L. 28 AND it came to pass after six days, or, about an eight days after these sayings, Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John his brother, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves, to pray. And as he prayed, he was transfigured before them, and the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, or as the light: so as no fuller 30 on earth can white them. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were 31 Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should 32 accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with 33 him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias; not knowing what he said. For he wist 34 not what to say: for they were sore afraid. While yet he thus spake, behold, there came a bright cloud that overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the 35 cloud. And, behold, there came a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my be- M. 6 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, 7 they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And when the voice was past, Jesus came 8 and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And suddenly, when they had lifted up their eyes and had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. 9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen again from the dead. Mk.10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. And they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. 11 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes, that Elias must first 12 come? And he answered, and told them, Elias truly cometh first, and restoreth all 13 things. But I say unto you, that Elias is indeed come already, and they knew him not, M. 12 but have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him: likewise also it is written of the Son of man that he must suffer many things of them, and be set at 13 nought. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

THERE comes “a voice out of the cloud,” which is sufficient, if we will hearken to it, to guide us through the dark into the light, where the sun is never dim. Nay, it will infuse light through all the cloud itself; and that, instead of a cavern of blackness breathing deadly night-winds, becomes a pillar of fire, a token that our Leader is near, a luminous temple of peace and rest. If we are not buried in the cloud, and lost there, by a faithless and obstinate impenitence, then we shall be permitted, after patience and through faith, to behold this transfiguration. For the voice says, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” Hear him, and he will scatter the cloud from about you with the breath of his mouth. Hear him to believe, and you will be willing to let the cloud remain all God’s time, for even the night will be light about you. Hear him to obey him, and you are sure that the upward path he has appointed shall be brighter and brighter, till the light of the moon shall be as the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold. Hear him to love him, and, in cloud or sun, health or sick chamber, in a glad house or sitting by the gravestone, living or dying, you will never be afraid again, because perfect love casteth out fear.

The departure of the Christian believer is a mortal transfiguration begun. Whatever the aspect physical disorder and emaciation may wear, the cloud has another side turned to the unfading sun. We need not ask that our friends should die in transport. Yet if their trust is in the crucified and transfigured One, it is a bright cloud that receives them up out of our sight. The voice speaks out of it. And on the other side of it is the wide spiritual tabernacle, that has no need of the sun, or the moon, or the stars—where worship, before the throne of God and the Lamb, John and Peter and James and Moses and Elias, and “a multitude that no man can number!” F. D. H.

It was to minds on the one hand full of unre- | the Messiah in all his temporal greatness, on the pressed hopes of the instantaneous revelation of | other, embarrassed with the apparently irreconcilable predictions of the humiliation of their Master, that the extraordinary scene of the Transfiguration was presented. H. M.—It stands between the Temptation and the Agony, as the culminating point of our Lord’s ministry on earth. To them who had just heard of the sufferings of Christ there was here vouchsafed a prophetic glimpse into the glory which should follow, that in the strength of this they might not be troubled nor offended at the prospect of these sufferings now, nor at the sufferings themselves which presently should arrive. The Transfiguration was a prelude and a pledge of that which should be hereafter. In that it was clearly shown that he spoke not at random, who spoke of his kingdom. It was shown that he had a kingdom to come in; a glory ready at any moment to burst forth, however for the moment it might be concealed from the eyes even of those who were in closest communion with him. The Transfiguration is an earnest in hand of a glory hereafter to be revealed. T.

The Transfiguration of Christ was intended to remove the inveterate prejudices that prevailed among the apostles and the Jewish converts in general: (1) with regard to his sufferings, which they conceived to be inconsistent with his dignity; and (2) with regard to the ceremonial law, which they were persuaded was not done away with by the gospel, but that they were to exist together in full force, and to be equally obeyed. This prejudice continued for many years after our Lord’s resurrection. Paul tells us (Acts 21: 20), “several thousand Jews believed, and yet were all zealous of the law.” The very mentioning of Christ’s death by such men as Moses and Elias, without any marks of surprise or dissatisfaction, was of itself sufficient to cause a great change in the sentiments of the disciples respecting those sufferings. Christ’s assumption of this glorious appearance at the very time was a visible and striking proof to his disciples, that those sufferings were perfectly consistent with the dignity of his character, and the highest state of glory to which he could be exalted. The other great purpose of the action on the mount was, to give a figurative signification of the abrogation of the Mosaical law, and the commencement of the Christian dispensation, upon which it was to be established. Moses and Elias, as the representatives of the law and the prophets, acknowledged the accomplishment of all their prophecies, and that the Messiah’s kingdom was established on the law and the prophets; and God himself proclaimed, This is my beloved Son, hear—HEAR YE HIM. Moses and Elias instantly disappear, overshadowed by the bright cloud, and Christ alone remains the undivided object of all their worship. But, besides this primary design of the Transfiguration, that event answered other purposes of great utility. It afforded a striking additional proof of the divine mission of Christ; for here was one of the few occasions in which God himself was pleased personally to interpose, and to make an open declaration from heaven in favor of his Son. And further, a particular attestation was given on the mount to two of the principal doctrines of Christianity: a general resurrection, and a day of retribution. The visible and illustrious representation of these doctrines in the glorified appearance of Christ, and Moses, and Elias, is appealed to by Peter, who saw it, as one convincing proof, among others, that “he had not followed cunningly devised fables, when he made known the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” P.

The position which Christ assumed toward the Jewish priesthood and the Mosaic ritual was not a little perplexing. He separated himself from the priesthood; he discountenanced many of their practices; he taught and practised a religion that made but little of holy rites and outward observances. The religion of the heart, the home, the secret chamber, the broad highway, the solitary mountain-side—a religion that in its heavenward aspects opened a way direct for any sinner to God—that in its earthward aspects found its occupation in the faithful discharge of the thousand duties of human brotherhood—such a religion the scribes, the Pharisees, the hierarchy, the whole body of the Jewish priesthood disliked; they took up the tale that Jesus was ill-affected to the law and the prophets. But if there entered into the apostles’ minds a doubt as to the actual harmony between their Master’s teaching and that of Moses and the prophets, the vision on the mount—the sight of Moses and Elias, the founder and the restorer, the two chief representatives of the old covenant, entering into such fellowship with Jesus, owning him as their Lord—must have cleared it away, satisfying them that their Master came not to destroy the law and the prophets—not to destroy, but to fulfil. In mercy to all their weaknesses, one sight was given of the Lord’s transfigured form, one visible manifestation of the place he held in the invisible kingdom, one glimpse of the heavenly glory, with Jesus standing in the midst. Sense stretched out its vigorous hand to lay hold of blind and staggering Faith. And long afterward—thirty years and more from the time the great manifestation was made—in Peter’s person, Faith, when she had got over her difficulties, and stood serene, secure, triumphant, looked back and owned the debt, and published abroad her obligation, saying, “We were eye-witnesses of his majesty.” H.

L. 28. An eight days after these sayings—including the day on which this was spoken, and

that of the Transfiguration. Matthew and Mark say, “after six days,” excluding these two days. B.

The Three who seem to have been the best prepared to enter into the higher meaning of the Christian life, and were therefore admitted whenever the Saviour’s divine power was more mysteriously manifest—John, Peter, and James—were called up to witness this immortal interview, where the two great prophets of the elder and preparatory covenant were to meet, in transfigured forms, with the Messiah of the Fulfilment, and there, in the serenity and splendor of the mount, to converse together of “the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem;” a theme vast and solemn enough even for that august audience. Moses the Law-giver, Elijah the Reformer, Jesus the Redeemer! F. D. H.—The flower and crown of the apostolic band, Peter, who loved him so much, John, whom he loved so much, and James, who should first attest that death could as little as life separate from his love; the same three who should hereafter be witnesses of his humiliation in the Agony of the garden, and who therefore were thus fitly forearmed by what they now beheld against what they should then behold. T.

Mountain. The supposition that the mountain intended was Mount Tabor has been engrained for centuries in the tradition of the Christian Church. The rounded summit of that picturesque and wood-crowned hill had probably from time immemorial been a fortified and inhabited spot, and less than thirty years after this time, Josephus, on this very mountain, strengthened the existing fortress of Itaburion. This, therefore, was not a spot to which Jesus could have taken the three apostles “apart by themselves.” Nor is there the slightest intimation that the six intervening days had been spent in travelling southward from Cesarea Philippi, the place last mentioned; on the contrary, it is distinctly intimated by Mark (9 : 30), that Jesus did not “pass through Galilee” (in which Mount Tabor is situated) till after the events here narrated. F.—Standing amid the ruins of Cesarea, one does not need to ask where the Mount of Transfiguration is. Hermon, the grandest and the most beautiful of all the mountains of Palestine, has established its claim to the title of “holy mount.” J. L. P.—The shades of evening were falling as Jesus climbed its sides. He loved, we know, the stillness of the night, the solitude of the mountain. He sought them for the purposes of devotion—in the loneliness, the calmness, the elevation, finding something in harmony with prayer. H.

29,30. His face did shine as the sun. And behold two men, Moses and Elias.**

And that face, day by day known to them, it is strange and unendurable, for it is as the sun—pulsing, swimming in glory. Is it earth, or have they been translated into heaven? Well might they doubt, for now borne visibly through the night are present two celestial forms known to them by the loftier spiritual instinct into which they are rapt—the servant of God who spoke with him face to face in the cloud on Sinai—the prophet of Jehovah who was borne up from Jordan in the chariot of fire. A.—31. Moses represented “the law,” Elijah “the prophets,” and both together the whole testimony of the O. T. Scriptures, and the O. T. saints, to Christ; now not borne in a book but by living men, not to a coming but a come Messiah, visibly, for they “appeared,” and audibly, for they “spake.” B.—Thus, while false Judaism rejects the Messiah, the true owns and adores him in the persons of its two most illustrious representatives. The old covenant and the new meet together on the glorious mount, as righteousness and peace shall soon meet on that other hill which is already before the eye of Jesus. De P.

Heaven could not give two fitter companions, more admirable to the Jews for their miracles, more gracious with God for their faith and holiness: both of them admitted to the conference with God in Horeb; both of them types of Christ; both of them fasted forty days; both of them for the glory of God suffered many perils; both divided the waters; both the messengers of God to kings; both of them marvellous, as in their life, so in their end. A chariot of angels took away Elias; he was sought by the prophets, and not found: Michael strove with the devil for the body of Moses; he was sought for by the Jews, and not found: and now both of them are found here together. Moses the publisher of the law, Elias the chief of the prophets, show themselves to the God of the law and prophets. Bp. H.—They came, solemnly, to consign into his hands, once and for all, in a symbolical and glorious representation, their delegated and expiring power. A.

His decease. They speak not of the glory they were themselves enshrouded in, and the glory which he was so soon to reach. Their one subject is his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. B.—That “decease” prefigured by the types of the law (Num. 21: 9; Exod. 12: 46), fore-announced by the oracles of the prophets (Zech. 12: 10; Isa. 53: 9). T.—The very theme for touching which one of these three had rudely chidden the Son of man with his “This shall not be to thee;” the very words which their hopeful spirits refused to hear or understand: these are sounding amid the dazzling light of those wonderful forms. A.—As envoys from the Eternal Majesty, they audibly affirmed that it was the will of the Father, that with his own precious blood he should make atonement for sin. They impressed a new seal upon the ancient, eternal truth, that the partition-wall which sin had raised could be broken down by no other means than by the power of his sufferings; that he, as the good Shepherd, could only ransom his sheep with the price of his own life. Such was the substance of the conversation on the holy mount. Krum.

32,33. “Having kept themselves awake throughout” (for this, and not “when they were awake,” is the right rendering), “they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.” As they departed. The unity of the old and new covenant is wonderfully attested in this apparition of the princes of the old in solemn yet familiar intercourse with the Lord of the new; and with this unity the subordination of the old to the new; that “Christ is the end of the law,” and the object to which all prophecy pointed; that therefore the great purpose of these had now been fulfilled. All this was declared by the fact that Moses and Elias, belonging to a merely preparatory dispensation, vanish; but Christ, who is the head of an everlasting dispensation, after whom we do not look for another, remains. T.

Make three tabernacles. The request appears to have proceeded from right motives. Was it not really good to be there? Was not the King in his beauty there? The glory of the Son of man had never been seen by them as now; neither had the love of the Father been so experienced. They felt themselves abundantly satisfied in the contemplation of all this. They wished to lengthen this incomparable moment. Krum.—But there was even at that very moment a poor demoniae in the valley, waiting their descent, in order that he might be cured. No! it could not be. Before Peter himself were the Pentecost, the prison, and the cross, for he was to be one of God’s chosen vessels for the carrying of the gospel to mankind. He must leave the scene of privilege for the field of toil. W. T.—Not for Moses, not for Elijah, shall the disciples have to build. Jesus was left alone; for him they will have to build: not on Hermon, not on Zion, but in themselves; for there is the place where he will dwell: in their hearts by faith. A.

34. All devout Jewish poetry finds in the clouds a fit dwelling, chariot, or pavilion for the Most High. In the New Testament, the highest and clearest manifestations of the Son of God robe themselves in this mystery—as at the Transfiguration, the Ascension, and the predicted Judgment. “As they beheld, a cloud received him up out of their sight." “They shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.” The Apocalypse repeats these representations. F. D. H.—A bright cloud, the Shechinah, is throughout the O. T. dispensation employed as a symbol of God’s presence, entitled “the glory,” or “the glory of the Lord.” It appeared first to Moses in the bush, burning but not consumed; led Israel through the wilderness; rested on Mount Sinai when Moses went up for conference with God; filled the tabernacle on its completion; appeared from time to time as an accompaniment of special communion with God. After the death of Moses, just previous to which it is seen, it disappears from Jewish history to reappear at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. Ezekiel describes its solemn departure from Israel, but prophesies its return, to which also there appear to be references in the other prophets. This symbol of the “glory of the Lord” appeared to the shepherds at the time of Christ’s birth, and received Christ at his ascension. Since then it has disappeared again from earth, but will surround him at his second coming, and will receive the ascending saints. L. A.

35. Behold, a voice out of the cloud. The same voice which had once before been heard at the Baptism, and which should salute him again as he stood on the threshold of his Passion; thus at the beginning, at the middle, and at the close of his ministry. T.—It was not enough that Moses and Elijah had honored him—a voice from the midst of the cloud added a still higher testimony—“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” G.—Peter, speaking for the band, had said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;” and, lo! as they gazed on his robe of light, they had ocular demonstration of the truth to which Peter confessed, while the voice out of the cloud left no room for any lingering doubt as the great God himself proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son.” W. T.—Such a confirmation of the great confession of Peter was never to be forgotten. Almost a generation later, when he wrote his second epistle, the remembrance of this night was as vivid as ever, “For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.” G.—This voice came from no far-distant height, but from the overshadowing cloud. It was the voice of the everlasting Father, in human language audibly testifying concerning the Son. The testimony comprehends the sum of the Old Testament, and refers to the three offices of our Lord. This is my Son, is from the Psalms (2 : 7), and shows us Christ as a King. In whom I am well pleased, is out of the prophets (Isa. 43), and points him out as the Mediator and High-Priest, in whom God reconciles the world unto himself. Hear ye him, represents to us that Prophet of whom Moses said, “Unto him ye shall hearken” (Deut. 18). Krum.—My Son, not as Moses and all the prophets were, my servants. Him and him only ye are now to hear; he is from henceforth to be your Lord, your Legislator, and your King. The evangelical law being established, the ceremonial law must cease, and Moses and the prophets must give way to Christ. The conclusion, too, of the whole scene harmonizes with this declaration: Moses and Elias instantly disappear, and “when the disciples lift up their eyes, they see no man, save Jesus only.” The former objects of their veneration are no more; Christ remains alone, their unrivalled and undisputed Sovereign. P.

M. 8. Better is it that no one can say exactly where this took place. The words and deeds are glorious and thrilling, but they are meant for the whole earth, and not for a single spot to make its own. From this farthest point of his walk of mercy through Israel, the Saviour turned back again to scenes of agony and death. J. M.

9. Tell no man. The mystery of Christ’s Sonship should not be revealed to the world, till it was attested beyond all doubt, till he was “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead,” and by that ascension, which was, so to speak, the necessary complement of his resurrection. T.

Mk. 11. Fully acknowledging, on the evidence before them, the certainty that their Master was indeed the Messiah, they now ask, “How, then, say the scribes that Elias must first come?” That is, Since thou art come as the Messiah, how is it that Elias, as we have now seen him, did not precede thee? He replied that Elias had preceded him; and went on so to speak as to show them that he referred to John the Baptist. K.—12, 13. It was true, what these scribes had said, that Elias must first come. But they were in error when they looked for a personal visit from the old prophet as the precursor of the first advent of Christ. They had failed to see in the person and ministry of John one coming in the spirit and power of Elias. They had taken too hastily the Baptist at his word when he said he was not Elias, as in a literal sense he was not. Once more, therefore, does Jesus renew the testimony he had already borne to the Baptist: “I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.” H.

Section 77.—Expels a Demon which the Nine could not cast out.

Foot of Mt. Hermon. Cesarea Philippi.

L. 37 And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, Mk.14 much people met him. And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude 15 about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, 16 when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he 17 asked the scribes, What question ye with them? And, behold, a man of the company came to him, and kneeling down, cried out, saying, Master, I have brought unto thee my son. I beseech thee, look upon and have mercy on him: for he is mine only child. For he is a lunatic, and sore vexed, and hath a dumb spirit. And, lo, the spirit taketh 18 him, and he suddenly crieth out; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, that he foameth again and gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away; and bruising him, hardly departeth from him. And I brought him to thy disciples, and besought them to 19 cast him out, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring thy son hither unto me. 20 And they brought him unto him. And as he was yet a coming, when he saw him, straightway the devil threw him down, and tare him, and he fell on the ground, and 21 wallowed, foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto 22 him? And he said, Of a child. And often times it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him: and if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and 23 help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that 24 believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, 25 I believe; help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I 26 charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, 27 He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And the child was cured from that very hour; and he delivered him again to his father. And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. 28 And when he was come into the house, then came the disciples to Jesus privately, M. 20 and asked him, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence unto yonder place, and it shall remove; 21 and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Mk. 30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.

MORE even than by this contact with human misery does our Saviour seem on this occasion to have been impressed by his contact with unbelief. And he appears to have selected this as the first occasion on which to announce, not only the need and the benefit, but the illimitable power of faith. He could easily have arranged it so that no application had been made to his disciples in his absence, but then they had wanted the lesson the failure carried in its bosom. He could easily have cured that maniac boy at once and by a word; but then his father had missed that lesson which, in the short conversation with him, was conveyed. And through both the great truth is made known that in this world of sin and sorrow the prime necessity is, that we should have faith in God and faith in Jesus Christ—not in certain truths about God or about Jesus Christ—but simple, childlike trust in God as our Father, in Jesus as our Saviour; a faith that will lead us in all times of weakness and exposure, temptation and distress, to cast ourselves upon a help that never was refused to those who felt their need of it. H.

Mk. 14, 15. The old adversaries of our Lord, the scribes, had taken advantage of his absence on the mount of Transfiguration, to win a temporary triumph, or something like one, over his disciples. T.—In that short tour, when they had been sent out to go two by two through Galilee, Jesus had given them power over unclean spirits—a power which they had exercised without check or failure. And now, when they are left alone, and this most painful case is brought to them, in their Master’s name they command the unclean spirit to go forth, but their words return to them void. Some scribes are there, ready enough to take advantage of the dilemma into which they had been thrown. A great multitude had in the mean time assembled; a scoffing spirit had been stealing into the hearts of many, when Jesus and the three are seen coming down from the hill-side. The suddenness of his appearance—his coming at the very time that his disciples were hard pressed, perhaps, too, the very calmness and majesty of his appearance, as some of that glory of the mountain-top still lingers around him—produces a quick revolution of feeling in the fickle multitude. Straightway a kind of awe—half admiration, half alarm—comes over them, and, “greatly amazed,” they leave the scribes and the discomfited disciples, and they run to him and salute him. H.

16,17. Our Lord, however, takes no notice of what had attracted them; but addressing himself to the scribes, he demands the subject of their discussion, ready to meet them where they had pressed hard upon his half-instructed and as yet timid apostles. Ere they had time to reply, the father of the boy, whose case had occasioned the dispute, himself steps forward and answers the question. B.—Lunatic. Lunacy and demoniacal possession are not one and the same thing, though both may be united in one person. The demon took advantage of the child’s lunacy. Demoniac possessions seemed to cease when Jesus rose from the dead. When Jesus came in the flesh, Satan seems to have come in the flesh also, for demoniac possessions took place then that had not before. But this is now the dispensation of the Spirit; and Satan does not take possession of the body, but he still “worketh in the children of disobedience.” J. C.

18. And they could not.** The faith of the disciples wavered by the plain difficulty of the thing which seemed impossible to overcome, when so many evils were digested into one—deafness, dumbness, frenzy, and possession of the devil; and all these from the cradle. J. L.—19. The disciples are not exclusively aimed at, nor chiefly, but rather the multitude and the father: they, however, are included in the rebuke. T.—20. The spirit tare him. Still Jesus does nothing, but keeps conversing with the father about the case—partly to have its desperate features told out by him who knew them best, in the hearing of the spectators; partly to let its virulence have time to show itself; and partly to deepen the exercise of the father’s soul, to draw out his faith, and thus prepare both him and the by-standers for what he was to do. B.

22-24. But if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.** Genuine and pathetic utterance of fatherly affection, identifying itself with the object of its love, and intent upon the getting that child cured; all right here in the father’s feeling toward his son; but something wrong, something defective in the feeling toward Christ which, for the man’s own sake and for his son’s sake, and for the sake of that gathered crowd, and for the sake of us, and of all who shall ever read this narrative, Jesus desired to correct. “If thou canst do any thing,” the father says. “If thou canst believe,” is our Lord’s quick reply. “It is not a question as to my power, but altogether of thy faith; for if thou canst but believe, all things are possible, this thing can easily be done.” Receiving the rebuke in the spirit in which it was given, at once seeing that it was his want of faith that stood in the way of his son’s cure, sensible that he had been wrong in challenging Christ’s power, that Christ was right in challenging his faith, with a flood of tears that told how truly humble and broken his spirit was, the man cries out, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” H.—The little spark of faith kindled in the father’s soul revealed to him the deeps of unbelief which were there. Thus it is ever: only in the light of the actual presence of grace in the soul does any man perceive the strength and prevalence of the opposing corruption. Only he who believes, guesses aught of the unbelief of his heart. T.—Few utterances that have come from human lips have carried more in them of the spirit that we should all seek to cherish; nor would it be easy to calculate how many human beings have taken up the language this man taught them to employ. H.

Faith is here, as in all other cases, set as the condition of healing; on other occasions it is the faith of the person; but here, that being impossible, the father’s is accepted instead; even as the Syrophenician mother’s in the room of her daughter’s. T.—Jesus requires faith as the condition and means of obtaining peace and rest: but this faith is not required to be, and of its own nature cannot be, mature and perfect. Therefore, in all hours of temptation and disquietude, cry to the Lord to increase your faith, to help your unbelief. By every motive of God’s past blessings, and your present infirmities, need, and imagined desertion and destitution, pray to him for more of help, more of mercy and compassion; and entreat of him, in his strength to perfect your weakness. Thus shall light spring out of darkness, and mourning be turned into thanksgiving and joy. Dean Wordsworth.

17-27. Compare Sections 27 and 59.

M. 20. Jesus took the opportunity which this private interview with his disciples afforded—as he had taken the opportunity of his interview with the importunate father—to proclaim the great power, the omnipotence of faith. This obviously was the one great lesson which, in this passage of his earthly history, Jesus designed to teach. H.—As the secret of all weakness is in unbelief, so of all strength is faith; and this our Lord teaches them. T.—“Removing mountains” was among the Jews a common hyperbole for the conquest of stupendous difficulties. A great teacher was called by the rabbis “uprooter of mountains.” See many instances in Lightfoot. F.

21. The faith which shall be effectual against this must be a faith exercised in prayer, that has not relaxed itself by compliance with the demands of the lower nature, but girt itself up to an austerer rigor and self-denial. T.—There are forms of spiritual, physical, and moral evil so intense and so inveterate, that they can only be exercised by prayer, united to that self-control and self-denial of which fasting is the most effectual and striking symbol. F.

Section 78.—Foretells his Death and Resurrection. The Temple Tribute.

Passing through Galilee.

L. 43 But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, and while they abode in Galilee, Jesus taught his disciples and said unto them, Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise again the third day. But they understood not that saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they were afraid to ask him of that saying. And they were exceeding sorry. M. 24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your Master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up: and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

It is a just and pregnant remark of Neander that “the image of Christ could never have sprung from the consciousness of sinful humanity, but must be regarded as the reflection of the actual life of such a Being.” Literature, confessedly, shows no parallel to it. The Hebrew mind, uninventive, bigoted, full of prejudice and of pride, desiring intensely secular advancement, must have seen and felt this spiritual splendor before it could portray it. Indeed any genius that has appeared among men must have been in like manner illumined, before it could have written or suggested the gospels. Homer never sang, in his resounding epic verse, such a singular combination of properties and parts, such a marvellous and unparalleled person as this. Plato, the most copious of all Grecian thinkers, the highest in philosophical and moral intuition, the most affluent in culture, never delineated and never imagined such a character. His ideal good man is weak and lifeless in comparison. The supposition that the rude and untrained Hebrew fishermen—not poets at all, nor philosophical artists, not by nature saintly men, nor gifted with extraordinary spiritual insight, but common in fibre, engaged from childhood in manual occupations, and pervaded with the meanness of sentiment and of sympathy which belonged to the Jew—that they imagined this, each for himself, and knit their fancies into the compactness of this personal life, making its childhood so lovely and its manhood so majestic, and then told of it, each in his own plain way, without having seen it, leaving it to be the wonder of the world, and the superlative marvel of history, while still all unreal—it is too incredible to ask refutation! R. S. S.

L. 43-45. After the cure of the demoniac, Jesus proceeded on his way. Aware that this remarkable miracle, and the manner in which his presence had silenced the scribes, were likely to exalt the expectations of his disciples; and conscious that the three apostles had gathered nourishment to the like expectations from what they had witnessed on the mount, our Lord again spoke very plainly of his betrayal, his death, and his resurrection. Nothing could be plainer than his words, to which he bespoke their earnest attention: “Let these sayings sink deep into your ears.” But it is said that “they understood not”—mainly because they were not willing to understand—how such humiliation, which would seem to frustrate all their hopes and expectations, could consist with the earthly greatness of the Messiah in which they expected to share. It is to be recollected, that in these intimations their future benefit, more than their present enlightenment, was what Jesus had in view. After all had passed, their faith would be strengthened by remembering his declarations, that this humiliation was not only consistent with the purpose for which he came into the world, but was the very purpose itself. K.

M. 24-26. Those who put this question were not the publicans or ordinary tax-gatherers, who levied the dues laid upon the Jews by the Romans. Nor was the question one about the payment of any common tax. The very form of the question, had it been literally rendered, would have indicated this—“Doth not your Master pay the didrachma?” a coin then modern and in circulation, equivalent to the old half-shekel, which, having gone out of use, had become rare. Every Jew of twenty years old and upward was required to give a half-shekel yearly for the maintenance, first of the tabernacle, and afterward of the temple. H.—This didrachma (two drachmas) was exactly the sum we find mentioned (Exod. 30: 11-16) as the ransom of the soul, to be paid by every Israelite above twenty years old, to the service and current expenses of the tabernacle or temple. Josephus mentions that it was an annual payment in his time. T.—This tax was paid by every Jew in every part of the world, whether rich or poor; and, as on the first occasion of its payment, to show that the souls of all alike are equal before God, “the rich paid no more, and the poor no less.” It produced vast sums of money, which were conveyed to Jerusalem by honorable messengers. F.

Yes. In such an instant acknowledgment of the obligation, there was an overlooking on Peter’s part of the dignity of Christ’s person, and of his position toward the temple. To remind him of this oversight, without waiting for any communication as to what had occurred, Jesus said, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?"—those who are not members of their own family. Peter saith, “Of the latter; of strangers.” Then are the children free. Upon this simple principle Christ would have Peter to recognize his immunity from that tribute which was now claimed—for was he not greater than the temple? Did he not bear to that temple the relation of the Son in the house of his Father? And did he not as such stand free from all the obligations which the King and Lord of that house had laid upon his servants—his subjects? H.—It is not as one of many, not as the first among many sons, but as the true and only Son of God, he claims this liberty for himself; and the reasoning itself is a strong and convincing testimony to the proper Sonship, and in the capacity of Son to the proper relationship of Jesus Christ to the Father. T.

27. Notwithstanding, lest we offend. This tax is for upholding my Father’s house; as his Son the tax is not due by me. Yet let us pay it lest we offend (be a stumbling-block to) them who know not my relation to the Lord of the temple. B.—Being engaged, through Peter’s hasty imprudence, to the rendering of the didrachma, he did it in the remarkable way of this present miracle—a miracle which should testify that he was Lord over nature, and having nothing, yet truly possessed all things. Here, as so often in the life of our Lord, the depth of his poverty is lightened by a gleam of his glory. T.—He would pay the contribution to avoid hurting the feelings of any, and especially because his apostle had promised it in his behalf: but he could not pay it in an ordinary way, because that would be to compromise a principle. “He pays the tribute, therefore,” says Clarius, “but taken from a fish’s mouth, that his majesty may be recognized.” F.—There was no need, only a becomingness, in the payment; in the same way as there was no necessity for his baptism; nor yet for the circumcision which he received in his flesh; but he took on him the humiliations of the law, that he might deliver from under the law. And here comes out the deeper meaning of the Lord not paying for himself only, but for Peter, the representative of all the faithful—“for me and for thee;"—he came under the same yoke with men, that they might enter into the same freedom which was his. T.

In the great temple of the visible creation Jesus was a Son; all things there were ready to serve him

—the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea. At Christ’s bidding one of the latter was to have in its mouth the stater, the four-drachma piece, the very sum required from two persons for the yearly temple-tax. H.—As in the miraculous draught of fishes, the miracle does not lie only in a foreknowledge on the Lord’s part that so it should be in the first fish which came up, for it was not merely that he foreknew the fact; but he himself, by the mysterious potency of his will, which ran through all nature, drew the particular fish to that spot at that moment, and ordained that it should swallow the hook. Compare Jon. 1: 17, “The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” Thus we see the sphere of animal life unconsciously obedient to his will; that also is not out of God, but moves in him, as does every other creature (1 Kings 13: 24; 20: 36; Amos 9: 3). T.

Section 79.—Ambition rebuked. The Little Child.

Capernaum.