THE MYSTIC TONIC 41 



to the Old Testament, the situation is 

 only a little better. The mountains, like 

 any other part of the natural world, do 

 furnish the material for a theistic infer- 

 ence ; but they do not supply any commu- 

 nication from a personal God to sinful 

 men under the moral law. This much, 

 however, we may grant: To one who 

 already believes in a personal Creator, 

 as the psalmist believed in Jehovah, the 

 mountains, like the heavens, "declare the 

 glory of God." 



Further: The mountains do not create 

 religious faithj or even alone establish 

 such a faith. John Ruskin tells us that 

 the mountains "purify faith." Allowable 

 possibly; but I prefer to say that the 

 mountains invigorate faith. They make 

 faith more glowingly vital and more com- 

 manding in consciousness. On the sum- 

 mits of great mountains, filled with their 

 penetrating spirit, it is easier to actualize 

 religious things — easier to lay hold of the 

 unseen, easier to pray triumphantly, easier 



