The service of solitude.
"And was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel." John the Baptist had a long period of retirement before he began the active work of life; and we may be sure that the time spent in the wilderness was not lost. The communion he had there with God, and his prolonged reflection on the worth and purpose of human life, must have had much to do with the character he formed and the work he afterwards accomplished. Then good seed was sown which bore much fruit in later years. We should do well to "be in the desert" more than we are—to seek the solitary place where we are alone with God and with ourselves more than we do. "The world is too much with us." We cannot hear the stiller and deeper voices that speak to us, for its perpetual sound is in our ear—the hum of its activity, the rattle of its pleasures, the wail of its distress. Solitude would render an essential service if we would but ensure it and employ it.
I. THE SERVICES SOLITUDE WOULD RENDER US.
1. It would bring God near to us. When man is quite removed from us, and his voice is completely hushed; when we are alone, whether it be in the folds of the hill, or in the depth of the valley, or in our own chamber;—we have a sense of God's nearness to us which we have not amid the crowd. And what an inestimable advantage it would be to us to let the consciousness of God's own presence often fill our soul, and then to hold sustained communion with him!
2. It would place our past in full view before our soul. It is not well to be very often looking back on that which has gone. There is deep wisdom in "forgetting those things which are behind," both past follies and past successes. Yet is it well sometimes to review the way we have been taking—to consider how much there is that should humble us, and how much that should teach us our weakness and cast us on the mercy and the help of God.
3. It would confront us with the future. It would make us ask whither we are going, what there remains for us to do before we die, how well we are prepared for death and the great day of account.
4. It would lead us to estimate our present spiritual condition—how good a use we have made of our privileges, whether we have been progressing or receding in our course, whether we are what our Divine Lord would have us be, how we stand in the sight of perfect truth and purity.
II. THE OCCASIONS WHEN IT IS MOST APPROPRIATE.
1. Between the night and the morning; when the soul has to address itself to new duties, new difficulties, new opportunities.
2. Between the evening and the night; before a man commits himself to the "great Guardian of his sleeping hours," his hours of utter helplessness and unconsciousness.
3. Before leaving the shelter of the home; when the young heart goes forth into deeper waters—who shall say how deep?—of temptation and trial; when all, and far more than all, its resources will be required for the stern struggle before it.
4. In the crises of our career; when in the innermost chamber of the soul it is determined whether the heart and life shall be yielded to the holy Savior and rightful Sovereign, or shall be withheld from him.
5. At the time of religious avowal; when a human being takes upon himself the vows of God, and makes open declaration of attachment to the Lord his Redeemer.
6. Before special services which demand the full strength of the soul to meet them bravely and to render them worthily. At such times as these does it most become us to shut our doors upon ourselves and be long alone with God.—C.