Morning, June 25
Go To Evening Reading
“Get thee up into the high mountain.”
Isaiah 40:9
Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh
mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain
itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined
in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling
brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain.
Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens
beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or
five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect.
Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on
the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost
all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county,
perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining
river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts
of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you,
and you say, “I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.” Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe
in Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we
discover of his beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who
has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes
knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in
a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, “I know whom I have believed,” for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial
had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like
gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole
of the faithfulness and the love of him to whom he had committed his
soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.