四月四日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/04/0404.mp3″]
经文: 来罢，我们登耶和华的山。（以赛亚书二：3）
让心灵提升至这邪恶的世界之上，达到更高贵更美好的境界，于我们是有益的。爱世界的心以及财富之陷阱，试图扼杀我们内心中的每一个良善。我们变得烦躁、丧胆、骄傲、属肉体。我们最好铲除这些荆棘和蒺藜，因为掺杂在其中的天国之种籽无法生长。能将它们割断的最佳鎌刀，莫过于与上帝交通和思念天国之事。在瑞士山谷中居住的村民是不健康的，因为那里的空气被污染了，而且大气是停滞不流动的。反之在山顶上的居民是健康的，因为他们呼吸的是从阿尔卑斯山巅上吹过原始积雪的新鲜清洁空气。山谷中的居民若能常常离开他们在沼泽地的家，离开那使人致病的雾气，登上高山去呼吸沁人肺腑的清爽空气，必会使他们重新得力。但愿圣灵助我们离开恐惧之雾、焦虑的烦躁，和所有聚集在地球山谷中的疾病，让我们登上喜乐并蒙福的高山。但愿圣灵助我们割断把我们捆绑在低地的绳索，助我们攀上高峰！我们像被铁链捆锁于岩石上的老鹰。但是不像老鹰，我们会渐渐爱上铁链，不愿意将其砍断。倘若我不能脱离捆绑肉体的铁链，教我们的灵的得到自由，但愿上帝怜悯我们。让我们将肉体留在山脚下，愿我们的心灵攀上顶峰，享受与至高者的相交。
Evening, April 4
Scripture: “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”(Isaiah 2:3)
It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud and carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest; and where shall we find a better sickle with which to cut them down than communion with God and the things of the kingdom? In the valleys of Switzerland many of the inhabitants are deformed, and all wear a sickly appearance, for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close and stagnant; but up yonder, on the mountain, you find a hardy race, who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well if the dwellers in the valley could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing element upon the hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you this evening. May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which gather in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the cords that keep us here below, and assist us to mount! We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it snapped. May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from the chain as to our flesh, yet to do so as to our spirits; and leaving the body, like a servant, at the foot of the hill, may our soul, like Abraham, attain the top of the mountain, there to indulge in communion with the Most High.
