Article August 30, 1958 Issue

WITHDRAWING TO PRAY

BARBARA BLECH DUNBAR

IT is recorded in the Bible that Christ Jesus sometimes withdrew to a mountain or to some other solitary place in order to commune with God. In Luke we read (6: 12), "It came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." And in Mark we are told (1:35), "In the morning, rising up a great while before day. he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."

These periods of aloneness with God and apart from the pressing demands of the people were followed by wonderful healing works or the making of some decision requiring great wisdom and judgment.

At the beginning of his career, alone in the wilderness, Jesus met and conquered the aggressive suggestions of the devil or corporeal sense and was thus strengthened to start on his holy mission of presenting the Christ, Truth, to mankind. Near the close of his earthly days, on the eve of his greatest human trial, he left his disciples at a distance in the garden of Gethsemane so that he might be alone with God, commune with Him, and become more conscious of the Christ, his true, spiritual being.

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