And they departed into a desert place by ship privately . KJV

If you have a desert place in your heart to which you must sometimes go, you should depart to it in a ship privately . No man should make a thoroughfare of his desert. Keep your grief for the private ship. Never go into company with an abstracted mind; that is to display your desert.

You have sometimes refrained from God’s table of communion because your thoughts were away . You did well. Man’s table of communion has the same need. If you are bidden to a feast when you are troubled in your mind, try first whether you can carry your burden privately away . If you can, then leave the desert behind you; “put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting” (Matthew 6:17–18). But if you cannot, if there is no ship that can take away your burden in secret, then come not yet to the feast. Journey not while the cloud is resting over the tabernacle. Tarry under the cloud. Watch one hour in the garden. Bury thy sorrow in the silence. Let thy heart be reconciled to the Father, and then come to the world and offer thy gift.

Hide your thorn in the rose. Bury your sigh in the song. Keep your cross, if you will, but keep it hidden away under a wreath of flowers. Keep a singing heart!

O Thou that hast hid Thy thorn beneath a rose, steer the ship in which I conceal my burden! Thou hast gone down to the feast of Cana from the fast in the wilderness; where hast Thou hid the print of the nails? In love. Steer me to that burying ground! Let the ship on its way to my desert touch for an hour at the desert of my brother! Let me feel the fellowship of grief, the community of sorrow, the kindredness of pain! Let me hear the voices from other wildernesses, the sighs from other souls, the groans from other graves! And, when I come to my own landing-place and put down my hand to lift up my burden, I shall meet a wondrous surprise. It will be there, but it will be there half-sized. Its heaviness will be gone, its impossibility will have vanished. I shall lift it easily; I shall carry it lightly; I shall bury it swiftly. I shall be ready for Cana in an hour, ready for Calvary in a few minutes. I shall go back to enter into the struggle of the multitude; and the multitude will say, “There is no desert with him!”

Give others the sunshine, Tell Jesus the rest.

LEAVES FOR QUIET HOURS

Lie down and sleep, Leave it with God to keep This sorrow which is part Now of thy heart.

When thou dost wake If still ’tis thine to take, Utter no wild complaint, Work waits thy hand.

If thou shouldst faint God understands.

Let thy soul walk softly in thee Like a saint in heaven unshod, For to be alone with silence Is to be at home with God.

Quiet hearts are as rare as radium . We need every day to be led by the Divine Shepherd into the green pastures and beside the still waters. We are losing the art of meditation. Inner preparation is necessary to outer service.

“Rest pauses” contribute to the finer music of life. “Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray” (Luke 6:12). “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed” (9:29). Therein we have the example of our Lord.

We have yet to learn the power of silence. Not in the college or academy , but in the silence of the soul do we learn the greater lessons of life and become rooted in spiritual inwardness.

The geologist says that certain crystals can only come to their perfect form in stillness. In the undistracted moment men are in touch with God and everlasting things.

The strenuousness of life and the increasing distractions of the world demand a zone of silence and the Quiet Hour .

“He said to them , ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31–32). Let us find that spot every day, and the fellowship of silence. On such moments infinite issues hinge!

In every life There’s a pause that is better than onward rush, Better than hewing or mightiest doing; ’Tis the standing still at Sovereign will.

There’s a hush that is better than ardent speech, Better than sighing or wilderness crying; ’Tis the being still at Sovereign will.

The pause and the hush sing a double song In unison low and for all time long. O human soul, God’s working plan Goes on, nor needs the aid of man!

Stand still, and see! Be still, and know!