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 tend to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud and carnal. It is good for us to cut down these thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest; and where can 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 there, 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 good if the dwellers in the valley could frequently leave their homes among the marshes and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing air 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 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 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 reluctant to have it snapped.

May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from the chain in our flesh, yet to do so in 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 enter into communion with the Most High.