Thy Holy Hill

According to the psalmist, dwelling “in thy holy hill” is a spiritual state reserved for him “that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” Living on a material hill does not make one better, and unless individuals have the right idea they will get no lessons from the hills. Yet Scripture is constantly referring to hills and mountains, thus pointing to an important spiritual significance. Moses went up into the mount to receive the Ten Commandments, Jesus preached his immemorial Sermon on the Mount and was transfigured on a mount, and Paul addressed the Athenians about their unknown god and his own known God from Mars Hill. It is natural for the spiritually minded to exclaim with the psalmist, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” The Christian Scientist who has stood on Bow Hill and at Pleasant View is made glad to think that Mary Baker Eddy spent so much of her earthly life in high places graced by noble prospects and far visions.

When spiritually interpreted, hills have a tendency to turn thought upward, to produce mental elevation by symbolizing strength, exaltation, and endurance. In that wonderful analysis of creation which Mrs. Eddy has given us in the chapter entitled “Genesis” in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” she states (p. 511), “Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas.” Such mountains are indeed hills of God, the high places of true worship, secret places of the Most High, rising above earth’s mists into the pure air of God’s kingdom. To be “poor in spirit,” to be meek, to “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” to be merciful and “pure in heart,” and to be a peacemaker are all qualities which prepare one to rise into the hills of God and learn of His “solid and grand ideas.”

Christian Science teaches the spiritual reality of God’s everlasting hills. That God is good is one of these unshakable ideas founded upon the rock of ages. This idea, when it falls upon the erroneous belief that God can display transitory human qualities, grinds that belief into the powder of nothingness. That God’s man is made in God’s image and likeness and hence is wholly good is another solid and grand idea upon which one can lean in the hour of trial. The soldier at the front may pillow his head upon it and, like Jacob of old, have the vision of a ladder with the angels ascending and descending upon it. This imperishable idea can be a life-saver to those at sea attacked by hidden undersea foes. It comforts anxious parents, feeds the fatherless and widows, supplies shelter for the homeless, clothes the forlorn, rejoices receptive minds, stills the questionings of would-be philosophers, and makes the worldly-wise like unto little children.

That character is safe which is built upon the rock upon which Jesus said he would build his church, upon the spiritual understanding of man’s real nature,—”and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” To be spiritually in the heights permits the dust to return unto dust, vanquishes that which is “of the earth, earthy,” and makes the clouds servants of the most high God. The vapors lie below, separating from the world those who are obeying the call to come out and be separate; or else the clouds wrap them about in a protecting mantle so that they may receive the spiritual import of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, and rejoice in the beauty of mount Zion and the daughter of Zion. To be thus lifted up is to draw all men unto the Christ, Truth, to encourage humanity to brave the dangers, discouragements, and fatigues of the climb, to cheer the fainthearted, to satisfy the thirsty ones, and to lengthen the vision so that it can never again be shortened.

In an exquisite allegory Mrs. Eddy has used the incidents of a mountain climb to illustrate spiritual progress. These are the opening words of this allegory (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 323): “Picture to yourself ‘a city set upon a hill,’ a celestial city above all clouds, in serene azure and unfathomable glory: having no temple therein, for God is the temple thereof; nor need of the sun, neither of the moon, for God doth lighten it. Then from this sacred summit behold a Stranger wending his way downward, to where a few laborers in a valley at the foot of the mountain are working and watching for his coming.”

The “Stranger,” recognized as the Christ, Truth, leads the obedient and ready into the heights by an ascent which to human sense may seem at times to be rugged, but which leads, through heavenly aspirations and scientific demonstrations, to the spiritual New Jerusalem, “set upon a hill,” established forever in fadeless beauty and harmony.