THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

HIS TRANSFIGURATION.

ST. MATT. xvii. 1-5.

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, "and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was trans"figured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His "raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them "Moses and Elias talking with Him. Then answered Peter, and said "unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make "here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for "Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed "them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my "beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him."

IT has been already observed that, though the Life of our Lord on earth was one of humiliation and suffering, there were occasional attestations given to His real dignity and proper glory: one instance of which we have seen in His Epiphany soon after His birth; and another is here recorded-His Transfiguration, at an advanced period of His Mission, to which I now pass as the next of the Events in His history which may be considered more peculiarly to affect Himself personally.

Let us first inquire into the import of this wonderful transaction, and afterwards into its practical bearing on ourselves and the instruction to be derived from it.

I. As to the import of a Vision so mysterious it might seem at first view that all that could be known of it is that it was designed to exhibit to view the glorified person of the Redeemer as He should be, His humiliation ended, after His ascension; and as He subsequently appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and to the beloved disciple at Patmos: to furnish an additional attestation, with these, of His glory as at once Son of God" and "Son of Man." But, on considering it more attentively, we find that we have much more defined and precise information afforded us as to its design and object; first, by our Lord Himself, and afterwards by one of the three favoured witnesses.

1. And first, our Lord had plainly intimated to the disciples what it was they were about to witness, when, in the verses next preceding (ch. xvi. 27, 28,) while encouraging them to take up His cross and follow Him, He added-"For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels ; "and then He shall reward every man according to "His works. Verily I say unto you, There be some

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standing here which shall not taste of death till "they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom:" where, that He alludes to His Transfiguration to be witnessed by three of them in a few days after-and not to His ascension as some Commentators explain; still less to the destruction of Jerusalem proposed by others, which, moreover only one of those present lived to see, is evident from the fact that these same words precede the narrative of this Vision in all the Gospels; though in two of them, here and in St. Mark (compare chap. viii. last verse, with ix. 1,) improperly separated from it by the division of the chapters; which, you need not to be informed, does not belong to the Original and (though generally speaking very useful as facilitating reference) may often be disregarded, as in this instance, with great advantage to the sense.

"The Son of Man coming in His kingdom,""His appearing and kingdom" (as St. Paul expresses it 2 Tim. iv. 1); or, in a word, His SECOND ADVent, with which His Kingdom is ever connected, —this was the event prefigured by this scene, or rather foreshown; exhibited, not so much in Type or pattern, as in actual specimen. And this is confirmed by the inspired comment (as already said) of an eyewitness, the Apostle Peter, who, speaking of that "blessed hope," says in his 2nd Epistle chap. i. 16

18, "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 honour 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." Observe "the POWER and COMING," and the "MAJESTY" therewith connected, of our Lord Jesus Christ received (the Apostle states) its corroboration and was witnessed on "the holy mount;" that is evidently the Mount of Transfiguration, as proved by "the voice" from heaven which he quotes, uttered on that occasion. Into the glory of that day the Saviour was for a while transformed; the fashion of it He temporarily assumed; of which the only description comprehensible by us that could be given is, that "His face did shine as the sun and His "raiment was white as the Light"-"shining, "C exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth "could white them." (St. Mark ix. 3).

2. "And, behold," (continues the narrative), "there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him:" to which St. Luke adds an important circumstance-" who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem."

The usual reason assigned for the selection of these two individuals in particular is doubtless a true one -that, the one representing the Law and the other the Prophets, their attendance upon Christ, taken in connexion with the command from Heaven to "hear Him," would signify most expressively that He had come to fulfil both, and that the Dispensations ministered by them respectively expired with the commencement of the Christian.

But there is another and no less obvious reason, viewing the Vision in the light thrown upon it by its design and purpose as just explained. For, as when "the Son of Man comes in His Kingdom" He will not come alone, but accompanied by the noble army of Martyrs and those His saints "who sleep in Jesus" whom "God shall bring with Him," who come to "reign with Him" and "appear with Him in glory" -the glory of the resurrection of which they shall then be partakers, their bodies "fashioned like unto His glorious body"—so, in the representation of that Event here given, we find "two men" appear with Him; and in like glory to His, assumed, as was His, for the occasion: "which were Moses and Elias" because they were respectively the representatives of the two classes of saints who come with Him,-Elias of the living who shall be translated or “ changed,” and Moses of the dead who shall be