Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-10-01
Alone with the Father.

Very suggestive are these words of Christ
to his disciples on the eve of his betrayal
aye shall leave me alone; and
yet am not alone, because the Father is
with me-" The individuality of every soul
necessitates its loneliness. "The philos-
opher tells us that no atom in creation
touches another atom, they only approach
within certain distance then the attraction
ceases and an invisible something repels,
they only seem to touch" So "no soul
touches another soul except at one or two
points, and those chiefly external. In the
central deeps of our being we are alone"
Alone we must settle the most difficult and
important questions touching our earthly
career and our eternal destiny. Each
mans own nature has its own peculiar rules
and he must take up his life-plau alone, and
persevere in it in perfect privacy, with
which no stranger intermeddleth." We are
alone in the hour of trial and bereavement
Human sympathy cannot reach the seat of
our suffering then. Alone we have to meet
the king of terrors. Our friends cannot en-
ter the valley of the shadow of death with
us. Lonely and fearfully desolate would we
be, in life and in death, but for the presence
of the Father, and the verified promise,
10, | am with you Away"
And yet God has made us social beings
with affections and instincts which demand
human companionship and sympathy, and
render them necessary to our proper devel-
opment and happiness. "Till we have re-
flected on it, we are scarcely aware how
much the sum of human happiness in the
world is indebted to this one feelng-sym-
pathy. We get cheerfulness and vigor, we
scarcely know how or when from mere asso-
citation with our fellow-men. We catch in
spiration and power to go on, from human
presence and from cheerful looks. The
workman works with added energy from
having others by" No man can be at his
best who fully secludes himself from his fell
low-men. Mental occupations require more
or less secluson, but man cannot mold So
ciety by his thoughts, unless he mingles with
it, learns its spirit and draws his material
from it. The hermit and recluse have never
been the best type of manhood He only
can have symmetrical, full-orbed, strong
character, who has hearty sympathy for
his kind and appreciates their sympathy for
himself.
But what man can do in conjunction
with Others, when buoyed up by full tide
of friendly sympathy, does not test the man.
We must know what he can do alone. The
strength that is in him can only be learned
when he is thrown upon his own resources,
and left alone to achieve worldly success
amidst adverse circumstances, or to face op-
position, reproach and calumny for the sake
of his convictions aud principles. This is
the school of self-reiance and the test of
character. 1t is not very difficult when the
world opposes you, refuses you its smiles and
sympathy, to withdraw from it and "live
upon your convictions;" it is less difficult to
mix with men and follow their maxims but
to enter the world and then live out, firmly
and fearlessly what you believe to be the
truth, in spite of its frowns and oppositions,
that is Christian greatness. Nothing ON earth
surpasses the moral grandeur of those scenes
i'll which one man alone, for the sake of
truth, stands opposed to many, and yet will
not swerve from his convictions of duty
Such character was Miltons hero:
"The seraph Abdiel faithful found
Among the faithess; faithful only he,
Among the innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified
His loyalty he kept his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
10 swerye from truth or change his constant mind,
Though he stood single and alone"
But no man is alone in the battle of life
who is on the Lords side. He may be sep
arated from his fellow-men and excluded
from their sympathy by his adherence to his
convictions; and yet he is not alone, because
the Father is with him. His communion
with God fills his solitude with thoughts
and inspirations aud consultations which
more than compensate for his lack of earthly
companionship. And, after all, are we not
made to find the perfection of our being
and our chief joy in God 2 1t is not mis-
fortune that withdraws man from the
noisy babble and applause of human society,
and shuts him up to fellowship with God.
He is rather to be pitied, who looks to men
for his best inspirations, when he may have
access to God who has not learned the bless
edness of retiring for season from the
noise and hustle of the world to be alone
with God he, more, who, when sickness or
old age or other circumstances shut him
out of society, is left to the unutterable
loneliness of spiritual emptiness and isola-
ton from God and most of all, he who has
TO meet death alone. But blessed are they
who, in the solitude of life, can say with
the Saviour, And yet am not alone, be-
cause the Father is with e;" and in the
hour of death, with the Psalmist, " fear
no evil, for thou art with me thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me- 1t is good to
be alone with the Father.-The Methodist,