TRANSFIGURATION.

"Jesus taketh Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and He was transfigured before them."-MARK ix. 2.

I. INTO what mountain? Why this transfiguration? Is it fact or fiction? Why take three disciples-these three too-and be transfigured before them? What the moral meaning which most nearly concerns ourselves? These and other questions will find answer in the discourses we have prepared on this wonderful incident in the life of Jesus Christ.

2. From about the fourth century Tabor has been associated with the scene of the Transfiguration. In the monastic ages it was one of the holy shrines pilgrims were wont to visit, and its sides and summit were crowded with hermits. But it is susceptible of proof from the Old Testament, and from later history, that at least a fortress, if not a town, existed on Tabor from very early times to about B.C. 50: and Josephus

A

2

HERMON, NOT TABOR,

says that he strengthened the fortifications of the town there about A.D. 60: also the narrative says Jesus conducted His disciples aloft, up a-the-high mountain where they were alone by themselves. These are distinct negative reasons against the tradition which connects Tabor with the Transfiguration, while there are positive ones in favour of Hermon. The evangelists record the event in connection with a journey to Cæsarea Philippi. Jesus would seem therefore to have been in the hill-region at the foot of AntiLibanus and Luke distinctly says, "into the high hill," where the definite article limits the sense to some mountain which, in respect to Cæsarea, might be called the mountain. We then conclude that some part of the ridge of Hermon was the favoured spot whither Jesus would lead His disciples "apart to pray."

3. Magnificent are the peaks of Hermon. They form almost the only mountain that deserves the name in Palestine. The whole side is composed of limestone; is very steep and savage, with tufts of grass and thorny shrubs at intervals. Trees are few; living creatures fewer ;-human dwellers none. There are three summits. Mounting to the second, a glorious panorama opens. On the north, stretch far away the Lebanon mountains. Stretching to the eastern horizon is the plain of Arabia, with the queen-city of

THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION.

3

Damascus. Away southwards are Cæsarea and a hundred villages; the lake of Gennesaret too is visible, lying in its deep bed, and the chasm of the Jordan running between the heights of Gilead and Samaria. Carmel, too, is seen, extending far out into the "great and wide sea;" and the eye sweeps along the coast and cliffs till it rests on the promontory of Tyre.

4. Up to this summit of Hermon Jesus, with Peter, James, and John, now climbed; reaching it when the sun was beginning to sink to his rest in the far western sea. It was a turning-point-a crisis-in the history of the "Son of Man." Many of His disciples were gone back and walked no more with Him. Even the twelve seemed likely to "go away." He could no more "walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him." He had saddened the hearts of the nearest and dearest to Him by emphatic intimations of His approaching sufferings. He had caused their fond hopes of worldly dignity and success to fall from their minds like shot stars from a benighted firmament. They understood Him not. He came proclaiming, "I am He that should come : the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." He came saying, "I am the way: I am the means." But they neither understood the

WHY SEEK THE MOUNT?

spirituality of His mission, nor the means of its accomplishment. His only means was that which light has,-shining. "I am the light of the world." If He spoke, it was to unfold Him who is the "Spirit" if He was prodigal of benefits, it was to teach men the "Goodness of God:" if He suffered, it was to show the meekness of Him who is the "God of Patience : if He should give His life, it was to demonstrate that "God is love:" and if He should take it again, it was to manifest Him who is the "True God." Understanding not, many therefore "walked no more with Him;" and the leaders of Jewish thought sought to take His life, classing Him with Judas the Gaulonite, Barchochebas, and Dositheus. So He left his familiar haunts by the lake, to return to them, as far as we know, only once more; and made for the "holy mount." It was probably the grand rock by Cæsarea, which He and the disciples passed in their way, and on which then stood the newly-built and beautiful marble temple of Augustus, which suggested the play on Peter's name, when Jesus blessed him for a confession, that has been written round the grand dome of St Peter's at Rome, but far more indelibly in the moral regeneration of the world through the name of Christ. rived at the end of the fatiguing journey, it soon was

Ar