But when we take ourselves out of His hands, and only see chance or circumstances or stern old mother Nature, in our experiences, these clumsy operators only scratch the surface, which needs to be polished. The sunshine must fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hillside, lighting up the grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing, and fades away, leaving the solitude to its sadness; but as it does on some cloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates with fire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour are brightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst its mists. Conclusion: 1. Of all the systems on earth it alone teaches man what true greatness is, and the way to attain it. Faith is a living principle. In fact, the future state appears to offer the most amazing scope for its continuation: "We shall be like Christ; for we shall see him as he is." The Old Testament was only a "shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things." With open face. This last is obviously the meaning of the expression employed. Its discoveries are more satisfactory. The mission of Christianity is to give a right direction to this instinct. ", 4. This is a glory not skin-deep like that of Moses, but penetrating the character and changing our inmost nature into Christ's image. IV. cries the working Christian, as he presents his body a living sacrifice, and feels the living fire descend and consecrate the offering. It is His image which always reawakens in us a response to what is good and right. Unless you look often at this image and love to do so, you will not get much good from Christ.

Do we not walk by faith and not by sight? 2. THIS LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION IS THEREFORE A LIFE OF GRADUAL TRANSFORMATION.

", 4. The Spirit directs our eyes to Christ, and it is when we look to the Lord Christ that we are changed into the same image. Thus faith in Divine revelation is a holy perception of the mind, by which the glory of God in Christ is discovered, and this discovery has a powerful reaction upon the soul, and as the object is more distinctly perceived, the progressive sanctification of good men is advanced till they possess the perfect image of their Lord. Apply this to the gospel. 2. What, then, is the mirror which receives the image, and reflects back on the eye of the beholders, the glory of the Lord? The same Greek word used to describe the transfiguration of Christ. Oh, may we thus reflect His glory for ever! We grow in likeness to Him whom we love and admire. 5. Christ's people are to be changed so thoroughly into His image that they shall have a soul like His, and even a body like His. And the image of Him which the gospel receives as the image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, it reflects back as from a burnished mirror, in all its lineaments, and fulness, and glory, and distinctness. The Christian has to leave reflective mirrors for the full vision of the Saviour's glory. And so, unless we give our full front, our direct, straightforward, whole attention to Christ, He may see in us, not His own image at all, but the images of things abhorrent to Him. Those who apply it to the face of the Lord make a slight transposition of the words to make the sense more apparent. 2. By beholding we are to understand faith in one of its liveliest and most important exercises. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (1) Its appetites are intensified by its supplies. To see the naked sun face to face would have blinded me. It is He who saves us from becoming altogether a reflection of a world lying in wickedness, from being formed by our own evil-heartedness, and from persuading ourselves we may live as we list. If we look at the general character of the Israelitish nation, from the time of Moses to the coming of Christ, we shall perceive but little manifestation of genuine piety towards God. The initial change may be the work of a moment; the complete process is the work of a life-time.

Comforting thought to those who grow weary and disheartened after painful struggles to reach an ideal goodness which ever seems to elude their grasp. Instead of the countenance being concealed by a veil, it is, in the case of true Christians, converted into a mirror, which receives and then reflects the rays of light. THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE TEXT. It was a deep true thought which the old painters had when they drew John as likest to his Lord. Such is the view which God gives to the believer, of Himself in the face of His Son, as a just God who will by no means clear the guilty, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus — a gracious and encouraging view, not indeed of His essential glory, which the sinner cannot behold, but of His glory as exhibited in His grace, and on which the eye of the believer delights to rest. Here is yet another who is wrapped round in the cold mist of doubts and fears, steaming up from the restless sea of human experiences. 2. It is an open face in a glass. The doom of gospel despisers. "Even as by the Lord the Spirit." Transforming in its influence. V. THE DIVINE AGENT BY WHICH THIS IS EFFECTED.

They make light of the gospel of Christ; despise the Saviour it presents, and the salvation it proffers, and turn away from "the glory of the Lord.". It is brought about by looking at Christ. "(4) Still we change. cries the advancing saint, as he sees the prize of his high calling, and presses towards it. Observe —(1) A concentrated looking on Christ commands admiration. Then Jews and Gentiles received the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit in so copious a manner as to fulfil the beautiful predictions of the prophet: "Until the Spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

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