With gazing on Thy face,
Thy little ones may learn
The wonders of Thy grace."
J. ELLERTON.

Desert Solitudes--Modern Miracles--Our own Age--Nothing Common or
Unclean--How to Witness for Jesus--After Many Days

"Beyond Jordan!" To the Jews that dwelt at Jerusalem that was
banishment indeed. The tract of country beyond Jordan was known as
Perea, and was very sparsely populated. There were some tracts of
fertile country, dotted by a few scattered villages, but no one of
repute lived there; and the refinement, religious advantages, and
social life of the metropolis, were altogether absent. Perea was to
Jerusalem what the Highlands, a century ago, were to Edinburgh. There
our Lord spent the last few months of his chequered career.

But why? Why did the Son of Man banish Himself from the city He loved
so dearly? Surely the home at Bethany would have welcomed Him? Or,
failing this, for any reason over which the sisters had no control, He
might have found a temporary home at Nazareth, where He had been
brought up; or Capernaum, in which He had wrought so many of his mighty
works, might have provided Him a palace, whose white marble steps would
have been lapped by the blue waters of the lake! Not so! The Son of
Man had not where to lay his head. The nation, whose white flower He
was, had rejected Him; and the world, for which He came to shed his
blood, knew Him not. The religious leaders of the age were pursuing
Him with relentless malice, and would have taken his life before the
predestined hour had arrived, had He not escaped from their hands, and
gone away "beyond Jordan into the place where John was at the first
baptizing; and there He abode: and many came unto Him."

There was a peculiar fascination to the Lord Jesus in those solitudes,
because of their connection with the Forerunner. Those desert
solitudes had been black with crowds of men. Those hill-slopes had
been covered with booths and tents, in which the mighty congregations
tabernacled, whilst they waited on his words. Those banks had
witnessed the baptism of thousands of people, who, in the symbolic act
of baptism, had put away their sins. And the villagers, who lived
around, could tell wonderful tales of the radiant opening of that brief
but epoch-making ministry; they could speak for hours together about
the habits of the austere preacher, and the marvellous power of his
eloquence.

As Jesus and his disciples wandered