It was a beautiful summer day when a man and his wife started from the car terminal at the foot of a hill to walk to the summit, where there was a lovely and expansive view of the surrounding country and sea. They stood for a few moments to enjoy the fragrant air and the peaceful landscape, and then began to wend their way upward, pausing occasionally to admire the lovely scene which unfolded with every step. Soon they could see over the treetops; then the distant water of the strait was visible; and the wonderful picture gradually became more complete as their range of vision increased.

At last they stood at the summit. There in every direction lay the land and seascape in all its beauty and grandeur. Activity was apparent for miles around: motor cars busily traveling the highways, boats sailing the clear waters, and people moving about the friendly cottages at the foot of the hill. The blue dome of the sky seemed very near, and the climbers had a feeling of serenity and dominion.

Noticeably rapid progress is made by those who go on and up, step by step, at a steady pace. To the climbers, this gain was more apparent when viewed from above than it had promised to be when the path stretched before them. Although the full glory was visible only when the height had been reached, yet the vista seen at any level was pleasing in itself, and appeared at that point complete and satisfying.

Good lessons were gleaned from this experience, which was likened to the journey all must make from the valley of materiality to the mount of spiritual understanding.

What can compare with the feeling of joy and freedom which comes with a first healing in Christian Science! Yet this happy experience marks for many the beginning of the upward way. Reverence and deep gratitude fill his heart as the student pauses to look back upon this spiritual awakening, knowing that the good which has been gained can never be lost. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has told us in "Science and Health with Key to theScriptures" (p. 442), "An improved belief cannot retrograde."

These pauses do not imply a mental attitude of longingly looking backward or of lazily sunning oneself on the slope of the hill. Rather do they evidence that state of thankfulness which is so freely expressed at our church meetings each Wednesday evening, and in our weekly and monthly periodicals. These moments of waiting on God are indeed opportunities for rejoicing, and a resolving to overcome the obstacles of apathy, unconcern, or discouragement which would attempt to block the heavenward path.

Sincere desire to advance and the student's earnest study better to acquaint himself with God as the loving Principle of all reality mean continued progress. Steadily he rises above the belief of intelligence or actuality in matter, above the fear that any material condition or formation can touch, act upon, or in any way affect him. He learns that his true nature and identity are permanent, incorporeal, and indestructible, reflecting divine Love. He becomes increasingly aware of the spiritual nature of all real being; to him, this is now a vital, healing fact. Discord, disease, and distress vanish from his thinking and from his experience, and lose power to discourage or dismay. Earth weights drop away, and his progress is more continuous and unbroken.

Prophets and leaders have ever ascended the mount of vision. The mountain has always been a symbol of that pure and exalted thought which reaches up to God and talks with Him. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" sang the Psalmist (Ps. 24:3). And he answered, "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart."

It was after he had been set or firmly established in the mount of spiritual thinking that our great Way-shower, Christ Jesus, gave to the world the Sermon on the Mount, that remarkable utterance which our Leader has said is the essence of Christian Science (see Science and Health, p. 271). It is related in two of the Gospels that Jesus talked with Moses and Elias int the mount of transfiguration, where, timelessly, glorified and undying thoughts meet and commune. Jesus rose above all sense of doubt or confusion into the serene and clear consciousness that man is forever environed by divine Love, always at one with the Father.

Christian Science reveals that this height may be scaled through spiritual understanding and joyous acknowledgment of the divine all-power. Read the reassuring promise which Mrs. Eddy has written on page 406 of Science and Health: "We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death,and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die." She who discovered and founded Christian Science consistently and courageously lifted thought into that pure spiritual realm where health and harmony are found, and where the false sense of being is laid off.

Does the climb sometimes seem slow, or does the path before you stretch out endlessly? Does it appear that your efforts should have been rewarded with a healing, long delayed? Pause for a moment, on the ascending path, gratefully to acknowledge the progress you have already made, and to realize that never has man been outside God's intelligent, loving care and unfailing control. You can at this moment stop believing that you are diseased or that you have any afflictive condition, well knowing that never has aught but good been real or true about you, as God's child. Then onward and upward, with childlike trust in eternal, omnipotent Truth and Love, remembering it is God's law that you go forward. With Him are health, and joy, and peace.

How enlightening and inspiring are Mrs. Eddy's words (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 181): "Progress is spiritual. Progress is the maturing conception of divine Love."