Part 7 (1/2)

”The fas.h.i.+on of His countenance was altered.” ”His face did s.h.i.+ne as the sun.” ”His garments became exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them,” ”white as the light,” ”glistering,” ”dazzling.”

”Behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him.” How did the disciples know the Lawgiver and the Prophet? We are not told.

There may have been given them some supernatural powers of discernment.

They may have known by the conversation between Jesus and His celestial visitants, as, in earthly language with heavenly tone, they ”spoke of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem,” of which He had told them on the plain below.

It was that Moses who fifteen hundred years before came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the law in his hands, when Aaron and the children of Israel stood in awe before His s.h.i.+ning face. But now He had come, not from the mount which Paul describes as ”darkness,” but unto that other whose snowy whiteness has given it the name of Lebanon. He had come from Heaven, to yield homage to Him to whom He would sing with us,

”My dear Redeemer and my Lord, I read my duty in Thy Word; But in Thy life the Law appears, Drawn out in living Characters.”

”The children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon Moses for the glory of His face.” In the ”excellent glory” by which Peter describes the scene on Hermon, the whole figure of His Lord was bathed in light.

But the glory of that vision was not yet complete. A cloud, brighter than any on which the moon was s.h.i.+ning, enwrapped Jesus and Moses and Elijah. It was no other than the Shechinah, once more returning to the earth,--”the symbol of Jehovah's presence.”

This cloud overshadowed the disciples. As its light gleamed upon them, they were filled with reverential fear. They were ready to do the heavenly visitors immediate and humble service. But the mission of the two was ended. Their last words of comfort to Jesus had been spoken. If they could be detained, it must be done quickly. So, awed and confused by the strange vision, yet longing for its continuance, the disciples, Peter being the spokesman, proposed to make booths for their Master and His two heavenly visitors. But the two had gone, and the crown of glory that had enveloped them spread to the disciples, filling them with yet increasing awe. The silence that had followed Peter's call was broken.

”There came a voice out of the cloud, This is My Beloved Son; hear ye Him.” Startled by such a response, ”they fell on their face and were sore afraid.” They did not dare to look about them. The Cloud of Glory lifted. How long they lay prostrate and trembling, we do not know.

At last a hand gently touched them. It was the hand of Jesus. His voice bid them, ”Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no man, save Jesus only.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TRANSFIGURATION _Old Engraving_ Page 106]

The Transfiguration was over. Its grand purpose was accomplished. Master and disciples were prepared for the labors and trials to which they must return. The night ended. As the morning sun glistened on the peaks of Hermon, while darkness yet overspread the plain below, Jesus descended with the three, to the nine awaiting their return.

”And as they were coming down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, save when the Son of Man should have risen again from the dead. And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the raising again from the dead should mean.”

Peter's and John's memories of that vision of their Lord were ever distinct and precious. When it was no longer a secret, Peter wrote in ecstasy of the hour in which they ”were eyewitnesses of His majesty, ...

when they were with Him in the holy mount.”

Let us notice the record by John. In the beginning of his gospel he says ”The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” By this he means that the Son of G.o.d became a man, and lived among men who witnessed His life. But of all the events of that life which John had seen, there was a special one in his mind, which not all men had witnessed. So he adds, ”We beheld His glory.” This probably refers to the Transfiguration and the Shechinah, which he and Peter and James had seen. And then he thinks of how much greater Jesus was than John the Baptist, ”a man sent from G.o.d,” ”to bear witness of” Him. He thinks also of the great Lawgiver of whom he says, ”the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

We imagine that ever after the Transfiguration, John thought of Moses and the Shechinah together. Had he with his companions been permitted to build three tabernacles or booths, ”one for Moses,” what delightful visits John would have made him there, like that one which he had made in the abode of Jesus on the banks of the Jordan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOSES ON MT. PISGAH _Artist Unknown_ Page 109]

I seem to hear Moses telling John something of his own history when on the earth, and teaching him lessons from it in words like these: ”This is not the first time I have heard the Lord's voice, from out this cloud of glory. Out of the burning bush He called me, 'Moses, Moses.' At Sinai He said, 'Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud.' And again He appeared in 'a pillar of a cloud,' and said, 'Behold thou shall sleep with thy fathers.' I saw not that cloud again on earth until you beheld it. My thoughts were about death. I prayed about it, not as your Master and mine has done in preparation therefor, but that I might not then die.

This was my prayer: 'Let me go over I pray Thee and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon,'--the very mountain where we now are. But the Lord would not hear me. I prayed yet again more earnestly, and the Lord said unto me, 'Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.' From yonder mountain of Nebo He showed me all the land we now see from Hermon; and then I died. The Lord buried me in yonder land of Moab. No man knoweth my sepulchre unto this day. I died, my great hope of forty years disappointed. My repeated earnest prayer was ungranted then, but it has not been unanswered. This 'goodly' Lebanon, to which I looked from Nebo with longing eyes, is more 'goodly' now than when it sadly faded from my dying vision. You, John, are one of the witnesses to the answer to my dying prayer. Never did the Shechinah at h.o.r.eb, or Sinai, or the Tabernacle, seem so resplendent as on this Mount Hermon. Here it has enwrapped Elijah and me, the favored two whose mission Gabriel might have envied. We were sent down from heaven to talk with Jesus concerning His death, of which He has told you. In view of it He has lead you, the favored three hither to pray.

It was while He prayed that ye 'beheld His glory.' Not only for me, but much more for Him, is Hermon _the_ mount--'The Holy Mount,' because the mount of Prayer, and therefore the mount of Transfiguration.”

_CHAPTER XVII_

_St. John's Imperfections_

”Master, we saw one casting out demons in Thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us.”--_John._

”Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?”--_James and John._

”Grant us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand, in Thy glory.”--_James and John._

”And when the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation concerning James and John.”--_Mark_ x. 41.