Surely, the lesson of the incident connected with the text is clear, so far as the apostles were concerned, who beheld that dazzling, brightness, and that heavenly companionship, apart on the mount.They were not permitted to remain apart; but were dismissed to their appointed work.Peter went to denial and repentance, --to toil and martyrdom; James to utter his practical truth; John to send the fervor of his spirit among the splendors of the Apocalypse, and, in its calmer flow through his Gospel, to give us the clearest mirror of the Saviour's face.
Nay, even for the Redeemer that was not to be an abiding vision; and he illustrates the purport of life as he descends from his transfiguration to toil, and goes forward to exchange that robe of heavenly, brightness for the crown of thorns.
What if Jesus had remained there, upon that Mount of Vision, and himself stood before us as only a transfigured form of glory? Where then would be the peculiarity of his work, and its effect upon the world?
On the wall of the Vatican, untarnished by the passage of three hundred years, hangs the masterpiece of Raphael, --his picture of the Transfiguration.In the centre, with the glistening raiment and the altered countenance, stands Jesus, the Redeemer.On the right hand and on the left are his glorified visitants; while, underneath the bright cloud, lie the forms of Peter, and James, and John, gazing at the transfigured Jesus, shading their faces as they look.
Something of the rapture and the awe that attracted the apostles to that shining spot seems to have seized the soul of the great artist, and filled him with his greatest inspiration.But he saw what the apostles, at that moment, did not see, and, in another portion of his picture, has represented the scene at the foot of the hill, - the group that awaited the descent of Jesus..The poor possessed boy, writhing, and foaming, and gnashing his teeth, -- his eyes, as some say, in their wild rolling agony, already catching a glimpse of the glorified Christ above; the baffled disciples, the caviling scribes, the impotent physicians, the grief-worn father, seeking in vain for help.Suppose Jesus had stayed upon the mount, what would have become of that group of want, and helplessness, and agony? Suppose Christ had remained in the brightness of that vision forever, -- himself only a vision of glory, and not an example of toil, and sorrow, and suffering, and death, --alas! For the great world at large, waiting at the foot of the hill -the groups of humanity in all ages; -- the sin-possessed sufferers -- the caviling skeptics; the philosophers, with their books and instruments;the bereaved and frantic mourners in their need!
So, my hearers, wrapped in the higher moods of the soul, and wishing to abide among upper glories, we may not see the work that waits for us along our daily path; without doing which all our visions are vain.We must have the visions., We need them in our estimate of the world around us, --of the aspects and destinies of humanity.There are times when justice is balked, and truth covered up, and freedom trampled down; --when we may well be tempted to ask, "What is the use of trying to work?" --when we may well inquire whether what-we are doing is work at all.And in such a case, or in any other, one is lifted up, and inspired, and enabled to do and to endure all things, when in steady vision he beholds the everliving God, --when all around the injustice, and conflict, and suffering of the world, he detects the Divine Presence, like a bright cloud overshadowing.O! then doubt melts away, and wrong dwindles, and the jubilee of victorious falsehood is but a peal of drunken laughter, and the spittings of guilt and contempt no more than flakes of foam flung against a hero's breast-plate.Then one sees, as it were, with the vision of God, who looked down upon the old cycles, when a sweltering waste covered the face of the globe, and huge, reptile natures held it in dominion; -- who beholds the pulpy worm, down in the sea, building the pillars of continents; --so one sees the principalities of evil sliding from their thrones, and the deposits of humble faithfulness rising from the deep of ages.Our sympathy, our benevolent effort in the work of God and humanity, how much do they need not only the vision of intellectual foresight, but of the faith which, on bended knees, sees further than the telescope!
And alas! for him who, in his personal need and effort, has no margin of holier inspiration --no rim of divine splendor --around his daily life! Without the vision of life's great realities we cannot see what our work is, or know how to do it.
But such visions must be necessarily rare and transient, or we shall miss their genuine efficacy.We must work in comparative shadow, without the immediate sight of these realities; and only in the place of our rest, -- rest for higher efforts and a new career, --only there may we have their constant companionship, and build their perpetual tabernacles.
