Loneliness is an unhappy belief of mortal mind. Solitude, on the other hand, can be a glorious experience. Where loneliness may lead to a sense of distraction and frustration, solitude can result in quietness and strength. In contrast to the self-centered state of loneliness, solitude, rightly regarded, can become a live, positive state wherein one is receptive to divine ideas. Indulging a sense of loneliness admits want and heart-hunger; while true satisfaction and spiritual nourishment can be found in Soul-filled solitude.
Throughout time the divine idea has been revealed to those who have sought wholeness, or oneness with God, in aloneness with Him. In the twelfth chapter of Revelation, St. John describes the flight of the woman into the wilderness thus: "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." On page 533 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy speaks of corporeal sense as the serpent, and on page 597 of the same work she defines "wilderness" in part as "loneliness; doubt; darkness;" and "the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."
Whether for a time, or many times, or a brief instant of inspiration, man is nourished and strengthened by rising above corporeal sense. The children of Israel were forty years in the wilderness; Christ Jesus was forty days in the wilderness, and three days in the tomb. Many times during his brief ministry, we are told, Jesus went alone into the wilderness to pray. And in Science and Health we read (p. 44). "The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being."
