By JOHN COLQUHOUN, D.D., Minister of the Gospel, Leith.
(Continued from page 238.)
Having now considered the leading consequences of the loss of spiritual comfort, it will be proper to observe, in order to prevent mistakes, that in the case of some disconsolate Christians all these consequences concur, but in that of others only some of them take place. It is seldom, except when spiritual distress becomes very deep, and continues long, that they are all felt by one and the same believer. Spiritual trouble usually consists either in the loss of comfort, together with all those consequences of it, or in the want of comfort with some of them only, and that in a greater or less degree. Accordingly, it is either total or partial. Some believers have been afflicted with total distress of soul so that they have, in a certain degree, even despaired of mercy. It possibly may to some appear harsh to charge so horrible a sin as despair upon true believers, even in their deepest perturbation of spirit. But if it seem uncharitable to say that any of the saints ever fall into a degree of despair, it will, surely, be more harsh and uncharitable to affirm that none who ever do fall into despair are saints. Indeed, it cannot be denied that some of the saints, under the deepest anguish of spirit, have for a time so despaired as to have been overwhelmed with terror in the dreadful prospect of eternal wrath. Other believers again, upon their loss of comfort, are afflicted only with partial trouble of mind and are soon delivered from it. They have, indeed, painful experience of some, or even the most of those consequences above-mentioned, but not of all. They have, it may be, a painful sense of paternal anger, but being enabled still to trust that the hand which afflicteth their souls is the hand of a Father and not of an enemy, they are exempted from an overwhelming sense of avenging wrath; or they may, perhaps, have some feeling even of vindictive wrath, and yet be under but a very small degree of despondency (Ps. lxxxviii. i). Those of the saints who have even all those doleful consequences of their having forfeited their holy consolation may have them in a greater or less degree; and those who have only some of them may likewise have these in various degrees. Trouble of mind in some believers is transient and short; in others is fixed, of long continuance, and sometimes attended with very alarming symptoms. But still, however short, and however low in degree it be, the very lowest degree of it is inconceivably more intolerable and dreadful than the highest degree of bodily affliction.
Now from the foregoing detail, the following remarks are obvious:—
First, trouble of mind, especially when it is excessive, is not in itself good but evil.
It is sinful in true Christians to suffer themselves to be disquieted by, and to languish under, despondent fears as if they had not a compassionate Saviour to trust in. Deep dejection of spirit produces much aversion of heart from the spiritual performance of every duty. It is contrary to the great duty of believing. Faith is a resting; this trouble is a disquietment of the heart: faith is the eye of the soul; such trouble is the blindness and darkness of the soul: faith giveth glory to God; this reflects dishonour upon Him. It is not only a sin, but a most heinous sin, to yield so to dejection of spirit as to refuse to be comforted. The troubled spirit of the Christian actually rises against redeeming grace. It is well for him in such a case that the covenant of grace in which he is still instated, is well “ordered in all things” that it stands like a well-marshalled army on the field, ready to resist his attacks upon whatever part of it he may choose to fall. Be deeply convinced, O disquieted believer, that thy refusing to trust in thy Saviour and to be comforted is thy aggravated sin; and that it is inexpressibly dangerous, as well as sinful, to allow despondency and trouble to grow upon thy spirit.
Next, the most tender compassion from all, and especially from fellow-Christians, is due to them who are under trouble of spirit.
Such distress cries aloud for the tenderest sympathy. If it is a great sin to treat with roughness and severity fellow-creatures who are under exquisite pain of body, it is a much more heinous iniquity so to treat fellow-Christians who are under anguish of soul (Obad. 12; Gal. vi. 2).
Again, it is the duty of the disconsolate believer to hope that he shall in due time be delivered from his trouble.
“It is good that he should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, for the Lord will not cast off for ever” (Lam. iii. 26, 31). On these words of the Lord Jesus, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered,” Austin puts to a believer this pertinent question: “Thou, who canst not lose a single hair, how comes it to pass that thou art afraid of losing thy soul?” Christian, cheer thy troubled spirit with the hope that thy compassionate Saviour will deliver thee, though thou canst not tell how nor when (Ps. xxxiv. 19). Let the consideration of His infinite mercy, and of His near relation to thee, encourage thee in expectation of deliverance to bear with patience thy grievous trial (Mic. vii. 9; James v. 11). Consider what thou hast deserved at the hand of the Lord and that impatience will but provoke Him to set yet a keener edge on thy trouble. Thou hast need of patience. “Let patience, therefore, have her perfect work” (James i. 4).
Moreover, it appears evident that it is also the duty of the disconsolate Christian never to give way to carnal reasoning against himself.
When his faith is lively and his evidences are clear, he can refute carnal reasoning and say with the Apostle Paul, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again,” etc. (Rom. viii. 33, 34). But when his faith is languid and his evidences are eclipsed, it is not only useless but dangerous in the extreme to yield to carnal reasoning about the state of his soul, for then he is least qualified to take God’s part against the cavils of Satan and of an evil heart of unbelief. Were a man, in order to try and confirm the validity of his title to an estate, to encourage a suit to commence against himself he surely would not choose for that purpose the time in which he could not find the evidences of that title. Alas! the time which a good man chooses for giving ear to carnal reasoning is commonly the very time in which he hath lost his evidences of grace. And it is grievous to see with what a weak piece of sophistry the devil will baffle him at such a time. It is inexpressibly dangerous for a child of light, especially when he is in the dark, to be reasoning with the prince of darkness; he cannot in such circumstances be safe, otherwise than by the resolute exercise of prayer, and of that faith which is above sight as well as contrary to sense and carnal reason. He should not spend a moment in framing arguments against himself. Satan will be ready enough to suggest them. And in particular he ought never to conclude that he is a hypocrite from such things as are nowhere in the Scripture declared to be marks of reigning hypocrisy. Where, O disconsolate Christian, dost thou read in the Oracles of Truth that the want of legal terrors in conversion or that wandering thoughts, straitness, dullness, and deadness of spirit in prayer while thou bewailest them and strivest against them, or that the want of present evidences of sincerity, and of those degrees of peace and joy to which some have attained, or that some iniquity for a time prevailing against thee notwithstanding thy frequent efforts to resist it—where, I say, dost thou read that any of these is an evidence of reigning hypocrisy? Or where canst thou find that the presence of hypocrisy in the heart is the same as the predominance of it?
It is no less the duty of the disquieted believer to distinguish well between the atheistical and blasphemous thoughts which are injected by Satan and those which proceed from his own heart.
His doing so will, through grace, be a means of lessening in no small degree the anguish of his soul. Atheistical and blasphemous thoughts do sometimes proceed from his own heart, for our blessed Lord saith, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts . . . blasphemies” (Matt. xv. 19). And he may charge himself with such thoughts as having arisen from his own heart when, instead of resisting them instantly and with abhorrence, he for a little yields to them. But if, as is more frequently the case, they come in suddenly and violently upon his mind; if his heart trembles at them and with holy abhorrence instantly opposes them (Ps. lxxiii. 15); and if his being assaulted with them is very grievous to him (Ps. lxxiii. 21, 22), he ought, without hesitation, to charge them upon Satan and not upon himself. He should, for his comfort, never impute them to himself as his transgressions but to the tempter as his.
It is likewise his duty to read diligently and frequently such passages of Scripture as are most suited to comfort him.
It is not less true than strange that the believer, under mental trouble, is usually much disposed to read, to remember, and to apply to himself such passages of Scripture and of human writings as are most adapted to increase the trouble and terror of his soul. Such places of Scripture, and of other books, as are arousing and alarming are indeed very proper for a good man often to read and remember when he finds that carnal security is prevailing against him. But when his soul is already depressed with terror and dismay, so that he needs cordials to refresh his drooping spirit, he ought, chiefly and frequently, to read, meditate, and believe with application to himself such passages of Scripture as are most encouraging and consoling to his fainting soul, especially those referred to at the end of this article.* Let him resolve firmly in dependence on promised grace, and in defiance of his disinclination, to read again and again those and similar passages, to believe them with regard to himself, and to convert them into matter of ejaculatory prayer. As the dejected believer is chastened less than he deserves to be, and as it is of the Lord’s mercies that he is not even consumed, let him readily acknowledge this and see that he express his grateful sense of it by glorifying the Lord even in the fires (Isa. xxiv. 15).
Let him endeavour to glorify the Lord by being constantly upon his guard against all manner of sin, and especially against omitting any known duty. He must never take occasion from the uneasiness of his mind to neglect a single duty that it is possible for him to perform. It is inexpressibly dangerous for the Christian to be indolent at any time, but especially when he is under depression of spirit.
To conclude: Doth God afflict some even of His own dear saints with unutterable anguish and terror of soul when He is only chastening them for iniquity? What exquisite torment then, what direful anguish, awaits impenitent sinners in the place of torment, where they must be, throughout eternity, under His vindictive, His infinite, His tremendous wrath! Christ hath given infinite satisfaction to the offended justice of God for all the iniquities of His children. They love God supremely: they also love His commandments, and study to keep them. They are the objects of His redeeming, of His immense, of His everlasting love, and yet, in chastening them for iniquity, He sometimes afflicteth them with dreadful impressions of His displeasure. Now, if a sense only of His fatherly anger is so terrible and intolerable to them, how wilt thou, O impenitent and careless sinner, be able to endure the fierceness of His vindictive wrath, the heat of His fiery indignation, “which shall burn unto the lowest hell?” If the suffering of that only for a short season, for a small moment, is so inexpressibly painful to them, Oh! what direful agony, what overwhelming anguish must thou endure when thou shalt suffer this, not for millions of ages merely, but through all the endless ages of eternity! Ah! secure sinner, if thou do not flee speedily from the wrath to come, to the great Redeemer, offered to thee in the gospel, “the smoke of thy torment will ascend up for ever and ever, and thou shalt have no rest, day nor night.” We are informed by Him who cannot lie “that the wicked shall be turned into hell” (Ps. ix. 17); “that they shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. xxv. 46); and “that they shall be cast into a furnace of fire, of everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. xiii. 42 and xxv. 41). Consider this, thou who livest in sin, and be afraid. Oh! do not continue any longer in the love and practice of iniquity. Do not, for the momentary and polluted pleasures of sin, persist in exposing thyself to endless wrath. Walk while thou hast light lest darkness come upon thee. While thou hast light, believe in the light that thou mayest be one of the children of light (John xii. 35, 36).
* Footnote.—Ps. xliii. 5 and lxxi. 20-23; Isa. i. 18 and lv. 1-4; Ezek. xxxiii. 11; Hos. xiv. 4-6; Isa. lvii. 15-19 and lxvi. 13 and xl. 27-31; Isa. xlix. 8-16 and liv. 7-14 and lxi. 1-3; Isa. xli. 10-14 and xlili. 1, 2; Lam. iii. 22-26; Matt. xi. 28, 29; Rev. xxii. 17; John iii. 14-17; John xiv. 15-27; I Tim. i. 15; Matt. ix. 13; Ps. cxxxviii. 3-8.