Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-04
'''' SARAH d. LOWRLE,S
SATURDAY EVENING TALK
The Necessity Of Being Alone in Orocr Mediate and
Worship
Worship

| lowed the group Out OF Jerusalem, and
for some purpose of his own was n
hidden spectator Of the scene in the
Garden.
I have always supposed that wit
ness Of the Agony must have been young
John Mark, and certainly q friend.
not an enemy. Probably the same
youth who. later on In the night, bare
ly escaped capture by the Roman sol
diery sent to arrest Christ. by a sud
den agile dash for liberty, leaving his
garment in the hands Of the soldier
who had momentarily held him.
TT WOULD be impossible and not
l. admissib II 1t were possible for
those Of us who have purely a spiritual
relationship with Christ to try in imag-
inatiop 20 follow Hin through the gates
of experiences that were closed even to
His disciples. but one can pause on the
outside, observe the surroundings. con
template the events that led up and
that led away from that time Of re
tirement.
l founu. for instance. these notes of
real interest on the last retreat for
meditation and for communion that
Christ made during his final journey
up TO JeruSaIrn--ihc journey presaged
by nany a. tho one leading 70 an
earthly triumph and k!nyship, and by
Himself aB the one leading to an en-
evitable great refusal and His deeth.
NOTES OH the little town OF Eph
1 rain from various sources:
''on Il rocky ledge Of the .IUdean
Hills. some seventeen miles north Of
Jerusalem as the crow files. there was
from eerly days small fortified town
named by some hunter rs far back ns
the Judges days or earlier--Ephron-
the Place of the Two Tawns. After
the days of the Captivity in Babylon
the name was changed with the speech
of the country folk TO Ephrain or
Ephraim, and so II remained TO the
days OF the Romans. But If the name OF
the town had changed. little else of its
ancientness had lapsed with the years.
Few strangers climbed up TO it's crum-
bling gate towers or assembled the worn
steps leading through arched passage
ways into the market place. Nor did
the inhabitants often leave home to
mix with people Of other towns. The
vineyards and orchards on the terraced
slopes of tho hills. the wool from the
sheep and the flax from the stony fields
at the basc OF the terraces had given
the Inhabitants meat and clothing IN
past generations. and the Roman rule
had not changed things for better or for
worse. The ancient citadel built by
Saul centuries before to guard the
height from the Pbilistines had been
dismantled long before the Roman Le-
gions passed below it on their way to
Jerusalem. Whether a Herod or G
Pontius Pilate governed Jerusalem was
of little consequence to the men and
women of Ephraim, so that the men Of
to the Temple on the great feast days
and fast days unmolested They knew
little Of the news OF the city on their
return at nightfall beyond the prevail
ing prices for wares such as they re-
quired or they could sell Mt the town
markets.
As to the stranger Rabbi. Jesus. and
His followers who had come there the
day the rains had filled the water
courses and remained into the early
spring when the shadows of the ig leaf
, first trembled in the sunlight. they
would have been curious. perhaps in the
end they would have been genuinely
/ interested, but not, one judges, in any
| real sense involved in His approach.ns
tragedy or implicated in the imminent
/ triumph OF his purpose. lncii hltie
town and they afforded safe resting
place for the last stage in momentous
Journey.
IT'S purpose once Accomplished, the
i little town Of Two Fawns disappears
from even the traditions of future his
tory. Enough for it for all time that
it was one OF the resting places Of
| Christ. in which he gathered strength
80 fulfill His Purpose.
SARAH D. Low RE.