Vatican, untarnished by the passage of three
hundred years, hangs the masterpiece of Raphael,--his picture of the
Transfiguration. In the centre, with the glistening raiment and the
altered countenance, stands Jesus, the Redeemer. On the right hand and
on the left are his glorified visitants; while, underneath the bright
cloud, lie the forms of Peter, and James, and John, gazing at the
transfigured Jesus, shading their faces as they look. Something of the
rapture and the awe that attracted the apostles to that shining spot
seems to have seized the soul of the great artist, and filled him with
his greatest inspiration. But he saw what the apostles, at that moment,
did not see, and, in another portion of his picture, has represented the
scene at the foot of the hill,--the group that awaited the descent of
Jesus.. The poor possessed boy, writhing, and foaming, and gnashing
his teeth,--his eyes, as some say, in their wild rolling agony, already
catching a glimpse of the glorified Christ above; the baffled disciples,
the caviling scribes, the impotent physicians, the grief-worn father,
seeking in vain for help. Suppose Jesus had stayed upon the mount, what
would have become of that group of want, and helplessness, and
agony? Suppose Christ had remained in the brightness of that vision
forever,--himself only a vision of glory, and not an example of toil,
and sorrow, and suffering, and death,--alas! For the great world at
large, waiting at the foot of the hill--the groups of humanity in
all ages;--the sin-possessed sufferers--the caviling skeptics; the
philosophers, with their books and instruments; the bereaved and frantic
mourners in their need!

So, my hearers, wrapped in the higher moods of the soul, and wishing
to abide among upper glories, we may not see the work that waits for us
along our daily path; without doing which all our visions are vain. We
must have the visions. We need them in our estimate of the world around
us,--of the aspects and destinies of humanity. There are times
when justice is balked, and truth covered up, and freedom trampled
down;--when we may well be tempted to ask, "What is the use of trying
to work?"--when we may well inquire whether what-we are doing is work
at all. And in such a case, or in any other, one is lifted up, and
inspired, and enabled to do and to endure all things, when in steady
vision he beholds the everliving God,--when all around the injustice,
and conflict, and suffering of t