The Father is with me......

And shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." John xvii. 32. .......There is a relation between Christ and Christians, and a conformity founded upon it; so that what He says, they may subordinately adopt as their own language. There are cases in which they may be alone— and there are cases in which they ought to be alone—and there is one case in which they must be alone: and yet they are not alone, because the Father is with them. They may be alone, by the dispensations of Providence. By death, lover and friend may be put far from them, and their acquaintance into darkness; and bereavements may force from solitude the sigh, "I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the housetop." They have often been driven out of society by the wickedness of power. Their connexions have abandoned them through falseness, or deserted them through infirmity. And this is no inconsiderable trial. Our Saviour felt the desertion of his disciples; and said, "I looked for some to take pity, and there was none, and for comforter, and found none;" but looking upward, he said, "I am not alone, for the Father is with me. Joseph was separated from his family, and sold into Egypt, but the Lord was with Joseph. John was banished into the isle of Patios; but there he had the visions of the Almighty, and was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. "At my first answer," says Paul, "no man stood by me, but all men forsook me; notwithstanding the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me."—Yes; whoever dies, the Lord liveth. Whoever fails us, He is firm. "He is faithful that hath promised. He hath said, will never leave thee nor forsake thee."William Jay

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