How to become like Christ | Page 7

as soon
as we recognise that all good influence and all superlatively dominant influence proceeds
from Him, and that really the hope of our race lies in Jesus Christ--as soon as we realise
that, as soon as we see that with our reason, and not as a thing that we have been taught to
believe, as soon as we lay hold on it for ourselves, we cannot but wish to do something to
forward His purposes in the world. But as soon as we form the wish we say, "What can
we do? We have not been born with great gifts; we have not been born in superior

positions; we have not wealth; we are shut off from the common ways of doing good; we
cannot teach in the Sabbath school; we cannot go and preach; we cannot go and speak to
the sick; we cannot speak even to our fellow at the desk. What can we do?" We can do
the best thing of all, as of course all the best things are open to every man. Love, faith,
joy, hope, all these things, all the best things, are open to all men; and so here it is open to
all of us to forward the cause of Christ in the most influential way possible, if not in the
most prominent way. What happens when a person is looking into a shop window where
there is a mirror, and some one comes up behind--some one he knows? He does not look
any longer at the image; he turns to look at the person whose image is reflected. Or if he
sees reflected on the mirror something very striking: he does not content himself with
looking at the image; he turns and looks at the thing itself. So it is always with the
persons that you have to do with. If you become a mirror to Christ your friends will
detect it in a very few days; they will see appearing in you, the mirror, an image which
they know has not been originated in you, and they will turn to look straight at the Person
that you are reflecting. It is in that way that Christianity passes from man to man.
THE TRANSFIGURATION.
"And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and
James and went up into the mountain to pray."--LUKE ix. 28-36.
The public life or our Lord falls into two parts; and the incident here recorded is the
turning point between them. In order that He might leave behind Him when He died a
sure foundation for His Church, it was necessary that His intimate companions should at
all events know that He was the Christ, and that the Christ must enter into glory by
suffering death. Only then, when they understood . this, could He die and leave them on
earth behind. Now it is just at this point in His life that it has become quite clear that the
first article of the Christian creed--that Jesus is the Christ--had been at last definitely
accepted by the disciples. Very solemnly our Lord has put it to them: "Who say ye that I
am ?" No doubt it was a trying moment for Him as for them. What was He to do if it had
not now become plain at least to a few steadfast souls that He was the Christ--the
Messenger of God to men? Happily the impulsiveness of Peter gives Him little space for
anxiety; for he, with that generous outburst of affectionate trust which should ring
through every creed, said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." You see the
intensified relief which this brought to our Lord, the keen satisfaction He felt as He heard
it distinctly and solemnly uttered as the creed of the Twelve; as He heard what hitherto
He could only have gathered from casual expressions, from wistful awe-struck looks,
from overheard questionings and debatings with one another. You see how at once, He
steps on to a new footing with them, as He cordially, and with intense gratitude, says to
Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona." In this Divinely-wrought confession of Peter's,
He finds at last the foundation stone of the earthly building the beginning of that
intelligent and hearty reception of Himself which was to make earth the recipient of all
heaven's fulness. But as yet only half the work is done. Men believe that He is the King,
but as yet they have very little idea of what the kingdom is to consist. They think Him
worthy of all glory, but the kind of glory, and the way to it they are ignorant of. From,
that time forth, therefore, began Jesus to show unto them how He