六月廿五日

你要登高山。（賽40：9）

我們對于基督的認識像登山一樣。當你到達山麓的時候你所看到的很少，山本身也顯身不怎麽高。囿于小山谷，所看到的東西便只有幾條淙淙的流水，奔向山下的小溪。爬上小崗，山谷便在我們脚下變得大了、深廣了。再向上，你便看到了附近的星羅棋布的村落，阡陌縱橫的田地，你的心中必爲偉大的景致欣喜异常。再往上爬，視野愈加擴展，直到你登上山頂，環觀東西南北，全地都擺在你的眼前，如在衽席之上。遠處，或許數百里之外的蓊郁森林，水天相接的大海，閃光似鏡的江河，濃烟籠罩、高矗雲端的工廠烟囪或是海口中櫛比龍鱗的點點白帆，這些美景都使你歡樂興奮，使你心曠神怡起來。你必說：“我真不知道登高之後，開了這麽大的眼界。”基督徒的生活也是這樣：“欲窮千里目，更上一層樓。”當我們初信基督的時候，我們所看到他的很少。我們越登高，越能發現他的榮美。但誰曾攀登到絕頂呢？誰曾量過他過于人所能測度的長闊高深的大愛呢？當保羅年邁發白的時候，戰顫地坐在羅馬的一個牢獄之中，比我們更能說：“我知道我所信的是誰。”因爲他每一次的經驗都像爬山一樣，每一次患難都像從這個山峰到了另一個山峰一樣，而他的死就像登上了最高峰一樣，從那裏他可以看到主的整個的信實和大愛，因此他把自己的靈魂交付他。親愛的朋友，起來，登上高山的絕頂過著登峰造極的生活吧！

June 25

"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.