that we
must fight the battle of life and duty alone, we know that we bear our
sorrows and bereavements alone, we know that alone we must die, and be
judged, and yet, as Christians, we know that Jesus will never leave us,
nor forsake us, that He is with us even unto the end of the world, and
that when most solitary we are _alone with God_.

It is this thought that has strengthened the bravest and best of God's
people in their hour of trial. It was this which enabled Abraham to
leave home and friends, and to seek a land of strangers; he was not
alone, for God was with him. It was this which comforted Joseph in the
Egyptian prison, and enabled him to feel as many another captive has
felt--

"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage."

It was this which nerved Daniel to dare the den of lions, and Shadrach
and his brethren to brave the fiery furnace; they were not alone, for
God was with them. This cheered David when he walked through the
valley of the shadow in his deep repentance; this gave courage to S.
Peter, and S. Paul, and all the noble army of martyrs, to speak boldly
in Christ's Name, and to meet death with a smiling face. This carried
Moses through the desert, and Columbus to the new world, the thought
that in their loneliest hour God was with them.

Yes, and it was the same thought which supported the dead hero, for
whom all England weeps. Day after day passed over Gordon in his lonely
exile far away. Day after day he saw the sunrise flash on the white
walls and fair palm trees of Khartoum, and the sunset redden the desert
sand. Cut off from home, and comrades, and countrymen, far from the
sound of English voices, and of English prayers; there is no more
lonely figure than that of the martyr of duty. Day by day he strained
his eyes to see the rescue which never came, and yet in all this lonely
waiting we cannot believe that the heart of Gordon failed, for he could
say to his God, "I am not alone, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with
me."

Thus, in one sense, every man must stand alone, and yet the Christian
man knows that he is a child of God, and that his Father will never
forsake him. Every one of us must _labour alone_ in the great workshop
of the world. Each of us has his corner where God has placed him to
weave in his little bit of the pattern of this world's history, to add
his little portion of colour to the