Yet Spurgeon was subject to occasional bouts of deep depression. In those dark hours, he persevered and rose again to minister. This great man penned a short essay on depression, a subject he was thoroughly acquainted with. All of us have our ups and downs. Take a few minutes and read what Spurgeon had to say. His pearls of wisdom still speak today in our troubled times.
As to mental maladies, is any man altogether sane? Are we not all a little off the balance?
Some minds appear to have a gloomy tinge essential to their very individuality. Of them it may be said, "Melancholy marked [them] for her own"; fine minds withal and ruled by noblest principles, but yet they are most prone to forget the silver lining and to remember only the cloud.
These infirmities may be no detriment to a man's career of special usefulness. They may even have been imposed upon him by divine wisdom as necessary qualification for his peculiar course of service.
Some plants owe their medicinal qualities to the marsh in which they grow; others to the shades in which alone they flourish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun. Boats need ballast as well as sail. A drag on the carriage wheel is no hindrance when the road runs downhill.
Pain has, in some cases, developed genius, hunting out the soul which otherwise might have slept like a lion in its den. Had it not been for the broken wing, some might have lost themselves in the clouds, some even of those choice doves who now bear the olive branch in their mouths and show the way to the ark.
I've been there, done that and survived. You can too, by the grace of God.
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