"AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY"--A FATHER'S FAITH.
Jesus stayed near Caesarea Philippi with His disciples for a week. The
villagers were cutting the ripe grain, the vineyards were rich with
clusters of the rich grapes that grew on the Lebanon hills, and the
olives were ripening for the time when they would be put in the presses
to make the delicious "oil olive." In that week He must have had many
wonderful talks with the villagers.
One evening, as they had come over the lower hills of Hermon, Jesus
left the disciples to wait for Him below, taking only Peter and the
brothers James and John with Him up the mount. They did not go to the
very top but rested on one of the lower peaks. While Jesus went a
little distance from them to pray, the three disciples, wrapped in
their thick mantles, lay down to wait for Him. In that high clear air
they seemed very near heaven. The stars seemed almost as near as the
lights in the villages below. They were tired, and watching their
Master in prayer, they fell asleep. While they slept they seemed to
see a change in the face of Jesus as He prayed. It grew light with a
strange inward glory, and all His garments became white and glistening
like the snows of Hermon in the sun. They also saw two men with Him
whom they seemed to know were Moses and Elias, who had gone to heaven
centuries before.
They also heard them talking with Jesus, and they spoke of the same
thing that had troubled Peter when Jesus had spoken of it--that He
should die at Jerusalem.
They awoke out of sleep, but the vision did not pass away like a dream,
they still saw it all.
But as it began to melt away, Peter said, hardly knowing what he said,
"Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three
tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."
Then the glory around Jesus grew until it seemed like a bright cloud at
sunset, and it came and wrapt them around in its soft brightness, and
they were afraid.
In the silence they heard a Divine voice, saying,
"This is My beloved Son; hear Him."
When the voice was passed they looked up and saw Jesus there alone. He
was bending over them, touching them tenderly, and saying,
"Arise, and be not afraid."
As they came down the mountain He told them to tell no one of the
vision until after He had risen from the dead.
It seemed to the disciples, no doubt, like coming down from heaven to
earth when after a long walk and talk with Jesus in the summer morning
they came near the village they had left, and found the people--among
them some Jewish lawyers--disputing with the group of disciples there.
As soon as they saw Jesus they all ran to Him, and greeted Him.
One of the men explained what they were disputing about.
"Master," he said, "I have brought unto thee my son which hath a dumb
spirit," and he described the frightful state into which it had brought
his boy, and added that the disciples could not cast it out.
"Bring him to me," said Jesus, and they brought him, the evil spirit
within him throwing him into convulsions as they laid him at Jesus'
feet.
"How long is it ago since this came to him?" said Jesus.
"Of a child," said the father, "and ofttimes it hath cast him into the
fire and into the waters to destroy him, but if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us, and help us." Jesus said,
"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
Then the poor father cried out with tears, "Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief!"
The Lord did not wait for greater faith than this. He charged the evil
spirit to come out of the boy, and after a great struggle it left him
as one dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and he arose.
"Why could not we cast him out?" said the disciples afterward.
"This kind," said Jesus, "can come forth by nothing but by prayer and
fasting."
As they turned their steps toward home--the Lake side in Galilee--Jesus
again spoke of the work that lay before Him. The disciples listened
sadly, but could not understand why He should speak of being killed,
and of rising again from the dead, and they dared not ask Him questions
about it.