Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-01-11
&eadiuafur tile Sabbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
THE TRANSFORMATIONS.

full ofthe marvellous. AS the decease which
he was to accomplish at Jerusalem drew
nigh, the events in his life increased in
number and magnitude. Among the Won
derful things recorded is the transfigura-
ton. Our Saviour had taken his disciples
and gone to the extreme northern bounda-
ry of Galilee. Some place either in, ornear,
the City of Casarea Philippi, he halted for
six days. During this period he plainly
informed his disciples for the first time
that he is "the Christ, ""the Christ of God"
"the Christ, the Son of the living God"
During these six days spent in the region
of Casarea Philippi, our Saviour informed
his disciples that 1.-The Son of Man must
suffer many things, and be raised again
the third day."
After %instructing his disciples on various
principles pertaining to his kingdom, and
exhorting them to be faithful in the dis
charge of duty, he took Peter, James and
John, and went up into a high mountain,
apart from all his other disciples, as we'll
as from all the multitude who commonly
followed him, and was TRANSPORTED. We
are so constituted that we instinctively in
quire, when we hear of any great event,
where it took place. AS to the exact spot
on which the TRANSPORTATION occurred, we
cannot be absolutely certain. It was on a
high mountain. 1t is thought by some
that it wa On Tabor, a mountain south OF
Cesarea Philippi, about fifty miles. This
is barely possible, but highly improbable.
After the TRANSPORTATION, Jesus and the
three disciples reached the region of Ce-
sarea Philippi the next day at, most prob
ably, an early hour. This they could not
have done had the TRANSPORTATION taken
place fifty miles distant, on Mount Tabor.
The mountain to which Jesus retired ap-
pears to have been near Cesarea Philippl.
From the way it is mentioned by Luke, 1T
was, no doubt, a mountain near by, to
which Jesus, on each day, retired to pray.
In the Greek it is the mountain, not as
translated, q mountain. 1t was a particu-
lar mountain, a well-knoWn mountain to
those present, a mountain with which Je-
sus was acquainted. This, it will be re-
membered, was the first time our Saviour
ever was on the coasts Of C@sarea Philippi.
The probability is that our Saviour was
TRANSPORTED on Mount Hermon, a spur OF
the Anti-Lebanon range. Intact, C9sarea
Philippi was situated at the base of Her.
mon. The facts in the case, as we'll as all
the circumstances connected with 1t, point
to Hermon and not to Tabor, as the scene
of the TRANSPORTATION.
Important as the place of the transfigu-
ration may be, it is not to be compared to
the thing itself. We may inquire what
was the TRANSPORTATION ? In what did it
consist? The word translated trdn$fgurd-
ton literally means ''to change the form"
Our English word metamorphose is de-
rived directly from it, and is, in fact, the
word itself introduced into the English
with only a slight change in the letters.
From the history of the TRANSPORTATION as
recorded by the three evangelists, Mat
thew, Mark and Luke, we learn that the
change which took place in our Saviour
was in appearance rather than in reality.
Luke states that ''the fashion Of his coun-
tenance was altered" That's, the appear
ance, or what was visible or seen of his
countenance or face, was altered. His
c~ountenance did not become another, but
it appeared entirely different from what
it had ever appeared before. Matthew
states in what the change of his face con-
sisted. It "did shine as the sun" he says.
Saviour emitted light as the sun does.
Each of the three evangelists describe
the metamorphosis which took place with
respect to his clothing. Matthew says his
raiment became "white as the light"
Mark says, "his raiment becams shining,
Qiterallv glittering), exceeding white as
snow; so as no fuller (bleacher) on earth
can white them," and Luke says, This raj
ment was white and clustering, literally
flashing out as lightning" So far as the
z.-o sfcnlf &c nnnnnrnnI tho
above are all the facts recorded. 1t seems
evident that the TRANSPORTATION consisted
in an unwilling of the divinity of our Sa-
viour. re appeared IN glory. The wit
nesses of this unwilling were three from
this world and two from the other world.
Why our Saviour selected Peter, James
and his brother John to witness this un-
yelling of his divinity we can only con-
lecture. These three alone witnessed the
restoring of life to the daughter of Jairus,
and these three were taken by the Saviour,
when in the Garden of Gethsemane he re-
tired to pray, just before the arrival of the
traitor Judasand his band. 1t is a remark
BILE thing thatin all the lists that are given
of the apostles, Peter is mentioned first
and Judas Iscariot last. It is no less re-
markable that Peter, James, John and
Andrew are always grouped together.
Matthew places Andrew after his brother
Peter. So does Luke in his gospel !; but
Mark, and Luke in Acts, places Andrew
last of the four. 1t seems that the twelve
apostles were divided into three compa-
MES of four, of which Peter was the chief
of the first, Philip of the second, and
James, the son of Alpheus, of the third.
Peter, however, with all his laundering
impetuosity was the chief of all the twelve.
He generally was spokesman for the rest,
and although he often made egregious
mistakes, he was loved of Jesus, and with
James and John, he was permitted to see
what no other living man ever saw or
perhaps ever will see in the flesh. These
three saw Moses and Elias appear with
Jesus in glory. It may I've remarked that
no more competent witnesses of the trans
fguration could have been found than Pc
ter, James and John. With all their de-
fects and weaknesses they were men of
rare natural endowments, which fitted
them to be martyrs. They were men of
good common sense and fXedness of pur-
pose. They, with Andrew, were the first
converts to Christianity, and the constant
followers of the Saviour. Why Andrew
was not taken with the Saviour on these
special occasions no one can tell. In point
of time he became a follower of the Sa-
viour before Peter, but because it pleased
the Father, he did not see the transfigura-
ton.
The other witnesses of the unwilling of
our Saviour'sdivinity were Moses and Eli
as. The former had been dead more than
fifteen centuries, and the latter had been
taken ''up by a whirlwind into heaven
nearly, or perhaps fully, nine hundred
years before this time. These were, in
their day, remarkable men. Moses was
chosen by God to lead his people out OF
Egypt. To Moses God gave not only the
best code of laws, but the only code OF
laws worthy of the name, the world ever
saw, or ever will see. There is not to-day,
in any region of the world, a civilized ma