Streams in the Desert October 26 Daily Devotional

He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was there alone (Matt. 14:23).
The man Christ Jesus felt the need of perfect solitude-Himself
alone, entirely by Himself, alone with Himself We know how much
intercourse with men draws us away from ourselves and exhausts our powers. The man Christ Jesus knew this, too, and felt the need of
being by Himself again, of gathering all His powers, of realizing
fully His high destiny, His human weakness, His entire dependence on the Father.
How much more does the child of God need this-himself alone with spiritual realities, himself alone with God the Father. if ever
there were one who could dispense with special seasons for solitude and fellowship, it was our Lord. But He could not do His work or
maintain His fellowship in full power, without His quiet time.
Would God that every servant of His understood and practiced this blessed art and that the Church knew how to train its children into

some sense of this high and holy privilege, that every believer may and must have his time when he is indeed himself alone with God. Oh, the thought to have God all alone to myself, and to know that God has me all alone to Himself! --Andrew Murray.
Lamertine speaks in one of his books of a secluded walk in his
garden where his mother always spent a certain hour of the day,
upon which nobody ever dreamed for a moment of intruding. It was the holy garden of the Lord to her. Poor souls that have no such
Beulah land! Seek thy private chamber, Jesus says. It is in the
solitude that we catch the mystic notes that issue from the soul of things.
A MEDITATION:
My soul, practice being alone with Christ! It is written that when they were alone He expounded all things to His disciples. Do not wonder at the saying; it is true to thine experience. If thou
wouldst understand thyself send the multitude away. Let them go out
one by one till thou art left alone with Jesus.... Has thou ever
pictured thyself the one remaining creature in the earth, the one remaining creature in all the starry worlds?
In such a universe thine every thought would be "God and I! God and
I!" And yet He is as near to thee as that-as near as If in the
boundless spaces there throbbed no heart but His and thine. Practice that solitude, 0 my soul! Practice the expulsion of the crowd! Practice the stillness of thine own heart! Practice the
solemn refrain "God and I! God and I!" Let none interpose between thee and thy wrestling angel! Thou shalt be both condemned and pardoned when thou shalt meet Jesus alone! --George Matheson.