September 14

PART V.—Matthew 17:1-8.

LET us now consider the attendants at Christ's transfiguration. There were "Moses and Elias." It might be thought that angels ought rather to have been present to have witnessed the glorious scene. But angels are not so closely connected with Christ as men; he took our nature, not theirs, and while he is the Lord of angels, he is the kinsman and the redeemer of man. The men selected for this august occasion, were among the most distinguished of the servants of God, that ever lived. Moses was one. He had flourished about fifteen hundred years before Christ's appearance; he was the first writer of the sacred scriptures; the deliverer of the Jews; the first lawgiver under God, an illustrious prophet, and eminent type of Jesus, and the founder of that economy which for generations was identified with his name. Now then he appeared to lay down his authority at the feet of Christ, to testify to his Divinity and Messiahship, and to give him homage as the world's long predicted prophet and redeemer. The other attendant was Elias, or Elijah, as Moses stood at the head of the Levitical economy, so he represented the prophetical dispensation. He had been distinguished as one of the holy and zealous servants of the Lord of hosts, and was not suffered to feel the pains of death, but was removed to heaven in a chariot of fire. In these two distinguished servants, then, we have both the law and the prophets honouring him, "Of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write." And they appeared in concert together, to shew that Christ was the centre, sum, and substance both of the law and the prophets. Now of these illustrious personages, it is said, "they appeared in glory." No doubt they would shine as bright and beautifully as angels. Long had they been the sons of celestial light, long had they been surrounded by the noontide splendour of meridian day, and now in the habiliments of glory, they appear to witness the transfiguration of their blessed Lord. Their appearance obviously contradicts the morbid doctrine of the soul's sleep till the resurrection morn, and clearly teaches us, that the departed spirits of the saints, are in a state of blessed consciousness, and in the possession of distinguished happiness and glory.