THE MOUNTAIN OF WORSHIP
Although we travelled with the speed of light, it seemed a long time before we reached our destination. On the way, our angel talked to us and at last he said that we were to visit ‘by angels’ power’ the Mountain of Worship.
‘However, you have been there before,’ he added surprisingly.
‘When?’ Janet and I spoke together.
‘Many times. Do you not recall your visits to the Hall of Audience?’
We looked at him in astonishment. ‘How can it be both?’ Janet asked.
‘It is the Hall of Audience according to men and the Mountain of Worship according to angels,’ he explained. ‘When you visited the Hall you saw, at first, a great dome with an atmosphere of colourful mist. Remember?’
‘Yes. Later we had clearer vision and we saw that the mist came from the light pouring through angels’ wings.’
‘Then what of the dome? Can you explain that?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I thought is was just the nature of the ground.’
‘So it is! It is the peak of the Mountain of Worship. You saw only the great dome. We angels see the whole mountain.’
‘Then that is why people seemed to walk over a rim when they went away from us!’ Janet exclaimed. ‘We never suspected that.’
‘You only see that which you are ready to see,’ our angel reminded us. ‘Now that you are visiting the Hall on angels’ power you will see much more.’
‘How thrilling it is!’ I cried. ‘What shall we do there? Shall we see anyone receive a Star or a Flower. . or a Virgin’s Crown?’
‘No, that joy is to come. This time you will be able to join the angels in their worship of the Father.’ His voice dropped. ‘Here we are lifted up by love-songs toward the Eternal Throne.’
We were silent a moment and then I asked: ‘What do you mean by being lifted up by love-songs?’
‘The love-songs are psalms,’ he explained. ‘The real object of the singing is that it increases the vibration of the heart and each one is thus enabled to soar up toward the Father’s Love. The flight is not an actual one, but is a lifting up to a higher degree. Your robes will tell of your visit later on for the design of their borders will change to silver. Then angels who see you will smile joyfully, knowing you have joined with them in worship of the Great One.’
‘I shall love the psalms,’ Janet mused.
For some time, as we had travelled downward, I had glimpsed the vague outline of the mountain. Now, as we drew near, Janet and I cried out in wonder at its beauty. We alighted on a kind of plateau. It was on the top of such a very high mountain that we were wreathed with clouds. As far as we could see on every side were other mountains, but these were all dwarfed by the one on which we were standing. Mist and clouds swirled about their tops so that we were looking down upon them and then up to a sky of deep, dazzling blue. There was such a sense of vastness and grandeur about it all that for a time we could not speak. We just stood still, taking great breaths of the rare, keen air.
Presently we were joined by little groups of angels, coming up over the rim of the mountain-peak. Some came with particularly joyful faces from a region where a light blazed. I knew than that these angels had been in special communion with the King of Love and the Great Mother. Some of them still carried flowers in their hands from which there stole an exquisite perfume. A few at a time, the angels came to swell the group where Janet and I stood, until there was a vast multitude.
Then they began to sing! At first it seemed like a confused outburst of praise, but gradually I began to hear the words. I knew then that they were ranging over the psalms, mingling many together in one great song of worship. Janet, too,
realised this at the same time for she started to sing. As I joined with her I found that, by an unknown power, I knew just what verse would be chosen next so that I was able to sing with as much confidence as the angels.
‘In the Lord put I my trust,’ went ringing and echoing over the mountains, ‘how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in Heaven! Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle, who shall swell in Thy holy hill? He that walkest uprightly and workest righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night into night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun. His going forth is from the end of the heaven and His circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord my strength and my Redeemer!’
No words of mine can describe the beauty of this mountain music. Janet and I stood with our guide, set about with the great company of angels; as the volume of sound swelled and throbbed around us we each had the curious sensation of being lifted up. Lighter and lighter we seemed to grow, until it seemed that our feet were above the earth and that we were soaring high in the air, like larks in the midst of their song.
Far above us a great shaft of golden light cleft the blue of the sky and inwardly we knew it came from the region of the Eternal Throne.
Still the psalms rolled out! We were filled with a power and an ecstasy never before known; the shaft of light green wide and deep until we could see right into it…
Far, far above us we glimpsed the myriads of Throne angels in all the glorious rainbow hues of their robes.
Suddenly the music lifted and rang even higher. There was a movement in the crowd and then our King of Love stood within this circle of angelic praise. A blinding white light poured from Him. He was robed entirely in white, too, so that it was impossible to see whether He were clothed in a garment or with light alone. His radiance flowed out to touch us all, increasing our bliss to a hitherto unknown intensity. He seemed to sweep us all up in His embrace and to carry us with Him an immeasurable distance into the sky.
Higher, higher, higher sank the worshippers of God. The throbbing notes seemed to form a mighty stairway to the feet of the Father, and down that stairway of our love-song came the Song of His Love.
Then, when we had reached the height of unimaginable bliss, the singing died away. There was a hush; deep, unfathomable! We seemed to be poised in the blue vastness of the sky, held in our Beloved One’s arms.
Over the mountain-tops came a whisper, sweet and thin. Slowly it circled among the peaks, gradually increasing in volume. Entranced, we followed it with yearning ears. Full and round it grew until it filled all the sky; and then we heard it! It was one, single Word.
At that Word all Heaven was hushed to stillness. In my heart I knew that this Word was a knowing of the Father, that at last, after all my wanderings, my sins and strivings, my hopes and longings, my penitence and reparations, my growing into knowing, I had contacted Him. Like a child I was being held up in the everlasting arms, even unto the radiance of the Father’s light, unto the adorable splendour of His Love.
We were mute in rapturous awe…
THE END