"WE are going to-day," said Mrs. Ross "to read a part of our Lord's history which I am very fond of. It is called the Transfiguration; do you know wha that means?"

"To be transfigured is to have the appearance changed, to take as it were another figure. What was Jesus in heaven before he came to this world?" "He was God."

"Yes, and God has told us, 'no man can see me, and live.' The glory of God would quite overpower us, if we were to behold it in our mortal bodies. Why did I pull down the window-blind just now, Harry?"

"Because the sun was so bright, mamma, we could not look at the window at all."

"Yes."
"And why?"

"Because the blind is down."

"Yes, that muslin veil comes between our eyes and the sun, and now we can bear to look at it. Now, when the Son of God took our body, he put as it were a veil over his men could look at him.

glory, and so

But, on the day we are going to read of, he raised the curtain a little; or, if we suppose that there were two veils, he lifted up one, and some of the glory shone through. Look at this picture."

He

"It is Jesus, I am sure, but not like the other pictures we have seen. looks all bright, and is raised above the ground, and there are two angels with him."

"These are not angels, my dear, but saints from heaven. And I do not think we are to suppose they were above the ground, though this picture makes it so. Let us hear what the Bible says.'

"And after six days Jesus taketh

Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."Matthew xvii. 1, 2.

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Why do you think Jesus went up the mountain?"

"It would be to pray, as he did be

fore."

"You are right. St. Luke tells us so, and says that, while he was praying,' this glorious change took place. Luke also says that the three Apostles were 'heavy with sleep.' Jesus wished to be alone, they were weary with the long walk, and they had not all his great love of prayer to make them forget their weariness, and perhaps it was night, so they fell asleep. But they soon awoke, perhaps with the bright light shining, and saw their Master in his glory."

be."

Oh, mamma, how happy they would

"Yes, I think it must have been very delightful to see him who was so humble

glory he has in heaven.

not alone.

But he was

Read the next verse."

"And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him." -Matthew xvii. 3.

"Oh, mamma, were the two angels Moses and Elijah ?”

"Yes, you "Oh yes, out of the Old Testament And had they come down from heaven?'

have often heard of them."

"Yes, God sent them down at this time to meet the Saviour, and to share his glory."

"But how did the Apostles know them ?"

"We are not told how exactly; perhaps Jesus told them, or they found it out from the way the blessed spirits spoke, for they were talking with Jesus,' and the Apostles could hear them. Let us read about that in Luke."

"Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with

sleep and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him." -Luke ix. 31, 32.

"You see what they were speaking of; the decease or death of the Lord, the suffering he was soon to bear at Jerusalem for the salvation of man. Moses and Elias had believed and hoped in the Messiah, when they were on earth, and they knew that all their happiness, and that of the other saints in heaven, was just given them because he was to suffer all this when the right time came; and now the time had come, and no other subject was so interesting to them. This description seems to me a very beautiful one. I think it gives us a kind of peep into heaven. There was nothing strange or awful in the appearance of Moses and Elias, though it is said they appeared in glory,' still they were only like glorious men. Elijah, you know, went to heaven without dying, in a chariot of fire, and took his body with him. We are told that God buried Moses after he died, and no one knew