Alone with God

In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 20) Mrs. Eddy has written, "The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things." This state of being alone with one's thoughts in the constructive work of communing with God or executing His spiritual behests is requisite. It includes those moments and hours of silent prayer where may be found the sweet peace and calm joy of spiritual preparation, replenishment, unfoldment. It is the heart's reaching out for God, and finding Him. This loneness is constancy of devotion to Truth, the purification of the human consciousness, that it may be truly evangelized. Such loneness equips the individual to go forth amidst a suffering humanity with the high purpose of rescuing it from its suffering sense and from every phase of error's thralldom.

There is a wide difference between this being alone with one's thoughts in the active, constructive effort to gain a better understanding of God and that other sense which might be defined as loneliness or lonesomeness. The one is an essential to spiritual growth: the other, an error to be overcome. Human beings have believed happiness to be dependent largely upon material things: money, for instance, or the power that it seems to have. Particularly, have they stressed the belief that in human companionship lies the greatest measure of happiness. Now, there is a right idea of companionship that is truly beautiful; it is that which tends to bring out in human experience the highest spiritual qualities and attributes. This is the love that desires to bless.

However, there is a mistaken sense of companionship wherein selfishness is involved. When this obtains, and the belief of personal possession is manifest between friends or loved ones, we observe that when such relationships are severed the mortal mind quality named loneliness comes in and takes possession of human thought. This error continues with its unhappy tendencies until it is learned that man is spiritual, and that each one must sooner or later prove for himself a higher state of joy than that which comes from mere personal association. There are times, for instance, when God alone can bring comfort and consolation to the troubled, lonely heart. And as the sunlight of morning bursts forth, dispelling the darkness of night, God, good, does unfailingly correct the error.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Straightway
January 19, 1935
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit