They would escape from the age, and its anxieties; they would
recall past conditions; they would get into the shadow of
cloisters, and build cathedrals for an exclusive sanctity.
And, indeed, we would do well to consider those tendencies of
our time which lead us away from the inner life of faith and
prayer. But this we should cherish, not by withdrawing all
sanctity from life, but by pouring sanctity into life. We
should not quit the world, to build tabernacles in the Mount
of Transfiguration, but come from out the celestial
brightness, to shed light into the world, --to make the whole
earth a cathedral; to overarch it with Christian ideals, to
transfigure its gross and guilty features, and fill it with
redeeming truth and love.

Surely, the lesson of the incident connected with the text is
clear, so far as the apostles were concerned, who beheld that
dazzling, brightness, and that heavenly companionship, apart
on the mount. They were not permitted to remain apart; but
were dismissed to their appointed work. Peter went to denial
and repentance, --to toil and martyrdom; James to utter his
practical truth; John to send the fervor of his spirit among
the splendors of the Apocalypse, and, in its calmer flow
through his Gospel, to give us the clearest mirror of the
Saviour's face.

Nay, even for the Redeemer that was not to be an abiding
vision; and he illustrates the purport of life as he descends
from his transfiguration to toil, and goes forward to
exchange that robe of heavenly, brightness for the crown of
thorns.