"His angels; and then He shall reward every man "according to his works." Here are the difficulties, but here is also the "reward" of following Him: and to assure them and us of this reward He superadds to the promise of His Coming and Kingdom a pledge in an eye-sight evidence of it :—an earnest such as no promise could give, in an actual Vision of the glory of Christ and the appearing in the same glory of two men of like passions with ourselves.

2. And to the same effect St. Peter in the passage already partly quoted from the 1st chap. of his 2d Epistle:"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," (referring as he tells us to the Vision in "the holy mount"); to which he adds-" We have also a more sure word of

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prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,

as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until "the day dawn and the day-star arise. That is, we have a promise of the Saviour's coming -we have "the word of prophecy :" but we have that word "made more sure," (as the original should be rendered), by the evidence vouchsafed to us the witnesses of His Transfiguration.

In our day, indeed, there is so little suffering for Christ, the cross is comparatively so light, that we

little cherish this "blessed hope" which was the great support of the primitive Church under persecution, and little appreciate the promises and the evidence of it. But it will not always be so. A time is coming when, with the thickening of the darkness round us, the light-"the lamp" of prophecy, of "the word of the kingdom"-will become more precious; with the abounding of unbelief the truth will be more needful to us: when, as the Apostle here says, this hope of the Church will be accounted "a cunningly devised fable;" and, (as he advertises us in the 3rd chapter of this Epistle), "there shall "come in the last days scoffers walking after their "own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His Coming?" when, moreover, the Truth which it is the special object of His second coming to assert— the Kingship and Lordship of Christ,-shall be openly, as already to a fearful extent it is covertly, denied; and the confession of it will again involve the denial of self even to the loss of life for His sake. And then will it behove the faithful to "take heed to the word of prophecy" and to the witness by which it is confirmed, and, if not too late, to trim "the lamp" which is well nigh gone out.

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But even now, in the absence of persecution, it is good for us to contemplate the Scene; and for this reason that the contemplation of glory is the best

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preparation for suffering and best support under it. So it was in the case of Jesus himself. "For the joy "that was set before Him, He endured the cross, "despising the shame. The subject of converse with Him on the holy mount of Moses and Elias, who appeared with Him in glory, was His approaching sufferings: "They spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." And it was the fitting time and place—while the Type was being exhibited and the pledge given of "the glory that should follow." And so it will be with us. It is in the comparison with "the glory that shall be revealed in us" that "the sufferings of this present time" (whatever they may be) will be found light; as said the Apostle of a time when trials were neither few nor trifling. Let us then cherish this "blessed hope." Descending from Calvary, let us ascend the Mount of Transfiguration, and contemplate the earnest there given of the Redeemer's coming and kingdom; till, filled with the prospect, our souls too could say, "It is good for us to be here." And though our wish be not yet granted us,—though we must not yet build our tabernacles on the mount of beatific vision, though we must, like the disciples, be left again alone with Jesus in His humiliation, and with Him descend again the mount to encounter the strivings of Satan, and the temptations and trials of

an evil world; yet, will the vision of glory not have been useless. It will refresh us in our pilgrimage; it will raise and keep us above the world; it will strengthen that Faith which is "the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for;" and sustain in waiting for the promise. It will have raised for a moment the curtain which separates the darkness of this world from the regions of light; and though it fall again, Faith will protract the vision, and leave the believer in possession of an enjoyment that is all but real; that will beguile some of the tedious hours of the night, and "make the darkness light before him.”

THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

XI.-HE ENTERS JERUSALEM IN TRIUMPH.

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ST. JOHN xii. 12--16.

66 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of "palm-trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And "Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an "ass's colt. These things understood not His disciples at the first; but "when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him." THIS Passage records the entrance of the Saviour into Jerusalem for the last time previous to His suffering; which, a comparison with the 1st verse of this chapter informs us, was on the fifth day before His crucifixion, that is, the first day of that eventful week which we term Passion-Week, answering to our Sunday for it is there said that "six days before the passover" (i.e. before the day of His crucifixion) "He came to Bethany," and the 12th verse says that on the next day" this transaction occurred: one of

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