The Influence of Personality

0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.” — Isaiah xl. 9,

Is there not something irrelevant here? We should expect the words to be, “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, speak them out boldly,” But why tell her to go up into the high mountain — what has the altitude to do with it r Everything. The first condition of all teaching is simply altitude; it is before your grammar, before your orthography, before your eloquence. When any one speaks to me, the first thing I want to know is the height of the man. High words mean little with a small personage, small words mean much with a great one. A superficial mind says, “You have done magnificently; “a veteran says,” You have done pretty well ;*’ the first is dross, the second is gold. I shall measure your words not by their size but by your size. If you say, “I believe in God,” I shall ask the depth of your heart, the height of your imagination, the length of your view, the breadth of your knowledge. It is easy for a shallow heart to have faith. The boy in the poem who thought the treetops reached the sky could have had little meaning in the word “heaven.” Paul speaks of faith removing mountains; but it is equally true that it is the mountains of life that give value to faith.

Get ye up then into the high mountain, ye who have a message to bring! Be greater than your message — always, everywhere Do not say, “Follow not me, but follow what I tell you!” Paul was a very humble man, but he did not say that; he said in so many words, “Be ye followers of me!” The man — the man! that is the main thing. Be above your business, higher than your books, greater than your sermons, more instructive than your lessons! Go up to the mount before giving the law! Ascend the slopes of Sinai alone before proclaiming the will of the

Father! Enter into the silence of His presence ere you come into the presence of the multitude! Catch the sunlight on the hill-top ere you speak to the dwellers of the plain! Unveil yourself to the eyes of God before you reveal your message to the sight of men! There is no argument so strong as the arguer; there is no command so weighty as the commander; there is no teaching so powerful as the teacher. When Jesus saw the multitude He went up into a mountain; He desired His presence to be greater than His precepts. The words were to be uttered on the plain, but the sermon was to come from the height. Ye who have tidings to bear, go up first to Him!