SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10629, 18 December 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

DEPRESSION. Isa. 50, 10. We have all, in the course of our life, come to the valley of shadow of death of which Bunyan has left such a graphic account. It is an experience never to be forgotten, To doubt the very existence of the supernatural: to wonder if the things hitherto most surely believed may not be as the baseless fabric of. a vision : to be in perplexity about the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith : to hesitate to pray because not sure that prayer will avail: to turn from the Bible because in perplexity as to its authority: to miss the familiar face of Jesus looking lovingly and helpfully down on His troubled disciplesall these are enough to drape the soul in mists like those which settle low upon the slopes of the Alps when the sun is withdrawing his genial rays. IIIERB ARK MANY GROUNDS ON WIIICH WE MAY ACCOUNT FOR THIS STATE OP MIND. 1. It may be due in part to nervous and physical exhaustion. To the speed of modern life we do not add an increased proportion of rest. Indeed, the tendency of our time is to crowd the days with more activity and to reduce the periods of recreation and recruitment. From out the pressure of our life we look back with mingled envy and astonishment at the comparative repose of great lives that stand out as a mountain range in the haze of the past, not always realising that their long periods of recuperation in loneliness and privacy were the main cause of their commanding strength. The liver, the digestion, or the nervous system suddenly collapses beneath the exacting strain, and refuses to perform, or performs sluggishly, the behests of the will.

How of teu spiritual depression is the result of nervous exhaustion! How constantly must the experienced spiritual adviser question as to health and disease those who consult him 1 If only we could arrange for a medical man and a spiritual adviser to attend a patient together, we should find that the wavy line which recorded the rise and fall of physical vigour would stand for the ebb and flow, the up and down, of spiritual experience. Elijah, over-tired with the strain of Carmcl and the long night journey, casts himself under tho shade of the juniper and asks to die. '

2. It may be due to mistakes in the previous education of the soul. Suppose we have received our religion simply upon hearsay or on tradition from our fathers, without the warrant of that inner experience which authenticates it to the soul and supersedes the need of external evidence;— suppose that we have mistaken creeds, formularies, and rites as constituting religion, thinking, when these were assailed or shown to be valueless, that we had lost the essence of religion, which is like the spirit of spring, breathing impalpable and invisible through the woods of May, and not to be confounded with unfurling leaf or opening bloom;— or suppose that we have suddenly come into collision with the ruthless Vandal spirit of criticism, which, in the professed interest of truth, tears asunder the most delicate flowers to learn the secret of their manufacture, and refuses that we should enjoy a flower unless we can tell exactly how it came to be. In any of these cases tho soul, arrested in the enjoyment of unquestioning faith, and unable in the tumult to discriminate between the transitory and the eternal, the form and the substance, cries out as if it were bereaved of everything, when in point of fact it is only shedding the cerements of the grave as it passes into the fuller life, and leaving its baby clothes for those of youth and maturity. 3. It may be due to moral declensiou. Only as the eye is single is the body full of light. Only the pure in heart can see God. Only those who do His will know. When a soul is living up to its light, in God's light it sees light. But whenever it turns aside from the path of conscience, purity, holiness, and truth, in that proportion a blindness steals over the eye of the inner life; a mist borne from the marshes of permitted evil creeps over the heart, and the voices of the eternal world wax fainter and ever fainter on the ear.

It is not always so, of course ; but more often than not it is they who yield to the spell of Circe and are turned to swine, that lose the power of recognising the true Man, and appreciating those subtle influences from the unseen and spiritual world which prove its existence no less certainly than did the spice-laden breath of the land, bearing in its current the land-birds, prove to Columbus that the continent of his dreams was about to break on the vision of himself and his discontented sailors.

4. It may be duo to the direct temptation of evil spirits. Often Satan, unable to secure his object by solicitations addressed to the senses, directs his attack on some of the nobler attributes. Sometimes he arouses the senses to hold the spirit in thrall, as some slave-girl, with Castanet and dance, may subjugate a Uassar to her will. At other times lie suggests, through days and months together, that there is no need for the spirit to maintain its upright attitude, because there is no eye watchiug it, no hand waiting to reward it. "There is no God. Why then be so careful? Eat and drink: to-morrow you will die and end as a brute." 5. Sometimes it is due to the necessity of the soul being prepared to give such help to others, as can only be acauired through the discipline of trial. Very* often God has to wean us from our sensible enjoyment of Him, that we may learn to live by faith. Faith is the only clue to the maze of life. There is no other way by which bewildered souls can emerge from the tanglement of the forest into the light of the clear open, save by faith. Therefore, both for ourselves and that we may help others, it is needful that faith should grow from less to more; but this is only possible through the discipline of darkness, desertion, aud forsakenness. We must traverse the way through! the valley of the shadow, as Bunyan did, or we shall never be able to point it out for others. He who cried, " Why hast thou forsaken Me? ' succours us, so that we may never feel forsaken. He who trod the winepress alone, is the companion of lonely sufferers. Be very careful to mark this young lion that roars at thee, for but of its carcase will come honey, not for thee only but for others. God permits thee to go this desolate path in order to explore it and become a Great-heart, beneath whose guidance Mr. . Fearing, Miss • Muchafraid, and Mr. Despondency will come safely to the Celestial City. > • '• ■■ ■••** ■< '• J i: WHAT SHOULD WE DO UNDER THESE ' , ;..' :..•'.'. -..' ■ CIRCUMSTANCES? , ' : (a) Be of good courage. Do' not begin to say either that there is no such thing as truth, or that you will never behold it again. Do nob get into a panic. Do not lose your head.'; In any storm, or crisis," or peril, there is no surer path to safety than to be perfectly quiet and calm. ■; If you walk in darkness and have no light, stay yourself on God; be of good courage, and.He shall strengthen your heart. Wait; be strong; fear not, rY . ■.■:. (b) Go on obeying the better; impulses of your soul. Jj There is something in us all which prompts us to pray.' Pray, then, even though it is i to a God whom - you cannot discern."; There is Something in us all that protests agaiust < self-indulgence, and • eum-

mens us to purity, to love, and stremW If endeavour. Let us obey, though we hi*. lrM% belief in rewards that lie bevond the Ml of time. There is something iu n 8 all tW ll> prompts to the due fulfilment of the natural ' relationships ot the home..' Let us be Dredl in every duty to man, though we obey on lv natural instincts. Go on doing what is rieht I because it is right. Be pure and sweet, j£nffi9 and true, unselfish and forgiving. Keep four ' hand upon the thread of conscience- itt™ verses the darkest mines, and leads out int„' the perfect day. , ,"' vf« (c) Keep your difficulties to yourself. • % fr SI is uothiug gained by talking of therri * ami - I you have no right to sow the seeds of 'von, ' own difficulties in the hearts of others Evpn I your dearest friend need not know thaS darker experiences of your soul, unless von are sure that he is strong to bear your confi HI dence without hurt, aud to give you a" assurance of a brother's sympathy. So nun! have inflicted untold injury upon themselvi and others by baring the sores of the inner H lite-on themselves, because in the opened wound fever Mill set up aud the germs of Ifr disease will breed; on others, because ttlS contagion of the wound must spread, • , (J) Put away all known evil. If'you <~.. associate the dimness of your spiritual vision ; ' . with any known habit, which, in your best ' moments, you condemn; if there is a con - sciousuess within yon that, in some one point" you are a defaulter in practice, though loud' mi and uncompromising iu your profession •$ you find yourself often arguing against con : 'H science, and justifying a certain habit bv ' considerations which von suppose exonerate I you from obeying a law that you would ha the first to apply to others: then be sure that ' God is indicating to you the cause of all your - > trouble, and is asking you to deal with it with no sparing hand. There is a mote or a :; ' beam in your eye that must come out, eta ' ■ you can see clearly. Be cleansed in the blood ; of Jesus and delivered by the power of tt,. Holy Spirit. tne I (e) Put your will on God's side. Ac , ' yourself, so far as possible, at the feet M ' ''* Christ, willing to suffer the darkness so 100. '.' I as He sees tit to ordain it, but eager to eaten ' the first glint of dawn. Keep your face to- v wards the East. Struggle through the slough to that further side which is next the Celestial t City. Remember how Thomas, though he 1 seemed fast closed against faith, mingled with H the rest in their gatherings in the upper room ' as if he could not abandon the precious hone '' of seeing the risen Lord. ''ivM?^! If these words come to any that are sore : perplexed, because their minds are filled with ' unbelieving and atheistic thoughts, let them ' ; 5 remember that Satan always stands to resist ■ ■ the saints as they desire to enter a more >"■■■■ blessed and holy experience; and let them ~ learn to account such questions as whispers from the mouth of hell, to be repudiated instantly, as any other temptation might be '£'< by the steadfast soul. May we not say as vj ■"'■".' ■ pass through this fearful ordeal: "These ' thoughts and words, 0 my Father, are not'' my own : I suffer being tempted ; but I am' willing to bear this, and more also, if I may - but be partaker of Thy holiness, and a sue- « courer of those who are being tempted also!" ■■ I "Blessed is the man that endureth tempta- ■ 1: tion ; for when he hath been approved, he J shall receive the crown of life, which the \ Lord promised to them that love Him." '- • : -. I '' Be still ! sad soul, lift thou no passionate cry, ■''• . -y- y But spread the desert of thy being bare : '.—--! To the full searching of the All-seeing eye; j v Vv; \ Wait I and through dark misgivings, blank • \ despair, v y.i&S \ God will come down in pity, and fill the dry '•' v ■ Dead place with light, and life, and vernal air." '■ Let it never be forgotten also that God/" ? remaineth faithful. He cannot deny Himself, I Our changes and fluctuations make no altera/tion in His heart of love. Though we cannot • see Him, He sees us, loves, and will love foe ; evermore. The Lord God will help us, there- ■ fore we shall not be confounded. He is near 1 that justifieth. The earth may be hidden In f veils of mist and cloud, but the sun shines on '---. ( in heaven, and at the destined moment the mists will thin away, and the earth lie in the : embrace of his beams. Trust on, sad heart! j Beyond the night, there is the morning: i M beyond the winter, the eternal spring, '•' -.-. ; - \ ' • ; THE PILGRIM. >£}M "Forgetting those things which are behind, and 1 . reaching forth unto those things which are before, v j I press toward the mark for the prize of the uiglj § > calling of God in Christ Jesus."-PML iii. 13, U. ,>,-:• He stood upon the threshold of the year; ■ '}MB£ Behind him lay the sunset of the Past, '; ,' ■. , Twilight was gathering o'er it far and near, -fete*- I And dews were falling fast, '•;#:'&,';!' " The Past is mine no more, but God is keeping ' It safe for me," he said, with saddened smile;.; v?.'..' " Joy comes at mom, after the night of weeping; §|| I will ' forget' the Past a little while, ; rgS|§| And forward go towards the rising sun, v ''vJ||si Nor think of resting till the goal is won." • 'SsK'sit He bent his head in soul-absorbing prayer: y '-%i%i , Then forth, across the plain that stretched befon, So shadow-like in mist lay all things there, &s&', All but one step-no more. ■.: VS? i " The Future is not mine, but God is giving '.*,-';'&■■;■. It step by step to me," he calmly said. .%'-.•-X.'' " To live for God, this is the life worth living,- i To live for self is death, since self is dead ; '>i£o>< '■«'? Farewell, 0 city, built on sands of time, ifii'fii i\ To the eternal city I will climb." \ $jm jjp And as he forward pressed beyond the plain, '•'•!■;'■'•' \ Where wreathing mists still lay, i& : \0 1 He saw before him ever and again '■ i f'tW The city far away. ' :kJO4 " Forward I press, for higher yet ascending ' 'i': The Hills Delectable before me rise, Oat from the mists my upward path is wending ;'; To mountain peaks half-bidden in the skies; , ■••;.■;- Onward I go to meet the rising sun, ?ss& Onward for ever, till the prize is won. / ffifSl J.H.S,