when he was sinking to the earth,
overcome by the terrible agony through which he was passing, he had
more company of the same kind; for we read that--"_there appeared
unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him."_ St. Luke xxii: 43.
But it was not the company of angels that waited on him at the time
of his Transfiguration. No: but we read that, "there appeared unto
him Moses, and Elias," or Elijah. And if we ask why did not the
angels come to him now, as they did on other occasions? Why did these
distinguished persons, of the Old Testament history, come from heaven
to visit him in place of the angels? It is easy enough to answer
these questions. This transfiguration of Christ took place, as he
himself tells us, in order to give his disciples a view of the glory
that will attend him when he shall come in his kingdom. When he shall
appear, on that occasion, all his people will come with him. Those
who shall have died before he comes will be raised from the dead and
come with him, in their glorious resurrection bodies. And those who
shall be living when he comes will, as St. Paul tells us,--"_be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye_"--I. Cor. xv: 52,
53--and have beautiful, glorified bodies, like the bodies of those
who have been raised from the dead. And both these classes of
Christ's people were represented by the distinguished persons who
formed the company that appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration.
Moses had been in heaven nearly fifteen hundred years when this scene
took place. He had died, as other men do, and had been buried. It is
supposed by many wise and good men that his body had been raised from
the dead, that he might appear in it on this occasion. And thus Moses
represented all the dead in Christ, who will be raised to life again
at his coming. Elijah had been in heaven for almost a thousand years.
He had never died, and never lain in the grave. He was translated.
This means that he was taken up to heaven without dying. But St. Paul
tells us that bodies of flesh and blood, like ours, cannot enter
heaven. I. Cor. xv: 50. They must be changed, and made fit for that
blessed place. And so, we know, that as Elijah went up to heaven, in
his chariot of fire, the same wonderful change must have passed over
his body which we have seen will take place with those of Christ's
people who shall be living on the earth when he comes again.

Jesus was transfigured that we might know how he himself will