^ Whymper, in his Scrambles Amongst the Alps, says that when you are on the summit of Mont Blanc "you look down upon the rest of Europe. There is nothing to look up to ; all is below ; there is no one point for the eye to rest upon. The man who is there is somewhat in the position of one who has attained all that he desires — he has nothing to aspire to ; his position must needs be unsatisfactory. But upon the summit of the Verte there is not this objection. You see valleys, villages, fields; you see mountains interminable rolling away, lakes resting in their hollows; you hear the tinkling of the sheep-bells as it rises through the clear morning air, and the roar of the avalanches as they descend to the valleys; but, above all, there is the great white dome, with its shining crest high above, with its sparkling glaciers, that descend between buttresses which support them ; with its brilliant snows, purer and yet purer the farther they are removed from this sinful world."
3. The climax and fulfilment of Christian hope are in Jesus 1 Ella W. Wilcox.
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Christ. What the Apostle coveted was the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The " calling " exists before the race begins. It is the invitation, the sanction, the authority by w^hich the race is begun, the goal fixed, and the prize awarded. "The high calling" is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews "the heavenly calling," The phrase implies that this calling comes from, and leads to, the highest sphere to which man can attain. It is man's highest ideal, and he cannot attain to anything beyond it. And this highest possibility for man is treasured up in Jesus Christ ; for it is the " high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The prize is granted when the goal is reached ; and all our powers are given us that we may reach the goal. Force of character is ours for the sake of what it may enable us to accom- plish ; to rest content with being Christians is to sacrifice the end of the Christian calling in delight with the sufficiency of the means. Out of all our satisfactions there comes a lofty discontent. V The power of saintliness opens the heart to saintly longings ; the impulse of Christian self-sacrifice is an impulse to a definite end. A satisfying religious faith, a sufficient religious purpose — these are the noblest gifts of God to man on earth ; but there is more beyond. The purpose is to be accomplished, the trust is to be fulfilled ; and it is given to each of us to aid in the consummation.
^ Theodore Cuyler tells how with some friends he once ascended Mount Washington by the old trail over the slippery rocks. A weary, disappointed company they were when they reached the cabin on the summit, and found it shut in by the clouds. But towards evening a mighty wind swept away the banks of mist, the body of the blue heavens stood out in its clearness, and before them was revealed the magnificent landscape, stretching away to the Atlantic Ocean. So faith's stairways are often over steep and slippery rocks, often through blinding storms ; but if Christ dwell in the heart, God never loses His hold of us, and in due time He brings us out into the clear shining after rain. To such a career the growing years only bring nearer the triumph, the supreme victory of our lives.
III.
St. Paul with his Might in the Eace.
1. Christian perfection can be reached only by definite and strenuous endeavour. Faith and purpose are furnished us to
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370 PRESSING ON
animate our efforts ; they will never be accepted as substitutes for performance. An ignoble contentment with imperfection often clothes itself in the garb of piety ; the mystery of spiritual growth is pleaded as an excuse for inactivity ; quietism is regarded as a more reverent response than effort to the provisions of the gospel. The same indolent trust in change which makes the inexperienced youth fancy that new companionships and new circumstances are all that is needed for his reformation makes many a man think that death is the spiritual perfecter. But how has all past Christian progress been attained ? Not by a barren confidence in the unknown resources of God, but by " working out our own salvation with fear and trembling." It is impossible to make a man good who will not endeavour to be good. Equally impossible is it to give him blessedness. You cannot make him permanently happy who will not secure his own happiness by efforts to be good. The more you do for him, the more exacting and the more feeble he becomes. Eousing himself for worthy ends, his feeble- ness and exactingness are gone; the freshness of new interests breathes joy around him.
^ " Stretching forward to the things that are before." The word here used is an exceedingly strong word. It means not merely " reaching forth," but " stretching forth," implying intense and sustained effort. The word used is a very strong compound word, so compounded as to give it a maximum of force. It is a picture of the runner as he " stretches forward," with the intensity of his effort, every fibre stretched towards the goal.^