Taken from "Solitude Sweetened" by Octavius Winslow:
The disciples of Christ, like their Lord and Master, often feel themselves alone. The season of sickness the hour of bereavement the period of trial, is often the occasion of increased depression from the painful consciousness of the solitude and loneliness in which it is borne. The heavenly way we travel is more or less a lonely way. We have, at most, but few companions. It is a little flock, and only here and there we meet a traveller, who, like ourselves, is journeying towards the Zion of God. As the way is narrow, trying and humiliating to flesh, but few, under the drawings of the Spirit, find it. If, indeed, true religion consisted in mere profession, then there were many for Christ. If the marks of discipleship were merely an orthodox creed excited feeling denominational zeal flaming partisanship, then there are many that find the way. But if the true travellers are men of broken heart poor in spirit who mourn for sin who know the music of the Shepherd's voice who follow the Lamb who delight in the throne of grace and who love the place of the cross, then there are but few with whom the true saints journey to heaven in fellowship and communion.
But the path is even narrower than this the circle is smaller still. How few real companions do we meet even amongst the saints of God! Loving them as we do, and yearning for a wider fellowship, yet how few there are with whom we can walk side by side! Doctrine divides us from some. If we speak of God's eternal love, and free choice, and discriminating mercy, we offend. When our Lord preached the doctrine of sovereign grace, we read that from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. O it is a solemn and affecting thought, that even the very doctrines of Christ's gospel build a wall of partition between his true disciples. Church government and ordinances sunder others. The blemishes and imperfections still clinging to the saints, such indeed as separated Paul and Barnabas, often interrupt the full harmony of Christian communion. The difference of spirituality, too, which we find in the Lord's people, tends to abate much of that communion which ought to distinguish the one family of God. We meet, perhaps, with but few who have been taught precisely in our school, who see truth as we see it, and who observe ordinances as we observe them, or who can understand the intricacies of Christian experience through which, with toil and difficulty, we are threading our way. Few keep the same pace in the Christian race with us. Some linger behind, while others outrun us. There is one always so lost in a sense of his unworthiness as never to enter into our joy; and there is another towering, as on the eagle's wing, and soaring into a region whose very purity awes, and whose effulgence dazzles us. Thus are we learning the solitariness of the way, even in the very church and family of God within which we are embosomed.
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Solitude Sweetened, Octavius Winslow | The Reformed Reader ]
But the solitude of the Christian has its sweetness. The Saviour tasted it when he said, I am not alone, because the Father is with me; and all the lonely way that he travelled he leaned upon God. Formed for human friendship, and even knowing something of its enjoyment for there reposed upon his breast the disciple whom he loved he yet drew the love that sweetened his solitude from a higher than a human source. His disciples were scattered, and he was left to plod his weary way alone: but his Father with him, O this was enough!
The society of God is the highest, purest, sweetest mercy a saint of God can have on earth. Yea, it is the highest, purest, sweetest bliss the saints of God can have in heaven. What is the enjoyment of heaven? Not merely exemption from trial, and freedom from sorrow, and rest from toil, and release from conflict: O no! it is the presence the full, unclouded presence of our Father there. To be with Christ to behold his glory to gaze upon his face to hear his voice to feel the throbbings of his bosom to bask in the effulgence of God?s presence O this is heaven, the heaven of heaven!
The twilight of this glory we have here on earth. I am not alone, can each sorrowful and banished soul exclaim, because the Father is with me. Yes, beloved, your own Father. Thou shalt call me, my Father. In Jesus he is your Father your reconciled, pacified Father all whose thoughts that he thinks of you, are peace; and all whose ways that he takes with you, are love. The presence, the voice, the smile of a parent, how precious and soothing! especially when that presence is realized, and that voice is heard, and that smile is seen in the dark desolate hour of adversity. God is our heavenly parent. His presence, his care, his smiles are ever with his children. And if there be a solitary child of the one family that shares the richer in the blessing of the Father's presence than another, it is the sick, the suffering, the lone, the chastened child. Yes, your Father is with you ever. He is with you to cheer your loneliness to sweeten your solitude to sanctify your sorrow to strengthen your weakness to shield your person to pardon your sins, and to heal all your diseases. Hearken in your deep solitude to his own touching words: Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Enough, my Father! if thus thou art with me, I am not, I cannot be alone and if such the bliss with which thou dost sweeten, and such the glory with which thou dost irradiate the solitude of thy hidden ones, Lord, let me ever be a hidden one shut out from all others, shut in alone with thee!
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