January 28

None shall be alone in his appointed time.—Isaiah 14:31.

WHEN, through circumstances, I may be outwardly alone, does the sense of God's presence give me fellowship with him, and so afford peace and joy? Do I know, by experience, the truthfulness of the Saviour's promise, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"? In solitude do I hold conscious communion with him, and so find both strength and comfort to my soul? Is it not comforting to know that he appoints my hours of loneliness, and that in solitude or depression he is always near?

The Lord thinks upon you; he is with you at all times; he will never leave or forsake you. He is a friend, a brother, a Lord: a friend, to guide you with counsel; a brother, to sympathize with you in loneliness or sorrow; a Lord, to defend you from evil, and to make all things work together for your good. *

I am as certain as that I live, that nothing is so near to me as God. As my Father, and as my best and truest Friend, he is near to me in every bright and joyous, and in every clouded and trying scene of life.

—TAULER.

Alone! believer, child of God?

It is not so; it cannot be!

Though all were cold beneath the sod,

Who ever loved or thought of thee,

Yet still the high and holy One,

Is with thee—will be, to the end.—

Thou hast the Father and the Son;

Art thou alone with such a Friend?