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How ashamed must the disciples have been when they had to confess their failure to relieve the suffering, and thus had brought disgrace to Him. He rebuked their want o f faith and surely He was right in doing so. How often we modern disciples fail, and how tenderly He rebukes us. Are there not those in our homes, our Sunday Schools, our churches, our communities who are not delivered from bondage just because the disciples t>f Jesus have not the power to help them ? See Acts 1 : 8 . 2 . The victorious Saviour. When men fail us we should always go to our Lord Himself. The Master’s com mand was plain—“ Bring him unto Me.” He is bidding us do it today. They obeyed Him and so should we. The father hid nothing from the L ord ; but gave Him a full account of the case, and it was a desperate one. The Saviour turned the father’s “if thou canst do anything” back on him—“ If thou canst believe.” The hindrance is not in Him but in us. How earnestly the man sought the blessing—“with tears.” “When in trouble go to God in prayer.” The man’s faith was imperfect and small, but ’’ faith as a grain o f mustard seed” can move mountains if that faith is from God and not something wrought up in ourselves by ourselves. The desperate demon made a last determined effort to destroy the boy, but could not prevail against Jesus’ word of power. Not only was the demon driven out, but he was commanded not to return. Whom He justifies; He also sanctifies, for the whole purpose of His redemption’ is to make us holy, like Himself. How tenaciously the devil holds on, many said the boy was dead. Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up. It. is to those who are dead in trespasses and sins that Jesus brings lifei The wisdom o f the disciples in seeking from Jesus Himself the cause o f their failure is a striking lesson for us to learn. How much do we know personally o f the connection between fasting and praying. Yet it was right at that point the Master placed their failure. “ Pray through!’’
(even many good men) who are still in the flesh. “God is the God o f the living.” It proves also the importance o f the truth o f our Lord’s redemptive work. It proves all the truth that we shall recognize our loved ones who have preceded us to that better land. How natural and real the recital o f the disciple’s fright, and o f Peter’s con fused suggestion, all bearing the marks of an eye-witness’s account. See in 2 Peter 1 :16-18 the impression still fresh in the mind o f Peter after a third o f a century had passed. How fitting the testimony o f the voice from the cloud, the second time that the Father had spoken, and He was to speak once more before the sacrifice should be consummated. “Hear Him.” “They saw . . . . Jesus only.” The “rising from the dead” ' o f which He told them as they came down the mountain was as great a perplexity to them as the decease was. But how well they remembered His speaking of it before hand when it was an accomplished fact. 5 . ' Why? While it seems plain that the transfigura tion had its own meaning to our Lord, it is plain also that it had a' special meaning for the disciples. What a revelation o f the dignity and person o f Him with whom they were so intimately associated. They could never see Him again just as they had seen Him before. As the miracles were samples o f His power, so this was a sample o f His glory. “ The kingdom” took on a larger, grander meaning. And after He had gone home to His Father, and persecution became the lot of His followers, what comfort and strength the remembrance o f this scene brought to them. II. The Lunatic Boy Healed, vv. 14-20. I., The defeated disciples. What a contrast between the scene at the foot of the mountain and that from which-our Lord and the three hadjust left on the mountain. Recall what Moses came down to find. How the father’s piteous pleas must have gone to the Saviour’s heart.
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