CHAPTER 129.
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Levi
Jesus teaches the people. He takes Peter, James and John and goes to a high mountain and is transfigured before them.
The news soon spread that Jesus and the twelve were come, and many people came to see.
2 And Jesus said, Behold, you come to see, but that means naught. If you would have the benedictions of the Christ, take up your cross and follow me.
3 If you would give your life for selfish self, then you will lose your life.
4 If you will give your life in service of your fellow men, then you will save your life.
5 This life is but a span, a bauble of today. There is a life that passes not.
6 Where is your profit if you gain the world and lose your soul? What would you take in payment for your soul?
7 If you would find the spirit life, the life of man in God, then you must walk a narrow way and enter through a narrow gate.
8 The way is Christ, the gate is Christ, and you must come up by the way of Christ. No man comes unto God but by the Christ.
9 The kingdom of the Christ will come; yea, some of you who hear me now will not pass through the gates of death until you see the kingdom come in power.
10 For seven days the master and the twelve remained in Cæsarea-Philippi.
11 Then Jesus, taking Peter, James and John, went forth unto a mountain top to pray.
12 And as he prayed a brilliant light appeared; his form became as radiant as a precious stone;
13 His face shone like the sun; his garments seemed as white as snow; the son of man became the son of God.
14 He was transfigured that the men of earth might see the possibilities of man.
15 When first the glory came the three disciples were asleep; a master touched their eyes and said, Awake and see the glory of the Lord.
16 And they awoke, and saw the glory of the Lord; and more, they saw the glory of the heavenly world, for they beheld two men from thence stand forth beside the Lord.
17 And Peter asked the master who awakened them, Who are these men who stand beside the Lord?
18 The master said, These men are Moses and Elijah, who are come that you may know that heaven and earth are one; that masters there and masters here are one.
19 The veil that separates the worlds is but an ether veil. For those who purify their hearts by faith the veil is rolled aside, and they can see and know that death is an illusive thing.
20 And Peter said, Praise God! And then he called to Jesus and he said, My master and my Lord, this is the gate of heaven, and it is well that we remain.
21 May we go down and bring three tents; a tent for you, a tent for Moses, and for Elijah one? But Jesus answered not.
22 And Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus on the mount. They talked about the coming trial of the Lord;
23 About his death, his rest within the tomb; about the wonders of the resurrection morn; the transmutation of his flesh, and his ascension on the clouds of light;
24 And all symbolic of the path that every man must tread; symbolic of the way the sons of men become the sons of God.
25 The three disciples were amazed, and suddenly the ethers were surcharged with song, and forms as light as air, moved all about the mountain top.
26 And then from out the glory of the upper world they heard a voice that said,
27 This is the son of man, my chosen one to manifest the Christ to men. Let all the earth hear him.
28 When the disciples heard the voice they were afraid; they fell upon the ground and prayed.
29 And Jesus came; he touched them and he said, Arise, fear not; lo, I am here.
30 Then they arose, and as they looked about they saw no one; the men had gone. The master only stood with them.
31 As Jesus and the three came from the mountain top they talked about the meaning of the scene, and Jesus told them all; and then he said,
32 Till I have risen from the dead tell not to any one what you have seen.
33 But the disciples could not comprehend the meaning of the words, Till I have risen from the dead.
34 And Jesus told them once again about his death, and rising from the grave; about the kingdom of the soul that was to come in glory and in power.
35 But Peter said, The scribes have taught that e’er the king shall come Elijah must appear.
36 And Jesus said, Elijah has already come; but scribes and Pharisees received him not;
37 And men reviled him, bound him, cast him in a prison cell, and shouted with a fiend’s delight to see him die.
38 What men have done to him, that they will do to me.
39 Then the disciples understood that Jesus spoke of John whom Herod slew.