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With Nature and With God
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human needs, to seek retirement and unbroken communion with His
Father. As the throng that had followed Him departed, He went into
the mountains, and there, alone with God, poured out His soul in
prayer for these suffering, sinful, needy ones.
When Jesus said to His disciples that the harvest was great and
the workers were few, He did not urge upon them the necessity of
ceaseless toil, but counseled them, “‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into his harvest.’”
Matthew 9:38
, NRSV. To His
toilworn workers today as really as to His first disciples He speaks
these words of compassion, “Come aside by yourselves ... and rest a
while.”
All who are under the training of God need the quiet hour for
communion with their own hearts, with nature, and with God. In
them is to be revealed a life that is not in harmony with the world, its
customs, or its practices, and they need to have a personal experience
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in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. We must individually
hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed,
and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes
more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, “Be still, and know that
I am God.”
Psalm 46:10
.
This is the effectual preparation for all service for God. Amidst
the hurrying throng and the strain of life’s intense activities, all who
are thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light
and peace. They will receive a new endowment of both physical and
mental strength. Their lives will breathe out a fragrance and will
reveal a divine power that will reach people’s hearts.
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