Article September 29, 1923 Issue

"Who shall ascend?"

ELIZABETH WARREN MULLER

"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" asked the Psalmist. Answering his own question, he tells us it is "he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." Here, then, are the requirements before we can attain, and retain, that spiritual height whereby we discern man's unity with God.

The hill of the Lord is, indeed, an exalted state of consciousness,—a mental altitude where vision is unobstructed by material sense. Even to attain to this height momentarily brings an unspeakable blessing; as our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 14), "Become conscious for a single moment that life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints." It is, therefore, the realization that Life, God, is "neither in nor of matter" that raises thought to "the hill of the Lord;" and to ascend it, one must have "clean hands, and a pure heart." His grasp of God as divine Principle must be unalloyed with false doctrines; his heart, which Mrs. Eddy defines as "mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows" (Science and Health, p. 587), must be purified; and his material sense of man must be replaced by spiritual understanding.

To ascend thus "the hill of the Lord" is a glorious thing. But, having ascended, who then "shall stand in his holy place?" Who shall be able to remain there? Only he who answers to God's demand for "absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire" (Science and Health, p. 3); a state of consciousness which it may seem hard for us to realize, yet a goal which is ever before humanity, and to which men become more and more eager to attain as the pure joys of Soul, which are theirs with each ascent, awaken them to dissatisfaction with the counterfeit pleasures of material sense.

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