1. Doubt of Divine love is a still more serious hindrance. It may be doubt, not of God’s love generally, but of that love as directed to ourselves personally. Hiding of the Father’s face is bitterness to the soul; and when doubts come in upon the soul which hide out the sense of God’s love, the overwhelming waters may be said to have begun to break over our heads. Such doubts have come terribly upon many who are plainly people of God; they have rolled in one after another upon the heart, until at length they have brought with them actual despair; and all that the poor tempest-tossed believer could do, was just to utter such words as those of the Psalmist, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”.
A Christian man who had served God for a lifetime was seized with consumption. The repeated visits of the attending minister seemed to afford no consolation, and, in truth, all the ordinary means of comforting were tried in vain. Thus matters went on for a long time, and at length the invalid went abroad for the winter. At the end of the winter he returned, and the minister having heard that he continued in the same state of mind as before, held back from visiting him. The invalid, however, desired to partake of the Holy Communion, and so his pastor went to him. It was a very painful scene; the agitation of this poor afflicted Christian was such that all present were greatly distressed. For many weeks did he linger, the minister now visiting him regularly as before, but the same distressing doubts continued; and to all human appearance, they were likely to shroud him, even in his departure. The mercy of God, however, at length dispelled the gloom. One night the sick man asked for his dressing things, and washed and shaved himself; then he asked for a clean shirt, and when he put it on, and was set up in the bed, he said, “Now I am dressed for my last journey”; thus he remained for a couple of hours, when lo! all clouds and mists rolled from before his eyes, the light of heaven shone in upon him, a ray of brightness streamed through the golden gates upon his soul, and he departed full of joy. [Note: P. B. Power, The “I Wills” of the Psalms, 207.]
2. The will has a large part to play in meeting this trial. It must control imagination by enlisting it on the side of God, “as the ally and enlightener and support of faith”; it must forbid the thought that, because we do not feel that God is with us, He who said, “I the Lord change not,” has withdrawn from us; it must lead mind and heart to centre themselves not on self but on God. When, at Horeb, the “still small voice” roused Elijah out of thought concentrated too much on himself to the work of God, which should be handed on in unbroken continuity to others, the old energy returned.
In that brightest of books, the Introduction d la Vie Devote, S. Francis de Sales, who in early life had endured a severe trial of religious depression and mental struggle, wrote: “If, after all, you receive no comfort, do not be troubled, however great the dryness, but continue to keep yourself in a devout posture before God. How many courtiers go a hundred times a year into the prince’s presence-chamber, without hopes of speaking to him, but only to be seen by him, and pay him their duty? So ought we, my dear Philothea, to come to holy prayer purely and simply to pay our duty, and testify our fidelity.” Equally wise is the advice of Thomas a Kempis,” to flee to humble and outward works: and refresh thyself with good actions; to expect with firm confidence the coming of the Lord and visitation from above.” . . . “For I will cause thee to forget thy toils, and to enjoy inward quietness; I will spread before thee the pleasant meadows of the Scriptures: that with heart enlarged thou mayest begin to run the way of my commandments.” It is through a trial like this, as through deep sorrow in other ways, that we learn to “bear one another’s burdens,” and to find, not only “in the pleasant meadows of the Scriptures,” but also in reliance on the intercessions of the Church, through the merits of its Head, sources of comfort and refreshment hitherto unknown, although so close to us. [Note: A. J. Worlledge, Prayer, 304.]
3. However common and distressing may be the infirmity of doubt, it is exceedingly simple both to understand and to deal with. It requires only the application of common sense for us to see that we know enough to be able to overcome the weakness by degrees. The difficulty, in short, solvitur ambulando; as Archbishop Temple used to say, “Is it impossible? then make it possible by doing it”. No revelation from God is needed for this purpose. We require simply (1) to pray for help before beginning; (2) to grasp the principles of prayer as taught in the Lord’s Prayer; (3) the discipline of practice; (4) patience with the slowness of our progress; (5) perseverance; (6) to recognize that wrestling effort is an inherent characteristic of prayer in the Bible, from Gen_32:26 (Jacob and the Angel) to the word “strive” in Eph_6:18, and Rev_6:10; (7) to remember that genuine dissatisfaction in such a matter is a sign of life, and common to all prayerful people; (8) certainty of conviction that the promises attached to earnest effort in prayer will not fail.
The mind of the sincerest, I will not venture to say of the maturest, for that I am not competent to speak of, will be sometimes, to a certain degree, less luminous, it may be, beclouded; the question will be then, what is the path to comfort? I say, and say with all my soul, . . . prayer. Prayer, persevered in, until the mind is sensibly reinstated, and the former light renewed. [Note: Correspondence between John Jebb and Alexander Knox, 2: 140.]
“I fought my doubts,” Sir Thomas Browne says in the Religio Medici, “not in a martial posture, but on my knees.”
