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With Nature and With God
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were found when He could leave the scene of His labors to go into
the fields, to meditate in the quiet valleys, and hold communion
with God on the mountainside or amid the trees of the forest. The
early morning often found Him in some secluded place, meditating,
searching the Scriptures, or praying. With the voice of singing He
welcomed the morning light. With songs of thanksgiving He cheered
His hours of work and brought heaven’s gladness to the toil-worn
and disheartened.
During His ministry, to a great degree Jesus lived an outdoor
life. His journeys from place to place were made on foot, and much
of His teaching was given in the open air. In training His disciples
He often withdrew from the confusion of the city to the quiet of
the fields, as more in harmony with the lessons of simplicity, faith,
and self-abnegation He desired to teach them. It was beneath the
sheltering trees of the mountainside, only a little distance from the
Sea of Galilee, that He called the Twelve to the apostolate and gave
the Sermon on the Mount.
Christ loved to gather the people about Him under the blue heav-
ens, on a grassy hillside, or on a beach beside the lake. Here,
surrounded by the works of His own creation, He could turn their
thoughts from the artificial to the natural. In the growth and devel-
opment of nature were revealed the principles of His kingdom. As
the people lifted their eyes to the hills of God and saw the wonderful
works of His hand, they learned precious lessons of divine truth. In
the future the lessons of the divine Teacher would thus be repeated
to them by the things of nature. The mind would be uplifted and the
heart would find rest.
Jesus often released His disciples for a season, that they might
visit their homes and rest; but they never succeeded in drawing Him
away from His labors. All day He ministered to the throngs that
came to Him, and at eventide, or in the early morning, He went away
to the sanctuary of the mountains for communion with His Father.
Often His incessant labor and the conflict with the enmity and
false teaching of the rabbis left Him so utterly wearied that His
mother and brothers, and even His disciples, feared that His life
would be sacrificed. But as He returned from the hours of prayer
that closed the toilsome day, they noted the look of peace on His
face, and the freshness, life, and power that seemed to pervade His