Of the week following the events last considered, no record is found in the Gospels. We may safely assume that the time was devoted, in part at least, to the further instruction of the Twelve. When the week had passed, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain, where they would be reasonably safe from human intrusion. There the three apostles witnessed a heavenly manifestation, which stands without parallel in history. In our Bible captions it is known as the Transfiguration of Christ. One purpose of the Lord's retirement was that of prayer, and a transcendent investiture of glory came upon Him as He prayed. The apostles had fallen asleep, but were awakened by the surpassing splendor of the scene

"The fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering." His garments, though made of earth-woven fabric, "became shining, exceeding white as snow" With Him were two other personages, who also were in a state of glorified radiance, and who conversed with the Lord. These, as the apostles learned, were Moses and Elias, or more literally to us, Elijah. The subject of their conference with Christ was "his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem"

Undoubtedly Peter and his fellow apostles were bewildered, "sore afraid" indeed; and this condition may explain the suggestion respecting the three tabernacles. It was customary to erect a little bower, or booth of wattled boughs, for each individual worshiper, into which he might retire for devotion. So far as there was a purpose in Peter's proposition, it seems to have been that of delaying the departure of the visitants. The sublime and awful solemnity of the occasion had not yet reached its climax. Even as Peter spake, "behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well

Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Arise, and be not afraid." When they looked they saw that again they were alone with Him. The impression made upon the three apostles by this manifestation was one never to be forgotten. But they were expressly charged to speak of it to no man until after the Savior had risen from the dead.

The present reiteration of these teachings seems to have left the three with no clearer understanding of their Lord's resurrection from the dead than they had before. They seem to have had no definite conception as to what was meant by a resurrection. The comprehensiveness of the Lord's injunction, that until after His rising from thedead they tell no man of their experiences on the mount, prohibited them from informing even their fellows of the Twelve. Later, after the Lord had ascended to His glory, Peter testified to the Church of the wondrous experience, in this forceful way: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The divine purpose as shown forth in the Transfiguration may be as incomprehensible to the human mind as is a full conception of the attendant splendor from verbal description. Unto Christ the manifestation was strengthening and encouraging. The prospect of the experiences immediately ahead must naturally have been depressing and disheartening in the extreme.

In faithfully treading the path of His life's work, He had reached the verge of the valley of the shadow of death; and the human part of His nature called for refreshing. What of actual communication passed in the conference of Jesus with Moses and Elijah is not of full record in the New Testament Gospels. The voice of His Father, to whom He was the Firstborn in the spirit-world, and the Only Begotten in the flesh, was of supreme assurance. Yet that voice had been addressed to the three apostles rather than to Jesus, who had already received the Father's acknowledgment and attestation on the occasion of His baptism.

The fullest version of the Father's words to Peter, James, and John is that recorded by Matthew: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Moses, the promulgator of the law, and Elijah the representative of the prophets, had been seen ministering unto Jesus and subservient to Him. A new dispensation had been established, that of the gospel, for which the law and the prophets had been but preparatory. The apostles were to be guided neither by Moses nor Elijah, but by Him , their Lord, Jesus the Christ.

The three selected apostles, "the Man of Rock and the Sons of Thunder" had seen the Lord in glory. They marveled that such a thing could be at that time, since as they had interpreted the scriptures, it had been predicted that Elijah should precede the Messiah's triumphal advent. As they wended their way down the mountain-side, they asked the Master: "Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?" Jesus confirmed the prophecy that Elias should first come, that is, before the Lord's advent in glory, which event they had in mind. "But," He added, "I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him

That John the Baptist would officiate "in the spirit and power of Elias," as the forerunner of the Christ, had been announced by the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, before the Baptist's birth. Jesus, on that occasion, had said: "And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come" It is not possible that Jesus could have meant that John was the same individual as Elijah, nor could the people have so understood His words. The false doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation of spirits was repudiated by the Jews.

Gabriel's declaration that the then unborn John should manifest "the spirit and power of Elias" indicates that "Elias" is a title of office. Every restorer, forerunner, or one sent of God to prepare the way for greater developments in the gospel plan, is an Elias. The authority of Elias is inferior to that of Elijah, the first being a function of the Lesser or Aaronic order of Priesthood, while the latter belongs to the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood.

Malachi's prediction, that before "the great and dreadful day of the Lord" Elijah the prophet would be sent to earth to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children" did not reach fulfilment in the mission of John the Baptist, nor in that of any other "Elias" The mission was inaugurated on the third day of April, 1836, when Elijah appeared in the temple at Kirtland, Ohio, and committed to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the authority theretofore vested in himself.

Both Matthew (17:1) and Mark (9:2) state that the Transfiguration occurred "after six days" It is probable that the six-day period was meant to be exclusive of the day on which the earlier events had occurred and of that on which Jesus and the three apostles retired to the mountain. There is here no ground for a claim of discrepancy. 2. Peter, James, and John were selected from among the Twelve as the only earthly witnesses of the transfiguration of Christ. 3. The same three were the sole witnesses of our Lord's night agony in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37; Mark 14:33).

Mount Tabor, in Galilee, has long been held by tradition as the site. Mt. Hermon stands near the northerly limits of Palestine, just beyond Cæsarea Philippi. Mark (9:30) distinctly tells us that after His descent from the mount, Jesus and the apostles departed and went through Galilee.

The Names "Elias" and "Elijah" are "the Greek and Latin form of 'Elijah' given in the Authorized Version of the Apocrypha and New Testament." 5. "The Spirit and Power of Elias." —That John the Baptist, in his capacity as a restorer, a forerunner, or as one sent to prepare the way for a work greater than his own, did officiate as an "El Elias" is attested by both ancient and latter-day scripture.

He thus prepared the way for the vicarious labor of baptism for the dead, the authority for which was restored by Elijah. "Messiah is above the spirit and power of Elijah, for He made the world, and was that spiritual rock unto Moses in the wilderness" "Elijah is to come after, holding the keys of power, building the temple to the cap-stone, placing the seals of the Melchizedek Priesthood upon the house of Israel, and making all things ready" "Then Messiah comes to His temple, which is last of all"

Elijah was to come and prepare the way and build up the kingdom before the coming of the great day of the Lord, although the spirit of Elias might begin it. The Greek word of which "decease" appears as the English equivalent in many of the MSS. of the Gospels, is one connoting "exodus," or "departure," and the word occurring in other early versions signifies glory.

So also the Greek original of "accomplish," in the account of the Transfiguration, connotes the successful filling out or completion of a specific undertaking, and not distinctively the act of dying. Both the letter of the record and the spirit in which the recorder wrote indicate that Moses and Elijah conversed with their Lord on the glorious consummation of His mission in mortality.

Note 2 , end of chapter. Matt. 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36. Page 38 . Mark 8:31. 2 Peter 1:16-18. John 1:14; Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:13. Luke 22:43; compare John 12:27-28. 2 Kings 2:11.