The enemy is getting all warmed up over the 4 cee as to who is responsible for commenc-ne of his letters the Apostle Paul enjoins that are above, where old terms, just as we still speak of the rising with a new interpretation. us to realize that all language involving conceptions of time and space is quite inadequate to express spiritual realities.
Thè spiritual significance of "above and below" is seen in such expressions as: "I am from abov God"; "Ye from beneath' world." To receive power "from above," as in the case of Pilate, is to receive it from God. The wisdom which is from "beneath" is "earthly, devilish": We invoke "our Father in heaven," not as One who is divided from us by immeasurable tracts of space, but as One far beyond our ignorance and sin, infinitely above us, yet unspeakably near. And when we think of Christ's Ascension into heaven, we must not conceive of it as a flight into some far-off region, but as His passing into a state of existence which we can describe only by employing words which, in the every act of using them, we see to be utterly inadequate.
So, when the Apostle bids us "seek those things which are above" we must shake off the thought of vast distances to be traversed. What Saint Paul invites us to do is to set our minds, not on terrestrial things, but on things high and heavenly. We ere to put away uncleanness, passion, covetousness, meanness, slander, lying, and "keep in mind whatever is true, whatever is worthy, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever is high-toned, all excellence, all merit." It is one of the chal-longes of life, the claim of the noble as against the ignoble, of the lofty as against the base.
The Apostle had a deep insight into the true nature of man when he genned such a summons.
It calls forth all that is chivalrous in us. Most respond to nobleness of conduct; if one doesn't he (or she) lacks manliness. Winston Churchill was surely conscious of this when on November 21 he said in the House of Commons: "We have a long road to travel, and I have never concealed from the nation....the darker side of our dangers and burdens....be cause I know that-it is in adversity that British qualities shine the brightest." Such words come as a summons to the nation to set its mind on "the things which are above."
In "Rose from Briar" written from her invalid bed, Amy Carmichal writes: "On the morning when the climbers of the second expedition (Everest) were at their highest camp, there was a question about going farther. The night before, Dr. Somervell, who, like all the others, was worn by tremendous toils, had read in hig pocket 'Testament from Colossians, 'Seek those things which are above.' In the transla-he (was Met Gis ponds Says Min et above.' They were in his mind now as he looked at that summit, so near but so far, and he and his companions decided to go on climbing. They had to take five breaths to every step, five in and five out, but that day those two men got higher than man had ever gone before without oxygen. This little incident came out by accident one day in talk. I was asking Dr. Somervell about that last day's struggle uphill, and he told me about his little pocket Testament and its word to him. I was well then, and never expected to be anything else. Often during these months it has come and Spoken to me. It has shamed slackné: ind
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.