Have Compassion on the Depressed
I’ve had this book on my shelf for years and have not bothered to read it. I’d purchased it during a time in my life when I was struggling more than ever with depression, and despite buying it, I could not bring myself to read it. I did, however, pick it up late last night and found so much wisdom in it.
Timothy Rogers (1658-1728), who was known as a pious and able minister in London, fell into deep depression until, in time, God delivered him from it. Having received comfort from other believers, though, he sought to be instrumental in administering comfort to others who experienced depression. Here’s an excerpt.
I do not pretend to tell you what medicines are proper to remove [depression], for I know of none. I leave you to consult with such as are learned in the profession of medicine, and especially to have recourse to such doctors as have themselves felt it; for it is impossible to fully understand the nature of [depression] any other way than by experience. And that person is highly to be valued whose endeavors God will bless to the removal of this obstinate and violent disease. As Richard Greenham, in his A Sweet Comfort for an Afflicted Conscience, says,
"There is a great deal of wisdom required to consider both the state of the body and the soul." He says that if a man who is troubled in conscience comes to a minister, he will likely look to the soul and not at all to the body; if that same man goes to a physician, he will likely consider the body and neglect the soul. For my part, I would never despise the physician's counsel nor neglect the minister's labor, because, the soul and body dwelling together, it is convenient that as the soul should be cured by the Word, prayer, fasting, or comforting, so the body must be brought into some temperature by medicine and diet, harmless diversions, and such like ways (providing always that it is so done in the fear of God as not to think by these ordinary means quite to smother or evade our troubles, but to use them as preparatives whereby our souls may be made more capable of the spiritual methods that are to follow afterwards). Look upon those who are under this woeful disease of [depression] with great pity and compassion. And pity them the more by considering that you are in the body, and are liable to the very same trouble.
"There is a great deal of wisdom required to consider both the state of the body and the soul." He says that if a man who is troubled in conscience comes to a minister, he will likely look to the soul and not at all to the body; if that same man goes to a physician, he will likely consider the body and neglect the soul. For my part, I would never despise the physician's counsel nor neglect the minister's labor, because, the soul and body dwelling together, it is convenient that as the soul should be cured by the Word, prayer, fasting, or comforting, so the body must be brought into some temperature by medicine and diet, harmless diversions, and such like ways (providing always that it is so done in the fear of God as not to think by these ordinary means quite to smother or evade our troubles, but to use them as preparatives whereby our souls may be made more capable of the spiritual methods that are to follow afterwards). Look upon those who are under this woeful disease of [depression] with great pity and compassion. And pity them the more by considering that you are in the body, and are liable to the very same trouble.
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