Why, we meet Jesus in the dark sometimes; but we have sweet conversation with Him. We shall then be as manifested and as clearly seen as He will be. T. We cannot look with sympathy upon His moral loveliness here, or with worship upon His glorious majesty hereafter, without realising some amazing approximation to His likeness.6. H. Such Divine contemplations will give a new turn of thought and quite another taste and relish of things; they will be of great use to cure a downward disposition of soul, and to raise us above the world.I. He is in us the hope of glory, and such a hope maketh not ashamed.(T. G. THE GLORIOUS POSITION. The chrysalis is no longer affected by the colour of its surroundings when it reaches the last stages of its development. We are not fit to appear in full figure as yet. Origin in an infinite being is a pledge not only of an infinite life, but of endless development in the direction of the unattainable source. All the lines of the Gospel are laid along the lines of life. The limit of physical development may be reached, but the mental and moral development may go on long after, and, for aught we know, forever, and the fact that we draw our life from God makes it probable that it will be so. There we shall see Christ entirely, when "we shall see Him as He is."3. Let me stop here always. You must sympathise with a man in order to be able to understand him. Here no suggestion of that vast society in heaven exhausts its meaning. if we ever see our Saviour, we shall know Him by His wounds. II. Here he stands and looks upon Christ veiled in a mist — upon a Jesus who is shrouded; but when he gets up there, on Pisgah's brow, higher still, with his Jesus, then he shall not see Him dimly, but he shall see Him brightly.4. D.There is a very lofty sentiment in these words. They labour with meaning and soar with aspiration. Here he stands and looks upon Christ veiled in a mist — upon a Jesus who is shrouded; but when he gets up there, on Pisgah's brow, higher still, with his Jesus, then he shall not see Him dimly, but he shall see Him brightly.4. Hereditary qualities take the lead, and the character moves on in their direction. (1) That sight they have of Christ shall be but a short glimpse of His glory; for after their doom and sentence is passed, they shall be immediately banished out of His presence (Matthew 25:41). Behind the fumes of drink, behind the cloud of crime, each may have made his start and fought his fight, and have proved the possibility, and have manifested some germ of possible growth. Turn next to the wonders of redeeming love, and see how, from age to age, God has been operating for the salvation of our race.IV. Here he stands and looks upon Christ veiled in a mist — upon a Jesus who is shrouded; but when he gets up there, on Pisgah's brow, higher still, with his Jesus, then he shall not see Him dimly, but he shall see Him brightly.4. Young man, the text says, "We shall see Him as He is." But if society is capable of such transformations, much more must the individual be capable of them. The soot becomes the hardest thing in the world, and for the blackness it had obtains the power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at once in the vividest blaze that any solid thing can shoot. This is the starting point; and when we have reached it there emerge to the view three thoughts. A boy running wild in the streets — untaught and uncared for, and in danger of utter destruction — is adopted into a benevolent and wealthy family. But we leave the thought with you, and lest you should think that if you are not worthy you will not see Him — if you are not good you will not see Him — if you do not do such-and-such good things you will not see Him — let me just tell you, whosoever, though he be the greatest sinner under heaven — whosoever, though his life be the most filthy and the most corrupt — whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall have everlasting life; for God will blot out his sins, will give him righteousness through Jesus, accept him in the beloved, save him by His mercy, keep him by His grace, and at last present Him spotless and faultless before His presence with exceeding great joy.(C. And the law holds in human life. Crown Him!" Both the earthly and the heavenly transfigurations rest upon a common act of contemplation. The believer will be as much astonished when he sees Jesus' glories as He sits on His throne as He would have been to have seen Him in His earthly sufferings. (Canon Scott Holland. All men are as one man; one is the whole and the whole are but one. But what if this life is all of it not an end, but only a beginning; all of it a suggestion of more beyond, none of it a goal attained? The facts were typical, and suggestive of principles that were operating beyond the range of these special instances, and as such helped to colour the thought and speech and hope of the founders of the coming Church. How different that sight of Him will be from that which we have here! Guard unhurt the germ. Suddenly the wind has blown away the mist from under you, and you have seen the fair, fair valley. But it will go on, he says. Not yet, but the root of what we shall be hereafter is here embodied in the soul. Place man in any earthly situation; give him wealth, give him power, give him honour, pleasure, all that the world can afford; still there will be a void within, still he will travail in pain, and look and sigh after enjoyments which the fleeting objects of time and sense can never afford him. In this life we feel after God, as it were, in the dark, we trace Him out by the foot steps of infinite power and wisdom, we see Him in His works but not in Himself; but when we commence angel life this veil shall be taken away, then we shall be no longer under the pedagogy of types and shadows but admitted into the immediate possession of original truth.II. Could your mother come to you this morning, she might take hold of your arm, and say to you, "John, we shall 'see Him as He is'; it is not I, John, that shall see Him for myself alone, but you and I shall see Him together; 'we shall see Him as He is.'" We cannot, must not, see Him as He was; nor do we wish, for we have a larger promise, "We shall see Him as He is."1. And yet these natural changes in the past ought to teach us that as great changes may await us in the future, and also that there may be spiritual changes and developments corresponding to the physical changes. Here, too, how distantly we see Christ! New questions come up; life varies its phases; I am myself not quite the same being as yesterday; I see more, feel more; duty is a little broader; time presses upon me a little more heavily; eternity becomes more real. Why, we meet Jesus in the dark sometimes; but we have sweet conversation with Him. (3)The prince serves as a soldier before he reaches the throne.3. See how the tide of progress sets steadily Christward — more peace and less war, more justice, more equality, more mercy and kindness and goodwill. Our faith is so assured that it becomes knowledge. Change is so wearisome when it insists on going beyond what we want. Or will the soul be independent of such things? But it will go on, he says. Selby. Let me stop here always. )The beatific visionC. There is rapture in devotion. The disciple himself — to put the opinion of the world aside — the disciple himself can only very dimly and imperfectly apprehend the future which lies before him. Guard unhurt the germ. Remember, again: we are not to see Christ as He was, the despised, the tempted one. Suddenly the wind has blown away the mist from under you, and you have seen the fair, fair valley. See how the tide of progress sets steadily Christward — more peace and less war, more justice, more equality, more mercy and kindness and goodwill. So that, sift the matter as closely as you will, whilst on earth we see Christ as He was rather than Christ as He is — and in exact agreement with this sight of Christ is the likeness we acquire. We notice —I. But are thy grey hairs full of sin? We thought ourselves in the van — lo! If we are absorbed into Christ, and Christ into us, when He is manifested we also shall be manifested with Him in glory. how transitory is our view of Jesus! He is in us the hope of glory, and such a hope maketh not ashamed.(T. For, secondly, God communicates Himself in this world not immediately, but by inferior instruments and secondary causes: He feeds the soul with the graces of His Spirit, by the ministry of His Word and sacraments, and preserves the body by the help of His creatures. To the mind of the former of these two apostles, this sonship assumes the appearance of a position of privilege. Let us give ourselves to this thought for awhile. Have you never stood upon the hilltops when the mist has played on the valley? WHEREIN THE HAPPINESS OF THIS BEATIFIC VISION DOES PRINCIPALLY CONSIST. I bear my Master witness, I never saw Him yet without being profited by Him. That is the use to be made of such events as they touch us. This is not the world to appear in. By degrees he comes to understand his position — he did not quite understand it at first — and he is full of gratitude when he contrasts what he is now with what he was some months or years ago. I do not want merely to become fixed in these habits, but to grow in them; and I also want to be carried on and lifted up into higher ranges of character than I now know; I cannot be satisfied with any condition that is stationary. It may be good or evil fortune, the birth or death of love, a loss or a gain; all such things are revelations of God, for God is in our lives and not outside of them; but when He thus appears it is for purposes of transformation. We thought ourselves in the van — lo! These go down into the hold, and they are only of use after landing in the new world. In the same way that life develops: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." 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