“No, indeed,” said little Bessie, “for I am not all alone. God is here. I look up and see the stars, and God seems to be looking down at me with his bright eyes.” “To be sure,” said the nurse, “but God is up in the sky, and that is a great way off.” “No,” said Bessie; “God is here too; sometimes He seems to be clasping me in his arms, and then I feel so happy.” “The Help of Feeling Jesus Near.” There was a poor man in a hospital. He was just about to undergo a painful and dangerous operation. They laid him out ready, and the doctors were about to begin, when he asked them to wait a moment. “What shall we wait for?” was the inquiry of one of the doctors. “Oh, wait a moment,” said he, “till I ask the Lord Jesus Christ to stand by my side. I know it will be dreadful hard to bear; but it will be such a comfort to think that Jesus is near me.” One thing we are taught by the betrayal and desertion of Christ, is the loneliness of his sufferings. _Another thing, taught us by this part of our Saviour’s history is—HIS WILLINGNESS TO SUFFER._ We often make up our minds to suffer certain things, because we have no power to help it. But it was not so with Jesus. He had power enough to have saved himself from suffering, if he had chosen to do so. Sometime before this, when he was speaking to his disciples about his death, or, as he called it, laying down his life, he said—“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. _I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again._” John x: 18. And he showed plainly what his power was at the very time of his betrayal. When his enemies came to take him, he “went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.” John xviii: 4. But he put such wonderful power into these simple words—“_I am he_”—that, the moment they heard them, the whole multitude, soldiers, servants, and all, fell to the ground before him. It was nothing but the power of Jesus which produced this strange effect. It seems as if Jesus did this, on purpose to show that the mighty power by which he had healed the sick, and raised the dead, and cast out devils, and walked on the water, and controlled the stormy winds and waves, was in him still. He was not taken by his enemies because he had no power to help himself. The same power which made his enemies fall to the ground with a word could have held them there while he walked away; or could have scattered them, as the chaff is scattered by the whirlwind; or could have made the earth open and swallow them up. But he did not choose to exercise it in any of these ways. He was _willing_ to suffer for us; and so he allowed himself to be taken.