Coming Apart with the Lord

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray:
and when the evening was come, he was there alone. Mat 14:23

Closet Prayer

​Christ often proposed His own temper and actions as the model, after which all His disciples should copy. The multitude and variety of His public services neither prevented His spending a social hour among the families to which His disciples stood related, nor His finding opportunity for secret devotion. For this, Christ was singularly eminent. An old divine used to say three things were requisite to make a good minister: “meditation, temptation, and prayer.” If Jesus Christ found it needful and advantageous to engage in retired devotion, how much more so must it be for such weak and imperfect creatures as we are-not only ministers, but private Christians also.

I. The nature and grounds of this duty-
(a) Precepts of Scripture;
(b) Example of Jesus Christ;
(c) Practice of saints in every age;
(d) Important and indispensable part of Christian faith.

II. The manner and spirit in which it should be performed-
(a) Sense of God’s presence;
(b) Solemn and devout;
(c) Joined with reading the Scriptures, and meditation, and self-examination.

The particular objects in relation to which it is practiced, Our progress in knowledge, grace, and holiness, and the obtaining guidance and assistance from God in all seasons of peculiar need. There are some particular occasions in regard to which this duty may be practiced to advantage. There are some particular seasons in which Christians should be much in private prayer; such as times of affliction, public calamity, prevailing departure from the knowledge, experience, and practice of true religion; seasons of suspense and embarrassment; seasons of ease and prosperity.

The difficulty of a constant and successful attention to closet prayer. (J. Townsend)

Stealing Away to the Hills

One of the blessings of the old-time Sabbath was its calm, it’s restfulness, its holy peace. There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires.
Strength is not in bluster and noise. Strength is in quietness. The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface. Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of his going away from them for a brief season. He tried every little while to withdraw from the crowd. He was always stealing away at evening to the hills. Most of His ministry was carried on in the towns and cities by the seaside, but He loved the hills the best, and oftentimes when night fell He would plunge into their peaceful depths.
The one thing needed above all others today is that we shall be apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. Oh, for the lost art of meditation! Oh, for the culture of the secret place! Oh, for the tonic of waiting upon God?  (Anonymous)

​"It is well to live in the valley sweet,
Where the work of the world is done,
"Where the reapers sing in the fields of wheat,
As they toil till the set of sun.
But beyond the meadows, the hills I see
Where the noise of traffic cease,
And I follow a Voice that calleth to me
From the hilltop regions of peace.

"Aye, to live is sweet in the valley fair,
And to toil to the set of sun;
But my spirit yearns for the hilltop’s air
When the day and it’s work is done.
For a Presence breathes o’er the silent hills,
And its sweetness is living yet;
The same deep calm all the hillside fills,
As breathed over Olivet."

​"Every life that would be strong must have its Holy of Holies into which only God enters."
(Streams in the Desert)