April 4, Evening
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." — Isaiah 2:3 · KJV
It is exceedingly good for our souls to rise above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, despondent, perhaps proud and carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest; and where shall we find a better sickle to cut them down than communion with God and the things of the kingdom? In the valleys of Switzerland many of the inhabitants are deformed and sickly-looking, for the air is charged with vapor, close and stagnant; but up on the mountain you find a hardy race, breathing the clear, fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well if the dwellers in the valley could often leave their homes among the marshes and the fever-mists and inhale the bracing air on the hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you this evening. May the Spirit of God help us to leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills that gather in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the cords that keep us here below, and help us to mount! Too often we sit like chained eagles fastened to the rock — only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would perhaps, if it came to the test, be loath to have it snapped. May God grant us grace, if we cannot escape the chain as to our flesh, yet to escape it as to our spirits; and, leaving the body like a servant at the foot of the hill, may our soul, like Abraham, reach the top of the mountain, there to enjoy communion with the Most High.