away there, or yonder, or somewhere else; it may be just a higher region of this world. It may be that the saved are chanting hymns beside us that we cannot hear; and that they are now carrying on a conversation that we cannot appreciate; and that our dead in Christ may be nearer you and me at this moment than our relatives across the Channel, or at the other side of the Tweed. They may be so near, that they can see and hear us; but yet, we can neither see, hear, nor know them. At all events, Moses and Elias, who came forth at Mount Tabor, showed that there was at least a possibility of communion between the dead in Christ and the living in Christ, both constituting together but one holy and happy group.

We read that very shortly after they appeared, they departed. Why did they depart? Their function was done. They deposited the seals of their office at the feet of Christ, and returned to their everlasting happiness. They came up, like the ministers of the sovereign, to surrender the seals of office they had received, and to retire to that happiness that they have for ever with the Lord.

Now, you will notice that the Apostles, seeing Moses and Elijah, did not pray to them; they prayed to Christ alone. If ever there was an occasion when saints might be prayed to, this was it; for here the saints were not to be guessed to be hearing, but were seen to be within both hearing and seeing. If, therefore, it were ever competent to pray to glorified saints, it was upon Mount Tabor. But the disciples prayed only to Jesus, and that in a matter affecting Moses and Elijah : for Peter said—"Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for

thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." They did not pray to Moses,-" Wilt thou permit us to build thee a temple?" but they prayed only to Jesus, in a matter that concerned Moses and Elias: thus showing that we may neither now nor then worship and pray to saints, because Christ is all and in all. If Christ be what all Scripture pronounces him to be, then we can do without the broken cistern, seeing we have access to the full fountain. What is the use of a farthing taper candle amid the light of the glorious sun? What is

the use of the stars, when the sun is above the horizon? If Christ be in his Church,-and where two or three are met together in his name he is present,—I want no one to help me, or to sympathise with me, to pray to, or to praise; for he is all and in all in my affections, and he must be so in all our prayers, and praises, and worship.

"Let us make here three tabernacles," said Peter. Now, in this there was much indicative of piety, and much also indicative of human frailty. Peter would be at any labour in order to build a tabernacle for his blessed Master, and he would not do it without his Master's consent; for he says-"If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles." There was something most unselfish and charitable in this conduct of Peter; and yet there was great infirmity in it for we are told that he knew not what he said. He was evidently bewildered and dazzled by the splendour of the spectacle, and gave expression in the high impetuosity of his feelings to thoughts, imaginations, and dreams, that he knew not the drift, object, nor origin of. Under the same excitement he once said-"Lord, depart from me;" and on this occasion, under excitement, he said— 'Lord, let us make here three tabernacles.". His great

66

not

sin evidently was, that he looked for permanence on Mount Tabor. He did not regard it as a momentary burst of sunshine in a lonely and a black night, but he regarded it as a permanent heaven where he might dwell for ever. He could not bear the idea that Calvary must still be borne, that Gethsemane must still be moistened with a Saviour's tears, that the bitter cup must still be drunk; and it is as if he had said"Now, Lord, we have got upon a sunny spot; let us go down into that dark valley that is below. Let us build three tabernacles where we may live and worship for ever." He would, like most of us, have the crown without the cross. He would have heaven without the tribulation. He would have all the happiness without the tears, the pangs, the sorrows, that in the case of the Son of God were the only purchase of it. How much of Peter is in us all! We often fancy that some bright day that dawns upon us will last for ever, and we act accordingly. We are placed, perhaps, in domestic circumstances of sunshine and of happiness; and we say to ourselves-"This will last for ever." Ah! hearths that are now bright will one day be black enough; merry voices that now ring beneath a Christmas roof-tree will soon be choked with sorrow, or end in bitter weeping. Forms that cross the threshold will soon cross it no more; and footfalls that are now sweet music to the inmates will be heard in that house no more; and well-known faces will become strange, and all the splendour of the domestic Tabor that is now, will be exchanged for the tears, the sorrows, and the sadness of Gethsemane that will be. Let us

feel that life's brightest spots are but transient Tabors; that our best blessings are but bright intervals of joy,

not to detain us here, but to strengthen us to set out with brave hearts and with earnest feelings, to tread life's long road, pilgrims and strangers, looking for the rest that remaineth for the people of God. But let us rejoice that a Tabor is yet to come, that shall have no transience, the rest that remaineth for the people of God. And meantime, let us try to make every Sabbathday a Tabor, every Communion a transfiguration, and to carry forth the glory that we receive on the holy mount into all life's duties, that its most desert places may thus be refreshed and strengthened by our provision on the Sunday; and that, cheered and animated by the vision that has swept before us, we may go with Christ whithersoever he leads, minding less the sorrow or the joy, the Tabor or the Gethsemane, but only making sure that we are his, and of them who through faith in Him inherit the promises.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GLORY AND THE CLOUD-THE VOICE OF JESUS THE BELOVEDHEAR HIM.

PETER, not knowing what he said, proposed that there should be permanence where there was meant only to be transience, thinking that Mount Tabor had become an outpost of heaven itself: "While he yet spake, a bright cloud overshadowed them." No doubt it was the shechinah, which means "the dwelling-place," or the cloud that marched in the wilderness, as a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, and that filled the temple, and became the dwelling-place, where ever burned and shone the glory of a present and a propitious God. Perhaps, as Peter was dazzled by the excessive splendour of the scene, the cloud was vouchsafed in kindness, to soften and to mitigate the intense light. It is said that he was bewildered and dazzled, and something was needed to intervene and to subdue the otherwise insupportable glory. The great God we cannot now, but we shall hereafter see as he is. In the magnificent language of Plato, the greatest of heathen writers, "God is truth, and the bright light is his shadow." "Whom no man hath seen," we may add, 66 nor can see."

P