetting the world with all its grovelling

pleasures, and fruitless cares, its misery, sorrow, and corruption. "And what then, Peter, shall become of that wretched world, and its lost inhabitants? Shall the curse wherewith it was smitten continue heavy upon it? Shall unhappy mortals go down to the tomb without a friend, a helper, a Saviour? Shall sin rage and riot in unchecked triumph, and death reign without remedy?" Here too we find the suggestion of the Apostle savoring not of the things that be of God, but of the things of men. His Lord's purpose was far different. He came to earth not to shine resplendent and admired before the eyes of men, but to work out a great redemption by humiliation and suffering. Even on the Mount, he is talking with Moses and Elijah of the decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem. Speedily is this bright vision to fade-the heavenly radiance to vanish, the unearthly visitants to depart, and the Saviour and his disciples to descend to the world-the unquiet, unhappy, sinful, hostile world below. Peter must learn that the life of a true Christian is not one of mere rapture and transport, of dreamy contemplation and uninterrupted ecstacy. He must learn that the disciple of Christ is left in the world, amid its every-day trials, its temptations, its disappointments, its chilling realities, its besetments and enmities, that he may follow in his Lord's footsteps, exhibit his Lord's spirit, and do

somewhat in his Lord's strength to make that world purer, better, and happier. But to nerve the Christian for the difficulties of his warfare, to inspire him with strength, energy, and courage, what so conducive as to have been with Jesus on the Mount; to have caught some glimpses of his glory; to have been lifted up with thoughts and impressions of his celestial loveliness, and his saving grace; to realize how unspeakably exalted, how ineffably glorious, how admired and adored by all the company of Heaven, is that Redeemer whose name is written on our foreheads, and with whom we are united in bonds stronger than death? No wonder that the scene on Tabor left so deep and abiding an impression on the Apostle's mind that we find him long afterwards, and nearly at the close of his earthly sojourn, recalling it to his own mind, and to his brethren, as a most strong and undeniable confirmation of their faith in that Saviour's divine character and future Advent, "For 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 honor and 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