For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3:3
The Divine life in the believer, the life of
God in the soul of man, is a hidden life!
Not only is it invisible to the world, except
in its outward actions, and these are often
misunderstood and misinterpreted; but very
much so to the saints also. It is often but
dimly perceived, and we are slow to recognize it.
It is of all things the most deeply veiled.
Its existence and aspirations, its depressions,
defeats, and victories, are known only to Him
in whom that life emphatically lives and moves
and has its being.
And, then, touching the growth of this hidden
spiritual life; it is in the solitude of the Cross
that it derives its strongest impulse, and exhibits
its mightiest development. The Divine life in the
believer is a divine plant which only grows beneath
this sacred shadow. If we would advance in grace
we must recede frequently from the sun's heat of
this world, and dwell amid the solemn shadows of
Gethsemane and the deeper solitude of Calvary.
Viewless as the wind, silent as the dew, is that
influence which the most vitalizes and promotes
our real sanctification. Oh, how blessed to sit there,
with myriads like ourselves, silently growing in
heavenliness near that marvellous Cross; frail and
feeble tendrils entwining around the stem of that
glorious Tree of Life.
Let us often heed the invitation of our Lord, "Come
with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some
rest," gently led by His outstretched hand to the
solitude of His Cross.
- Octavius Winslow's "The Solitude of the Cross"