[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1026":3},"OCTOBER 26\r\nHe went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was there alone (Matt. 14:23).\r\nThe man Christ Jesus felt the need of perfect solitude-Himself\r\nalone, entirely by Himself, alone with Himself We know how much\r\nintercourse with men draws us away from ourselves and exhausts our powers. The man Christ Jesus knew this, too, and felt the need of\r\nbeing by Himself again, of gathering all His powers, of realizing\r\nfully His high destiny, His human weakness, His entire dependence on the Father.\r\nHow much more does the child of God need this-himself alone with spiritual realities, himself alone with God the Father. if ever\r\nthere were one who could dispense with special seasons for solitude and fellowship, it was our Lord. But He could not do His work or\r\nmaintain His fellowship in full power, without His quiet time.\r\nWould God that every servant of His understood and practiced this blessed art and that the Church knew how to train its children into\r\n\r\nsome 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.\r\nLamertine speaks in one of his books of a secluded walk in his\r\ngarden where his mother always spent a certain hour of the day,\r\nupon 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\r\nBeulah land! Seek thy private chamber, Jesus says. It is in the\r\nsolitude that we catch the mystic notes that issue from the soul of things.\r\nA MEDITATION:\r\nMy 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\r\nwouldst understand thyself send the multitude away. Let them go out\r\none by one till thou art left alone with Jesus.... Has thou ever\r\npictured thyself the one remaining creature in the earth, the one remaining creature in all the starry worlds?\r\nIn such a universe thine every thought would be \"God and I! God and\r\nI!\" And yet He is as near to thee as that-as near as If in the\r\nboundless 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\r\nsolemn 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.",1783499793979]