Encouragement for the Depressed E-Book

Charles H. Spurgeon

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Crossway Short Classics
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

For those who are struggling in their daily walk with God, or living in the dark of night waiting for the light of day, there is hope. Encouragement for the Depressed, by esteemed 19th-century pastor Charles Spurgeon, is a gracious reminder that little faith is still saving faith. Spurgeon himself was not unfamiliar with depression, having dealt with it for most of his life. With personal experience and pastoral care, Spurgeon encourages both the new believer struggling to grasp the tenets of the faith and the experienced Christian struggling to enjoy the truths they once cherished to hold fast, for God is faithful.

Leseprobe

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Encouragement for the Depressed

The Crossway Short Classics Series

The Emotional Life of Our Lord

B. B. Warfield

Encouragement for the Depressed

Charles Spurgeon

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

Thomas Chalmers

Fighting for Holiness

J. C. Ryle

Heaven Is a World of Love

Jonathan Edwards

The Life of God in the Soul of Man

Henry Scougal

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People

Francis A. Schaeffer

Encouragement for the Depressed

Charles Spurgeon

Encouragement for the Depressed

Copyright © 2020 by Crossway

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

Cover image: “Single Stem” wallpaper design, William Morris (1834–1896), Bridgeman Images

First printing 2020

Printed in China

Scripture quotations in the foreword are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All other Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-7063-6 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7066-7 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7064-3 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7065-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834–1892, author. 

Title: Encouragement for the depressed / Charles Spurgeon. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020. | Series: The Crossway short classics series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020005166 (print) | LCCN 2020005167 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433570636 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433570643 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433570650 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433570667 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Depressed persons—Religious life. | Depression, Mental—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Depression, Mental—Biblical teaching.

Classification: LCC BV4910.34 .S695 2020 (print) | LCC BV4910.34 (ebook) | DDC 248.8/6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005166

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005167

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-10-06 10:27:57 AM

Contents

Foreword by Randy Alcorn

Series Preface

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Encouragement for the Depressed

The Minister’s Fainting Fits

Scripture Index

Foreword

Hardly anyone outside of Scripture speaks to me like Charles Spurgeon does. He had incredible depth and biblical insight, and his sermons and writings, full of grace and truth and sheer eloquence, always draw me to Jesus.

Spurgeon preached to approximately ten million people in his lifetime, often speaking ten times a week. His 3,561 sermons are bound in sixty-three volumes, and in addition he wrote many books.

Wonderful as those accomplishments were, they put demands on his life that no doubt contributed to his battles with depression—not least of all that he often worked eighteen hours a day!

Spurgeon took great solace in Scripture, especially in the Psalms he loved so much, as evidenced in his massive commentary set The Treasury of David. God’s words, as Spurgeon well knew, are far more valuable than anyone else’s. God promises that his word “shall not return to [him] empty, but it shall accomplish that which [he purposes], and shall succeed in the thing for which [he] sent it” (Isa. 55:11 ESV). God does not make that promise about your words or my words or even Spurgeon’s words, but only his word. In the face of great criticism, Spurgeon took great pains to conform his preaching and writing to Scripture. We need to hear Spurgeon’s voice because he was faithful to speak God’s word, and today there aren’t nearly enough voices like his.

Spurgeon also serves as a reminder that people of great trust in God can nonetheless be brought low in depression. While that thought may be, well, depressing to those who haven’t experienced depression, it is liberating to those of us who have.

I have known depression at times in my life. Several years ago, for no apparent reason, a cloud of depression descended on me. Day after day, it was my constant companion. During that time, I was encouraged by the perspectives of Spurgeon, whose long-term struggles with depression were far worse than mine. I blogged about my depression and shared a few Spurgeon quotations that can be found in this book.

Many people have since written to tell me their own stories of how God has used Spurgeon’s perspectives on depression in their lives. After I wrote a subsequent blog post about Spurgeon and the suffering he endured, I received this note: “I was depressed because once again I was not feeling well. It’s amazing to realize even great leaders suffered so much. It gives me hope, as I suffer from near constant pain. Thanks. This really encouraged me—I needed it!”

Would Spurgeon have ever guessed that nearly two centuries later his sufferings from depression would be a source of comfort to God’s people? (Who is being, and will be, touched by our sufferings and our perspectives that we won’t know about until eternity?) I am confident that God will use Spurgeon’s words in this little book to encourage many more believers who struggle with depression.

Spurgeon writes, “I have suffered many times from severe sickness and frightful mental depression sinking almost to despair. Almost every year I’ve been laid aside for a season, for flesh and blood cannot bear the strain, at least such flesh and blood as mine. [However,] I believe . . . that affliction was necessary to me and has answered salutary ends.”1

Those words were written by a man who lived with great physical pain for a large part of his life. While his dear wife, Susanna, was bedridden for decades, Spurgeon contracted smallpox and suffered from gout, rheumatism, and Bright’s disease (inflammation of the kidneys). His health became progressively worse, so that nearly a third of his last twenty-two years were spent away from the pulpit. This physical hardship took a great emotional toll on him.

When Spurgeon was twenty-two years old, a tragedy took place that still haunted him years later. He was preaching for the first time in the Music Hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens because his own church wasn’t large enough. The ten-thousand-person seating capacity was far exceeded by the crowds pressing in. Someone shouted, “Fire!” and though there was no fire, the resulting stampede caused many injuries and the deaths of seven people. Years later, Spurgeon said this horrifying incident took him “near the burning furnace of insanity.”2

Still, Spurgeon found that his great suffering drew him closer to God. In an address to ministers and students, he said, “I daresay the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. . . . If some men that I know of could only be favoured with a month of rheumatism, it would, by God’s grace, mellow them marvelously.”3

As you’ll see in the pages that follow, Spurgeon said of pastoral ministry,

Our work, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of depression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust? Passionate longings after men’s conversion, if not fully satisfied (and when are they?), consume the soul with anxiety and disappointment. To see the hopeful turn aside, the godly grow cold, professors abusing their privileges, and sinners waxing more bold in sin—are not these sights enough to crush us to the earth. . . . How often, on Lord’s Day evenings, do we feel as if life were completely washed out of us! After pouring out our souls over our congregations, we feel like empty earthen pitchers that a child might break.

He also wrote, “I am afraid that all the grace I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable. . . . Affliction is . . . the best book in a minister’s library.”4

Like the apostle Paul, the often jovial Spurgeon was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor.