The Upward Climb

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 9, 1908

Not all ascents are followed by descents. Some mountains have only one side. “The road continued up, up,” writes a traveler in Persia, “the gorge became narrower until we could cross it by a short bridge, and then wound from ridge to ridge across the top of the mountain. The view was grand. As far as the eye could see were the crests of the mountains; between, the beginning of valleys and river courses. There were so few trees that the whole configuration was spread out before us. Finally the horses began to go a little easier, and we knew we were over the top, but there was no going down on the other side of the mountain. Before us stretched out a wide, almost level plain, sloping away very gently from the crest we had crossed. In sixty miles we had ascended forty-five hundred feet, but in the next one hundred seventy miles did not descend seven hundred feet. It gives one a queer sensation after spending so much time climbing a mountain not to go down on the other side.” This is life. The heights which we scale we keep. Life is not meant to be up and down, but up and up; and beyond the steep ascent lie the table-lands of God.—S. S. Times.