Second Sunday of Lent.
The Transfiguration.
"He was transfigured before them." — Matt. xvii. 2.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Life and death. II. Church's liturgy. III. Raphael's Transfiguration.
I. Heaven : i. Inconceivable. 2. Pagan notions. 3. Earth's loveliest spots.
II. It consists: 1. In possessing God. 2. In being in accord with Him. 3. In enjoying delight of soul and body.
III. Its attainment : 1. Hand in picture. 2. Its meaning. 3. The Law and Gospel.
Per.: 1. Our idea of heaven. 2. Our efforts to attain it. 3. Our models.
SERMON.
Brethren, in the midst of life, alas, there is death, but happily, too, in the midst of death there is life. That is the idea of to-day's Gospel. He was transfigured before them. He had just been telling them of the tortures He was to endure, and of His death; of the lives of self-denial and the sufferings in store for them. "Far be it from us and Thee," they said, "to suffer such things." They were shocked and completely discouraged, and to fortify their shrinking souls He granted them a glimpse of heaven — He was transfigured before them. So, too, the Church; scarcely has the gloomy pall of the Lenten season closed around us, than she presents to our thoughts the glories of the Transfiguration. Like a skilful general to his army on the eve of battle, in the shadow of
