Read Good Books...Again

 King Solomon admonished his son in Ecclesiastes 12:12, "...of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh."  It is no easy feat to write a book (especially that is widely read), and it is easier to collect books than read them.  It would be a great shame to put our effort into acquiring books to our library without reading them with careful consideration.  Whether our books be many or few, their primary value is not as familiar decor:  we ought to read and re-read them as we welcome their input like dear friends.  The pile of books to be read for the first time can be interrupted as the LORD leads by books we already possess.

One book which has proved to be an invaluable resource over the years is C.S. Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students.  It is by far the most useful book I own outside the scriptures, as it has provided great insights, wise counsel and encouragement from a man of godly character.  One of the chapters which Spurgeon writes from intense personal experience is that on The Minister's Fainting Fits.  The "prince of preachers" was no stranger to seasons of despondency, and the chapter is steeped in compassion as he urges ministers to continue to keep their hand to the plough in following Jesus and fulfill the ministry given to us according to the richness of God's grace. Following are some highlights from the chapter which work to uplift the downcast:

"As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord.  Fits of depression come over the most of us.  Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down.  The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.  There may be here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust..."

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 qualifications for his peculiar course of service.  Some plants owe their medicinal qualities to the march 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 not hindrance when the road runs downhill.  Pain has probably 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 the their mouths and show the way to the ark..."

The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking.  Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body...Even the earth must like fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we...Rest time is not waste time.  It is economy to gather fresh strength.  Look at the mower in the summer's day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets.  He pauses in his labour--is he a sluggard?  He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe, with a "rink-a-tink--rink-a-tink--rink-a-tink."  Is that idle music--is he wasting precious moments?  How much he might have mown while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe!  But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives his strength to those long sweeps which lay the grass prostrate before him.  Even thus a little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause..."

If it be enquired why the Valley of the Shadow of Death must so often be traversed by the servants of King Jesus, the answer is not far to find.  All this is promotive of the Lord's mode of working which is summed up in these words:  "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, said the Lord."  Instruments shall be used, but their intrinsic weakness shall be clearly manifested; there shall be no division of the glory, no diminishing the honour due to the Great Worker.  The man shall be emptied of self, and then filled with the Holy Ghost.  In his own apprehension he shall be like a sere leaf driven of the tempest, and then shall be strengthened into a brazen wall against the enemies of truth.  To hide pride from the worker is the great difficulty.  Uninterrupted success and unfading joy in it would be more than our weak heads could bear..."

By all the castings down of His servants God is glorified, for they are led to magnify Him when He sets them on their feet, and even while prostrate in the dust their faith yields Him praise.  They speak all the more sweetly of His faithfulness, and are the more firmly established in His love.  Such mature men as some elderly preachers are, could scarcely have been produced if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all things round about them.  Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer, and the file.  Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity..."

The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble.  Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary ministerial experience.  Should the power of depression be more than ordinary, think not that all is over with your usefulness.  Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward.  Even if the enemy's foot be on your neck, expect to rise and overthrow him.  Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not His saints.  Live by the day--ay, by the hour.  Put no trust in frames and feelings.  Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.  Trust in God alone, and lean not on the needs of human help.  Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world. Never count upon immutability in man:  inconstancy you may reckon upon without fear of disappointment.  The disciples of Jesus forsook Him; be not amazed if your adherents wander away to other teachers: as they were not your all when with you, all is not gone from you with their departure.  Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less to regret.  Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are.  When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full except in the Lord." (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to My Students: Complete & Unabridged. Ministry Resources Library, Zondervan Publishing House, 1989. excerpts from pages 154-164.)