'_My_ mountains.' That is the claim that all the world is His; and also
the revelation that He is the Lord of Providence. He makes our
difficult and steep places. Submission comes with that thought, and
even 'for the strength of the hills we bless Thee.' There are mountains
which are not His but ours, artificial difficulties of our own creating.
1. Our way does lie over the mountains. There are difficulties. The
Christian course is like a Roman road which never turned aside, but
went straight up and on. So much the better. A keener air blows,
bracing and health-giving, up there. Mosquitoes and malaria keep to the
lower levels.
2. There is always a path over the mountains. Some way opens when we
get close up, like a path through heather, which is not seen till
reached. We walk by faith. We foolishly forebode and fancy that we
cannot live if something happens, but there is no _cul de sac_ in our
paths if God's mountain-way is our way, nor does the faint track ever
die out if our faith is keen-sighted and docile.