Miriam Hardinge ALL ALONE! You may be a young man or woman seeking to make your own life and find independence in a big city, jostled by crowds all day long but still feeling the pangs of loneliness amid the ever-moving masses of people around you. You may be a young trainee in an army camp. As far as you know you are the only one trying to live a life free from the taint of sin and worldliness. They laugh at you because you read your Bible and kneel to pray and don't go out with the crowd for a drink and a bit of fun. Or perhaps you are experiencing the loneliness of the mother, who, after years of enduring the clatter and clutter, the shouts and the laughter of growing children, suddenly finds the house quiet and calm and orderly. You had often sighed for such peace in the house, but you find it unbearable, so you turn up the volume of the radio to shatter that quiet and dispel the loneliness. You may have just watched your life's companion lowered into the cold earth, and now there is no one at your side to share your confidences and hopes, your joys and fears, and you wonder what you have to live for.
	Yes, there are many lonely ones in the world, longing for companionship, for understanding. Does the Gospel have anything to offer the lonely? Yes, indeed it has! There were lonely people in the Bible but they did not give in to despair. Some, in fact, learned their greatest lessons in loneliness. There was Elijah, desperately alone when he ran from wicked Queen Jezebel and her wrath. In 1 Kings 19:10 he lamented to God, "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it." But God assured him that he was mistaken – that there were yet seven thousand who had refused to worship the gods which Jezebel and Ahab had set up. And in his loneliness Elijah saw once more a vision of the great task he was to do for God. There was John, lonely on the island of Patmos, far from fellow-believers and brethren. But on quiet days, as he worshipped all by himself, God gave him visions of coming glory which he recorded in the Book of Revelation for the teaching and upliftment of all Christians down the corridors of time till Jesus should come in Person. Paul had many lonely moments in his journeys and later in prison, but out of his loneliness emerged the wonderful epistles that have encouraged and strengthened Christians for ages. God does not want His children to be lonely. In the second chapter of the Bible, verse 18, He says, "It is not good that man should be alone," and so He made Eve to be a companion for Adam. Jesus did not send His disciples out alone. He sent them in pairs to preach the Gospel. Joseph Ford Newton truthfully said, "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." Build a bridge to one who needs you. Make him feel the warmth of your concern and love. The Inspired Word says, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly" (Proverbs 18:24). You may not like to make approaches. You may prefer to retire behind your wall and wait for someone to approach you. Forget your feelings and hold out your hand to another lonely soul. The results may surprise you! And remember the promise of our Lord Himself to be our constant companion. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, "I am with you always." And He definitely means it!