Over and over again we read in the Bible of those who went up into a mountain to commune with God, to seek inspiration and revelation, and of the good which followed. Abraham went up into a mountain to sacrifice and was given the blessing of God. Moses, at God's command, went up into a mountain and received there the Ten Commandments. In this altitude Moses talked with God face to face and was given the basic law for the government of all mankind. David found safety from his enemy in a mountain stronghold; the Shunammite woman sought the man of God on a mountain; and Jesus repeatedly went up into a mountain to pray. It was on a mountain that the disciples heard the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes, the rules of blessedness or true happiness. The transfiguration, one of the great spiritual experiences of Jesus' career, took place on a mountain.
Do these experiences indicate that man is nearer to God, the source of all good, when he is at an unusual altitude? No, there is no significance to physical height. John, in the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation, gives us the answer to this question (verses 10, 11): "And he [an angel] carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." John climbed no material mountain. It was in spirit that John was lifted up to an exalted spiritual consciousness of God and of the good which constantly pours forth from Him. Christian Science reveals that it is this mountain of spiritual consciousness, which the material mountain only symbolizes, that must be climbed if we would repeat today the experiences of these earlier servants of the one God.
Are we dissatisfied with our present lot? Would we seek something better, finer, happier? Then let us go up into the mountain and spy out the land, as did Joshua. From the mountaintop he saw the promised land flowing with milk and honey, "an exceeding good land," which could not have been seen from the low ground and wilderness which he had left. On the mountain of spiritual vision, above the flat plains of material sense and the dark valleys of limitation, perception is unconfined. Here, in the clear atmosphere of infinite Mind, we can discern the good which is man's divine heritage as the son of God. On this spiritual height we see Mind as the one unerring, directing intelligence; we see Spirit as the one substance, all-satisfying, indestructible, and ever present; we see Life as immortal and omniactive; we see Love as all-encompassing and harmonious. Mary Baker Eddy in her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" writes (p. 183), "Spiritual apprehension unfolds, transfigures, heals."
