Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the "passing of the hero." Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged.

Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died - I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? or - I saw the Lord?

My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation. Before I can say "I saw also the Lord," there must be something corresponding to God in my character. Until I am born again and begin to see the Kingdom of God, I see along the line of my prejudices only; I need the surgical operation of external events and an internal purification.

It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. "In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee." Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

We have to get our eyes off others before we can have the full vision of Jesus. Moses and Elijah had to pass to make possible the vision of Jesus only.

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw the Lord. His eyes and hopes had been upon the mighty and victorious earthly leader, and with his death all these hopes had sunk in despair. But the stars come out when the lights of earth fade. It was then Isaiah’s true vision and life began.

It is not enough to see Jesus along with other things and persons. What we need is to have Him fill all our vision, all our sky, all our heart, all our plans, and all our future. What He wants from us is “first love,” that is, the supreme place; and He cannot really be anything to us satisfactorily until He is everything.

He is able to fill every capacity of our being and without displacing any rightful affection or occupation, yet so blend with all, so control all, so become the very essence of all thought and all delight that we can truly say, “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21 KJV), for “the love of Christ constraineth” me (2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV), shuts me up and in from everything else as a pent-up torrent in its narrow course, to live not unto myself but unto him “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

Holy Spirit, bring us our transfiguration, take us apart to our Mount of vision, let Moses and Elijah pass, and let us see no man save Jesus only.

Thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?—Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.—I saw . . . the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself.

The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.—That we might be partakers of his holiness.—Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart.

I saw . . . the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphims. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.—These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.—Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness . . . of a man above upon it. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord .

I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.—No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.—God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.