Spurgeon: April PM
* 04/04/PM
"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord."
--Isaiah 2:3
It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount 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, desponding,
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 with which 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 all wear a sickly appearance,
for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close and
stagnant; but up yonder, on the mountain, you find a hardy race,
who breathe 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 frequently leave their abodes among the marshes
and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing element upon the
hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you
this evening. May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists
of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which 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 assist us to mount! We sit
too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that,
unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would,
perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it
snapped. May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from
the chain as to our flesh, yet to do so as to our spirits; and
leaving the body, like a servant, at the foot of the hill, may
our soul, like Abraham, attain the top of the mountain, there to
indulge in communion with the Most High.