Loneliness
Loneliness, on the other hand, is a craving for human relationships. Most people have experienced loneliness at some time or other; even the young, the companionable and the popular feel it. Few could have been more popular than young Rupert Brooke, the handsome poet. Yet how pathetic is the story of his setting off for America in 1913 with no one to see him off at Liverpool Docks. Everyone else seemed to have friends. He had none. Looking down from the liner he saw a ragmuffin on the quay. Brooks went down the gangway to him and found that his name was William. Back to the ship went the poet, and when the liner slipped away from her moorings and friends waved to friends, a dirty rag waved by a dirty hand brought consolation to a lonely man. Florence Nightingale in her busy career was constanly surrounded by others, yet her life story reveals that her ideas and ideals caused her to live in a state of loneliness. Jesus Christ was often alone, and His recorded life illustrates that solitude is geographical and occasionally good, but that loneliness is a state of being spiritually alone. Jesus often sought solitude. Yet He deliberately called a little group "that they might be with Him..." He needed human companionship. When we are tempted to complain of our loneliness we would do well to remember that we shall never be as alone as Christ was just before and during the agonies of Calvary. All through the Bible we have the account of God seeking to end man's loneliness. Then God came to us Himself in Jesus, who loved to be wherever people gathered. Christ's last recorded word in one Gospel is" Lo, I am with you always..." And when His physical presence was withdrawn He promised " another comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." "with you"-the words take us very near the heart of the whole message of the gospel, for is not one of our Lord's most inspiring names Emmanuel"GOD WITH US"?
"Will you wave to me if I give you sixpence, William?" he asked.
"why, yes," said the lad.
