We who are of the earth need not be earthy;
God made our nature like His own–divine;
Nothing but selfishness can be unworthy
Of His pure image meant through us to shine.
The death of deaths it is ourselves to smother
In our own pleasures, His dishonoured gif
And life–eternal life–to love each other;
Our souls with Christ in sacrifice to lift.
Transfiguration… not Christ’s, but ours. It does not seem strange to read that one wonderful night Jesus was transfigured. Deity dwelt in Him. The wonder was that He was not always transfigured. But we are to have transfigurations too, we who belong to this earth. St. Paul says to Christians, “Be ye transfigured.” Our dull lives should shine.
This is not to be, either, after we get into heaven, but now, right her, in the present life. Nor is it to be in certain favoured conditions, merely, in some holy service, but in the midst of the world’s common experiences. Mr. Drummond said, “The three ingredients of a perfect life are: work, which gives opportunity; God, who gives happiness; love that gives warmth.” He reminds us also that the one perfectly transfigured life the world has known was spent, not with a book, but with a hammer and a saw. Thus the possibility of transfiguration is brought very near to us. Not in some rare ethereal circumstances only can the problem be worked out, but in the plainest, commonest lot.
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