He retired to the solitude of Mount Hermon.  We start, then, from the wrong point of view, if we suppose that Jesus climbed Hermon in order to enjoy spiritual ecstasy, or exhibit His glory to those three men.  Ecstasy of this kind must come unsought; and the way to it lies through conflict, humiliation, self-mastery.  It was not simply to pray that Jesus retired; it was to engage in the great conflict of His life.  And because He felt, Himself so much in need of kindness and support, He took with Him the three companions He could most depend upon.  They were loyal friends; and their very presence was a strength to Him.  So human was Jesus, and now so heavily burdened, that the devotedness of these three plain men—­the sound of their voices, the touch of their hands as they clambered the hill together, gave Him strength and courage.  Let no one be ashamed to lean upon the affection of his fellow-men.  Let us, also, reverently, and with sympathy, accompany our Lord and witness, and endeavour to understand, the conflict in which He now engaged.  It has been suggested that the transfiguration may best be understood as a temptation.  Undoubtedly there must have been temptation in the experience of Jesus at this crisis.  It was for the purpose of finally consecrating Himself to death, with all its painful accompaniments, that He now retired.  But the very difficulty of this act of consecration consisted just in this:  that He might, if He pleased, avoid death.  It was because Peter’s words, “This be far from Thee,” touched a deep chord in His own spirit, and strengthened that within Himself which made Him tremble and wish that God’s will could in any other wise be accomplished—­it was this which caused Him so sharply and suddenly to rebuke Peter.  Peter’s words penetrated to what was lurking near at hand as His normal temptation.  We may very readily underrate the trial and temptation of Christ, and thus have only a formal, not a real, esteem for His manhood.  We always underrate it when we do not fully apprehend His human nature, and believe that He was tempted in all points as we are.  But, on the other hand, we underrate it if we forget that His position was wholly different from ours.  That Jesus had abundant nerve and courage no reader of the Gospels can, of course, doubt.  He was calm in the midst of a storm which terrified experienced boat-men; in riots that threatened His life, in the hands of soldiers striving to torment Him and break Him down, in the presence of judges and enemies, He maintained a dignity which only the highest courage could maintain.  That such a Person should have quailed at the prospect of physical suffering, which thousands of men and women have voluntarily and calmly faced, is simply impossible to believe.  Neither was it entirely His perception of the spiritual significance of death which made it to Him a far more painful prospect than to any other.  Certainly this clear perception of the meaning of death did add immensely to its terrors;