To the hills, men, to the hills! Look up to the hills from whence cometh your help.

66

"And He was transfigured before them." The light of the Son, He Who "made darkness his secret place; His pavilion round about Him with dark water."1 'Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat," 2 and here He is clad in a cloud of light, and the Master is transfigured. They saw Him; they could never forget Him. They remembered how they saw Him on the mount. And if you have ever seen the Master to be what He is, All in all to you, the Infinite Saviour, you will not forget it, you will carry it with you wherever you go. He is my Saviour, my Master and my God!

No wonder Moses and Elias appeared, Moses representing the old Covenant and Elias the greatest of all the Prophets. God's saints are never dead people. They tell us that we worship dead saints! I should be sorry to worship a dead saint. God's saints and God's men are never dead. Moses appeared, and Elias, and talked to them. It was right that before Him Who is the centre of all the Covenants, with whom all testaments are made, that they should come out of the past, and be there, and speak.

And what do you think they spoke about? The decease that He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The subject of all prophecy-His Passion. Moses could have told you about the exodus out of Egypt, but what was the exodus out of Egypt compared with the decease He should accomplish out of Jerusalem-His exodus out of the city, out of the world that He had made? What was that exodus to this? They spoke 1 Ps. xviii. 11. 2 Ps. xcvii, 2.

about the greatest of all subjects, the death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That is the subject of all subjects. That is why in the Gospel, in the beautiful gospel of salvation, so many chapters, and such a large portion of the Gospel, is given up to the detailed account of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.

And then came the voice "to Him from the excellent glory." "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." You notice the expression: "My beloved Son." Is the Master your beloved? Could you say of the Saviour "My Beloved is mine, and I am His "?1 It is a beautiful expression, "my beloved Saviour," but the force of it lies here, that you and I accept the Lord Jesus Christ and His work for us, His Atonement, at the hands of God the Father. On the hill of the transfiguration the Eternal Father says: "Here is my beloved Son, hear ye Him." We do not accept Jesus Christ as All in all to us because of what we think of that which He said or did, or because our opinion of Him is this or that, we accept Him because God gives Him to us. The Eternal Father says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then we know Him from God the Father to be our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit within the heart teaches us what God says is true from everlasting to everlasting. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end, Heaven's darling, earth's Saviour.

To-day on the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, get in touch with God, and let Him know that His beloved Son is your Saviour, and no other.

1 Solomon's Song ii. 16.

No wonder the men were confused; no wonder they said: "Let us make three Tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias," not knowing what they said. His glory was overpowering. The Lord bid them not to fear; and then they that were with Him vanished. Moses, where has he gone? Gone back into the past. Elias, where has he gone ? Gone back into the past. And they are left aloneyes, alone with "Jesus only." And when you say your prayers at Mass, you forget, if you like, the congregation, forget everything, and when you hear the bell ring, be quite alone in the midst of the congregation, with "Jesus only." That is the way to renew your strength, that is the way to strengthen your heart, that is the way to let the blood go to the very tips of your fingers' ends, that you may hold up hands to God red with the blood of His creation renewed by redemption : " Jesus only.'

And then last of all, dear brethren, come down from the mount. You have got to get down. We cannot always be in high places, we cannot always be in ecstasy, we cannot always have the heart and mind lifted into the high mountain with the Master. We have got to come down, and it is a come down. I hope it will be a come down. You must come down from the mount, but you must bring some of the hill air with you. What is the good of going to the mountains if you do not bring back some of the air with you? What is the good of going to the seaside if you do not hear the roar of the ocean when you come back to London, or see some of the beautiful lights lying on its bosom? What is the good of going to the country if you do not hear the murmur of the

trees, and bring it back? And when you have been with the Lord Jesus on the mount you must take something of the mount back with you to the home. The men knew that the disciples had been with Jesus. There was something about them, the secret of happiness, a sort of kindliness, a longing to be kind to every one, that they took away with them. They knew they had been with Jesus. You cannot help it, there is something, you need not put it on, there is something, if you love Him and are with Him, that I should like you to bring down from the mount having been at Mass. Some have told me: “I have come to S. Alban's in August and have gone away, and I have felt happy after it. I shall not forget it." No, do not forget it, because if you come down from the mount, there is sure to be a row at the bottom. You go back into the world and it won't be very long before there is a row going on. The old thing; maybe some one is possessed with the devil. There is sure to be a row! You have got to come down. We have got to come down. Yes, we have to go away, into the six days again, but we take the sweetness of the transfiguration with us! I have seen the Master. I saw Him; He was altogether lovely.

"O'er gulfs profound I saw Him move towards me,
And tenderly, 'Ah! why so long!' He cried,
'From My embrace thou hidest?'
Near and yet
More near He came, and bright and yet more bright
Out flashed the lustre of His eyes. I caught

The flame, and in that flame shall burn forever." 1

1 Translated from Silvio Pellico's Dio Amore.

THE SILENT LOOKS OF THE SAVIOUR

"Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the Temple: and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve."—— S. Mark xi. 11.

Ir is S. Mark who gives us the account, principally, of the looks of our Blessed Lord. S. Luke tells us, writing the treatise to Theophilus, that he had in a former treatise told all the things which Jesus began both to do and to teach (Acts i. 1). It is rather a large order-"All that Jesus began to do and teach "--because "The which things if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (S. John xxi. 25). Because He filleth all things" He filleth all in all " (Eph. i. 23). When the minister of the Gospel has preached his sermon, and comes back again, do you know what his feeling is often? Impotence! The subject is so large, and his words and thoughts are so thin. And when you hear a text like the one I have just read to you, you only just look at the very surface of the text, but the passion, and the heart, and the blood of the text, does not strike you. The Lord Jesus entered into the temple, and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve." That is all, but it means so much!