n. It was a noble object-lesson of the
spiritual life; and though the symbols used to express it may have
become valueless, the truth that they taught remains yet, that if a man
or woman seeks the highest good, there must be for such an isolation of
the soul from the ordinary course of life and thought in the world
around us; we must afford ourselves facilities for a sacred loneliness
with God.

It is interesting to notice that St. Luke, probably more than any other
evangelist, gives record of solitariness and vigil and secret
communion; and it may be that it was a line of experience with which he
was familiar; certainly he was careful to chronicle the lonely hours of
the Saint when God and the soul are at one, and it needs no prophet to
pray that the Lord will open the young man's eyes that he may see.
What a summary of experience is contained in those words which describe
the ministerial preparation of John the Baptist,--"He was in the desert
until the day of his showing unto Israel, waxing and growing strong in
spirit" (Luke i. 80). Then he speaks of the Master, of His being led
by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke iv. 1); of His departing and
going into a desert place (Luke iv. 42); of His withdrawal into the
wilderness for prayer (Luke v. 16); of His going out into a mountain to
pray, and continuing all night in prayer to God (Luke vi. 12).

Would it not be better, instead of making the commonplace assertion
that there was nothing of the ascetic about Jesus Christ, for us to
recall to mind His teaching at another time, that every disciple shall
be perfected as his Master (Luke vi. 40), and to inquire whether we
might not do well to love and covet retirement, even of an external
character, as a means to the attainment of that perfection?

Retirement with God is the only preparation for success, and the only
medicine for failure whether it be Moses wondering at the burning bush
in the mount of God, or Elijah eating angel's bread under the
juniper-tree. We shall do well to observe also that it has been a
feature of all the great religions of the East; the secret of all
strong souls lies in those times of loneliness when they were bound
hand and foot as captives to the Everlasting Will. We deride such
nowadays; call them mystic, contemplationist, fanatic. George Fox,
sitting about in lonely places, reading his Bible in hollow trees, is
hard to understand. But if it were anything but religion that was in
que