within.
Those tears of Peter's were a great comfort to Jesus that night and the
next day. The two greatest leaders were sure.

The transfiguration served its purpose fully. The memory of it saved Peter
out of the wreckage of Simon, else Judas' hemp might have had double use
that night. Under the leadership of these men, the little band hold
together during that day, so awful to them in the killing of their leader
and the dashing of all their fondest hopes on which they had staked
everything. Two nights later finds them gathered in a room. Could it have
been the same upper room where they had eaten _with Him_ that
never-to-be-forgotten night, and listened to His comforting words? Only
Thomas does not come. Everybody swings in but one. That shows good work by
these leaders. But another week's work brings him, too, into the meeting
and into the light.

These three men never forgot the sight of that night. John writes his
Gospel under the spell of the transfiguration. "We beheld _His glory"_ he
says at the start, and understands Isaiah's wondrous writings, because he,
too, "_saw His glory."_ The impression made upon Peter deepened steadily
with the years. The first impression of garments glistening beyond any
fuller's skill has grown into an abiding sense of the "_majesty" _ of
Jesus and "_the majestic glory_." I think it wholly likely, too, that this
vision of glory was in James' face, and steadied his steps, as so early in
the history he met Herod's swordsman.

It was _a vision of Jesus_ that turned the tide. There's nothing to be
compared with that. A man's life and service depend wholly on the vision
of Jesus that has come, that is coming. When that comes, instinctively he
finds himself ever after saying, without planning to,

"Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all beside.
So enchained my spirit's vision,
Looking at the Crucified."

With the Damascus traveller he will be saying, "When I could not see for
the glory of that light." May we each with face open, uncovered, all
prejudice and self-seeking torn away, behold the glory of Jesus, even
though for the sake of our eyes it come as a reflected glory. Then we
shall become, as were Moses and Stephen, unconscious reflectors of that
glory. And the crowd on the road shall find Jesus in us and want Him.
Then, too, we ourselves shall be changing from glory to glory, by the
inner touch of Jesus' Spirit, as we continue gazing.