The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-04-23
BY VIM. e. Gilrcly, ID. ID.
Editor of the COngregatiOnalist

by w IIls ~. H.
Editor of the COngregationalist
The story of the TRANSPORTATION
of Jesus is found in three of the four
Gospels.
The incident come at crucial
point in the career of Jesus when
the testing time was coming for the
disciples who had left all and had
followed him. Peter had made his
great confession, Thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God"
But great confessions and great re-
ligious experiences are apt to have
very serious reactions,
The crucial time for new con-
vert is not in the hour of some great
emotion, when he goes forward to
the altar and commits his life to
Christ. The very intensity Of that
experience is apt to produce a very
dangerous reaction the next morning
or after the series of meetings, with
their incident excitement, have
passed and the normal tasks and
temptations of life have to be met
once more. This is not always real
lied and many evangelistic cam
paigns fail in their ultimate results
because such reactions are permitted
to take place without proper safe
guards.
The Hour of Trial
The falling away of converts does
not always mean that they were not
sincere in their confession of con-
version, nor does it mean even that
they were necessarily weak, but it
trial or temptation, when the temp
ter has, perhaps, suggested the folly
of their having given way to such
emotion, there has not been the re-
assuring voice of conscience and of
some good angel in human form
ministering a word of comfort and
encouragement. Even in the very
hour of Peters great confession,
Jesus had rebuked his lack of spirit
ual understanding and almost at the
very verge of the cross he found the
disciples strangely dull in spiritual
comprehension and unresponsive to
the deeper things of his life and mes
sage.
Jesus understood the dangers of
spiritual reaction, and this, appar-
emily was underlying the manifes-
tation' of his majesty and glory in
the Mount of TRANSPORTATION. He
took up into the mount with him
Peter and James and John, the three
strong and impulsive spirits upon
whose allegiance so much depended
And there in the mount there came
to these men some visible manifesto
ton of his glory, and such a glor-
ious confirmation of the divine mis-.
3 sion of Christ that they were over
wheimed with the experience.
Surely this experience in the
mount must have held them firm
and steadfast in times of doubt
and discouragement; and in after
days, as is suggested in the second
portion of our lesson from the Sec
ond epistle Of Peter, when men were
wont to say the Christians were fol-
lowing "cunningly devised fables" it
was to such scenes as this of the
TRANSPORTATION that the memory of
the disciples turned. They empha-
sized the fact that they had been
eye-witnesses of his majesty.
1t is in exactly the same way that
John finds the deepest assurance in
his personal experience of the Christ.
In the opening of his First Epistle
he speaks of that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word
of life."
1t is too much to say that every
Christian must have somewhere in
his life this experience of the Trans
figuration? What is the use of our
studying what happened to Peter
James and John, ages ago, unless
that experience comes to us? 1t is
experiences that we shall not find
upon the low level of life.
There are certain visions that car
be had only upon the mountain top
though if men lived only on noun
tain tops there would be little rea
work done in the world. The noun
tains have had their part in develop
ing in men vision and rugged charac
ter, but it is the fruitful valleys anC
rivers that have played the grea
part in the actual processes of the
sustaining of life and the progress:
of civilization. The mountain anC
the valley have each their part t.
play in the developing and service
of the true Christian.
1t is not in establishing taber
nacles where we may dwell upon thu
mountain top, but in returning t
the daily paths of life to put thu
visions that we have seen into ou
common tasks and relationships
that the full meaning and inspiration
of the TRANSPORTATION are revealed