"What do you say to my holy mountain, my comrades?

"Are you living up there? Have you climbed as near to Heaven as
that represents? If not, I want to make a declaration which you
have often heard before, but which it will do you no harm to hear
again, namely, that it is the will of God that you should not only
reach the very summit, but that you should abide there.

"Do you ask why God wills that you should reach and abide on this
holy mountain?

"I reply it is the will of God that you and I, and every other
Officer in this blessed Army, should be holy for His own
satisfaction.

"God finds pleasure in holy men and holy women. We know what it is
to find pleasure in kindred companions. It is to like to be near
them. To want to live with them, or have them to live with us. It
is to be willing to travel any distance, or put ourselves to any
inconvenience to reach them. According to the Bible, that is just
how God feels towards His faithful people. He finds satisfaction in
their doings, and praying, and worship, and song. But when there is
unfaithfulness or sin of any kind this pleasure is sadly marred, if
not altogether destroyed. In such cases the pleasure is turned to
pain, the satisfaction to loathing, and the love to hatred.

"Hear what He says of Israel: 'In all their affliction He was
afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love
and in His pity He bare them, and carried them all the days of
old.' If for no other reason than the pleasure it will give to God,
don't you think every Officer should, with all his might, seek for
Holiness of heart and life?

"Another reason why God wants you to live on that blessed mountain
is the interest He feels in your welfare.

"He loves you. He has told you so again and again. He has proved
His love by His deeds. Love compels the being entertaining the
affection to seek the good of its object. He knows that sin is the
enemy of your peace, and must mean misery here and hereafter. For
this reason among others, He wants to deliver you from it.

"You will remember that by the lips of Peter God told the Jews that
He had raised up His Son Jesus, and sent Him to bless them by
turning every one of them away from his iniquities. That applies
to you, my comrades. You have heard