EFFECTS WHICH THE SIGHT OF CHRIST PRODUCES.

"No man hath seen God at any time." He is the invisible God; "without body, parts or passions," "whom no man hath seen or can see;" for while in the body, we have no faculty for the perception of an object which is purely spiritual. Yet there is a sense in which the soul may be said to perceive the presence of God Himself. He was once made manifest in the flesh, and the disciples beheld His glory in the person of His only-begotten Son. He is now manifested unto us by the Spirit, which He hath given us. The Spirit, which takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us, takes us likewise into the presence chamber of the Eternal, and discloses, from time to time, such views of His power and majesty, that the believer is enabled to say, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ; for He manifests Himself unto us as He doth not unto the world. And thus we may be said, even while in this world, to have attained to the sight of God, and with the eye of faith to have seen Him that is invisible. When the Lord was upon earth, there were occasions upon which He manifested His Divine power, from time to time, in an extraordinary manner; just as we, who live under the dispensation of the Spirit, receive from time to time indications of God's presence quite beyond the ordinary operations of His grace. The gospel history records, with a minuteness evidently designed to fix our attention, several of these displays of the power of Christ, with the effect they produced, more especially upon one of the disciples, Simon Peter. They seem to have been intended not only to exhibit, beyond all doubt, the Divinity of the Lord Jesus, but to suggest some important lessons upon the effects which the perception of the Divine presence produces on the soul.

Vol. 60.-No. 284.

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1. The first of those to which we shall draw attention is that of the miraculous draught of fishes. Peter was at this time a new convert, he had just become a follower of Christ; his character, always that of an ardent man, impetuous, and of the warmest sensibilities, was still glowing with his first love, and this renders the effect of Christ's sudden manifestation of His power the more surprising. Instead of being delighted with the manifestation of his Lord's power, he was dismayed to find himself all at once in the presence of a being so august. Instead of the feeling, that now at least he could entertain no doubt whatever as to the Divine mission of the Master whom he served, he is alarmed to find in Him the certain signs of a teacher sent from God. He fell at Jesus' knees, exclaiming, "" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." It was the first, the natural and unpremeditated, burst of feeling; for he was astonished, and they that were with him, with the draught of the fishes which they had taken. But why should his astonishment have taken this direction? why did he not embrace the Saviour's feet, crying out with Thomas, "My Lord and my God?" We cannot doubt the sincerity of his attachment. It would seem reasonable to expect that the more wonderful the proofs which the Master gave of His power and majesty, the higher would rise the confidence and the greater be the delight of the disciple. But, on the contrary, he was alarmed; he was terror-stricken; in an agony of fear he entreated the Master to depart. It was the sense of his own sinfulness suddenly flashing across him which wrought thus upon his soul. Brought into conscious proximity with the Lord of all creation, abject terror, the terror begotten of a consciousness of sin, rushed in upon him as an armed man, and laid him prostrate. There was no particular display of the holiness of Jesus on this occasion; it was merely a display of power. His holiness had diffused itself throughout all His teaching. It had broken forth in every sentence He had uttered. But to His preaching Peter had listened undisturbed. Something of His Divine majesty is shown in His control of the brute creation; there is a slight exertion of His power, and Peter is subdued at once.

And this, we must confess, is in accordance with what we see, and with what we have ourselves no doubt experienced. Men will listen unmoved, and even with complaisance, to the most searching enunciation of God's law in all its spirituality, who fall prostrate in a moment before the exhibition of God's power. The sinner who has turned away with a light heart from the most awful statements of Scripture on the purity of the law and the holiness of God, will tremble in a thunderstorm, or cry out for mercy or swoon away in mental agony at a sudden death. It is Peter's case renewed. The spiritual

faculty has not yet been exercised; it is too dull to appreciate spiritual things; it understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. Therefore God, in mercy, makes His appeal at first to the coarser passions of our nature. He displays His power to those who cannot yet appreciate His holiness; and brought into the presence of One "who can kill and make alive again," and "hath the keys of death and of hell," the consciousness of sin rushes in at once. Thus there is often a season of apparent penitence under sudden visitations, though it may possibly be nothing more than one of horrible alarm.

Ministers of Christ may learn from hence how to make use of those events in which the power of God is signally manifested in the course of this world. Thus they may arouse the sleeping conscience which has proved insensible under a more spiritual discipline. The man may, perhaps, be appalled by some sudden visitation which brings him into proximity, as it were, with the power of God. He may be taught hereafter that Jehovah is no less fearful in holiness. At present he feels nothing more than his want of a shelter from the wrath to come. The time may be near when he shall discover that he needs no less that sanctification of heart, that robe of righteousness, which shall enable him to stand unterrified in the of God; and the one kind of discipline may prepare him for

the other.

presence

2. Time passed on; the earthly ministry of our Lord hastened to a close; when He gave a second demonstration, not, as before, of His power as creation's Lord, but now of His spirituality. He would show His disciples a glimpse of the glory He had with the Father before the world was. He would enable them to comprehend something of the splendour of heaven itself. He would take them for a while within the veil, and they should behold His glory as the glory of the onlybegotten of the Father. He was transfigured before them, and they were eye-witnesses of His majesty; as they heard the Father's voice from the excellent glory when they were with Him in the holy mount.* Peter was again present; but now he is not at all dismayed. The transcendent grandeur of the scene chastened, and yet charmed and allured his soul. He is now in no haste to retire, though the invisible God was present, and he heard His words, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' How shall we account for this? Strange was the change which must have been wrought in Peter's mind since the time when he was affrighted to see Jesus walking on the sea, or when he prayed Him to depart because the fishes of the deep were submissive to His power! How is it that he now desires to linger in the very presence of

* 2 Peter i. 18.

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the Holy One? Even Moses upon the mount was compelled to say, "I exceedingly fear and quake;" and Isaiah, when the door-posts trembled, and the Most High entered into His temple, cried out, "Woe is me, for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips." But Peter is very bold; he saith, "Lord, let us build here three tabernacles;" and he would himself, with James and John, have tarried in the society of Jesus glorified, and of the spirits of just men made perfect for evermore. Peter, then, must surely have grown in grace wisdom; for here is something of the "perfect love which casteth out fear;" the love which adores with reverence, and which is the child of the Spirit of adoption. Or was this only the language of ignorance and presumption? If so, would not the Lord have signified His displeasure? Yet, on the contrary, He rather marks His approbation. He makes His reply an occasion of a still further communication. A new revelation is imparted: "See thou tell no man till the Son of man be risen from the dead." No "Get thee behind me, Satan," but rather an expression of cordiality and confidence, such as friends make use of to each other, when some great secret has been divulged, and they talk in confidence of the influence it shall have upon their future lives.

Thus it is with the Christian. As he goes onward, he who was once appalled by the power, is not alarmed even by the holiness, of God. Peter was now much better instructed in the things of the kingdom of God than when he first became a disciple. His knowledge of himself, imperfect as it still was, was far greater; his perception of the evil of sin was much more acute and penetrating. His spiritual discernment, though feeble in comparison to what he afterwards attained, must have greatly increased, and with it, as a necessary consequence, his knowledge of his own infirmity. Yet he is ravished with the glories of the mount. Peter has no misgivings; he seems rather to expect that he himself should be "changed from glory to glory into the same image," and that if suffered to remain upon the mount, he should be transformed himself, so that he and his two companions should be no unmeet society for Moses and Elias glorified, and for the Son of man arrayed in the garments of immortality.

There is nothing stranger than this in the whole Christian life. With an ever-deepening sense of his own vileness there is an ever-deepening sense of the joy of God's presence. The sight of Christ fills the saint with a loathing sense of the hatefulness of sin; the hatefulness of sin fills him with admiration for the cross of Christ. The two work together in perfect harmony; and the result is, on the one hand, holy watchfulness; on the other, an abiding joy.

The timidity which keeps the young Christian from the full

enjoyment of his Saviour's presence, is the result of unbelief. Less love would be more easily comprehended. The love of Calvary transcends all his natural powers of comprehension. There is in it a length, and breadth, and depth, and height that passeth knowledge. Well does Charles Wesley sing, "God only knows the love of God."

But from time to time He reveals something of it to those who wait upon Him, and, in proportion as they become acquainted with it, they are filled with that peace of God which passeth understanding. The secret of passing through the world comparatively unmoved by its distractions, and of walking unhurt through the furnace of temptation, lies here. We must live on the mount of transfiguration; we must keep close to the Saviour; and, that we may do so, we must, in the first place, learn to account all things but loss in comparison with him. And this is a hard lesson or an easy task, just as we go to learn it in the school of mortification, or in the school of Christ. The skull and crucifix may help to frighten, but never to eradicate, sin. The monster retires into his den irritated, though cowed; and he will spring out again on the slightest encouragement. Love plants the fatal bolt in his vitals. He may now writhe and roar, for he is long in dying, but die he must; for it is written, "that sin shall not have dominion over us," for "we are not under the law but under grace." And where grace reigns, sin cannot reign too.

The

3. A few weeks more pass away, and Peter and the disciples are admitted to see the Lord under circumstances altogether new, altogether awful; such as shall never again be witnessed in time or through eternity. Not only the chosen three, but all the disciples, with one exception, are present now. scene is upon another mount, the mount of Olives, and the Prince of Life is no longer radiant with His glory as upon Tabor; for the last awful conflict has begun with the prince of darkness, whose hour it is. And now he tries the Son of God himself, and seems for a moment almost on the point to triumph. It seems as if he would be allowed to exhaust and crush the strength, though he cannot pollute the soul, of the great SinOffering. And what is the effect now upon the disciples? now that they knew their Master so well, now that they reverenced Him so deeply, now that they loved Him so much? It seems unaccountable; they have no sympathy whatever in His sorrows. Their eyes are heavy and they fall asleep. They slept while the Son of man was in His agony; they slept while the angels of God appeared to comfort Him; they slept while He prayed that if it were possible the cup might pass from Him. There is one explanation of their conduct, and only one. The Son of man could not share amongst others any portion of that bitter cup. He could not, even as man, receive the solace of their