The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26

in John, his kinsman, he found peculiarly
kindred spirit James the Just was worthy
of trustful love; impulsive Peter, while
seeming slave of his prevailing mood, was
of broad build, large nature, and tender as
he was great Jesus had selected these
three companions when he exercised the
spiritual force needful to raise Jairus'
daughter. He will select them as his hui
man companions in the lonely agony of
Gethsemane.
We note that Jesus had a prevailing love
of mountains. While he remained in the
earth he had affinity for its highest points.
1t was but following his life-habit to seek
spiritual communion and reinforcement
on the mountain which had no doubt been
to him from childhood a symbol of divine
peace and purity.
And as he 7Oas p,raytne, tie fashion at
his coNntenance 7oaS altered, and his raj
ment became 7Vjiite and dassline. We
conjecture the environment which these
words imply. There had been toilsome
day of mountain climbing. AT night-fall
the company had come to some lower spur
of the mountain, somewhere between the
summer verdure of the warm plain below
and the snowy peak they had left. The
tired mountain travellers, after their even
ing repast from their wallets, wrapped their
abbas about them and lying on the ground
Immediately sank into deep sleep. Jesus
remained awake. After period the three
disciples were simultaneously aroused by
,,I> 1,o~1,+
entranced. They beheld Jesus at little
distance praying. His countenance was
transparent, diaphanous through it shone
the light of his soul. His garments, against
the background of the night-sky, were daz-
zling, white as the snow on the mountain
peak, white beyond fuller's power to
whiten them more. Strange vision; mys-
FERROUS, Acknowledgements.
Does the approach of an electric cloud,
the presence of which is afterwards more
clearly indicated, suggest that there was
naturalness in this wondrous spectacle?
Why not? We behold both nature and
spirit present in this wondrous scene; but
where the natural ends and the spiritual
begins we are not able to discern.
2. Jesus in the Company of
ImmOrtals,-vs. 3o-33
And 6eh0ld, there talked 7VikA him tue
men, 7cjiich zOere Moses and Elijah, q0ho
APPEARED in glory, and Sbake Of his de-
cease 7e)tich he yas about to accomplish
at Jerusalem. Shall we construe this as
only dream vision? Were these i'm
mortals, here appearing as men, only
creatures of the dreamers' imagination?
Then, to be consistent, we must deny OBJ
jective reality to the angels that came to
minister to Jesus after his self-conf1ict in
the wilderness. We must believe that
only some physical agent is signifed when
we read that angelic visitants ministered
to him in his dreadful Gethsemane strug-
gle. 1t is not, we will confess, easy for US
to do this. In the light of the resurrection
of Jesus, which is to US one of the substan-
tiated facts of history, we do not find it
difficult TO believe, or hard to hope, that
there may be moments of actual COM
munion between exalted spirits in TIC body
and condescending spirits CT the Invisible
realm. This, however, let US observe, is
not confession of faith in so called "me.
diums." We are compelled by the evil
dence to regard all modern ''test-manifes-
tations" for money as no better than gross
trickery destitute of all claims to respect.
But that we are, nevertheless, encompassed
by populated spiritual realm, and that at
times immortals make themselves directly
manif st to the souls of mortals, we hold
as well-attested faith.
We do not profess to give the rationale
of the appearance of Moses and Elijah to
Jesus on the mount. Certain questions
we do not attempt to answer. Were the
spirits materialized to become visible to
natural eyes, or were the apostles spiritual
lied to behold invisible beings? We do
not know. How were the apostles made
to understand that the heavenly visitants
were Moses and Elijah? We do not
know; yet it is not hard to conjecture that
they heard some words spoken by the
spirits which revealed their personalities,
or Jesus may have himself informed them
as to the identity of the vistants. We
stand at the threshold of the mystery.
But we find it reasonable to believe the
central facts of the tradition, -namely,
that the three apostles whether in or out
of the body we cannot telD were made to
become conscious that Jesus held personal
communion with immortals; and precisely
those immortals who were naturally the
most interested in the completion of his
mission according to its plan.
The motive or reason for the appearance
of Moses and Elijah appears to us to be
chiefly this: Jesus needed to be assured
beyond possibility of doubt, that he could
himself, after his crucifxion, make himself
manifest to the disciples from the spiritual
realm. If he found himself unable to
communicate with those in the immortal
realm, how could he be assured that he
could from the hidden world rule his dis
ciples? But if he was himself in actual
communion with glori6ed spirits 1t would
be in accordance with demonstrated fact
for him to expect to be still present with
his disciples after he had been raised to
the immortals. 1t was specifically in re-
gard to the departure Jesus a0aS about TO