STRENGTH IN SOLITUDE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1892

STRENGTH IN SOLITUDE.

"ALONE with his own soul and the reality of things." A time comes in every man's life when he faces the awful reality of being. To come face to face with yourself, with your soul; to have the great mystery of existence glaring in upon you with its terrors, and its splendors, stirs the depth of a man's nature.

To have these moments of self-revelation we must go away by ourselves to meditate, to commune with ourselves in the silence. When we are in company, we are not so apt to be genuine; then other people's ideas and personality are pressed upon us. In the noise of this world we cannot hear "the still small voice."

I think we are afraid to be alone, afraid of our own thoughts; yet this solitude is necessary to growth, both spiritual and mental. For example, solitude in the spiritual life; Jesus Christ, approaching the great event of his life, the sacrifice on Calvary, went apart

alone.

John the Baptist, preparatory to the taking up of his life work, went apart into the wilderness to be alone. Solitude is the preparation for the great moments of life.

In the mutual life solitude is strength. If we cultivate this habit of solitude, we find that it is not so dreary a thing as the inexperienced believe, and a man's life is happier for its moments of healthful solitude, and has a strength that is missing in the lives of those who never go apart.—New York Observer.