The Portland daily press., 1880-05-03
PULPIT AND PLATFORM.
STATE ST. CHURCH.

SIAIE 81. CHURCH.
The Rev. DIR. Merriman, who is SUPP lying
the place of Mr.. Hincks, comes from the pre-
| sidency of a Wisconsin College but is a Mass a.
| chusetts man by birth. He is tall, stout,
| fair man, not unlike the amiable judge of our
municipal court, with gray hair, no beard
save light moustaehe, and wears spectaces.
His manner is calm and mild, and he might
be one of the old Puritan divines revisiting us
in modern garb, the which his long prayer
the more betokened. and the vigor and strength
which he developed when he anne to his SER
mon which was delivered without notes.
His text was from Mark tx: $50 as no
fuller on earth can whiten."
The TRANSPORTATION of Christ needs no
evidence but that of the narrative. Taken with
the other facts of the gospel it stands out in
bold truth. 1t is not an old tradition or a
myth. The scene of the event was not Mt
+ Tabor as careless tradition has it, but Mt.
Hermon near the upper Jordan, the Hottest
the grandest, and the most conspicuous Of the
mountains of Palestine, fitting place for the
scene ofsuch grand event. The time was at
night at the close of busy day when Jesus
had dismissed the multitude. His companions
were the three most favored apostles While
he prayed they slept. The same thing occur
red again to the same three in the garden of
Gethsemane when he needed their companion
| ship more than on this occasion. Oh dull
| souled apostles why did We not wake and save
for us that prayer? They awakened and he
was changed. His face shining like the sun.
1t was no dream, they saw nothing in their
sleep. What woke them? The light of his
| glory. And they saw him not alone: two
men not OF that generation, ancient men
whom the disciples recognized by historical
marks as Moses and Elijah. Moses not weary
and worn as when he bore the burden of re-
| bellious Israel and Elijah not old and
weary as when he dwelt hermit in the noun
tain cave, but Moses and Elijah, gloriied and
| in heavenly raiment. Could they have looked
from their heavenly seats and seen the son of
God praying while his dull companions slept,
and have asked leave to go to him to comfort
| the divine one?
They talked to him of his death-a strange
| subject. We have not the conversation-only
the theme. Would that we had it. In the
future existence it may be we shall have it
| revealed. But the scene changes. The
Shekinah, the cloud which led the tribes
through the wilderness, stood over Hermon,
| the awful presence of the Father was in the
bright cloud, and voice said: ''This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and
| the disciples fell PROSTATE for they could not
endure. But gentle touch, and gentle voice
raises and comforts them. How striking the
| difference between the human voice of the
comforter and the terror and majesty of the
| presence in the Shekinah. That was the
TRANSPORTATION. 1t carries its own internal
| evidence. The old testament met the new
The old prophets came and by their presence
testified to the divinity of the son, while the
God Of Israel came in His majesty to bear
Him witness. This scene was prophecy of
the future. So again John in his vision of
the apocalypse saw the Lord, and so shall we
see him in his glory, his robes shining brighter
than the SHOWS of Hermon, yea, so as no fuller
| on earth can whiten them.