IT will be noticed that frequently when our Master wished to refresh his thought with new inspiration, he would withdraw from the multitudes, sometimes seeking the solitude of a mountain place. Before he uttered those sayings which have since become known as the Sermon on the Mount, "he went up into a mountain: and when he was set," he taught his disciples. We do not know whether the mountain was really climbed, or if this is simply a metaphorical description of his exalted thought. But we do know that the inspired statements which he made have survived two thousand years and are still recognized by the whole Christian world as the essence of true Christianity.
On this occasion, as on many subsequent ones, Jesus' exposition of the truth was immediately followed by a physical healing, the proof that the teachings were based on divine law. We read in the eighth chapter of Matthew, "When he was come down from the mountain, . . . behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And there follows the account of the instantaneous healing of the man of what was, and still is, considered to be an incurable and highly contagious disease.
We can imagine how, towards the close of a day, after journeying from village to village, followed continuously by crowds of suffering people pressing him on every side, demanding his compassion and crying out for release from their varying ills, Jesus must have needed to refresh himself. And at such times he would literally climb the hills which surrounded the little villages of that eastern countryside. There in quietude and prayer he would seek to know more of the nature and will of his Father, that he might have the spiritual perception and strength to meet all the demands of suffering humanity.
