Indeed, sorrow of any kind is solitary.Its deepest pangs, its most solemn visitations, are in the secrecy of the individual soul.We labor to conceal it from others.We wear a face of unconcern or gayety amid the multitude.
Society is thronged with masked faces.Unseen burdens of woe are carried about in its busy haunts.The man of firm step in the mart, and of vigorous arm in the workshop, has communions in his chamber that make him weak as a child.
Nothing is more deceitful than a happy countenance.Haggard spirits laugh over the wine-cup, and the blooming garland of pleasure crowns an aching head.For sorrow is secret and solitary.Each "heart knoweth its own bitterness."How precious, then, in the loneliness of sorrow, is that faith which bids us look up and see how near is God, and feel what divine companionship is ours, and know what infinite sympathy engirds us,--what concern for our good is, even in this darkness, shaping out blessings for us, and distilling from this secret agony everlasting peace for the soul.How precious that faith in the clear vision of which we can say, "I am not alone, for the Father is with me."Finally, we must experience Death alone.As I said in the commencement, the best, the most pious soul, may naturally shrink from this great event.We may learn to anticipate it with resignation, to look upon it with trust; but indifference respecting it is no proof of religion.It would be, rather, a bad sign for one to approach it without emotion; for however his faith may penetrate beyond, the religious spirit will, with deep awe, lift that curtain of mystery which hangs before the untried future.That is a fact which we must encounter alone.Friends may gather around us; their ministrations may aid, their consolations soothe us.They may be with us to the very last; they may cling to us as though they would pluck us back to the shores of time; their voices may fall, the last of earthly sounds, upon our ears; their kiss awaken the last throb of consciousness; but they cannot go with us, they cannot die in our stead; the last time must come,--they must loosen their hold from us, and fade from our vision, and we become wrapt in the solemn experience of death, alone! Alone must we tread the dark valley,--alone embark for the unseen land.
No, Christian! not alone.To your soul, thus separated in blank amazement from all familiar things, still is that vision of faith granted that so often lighted your earthly perplexities; to you is it given, in this most solitary hour, to say, "I am not alone for the Father is with me!"I repeat, then, in closing, that the test which proves the excellence of the religion of Christ is the fact that it fits us for those solemn hours of life when we must be alone.
Mere happiness we may derive from other sources; but this consolation not all the world can give,--the world cannot take it away.
Let us remember, then, that though we seldom look within-though our affections may be absorbed in external things-these solitary seasons will come.It behoves us, therefore, as we value true peace of mind, genuine happiness, which connects us to the throne of God with golden links of prayer,--it behoves each to ask himself, "Dare I be alone?
Am I ready to be alone? And what report will my soul make in that hour of solitude? If I do wrong, if I cleave to evil rather than the good, what shall I do when I am alone, and yet not alone, but with the Father? But if I do right, if Itrust in Him, and daily walk with Him, what crown of human honor, what store of wealth, what residuum of earthly pleasure, can compare with the glad consciousness that wherever I rest or wander, in every season and circumstance, in the solitary hours of life, and the loneliness of death, God is verily with me?"Surely no attainment is equal to that strength of Christ, by which, when approaching the cross, he was able to say, "I am not alone, for the Father is with me." By this strength, he was able to do more than to say and feel thus.He was able to strengthen others,--to exclaim, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." So we, by spiritual discipline, having learned of Christ to be thus strong, not only possess a spring of unfailing consolation for ourselves, but there shall go out from us a benediction and a power that shall gladden the weary and fortify the weak,--that shall fill the solitude of many a lonely spirit with the consolations of the Father's love, and the bliss of the Father's presence.
