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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S August, 1940 God's Cure for Despondency By F. G. BENSKIN- Bristol, England t I N THE lives of all great men there come times of spiritual crisis, sometimes inexplicable in their or
markable career of the prophet himself. Then there had come reaction—and now Elijah acted like a spoiled child. Elijah -was very much like us—subject to moods, conscious of exhilarations and depressions, aware of the thrill of vic tory, and yet deeply sensible of the pain of seeming defeat. He was “a man of like passions -as we are” (Jas. 5:17). Here was a man who had put the cup of life to his lips and found that it had a jagged rim. Elijah lay down under the shadow of the tree and found merciful sleep, that great restorative for jaded nerves. As he slept, the angels of the Lord came and touched him. That is what God often does in sleep. The angels roused him and bade him eat. This man, for whom the fire of heaven seemed to be an instrument at his command, now was happy to partake of a meal pre pared by the fire of earth. Dangers of Success and Seeming Defeat These are just two stages of our mental development and our actual ex perience when we need the guidance of God’s Word and the pressure of God’s hand. There is the time when it seems as if success has come to us and our cup is filled. Furthermore, there is the time of unconscious achievement, which is also always a time of peril. None of us can attain to any spiritual or in tellectual success without being', in some measure, in danger. For most of us,
spiritual development far greater than anything hitherto known, that he had discovered a way out for his nation, that he was able to accomplish in one day what others had been fumbling about for ages and had never found. Then comes the next stage; there comes that petulancy of spirit, which says, “I have had enough of it; I will do no more.” That condition is observ able often in our lives. We set out to win a temporary victory, and we think that it is the beginning of the great ena. Then we make a tragic discovery, and we feel it is not worth while to continue. We find that the solution to our problems is not so ready to our hand a3 we had supposed, and we be gin to let things go. That was the mooc of Elijah. And when God faced him' on Horeb’s mount, Elijah was honest enough to confess his wrong. It is not always that we are frank with God. There are times in which our sensa tions lay hold of us and become so magnified that they appear to be gi gantic. What we hear is the voice of Jezebel, not the voice of God. What we see are the faces of those around us, not the unseen messengers of grace. We lose our spiritua’ perspective be cause we have lost our spiritual vision. Our sense of values has become distort ed. When a man loses his vision of God, he has lost his opportunity of conquest. The Suffering of Supposed Loneliness Elijah, too, was suffering from a great sense of loneliness. He had been counting heads, and that is always a dangerous thing to do. He had come to believe that he alone stood for God’s truth and God’s cause in the world. In situations like this, Satan the stat istician can work great mischief. Elijah found he had nothing to enumerate. -And yet God said in effect: “I have seven thousand who nave not bowed the knee to Baal.” But Elijah did not see them. It would have made a great deal of difference, perhaps, to him had he known of their existence. Absentees are generally of no account, and they were no factor in Elijah's support and encouragement.- He was downcast be cause he believed himsell to be lonely; and his loneliness was aggravated by the thought of misunderstanding. Here were people wno misinterpreted his aims and questioned his motives. Is there anything more wearisome to a man than to feel that he is solitary and totally misunderstood by those
igin, and often tragic in their results. Brave men are sometimes carried away by tides of cowardice, and men of heroic mold know the ignominy of fear and the agony of despondency. No character is built on quite simple ljnes. David was a spiritual man, but he fell into a sensual sin. John was an apostle of love, yet there was a time when in tolerance marked his speech and deed. Peter was undoubtedly a courageous man, and yet thrice did he play the coward and act a liar’s part. And if we carefully observe ourselves, we shall be conscious of ¿imea when there is a distinct lowering of the spiritual tem perament. There are movements in our hearts out of which there comes at times a great cloud that spreads itself over the firmament of our life. Action— and Reaction There was such a time as this in the career of Elijah. On Carmel’s brow he had won a notable victory. His courage had been remarkable, and his demon stration of the power of God had been devastating. He had faced the prophets o f Baal and in the power of the Lord had vanquished them. He had thrust upon them that which not merely brought to them conviction, but also struck them to the ground. It had been a great achievement, something notable in the annals of Israel, and a conspicu ous and outstanding event in the re
the temptation c o m e s when we feel the thrill of victory on some Carmel height, and we say, “See what I have done!” W e' are in danger of imagin ing that we have done better than t h o s e dear folk who went before us. Too frequently that delu sion is nursed. TJiink of Elijah. No one ever before had acted to ward the priests of Baal as he had. What man had ever faced three hundred prophets of that idol and demonstrated to them that, when he called down'1' fire from heaven, that fire would come down ? No man ever fjad done that b e f o r e , so there was some warrant for think ing that E l i j a h had r e a c h e d a s t a g e of
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