Mountain peaked above the mists

The drive from the Columbia Icefields to the town of Jasper can be one of the most scenic in the Canadian Rockies. But it had rained all night, and in the morning the mists were right down to the treetops. Not a mountaim was in sight.

Still, every now and again the clouds would part. A sunlit glacial peak would appear, as though floating in the sky. We were being reassured that the miles upon miles of mountain peaks were really there, and the sum was shining above them.

Throughout history grand men and women have appeared, shining like mountain peaks above the great mass of mankind. Through their elevated thoughts and lives they have pointed the way to a higher plane of humam experience. The Bible records the achievements of many of them. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, reflecting the radiant light of God of Life, Truth, amd Love-gave outstanding examples of the potentialities of the individual endowed with an exalted awareness of God's omnipresemce amd omnipotence.

The highest peak of all, amd the most radiant, was the master Christiam, Christ Jesus. Both figuratively amd literally, he would sometimes go up into a moumtain, there to gain through humble prayer infinitely higher views of God and man-views that were hidden to the multitudes in the misty valleys of the material sences.

On one occasion Jesus took three of his disciples with him amd was tramsfigured before them. On the niountaintop of spiritual inspiration his face shone like the sun, and Moses and Elias appeared, talking with him. Out of the bright cloud overshadowing them a voice declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." n1

n1Matthew 17:5

In the sunlight of Truth, above the mists of the material senses, the receptive thought of the disciples glimpsed the indestructible nature of man and of his pure and perfect identity as the son of God. They received some realization of those simple, yet profound statements about man at the opening of the Bible: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.... And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." n2

n2Genesis 1:26, 31

Through the divinity of the Christ Z, the man Jesus was lifted to the heights of spiritual revelation. Yet he came back down to the valleys of human experience to let his spiritual illuminatiom dissolve the mists of materialism--of sin, sickness, and death. He revealed to mankind the ever-present reality of the perfect mam created in God's image and likeness. "The divinity of the Chist," writes Mary Baker Eddy, n3 "was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus." n4

n3Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n4Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 25

The effect of true spiritual inspiration, gained by following the Christ to the summit of umselfed prayer, is always to tramsform the human experience. Jesus illustrated this in that dissertation to his disciples popularly called the Sermon on the Mount. n5 Beginning with the Beatitudes, the sermon teaches the simcere studemt how to rise above the pains and pleasures, the turmoil amd tumult, of material living, and gain the peace, harmony, and freedom that are man's true heritage as a son of God. The exercising in daily life of the Christian virtues of meekness and purity, righteousness and mercy, justice and forgiveness, brings to the individual health amd happiness and to his community unlimited blessings.

n5See Matthew 5-7

The climb above the clouds of selfishness and sensualism may at times be steep, and the struggle severe. Yet with patience and persistence the summits of pure Christianity can be won. There, in the sunlight of God's love, the radiant spiritual qualities of the Christlike man shine forth--a beacom of hope and heal ing for all mankind.