of the glory
that is to shine around him forever.

How wonderful it must have seemed to the astonished disciples! When
they had last looked on their Master, before going to sleep, they had
seen him as "the man of sorrows," in his plain everyday dress, such
as they themselves wore: but, when they looked on him again, as they
awoke from their sleep, they saw his face shining as the sun, and his
raiment dazzling in its snowy whiteness.

To what may we compare this wonderful change? Suppose you have before
you the bulbous root of the lily plant. You look at it carefully, but
there is nothing attractive about it. How rough and unsightly it
appears! You close your eyes upon it for a brief space. You open them
again. But what a change has taken place! That plain-homely looking
bulb has disappeared, and in its place there stands before you the
lily plant. It has reached its mature growth. Its flower is fully
developed and blooming in all its matchless beauty! What a marvellous
change that would be! And yet it would be but a feeble illustration
of the more wonderful change that took place in our Saviour at his
transfiguration.

Here is another illustration. Suppose we are looking at the western
sky, towards the close of day. Great masses of dark clouds are
covering all that part of the heavens. They are but common clouds.
There is nothing attractive or interesting about them. We do not care
to take a second look at them. We turn from them for a little while,
and then look at them again. In the meantime, the setting sun has
thrown his glorious beams upon them. How changed they now appear! All
that was commonplace and unattractive about them is gone. How they
glow and sparkle! Gold, and purple, and all the colors of the rainbow
are blending, how beautifully there! Are these the same dull clouds
that we looked upon a few moments before? Yes; but they have been
transfigured. A wonderful change has come over them. And here we have
an illustration of our Lord's transfiguration. The first wonder about
this incident in his life is the wonderful change which took place in
his appearance then.

_The second wonder about the transfiguration is_--THE WONDERFUL
COMPANY--_that appeared with our Saviour then_.

At the close of his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus had some
wonderful company too, but it was different from what he had now.
_Then_, we are told that "_angels came, and ministered unto him_."
And in the garden of Gethsemane,