Article September 7, 1929 Issue

Overcoming Solitariness

GWENDOLYN M. L. THOMAS

One of the outstanding features of human experience is its solitariness. If one observes carefully the confessions which have escaped from the lips of thoughtful observers of human nature, one must be struck by their insistence on this phase of experience. "We are irremediably alone," says one. "Life is a solitude," another sadly owns. And so the plaintive note is repeated again and again in moments of self-dissatisfaction. Nor is this complaint wholly modern; for one cannot help thinking that when the Hebrew Psalmist likened himself to a "pelican of the wilderness" or "a sparrow alone upon the house top," he too was expressing the sense of loneliness that oppressed him when he considered his position in regard to his fellow-men.

In our solitude we sometimes dream of an ideal friend, one who would sympathize in all circumstances, and we like to picture such a friend comprehending and appreciating the best in us. Such is the human longing, which has perhaps rarely been fulfilled on earth. But we have a nearer relationship to the unseen world than we have to this temporal earthly sphere, and therefore must at last, as did the Psalmist, cry out to God, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee." Indeed, our solitude is only a dream solitude which has arisen because mankind has so long and mistakenly contemplated life from a material standpoint, and has thought of individual existence as separate from all other existence. Thus one has gone astray in thought, and needs to be reinstructed concerning the things of God and man. In this returning to God lies the comfort of constant companionship. A theologian once said, "The godly have ever a guest in their hearts;" so, this solitariness, which we feel when we think of ourselves as mortals, may become salutary; for through it we may be led to become cognizant of our true nature and unity with God, who is the source of all love; and so find ourselves lifted to a higher level.

Religion has been spoken of as "what the individual does with his solitariness;" and this is a striking saying. Thus, if we are desirous of good, we shall use our lonely moments to rise above material standpoints and to seek God, so learning to find in Him, from whom we can never be separated for a moment, the loving Friend to whom we may go for comfort in daily need.

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