Get
thee up into the high mountain.
AUTHOR: Spurgeon
- Isa 40:9 O Zion, that bringest
good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength;
lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of
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
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.
And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and
James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was
transfigured before them. Mar 9:2