New-York tribune., 1905-08-07
THE TRANSFIGURAT
The Rec. j. 3. WQss0n breaches on
It's Meaning.

At the celebration of the Feast OF the Trans
figuration yesterday at St Thomas's Protestant
Episcopal Church. the Rev. James b. Wasson de-
livered a sermon on 1.-THE Meaning of the Trans
hguration" which. in part. follows:
We need pay little attention to the question. not
whether IL was actual occurrence whether
II w was an an ffstatc ff vision seen so vyiily by our
to them to be real For our present purpose it
take But / would say in passing. that it would
appear more likely to have been subjective vision
For it was, know. ordinary occurrence
Tor men to see visions and dream dreams in those
In fact. dreams and visions play large part in
every one Of the great religions including Christi
think We will not go far wrong If we see in
the TRANSPORTATION an awakening to the larger
Lord. We are mostly unntelIigent and blind in our
studies studies of our Lords life which is not perhaps
common with the exalted personality. We study
the letter and fail to understand the spirit
And in nothing aStray than when
we assume that our Lord came on the earth fH M
knew from the first what His mission was to be:
This was far from being the case. At first all
to do and how He was to do it. And light came
20 t HIM only gradually through mediation, through
whereby the delicate chords of His refined and
son with the Divine will, 1t was through these
c{2mmunngs with God that He gained all His
and physical. For the most marvellous fact about
our Lord was that in His own proper nature as
was not a stole else would He have deserved no
credit for treading as He did the way Of the
The contemplation of pain brought to him
from his lips the cry Father if it be thy will let
this cup pass from my lips" But in the very ut
he was a6e add N vFRs na @ to Rm M
but thine be done And SO. by visions and spiritual
Wrestllngs with God in prayer. not only physical
strength and moral strength came him when he
larger oI,+Iool, on ~ rnrd 80 tri't ~ I.i q
OF MS own mission and powers.
NOT WHOLLY UNCONSCIOUS
IT was not much that he doubted the possession
of peculiar and extraordinary powers II is in
credible to suppose that he was unconscious of
nose powers, even though there is no record Of
his having performed any miracles before the
i0 f0rsI ma Degmnng Of his ministry While there
III ms azure no trace OF set-consciousness, nor
any sense Of superiority he could not fail to know
fh otbo ~ soT strange way he vas different from
IN his way of looking life different in his hopes
.otherIvdr SoQthfa WIN that feelng Cf
nnest and noblest natures tragic realization of
desire to lead every child of God away from the
husks of pleasures that kill the soul and back
again to the Father and His home.
And so we can conceive this Son of God, who
10 ,0Ved pest 10 call himself the SON OF man. as though
40 zen tmphasize his oneness with the race he was
destined 10 save standing. young man of thirty,
baptism. alternately lifted up and weighed down
VIII, WIN q dawnins sense Of a great mission, tremu-
IDLY swayed with the thought that he was sent on
earth TO redeem and save his fellow men, vet seek
course some evidence that God whom he loved to
all difficulties with His approval and aid In this
spirit he went down in the water be baptized by
he desired given to him; for he saw the
heavens opened and the spirit like dove descend
ing upon him And there came voice from
heaven. saying Thou art my beloved son, in whom
This was His commission. Henceforth all doubts
We're set at rest Immediately, Sold the
forty days He wrssted with the question Whether
or not He should obey this heavenly call Doubt
still remained the doubt whether He strong
He was man of like passions with ourselves ard
we may be sure that in these days of decision the
allurements Of the world were all spread before His
imagination The temptations that came to Him in
those days were as real and as Ttrong the
fempta tlons that come TO us from day TO day But
He resisted them all. and He emerged from the
physlch healng and social betterment for His
beloved servant of Roman army officer they
overcame His reluctance to extend His ministry to
Worthy Of such k6dnes5 % Tor Sq he e 3yc5h our MAS MAS
ton and hath built us synagogue
WAS THE COMMISSION REAL?
But did tho Father really wish Him thus
to be a savior and redeemer of mankind? Did
that voice heard at the baptism, Thou art my
commission as now suggested itself to Him? Was
lawgiver and to Elijah. the prophet OF fire. those
two great men who stood in the popular con-
toric religion of the Jews? Would these holy men
II now on earth. approve of His desire to tell all
was turning over this great question in His mind
one day, under the stress of an emotion he could
not control penetrated through and through with
4 4 5 deSlre 10 nave all men saved and come to
knowledge of the truth, He took three of His dis
clples and ascended lonely hilloc1 to pray and
as as ne PRAYED the fashion Of mis- "ountcnlrce was
altered and his raiment white and gIistening
And behold! there talked with him two men,
which We're Moses and Elias who appeared IN
glory and spoke of his decease. which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem"-St. Luke. tx
TRANSPORTATION looms up very large in the his
tory of our Lords life, the actien 81 our
Church in giving greater prominence 10 the div IS
fully justified 1t is in very truth a milestone in