Yet troubled the man is, even in the very depths of his spirit. One affords himself no pity when in this case, because it seems so unreasonable, even sinful, to be troubled without manifest cause. As well fight with the mist as with this shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness. Causeless depression is not to be reasoned with, nor can David’s harp charm it away by sweet discoursings. This evil will also come upon us, we know not why, and then it is all the more difficult to drive it away. The last ounce breaks the camel’s back, and when the last ounce is laid upon us, what wonder if we for awhile are ready to give up the ghost! If there were a regulated pause between the buffetings of adversity, the spirit would stand prepared but when they come suddenly and heavily, like the battering of great hailstones, the pilgrim may well be amazed. The place where two seas meet strains the most seaworthy keel. Wave upon wave is severe work for the strongest swimmer. He would then have fainted if he had not “believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).Īccumulated distresses increase each other’s weight, play into each other’s hands and, like bands of robbers, ruthlessly destroy our comfort. 30:6) and well was it for him that he could do so. When David returned to Ziklag and found the city burned, goods stolen, wives carried off, and his troops ready to stone him, we read that he “encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. If a scanty cupboard is rendered a severer trial by the sickness of a wife or the loss of a child, and if ungenerous remarks of hearers are followed by the opposition of deacons and the coolness of members, then, like Jacob, we are apt to cry, ‘All these things are against me.’ When troubles multiply and discouragements follow each other in long succession, like Job’s messengers, then too amid the perturbation of soul occasioned by evil tidings, despondency despoils the heart of all its peace.Ĭonstant dropping wears away stones, and the bravest minds feel the fret of repeated afflictions. Should so terrible a calamity overtake any of you brethren, may you both patiently hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God. The fact that Jesus is still great-let His servants suffer as they may-piloted me back to calm reason and peace. The tumult, the panic, the deaths were day and night before me and made life a burden.įrom that dream of horror I was awakened in a moment by the gracious application to my soul of the text, “Him hath God exalted” (Acts 5:31). I was pressed beyond measure and out of bounds with an enormous weight of misery. To the lot of few does it fall to pass through such a horror of great darkness as that which fell upon me after the deplorable accident at the Surrey Music Hall*. If he does so, he will flee from it in disgust. Let no man who looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of life enter the ministry. The trials of a true minister are not few, and such as are caused by ungrateful professors are harder to bear than the coarsest attacks of avowed enemies. At first these things utterly stagger us and send us to our homes wrapped in a horror of great darkness. “A kick that scarce would move a horse would kill a sound divine.”īy experience the soul is hardened to the rough blows which are inevitable in our warfare. Many of the best of ministers, from the very spirituality of their character, are exceedingly sensitive-too sensitive for such a world as this. Strife also and division, slander and foolish censures, have often laid holy men prostrate and made them go ‘as with a sword in their bones.’ Hard words wound some delicate minds very keenly. Ten years of toil do not take so much life out of us as we lose in a few hours by Ahithophel the traitor or Demas the apostate. This makes the preacher long for a lodge in some vast wilderness where he may hide his head forever and hear no more the blasphemous jeers of the ungodly. We are all too apt to look to an arm of flesh, and from that propensity, many of our sorrows arise.Įqually overwhelming is the blow when an honored and beloved member yields to temptation and disgraces the holy Name with which he was named. Judas lifts up his heel against the Man who trusted him, and the preacher’s heart for the moment fails him. The brother most relied upon becomes a traitor. “One crushing stroke has sometimes laid the minister very low. The Inevitable Blows of Betrayal, Slander, Criticism Depress God’s Best Preachers
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