“Give me this mountain.”
At the time when the Israelites were invading Canaan, they found a mountain, which was fortified with walled encampments. And they heard that these camps were defended by giant warriors. How could they take the mountain?—that was the question.
Then there stood up a brave soldier, who said, “Leave this mountain to me!”
And Joshua did so. He knew the man he was dealing with. And Caleb, for that was the soldier’s name, went up against the mountain with a number of tried and trusted comrades, and took the camps that were on it, and drove out the giants.
He was a man who loved doing hard things. When he was a boy at school, if there was ever a daring thing to be done, Caleb did it. If there was a river to be crossed, or a tree to be climbed, or a cliff to be scaled, that defied the strength of the rest of his companions, then Caleb was sure to distinguish himself by his courage and patience and skill.
A great many people go through this world shirking difficulties. It is enough to tell them that a thing is hard; at once, they don’t want to do it. They are never the heroes. They never take the mountains, and never drive out the giants.
George Washington once wanted a man to cross a frozen river, and get news of the enemy. He told one of his officers to do it. The officer came back, and said that the ice was broken up, and that he couldn’t get across. Washington replied, “Go, and send me a man!”
In one of the battles between the Dutch and the English, Admiral Norborough found himself hard put to it to save his ship from falling into the hands of the enemy. If he could only get a message carried to one of his ships, he might yet win the fight. He said, “Will any man volunteer?” At once several sprang forward, and with them a cabin-boy.
The Admiral looked at the boy and smiled. “Why, my lad, what can you do?”
“I can swim, sir,” said the boy, “and if I don’t get there, I shall be no great loss.”
The boy swam to the ship, and the battle was won. Things that are well worth doing are always hard things. Life is a fight with mountains. How can you learn a foreign language? By starting in, after knowing a few words, and trying to talk it. But you say, “I can’t do it.” It is by trying to do the things you can’t do, that you learn to do them. The only way to take the mountain is to go up against it with all your might.
William Hunt, when he was a boy, wanted to learn to play the violin, but a man dissuaded him from trying, because it was so hard.
Afterwards, when he grew up, he said he would like to kick the man who gave him that advice. It is easier to eat buttered toast than to play the violin, but it is not so satisfying.
Napoleon used to say, “‘Impossible’ is very bad French.” Napoleon is not one of my heroes, but there was this about him— he never hesitated because of a mountain.
The other day, there was a big market in one of the towns in the South Tyrol. And in this market there were some hundreds of ladders for sale. Among the crowd gathered round these ladders, a young monk stood looking at them with longing eyes. He knew that his monastery needed a tall ladder, but times were bad, and there was no money to buy one. He made up his mind he would have a ladder, and a good one. So he went up to the man who was selling the smallest ones, and asked him very gently if he could not present him with a little ladder for the use of the monastery. The man was a good Christian, and a little ladder did not cost much, so he readily gave him one. Then the monk blessed the generous giver, and took the ladder, but, instead of going home, went to the next stall, where there were some larger ladders. Then he asked the tradesman, in the name of the Blessed Virgin, if he would be so kind as to exchange his little ladder for a larger one. He spoke so humbly and so sweetly, that the tradesman consented, and gave him a ladder taller by two rungs than the one he had before. Again the monk went to another stall, where there were still larger ladders, and repeated his request for a slightly larger one. And so he went on, patiently going up the line of ladders, and exchanging his ladder at every stall for “a slightly larger one, for the sake of the Blessed Virgin.” At last, he got the tallest ladder in the market.
Do what you can’t do, else you’ll never do what you can. Believe that you can, and try. You never know what you can do till you try.
There is a mountain which we are all expected to take over and over again, on our way through this world. And it is better to begin as early as possible, because no one is properly educated who has not many a time beaten this mountain.
I do not know the name of it. I think it has different names. But it is the mountain that gets in your way when you want to do the right thing. It is a travelling mountain. Well, the only thing to do with it is to take it and make it travel.
The Lord Jesus said that if we only had a very little bit of confidence, we could say to this mountain, “Don’t stand there in my way, be off with you and throw yourself into the sea!”