Jesus went up into the mount to pray about death--the subject which had a little before been borne in upon His mind--for we read in Matt. xvi.
21, in the narration of events just preceding the Transfiguration, that "from that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." When the devil took Him up into a mountain, he showed Him "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said unto Him, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me."" When the Spirit of G.o.d took Jesus up into the mountain, He showed Him the cross, the shame, the suffering,--the spear and the crown of thorns, and said, "All these will I give Thee."
The highest experiences of the Christian life are close bound up, in the Divine will, with suffering. Jesus went up into the mount to get a better view of His approaching sorrow.
The Transfiguration is slightly apprehended and seldom discussed. Very few sermons are preached, or great pictures painted, or hymns sung, on the subject. Almost the only verse one knows about it--
When in ecstacy sublime Tabor"s glorious steep I climb, At the too transporting light Darkness rushes o"er my sight,
implies that it is a subject beyond human understanding.
We have hymns on His Incarnation and Advent, His Divine Glory and Worship, His Mediatorial Character and t.i.tles, Pa.s.sion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession and Reign, and the Second Advent, but none specially referring to the Transfiguration. Yet it contains many wonderful lessons we all need to know. We have felt, perhaps, that it was an experience peculiar to Christ--with which we can have nothing to do--but the Scriptures say otherwise; the word here rendered "transfigured" is the same as that translated "transformed" in Romans xii. 2, "but be ye transfigured by the renewing of your minds," etc., and "changed," in 2 Cor. iii. 18, "are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory." We want so to look at the glory of Jesus, that, at the same time, we may see His sorrow as well--and be "transfigured into the same image; for if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together."
There is no man who understands the Transfiguration like John Ruskin.
He says: "We are afraid to harbour in our own hearts, or to utter in the hearing of others, any thought of our Lord as hungering, tired, or sorrowful, or having a human soul, a human will, and affected by the events of human life as a finite creature is: and yet one-half of the efficacy of His atonement and the whole of the efficacy of His example depend on His having been this to the full. Consider therefore the Transfiguration as it relates to the human feelings of our Lord. It was the first definite preparation for His death.... What other hill could it have been than the southward slope of that goodly mountain, Hermon, which is, indeed, the centre of all the promised land, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt; the mount of fruitfulness, from which the springs of Jordan descended to the valleys of Israel.
Along its mighty forest avenues, until the gra.s.s grew fair with the mountain lilies, His feet dashed with the dew of Hermon, He must have gone to pray His first recorded prayer about death; and from the steep of it, before He knelt, could see, to the south, all the dwelling-places of the people that had sat in darkness, and seen the great light, the land of Zabulon and of Naphthali, Galilee of the Gentiles: could see even with His human sight, the gleam of that lake by Capernaum and Chorazin, and many a place loved by Him and vainly ministered to, whose house was now left unto them desolate: and, chief of all, far in the utmost blue, the hills above Nazareth, sloping down to His old home; hills on which the stones yet lay loose that had been taken up to cast at Him, when He left them for ever. "And as He prayed two men stood by Him.""
"Among the many ways in which we miss the help and hold of Scripture, there is none more subtle than our habit of supposing that, even as man, Christ was free from the fear of death. How could He then have been tempted as we are?--since among all the trials of the earth none spring from the dust more terrible than that of fear. It had to be borne by Him ... and the presence of it is surely marked for us enough by the rising of those two at His side."
It was Christ"s first preparation for death--and, therefore, to understand His Transfiguration we must understand His Crucifixion too; to see Hermon, we must go to Calvary; to discern how the fashion of His countenance was altered, we must witness that other time in the garden, when "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down on the ground"; to fathom how the three disciples slept through the glory, we must remember how they slept through the sorrow too.
The word rendered decease is a strange one. It is literally _exodus_--"going out." They spake of this exodus which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The same word occurs in the second epistle of Peter: "I will endeavour that ye may be able after my exodus to have these things always in remembrance"; and it is worthy of notice that the verses which follow are a reminiscence of the Transfiguration.
We have conferences on many subjects--on peace, on holiness, on temperance: who ever heard of another conference (as this was) on _death_?
A listener might have heard some such words as these:--
First Moses might speak: "I, too, know what it is to want not to die.
I did not fear the act of dying, but the manner--away out of the Promised Land. But when I saw the will of my G.o.d in all its beauty, then even this bitter disappointment seemed bearable, and the kiss of my G.o.d at the last made up for all. Death is only a kiss to those who love G.o.d; and if I had not followed the will of my G.o.d in this, what had I not lost? I had missed burial at the hands of the sons of G.o.d, and my feet would not now be standing in His presence."
Then Elias might say: "I had no fear of death: nay, I even prayed for it, saying, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. It was not death that I feared so much as the fashion of dying when I fled from the face of Jezebel. But to-day I am thankful that my dying was not left to my choosing; if it had been so, I had missed the fiery chariot by which I climbed up to the Presence of my King,--the swift seraphic march that brought me home."
And then Jesus might say, perhaps, something like these words--
I wish to have no wishes left, But to leave all to Thee...
And yet two wills I find in Me When on My death I muse; But, Lord, I have a death to die, And not a death to choose.
Then Moses might speak again: "Let us call G.o.d"s providences by their sweetest names: death is not death to those who love G.o.d. Thou, O Sinless One, call it not death, call it exodus. It was my lot once to lead the people of G.o.d out of slavery and degradation, out of heavy labour, out of the furnace of iron; and yet methinks that will be the true exodus when Thy people pa.s.s over, O Lord, Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed, when Thou by Thy dying lips dost proclaim deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; when, through the deep sea of Thy sorrows, a pa.s.sage is made by which the ransomed shall return. Call it not death; call it an exodus--a mighty deliverance of the people of G.o.d."
Then Elias: "O Son of G.o.d, right well do I know that the strength of one man may be made the strength of many; and the triumph of many may spring from the victory of one. I myself have stood alone in the face of an opposing people; yet by the strength of G.o.d I came off conqueror, and many were persuaded to cry, "The Lord, He is G.o.d; the Lord, He is G.o.d," and the power yet remains in which I stood; it glows, and grows within thee; it floods the air; it streams down thy garments. Fear not! thou shalt bring many souls, not merely to a.s.sent to the truth, but to the Truth itself. And especially standing conqueror over death, thou shalt deliver them who were all their lives in bondage through the fear of the same. The love of G.o.d shall uphold thee; the strength of G.o.d be thine."
Then Jesus: "In the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My G.o.d."
Then Moses might continue: "Death is our best friend--he strengthens our eyes to behold the glory which in the flesh it would blind us to see. Once I was afraid to behold the glory of G.o.d. I stood in a cleft of the rock, covered, as He pa.s.sed by--but now, now, I can bear to stand and gaze in the presence of my King."
Then Elias would reply: "I too knew what it was to be afraid of His glory; in the mountain I wrapped my face in my mantle, but when His swift messengers came to bear me home, I cast my mantle behind, in token that I would never need it to shroud my face again. It is the same for Thee--already that glory smites upon Thy forehead, and gilds Thy garments, and floods Thy face with light, but beyond, beyond, Thou shalt be crowned with glory and honour."
And Jesus would say, "Thy will be done--Thy will be done."
Then Moses once more: "A mother has two kisses for her child: one, a daybreak kiss, wherewith she draws aside the curtains of the soul; and one a good-night kiss, sometimes given in the dark.
"And so hath the Eternal His two loves: the love in the light, which now encircles us; and the dark love on which our souls lean back to sleep. Those who have felt G.o.d"s daylight kiss can trust Him for it in the dark. For thee to die will only be to lie back in the Everlasting Arms."
Then Jesus: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."
"And behold there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias, and they spake of His exodus which He should accomplish at Jerusalem."
VIII
CHRIST WILL TAKE ALL
"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me."--JOHN vi. 37.
If one were left to determine from our English Bible the meaning of this pa.s.sage, it would be difficult to avoid the admission that it gives countenance to that form of doctrine commonly known as Calvinistic; for does it not present to us, in language sufficiently clear and obvious, the Divine Sovereignty as shown in Electing Grace?
Must we not admit that there are those who by a Supreme Deed of Gift are allotted to the mercies of the Son; over whom He exercises the care of a good Shepherd; and is it not difficult to resist the conclusion that, as there are some who are the objects of special solicitude and care, so there are those who in some degree lie outside the sphere of the Divine Benevolence?
Again, if we were to look at the 39th verse of this same chapter, and read the words, "This is the Father"s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day," should we not say that the natural meaning of the pa.s.sage is that there is a Doctrine of Final Perseverance, linked on to that of the Election of Grace, and a necessary corollary to it?
But when we turn to the Greek, we notice that in the first of the verses quoted the word _all_ is in the neuter gender, and so does not necessarily apply to persons at all, and we are more likely to catch the true meaning of the words by reading it as follows: "Everything that the Father hath given Me shall come to Me"; and in the other pa.s.sage a similar correction must be made, as is otherwise evident from the last part of the pa.s.sage, "I will raise _it_ up at the last day"; "Of everything which the Father hath given Me I should lose nothing."
Viewed in this light, the words that were supposed to imply election teach consecration, and instead of final perseverance we read full possession. And this we do not say with any idea of refuting Calvinistic doctrine, having no "isms" of our own and little time to spend in attacking those of other people. Likely enough, our rendering of the words may be incorrect, and in any case we ought carefully to compare similar pa.s.sages in the Gospel; but be that as it may, the truth is not affected that the Sovereignty of G.o.d and the Love of G.o.d demand the full subjection and surrender of our being; and we are a.s.sured that where these conditions are fulfilled, the Divine Possession and Protection become an intense and abiding reality.
Now, in confirmation of our rendering, we will examine the manner in which the pa.s.sage is quoted by John Bunyan; and certainly we may say that if there was a Calvinistic meaning to be got out of a pa.s.sage, John Bunyan was not the man to miss it; and moreover, since he was totally ignorant of Greek (and I suppose of Latin, too, there being only, as far as I know, the solitary expression in the _Pilgrim"s Progress_ "de carne et sanguine Christi," accompanied by the marginal modesty, "the Latin I borrow"), he is not likely to fall into the mistake to which we may be liable, of evading the plain meaning of words by reference to the original tongue. Turning, then, to the _Holy War_, we shall find the following, giving an account of terms proposed by Diabolus for the surrender of the town of Mansoul; the offer of submission being made through his amba.s.sador, Mr. Loth-to-Stoop. "Then Mr. Loth-to-Stoop said again, "Sir, behold the condescension of my master! He says that he will be content if he may but have some place a.s.signed to him in Mansoul as a place to live in privately, and you shall be lord of all the rest!" Then said the Golden Prince, "All that the father giveth me shall come to me, and of all that he giveth me I will lose nothing, no, not an hoof or an hair. I will not, therefore, grant him, no, not the least corner in Mansoul to dwell in. I will have it all to myself."" It is a little singular, to say the least, that he should have apprehended both the pa.s.sages that we quoted in their right sense; and we had better attribute his accuracy to a touch of true inspiration.
Now, pa.s.sing on from this point, we may think of the Lord Jesus in a twofold character:--
1. As the Receiver appointed to collect debts due to G.o.d.
2. As the Almoner of gifts from G.o.d to men. He can come to us and say, "My Father has appointed Me the heir of all things; He has put His affairs into My hands, so that debts to Him are debts to Me; how much, therefore, owest thou to thy Lord? For, all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me."
He can come to us again and say, "The Father hath given Me authority over all flesh, that I should impart as well as exact; that I may give eternal life and eternal blessing, and Holy Ghost to as many as believe; that I should manifest His name to you, and give to you His word and His Glory, and all things I have received of Him; that I should give unto you rest and My own joy, and, by way of legacy in a will which the enemy cannot dispute, should leave peace with you; finally, ascending up on high, should send gifts to men, even to the rebellious, that the Lord their G.o.d might dwell among them. For He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for you all, how shall He not with Him also freely give you all things. How much, therefore, hast thou received from thy Lord?"
And if we look at it rightly, He speaks but little of the dues, and much of the gifts; for G.o.d only exacts from us that He may be able to impart to us; there is no tyrant seated on the throne of the universe, but only a Father waiting to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him; and the uttermost farthing that He demands from us is only in order that He may have the right to save us to the uttermost, if we could but believe it.
We may say next, that if our ultimate condition must be that of entire subjection and surrender to and harmony with the Divine Will, how sad it is that our consecration is so slow, so protracted, so ungracious; that we take so much time to reach the point where we are altogether the Lord"s. People can read the mystery of conversion in the parable of the dry bones in Ezekiel; but there is consecration in the story, too. Little by little we see the dead man coming into the place of blessing; bone to bone, sinew to sinew, nerve to nerve; and when there is the complete structure of a man, comes the vivifying breath from the four winds. Not before, for G.o.d must have a man to quicken; He does not inspire skeletons or fragments; as at the first, when a man stands before Him, He breathes into him the breath of life and he becomes a living soul.
We may well be ashamed when we think of the way in which consecration to G.o.d is made. We are like the man who, because he was irritated at a claim made upon him for a sum of money, went and paid the bill in farthings. So we pay our dues to G.o.d, giving as little as we can, and taking as long about it as we list. Perhaps it is because we treat Him that way, that G.o.d is obliged to appear exacting and talk to us about uttermost farthings at all.
Perhaps we shall be right in concluding from the 39th verse, that there is something in the resurrection contingent on the consecration: "I will raise _it_ up at the last day"; of one thing we may be very sure, that the life to come is not only conterminous with but continuous with the life that is. Death changes our surroundings but not our characters. There is no more breach of continuity in those than there is in an algebraical curve that goes to infinity.
We may, indeed, get dying grace, and hold a consecration meeting upon our dying beds, but it is not death that consecrates, nor the grave that sanctifies and cleanses from all sin. We shall begin the next life pretty much where we left off in this. We were singing a little while ago--
Let the veil become more thin, Let the glory pierce between;
but, mark you, that veil does not become more thin by pulling out a thread here and a thread there; remember how at the Crucifixion the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; the veil that is on your heart will go like that, when the day comes for things to appear which now are numbered amongst things not seen as yet, and for you to apprehend and partic.i.p.ate in the things which G.o.d has laid up for those who love Him.