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Recent Reading: The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow, By Faith, by Richard Baxter

I have said before that a single sermon by a given Puritan may contain more than many of the fluffy books of our day. The Puritans were such that a single sermon could be turned into a book. Case in point: Richard Baxter’s The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow, By Faith. I ordered this book from Amazon after hearing a hearty recommendation by Martyn Lloyd-Jones in a talk available HERE (note, I am only linking the second part of the talk).

UPDATE: I also found Lloyd-Jones’ treatment of Baxter in book form. I have written about it HERE.

In the sermon, which is available as a book, Baxter expounds upon the words of 2 Corinthians 2:7: ‘…so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.’ Baxter’s term ‘melancholy’ would be better understood by modern ears as ‘depression’ – being ‘overwhelmed with excessive sorrow.’ What do you do when your sadness is overwhelming?

Baxter is concerned first to show us that there is such a condition, that the condition could be physical in nature (due to biological issues or temperament), or that it could be the result of demonic activity, that it could be something easily treated, or it could be something very difficult to treat. Since the condition varies so greatly, he is concerned that we be able to diagnose it and treat it properly according to the diagnosis.

I will not review the book, but I want to make a few statements about it. First, this book, along with the Doctor’s talk on it, are extremely helpful in regards to pastoral counseling. The nuances of the book are tremendous. Baxter wants us to be careful not to lump all cases of sadness into the same mould. So, let’s say for instance, you have two women come to talk to you on the same day. Both are depressed. But their depressions are very different. The tendency, I think, is for the pastor to tell them to read their Bibles and pray. Baxter counters such thinking by saying that could be the worst thing this person could do. It all depends on the situation.

If you tell a severely depressed person to pray, and that is your primary counsel, then what if they find that they can’t pray? Or what if they do pray, but find that their prayers only serve as a further opportunity to brood over their problems, thus making them worse? What if you tell them to read their Bible and they find that they can’t? What if the do read and decide to turn to the imprecatory psalms? It is to the benefit of the one being counseled that we refrain from blanket answers. We must have a better understanding of the situation. We must have some understanding of the myriad of ways in which the effects of sin, and weak bodies, show up.

Baxter’s approach is also a great relief to pastors, or at least I found it to be so. I have dealt with individuals over the years who always want to talk about the same thing. And it can go on for months, even years. They cannot get over a certain, single issue. What do you do? Baxter’s answer is that this is a psychological problem (that’s certainly how MLJ understood Baxter). It is a spiritual problem to be sure, but it is not a problem that can be solved with pastoral counseling. I can recite John 3:16 100 times in 100 days to someone, but I do not have the power to make that word come to a person with force. There is a time for the pastor to realize that he cannot go on counseling someone who cannot be counseled ‘lest he himself become ensnared.’ That alone, from this book, made it worth it for me. Because I’ve been there. I’ve had to accept that I can’t fix all problems. Jesus can fix problems, but Jesus does not fix the problems of those who are not trusting in him.

To give a couple of examples of Baxter’s words: First, on the fact that not all such depression is within the power of a pastor to counsel or solve, he notes that problems can be medical – that medicine, in some cases, can do more than a pastor. He goes so far as to say that in some sense the right medicine can repel Satan himself:

If it were, as some of them fancy, a possession of the devil, it is possible that physic [i.e. medical treatment] might cast him out, for if you cure the melancholy, his [that is, Satan’s] bed is taken away, and the advantage is gone by which he worketh. Cure the choler, and the choleric operations of the devil cease. It is by means and humours that he worketh.

I rail on the overuse of antidepressants regularly, but to say that they have no purpose is just plain wrong. They can be the very tool God uses to make someone teachable.

Another quote: We often say that those who are in pain need to talk about their troubles, but this is not always the case. Baxter writes,

Let not all men know that you are in your troubles: complaining doth but feed them.

Here we can distinguish between talking about problems and complaining about problems. Be careful when you talk that you are not complaining. Talking may help, but complaining likely won’t.

Don’t even let your prayers, Baxter says, focus on the problems:

Especially, when you pray, resolve to spend most of your time in thanksgiving and praising God. If you cannot do it with the joy that you should, yet do it as you can.

We tell people to think through things. Baxter counsels:

Avoid your musings, and exercise not your thoughts now too deeply, nor too much. Long meditation is a duty to some, but not to you, no more than it is a man’s duty to go to church that hath his leg broken, or his foot out of joint: he must rest and ease it till it be set again, and strengthened.

He tells people, when they can’t pray in a helpful way, to sing psalms and hymns. He tells overwhelmed minds to take a rest.

The quotes are a bit of a hodgepodge here. But they serve to show how different his counsel is from what often passes as pastoral counseling these days. I cannot recommend this book too highly. But I warn you that it will probably take several readings to begin to digest the content. You can read it for free HERE. And, all the more, I recommend Lloyd-Jones’ talks HERE and HERE.

Early on in my Christian life I was introduced to that hymn that says, ‘Sunshine, blessed sunshine, when the peaceful happy moments roll. When Jesus shows his smiling face, there is sunshine in my soul.’ There is not always sunshine in the soul. We need to be weathermen who can see the storms and act according to the situation.

Lost In Your Profession

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was speaking to a group of medical doctors, but this thought applies equally well to a good number of professions and professionals, not just to doctors (and grocers):

Somewhere in Pembrokeshire a tombstone is said to bear the inscription ‘John Jones, born a man, died a grocer.’ There are many whom I have had the privilege of meeting, whose tombstone might well bear the grim epitaph: ‘…born a man, died a doctor’! The greatest danger which confronts the medical man is that he may become lost in his profession…

Quoted in Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981, p. 335

The Doctor wasn’t too lost in his profession to heed the call to gospel ministry. And he wasn’t too lost in the gospel ministry to heed the call to be a husband and a father. What you do does not define you. What you are defines you, and what you do should flow out of that. There is a great danger in taking your identity from what you do rather than what Christ has done for you, and thus what you are in him.

Christianity is Just a Crutch…

This is one of the arguments you hear from time to time against Christianity. Religion is just a crutch for weak people.

But before I get to the point, let me give my disclaimer. I work in the pharmacy business. I am not against the use of prescription medication. Nor am I contending that all psychopharmacological drugs are bad. Nor am I claiming that all people who are on them are bad! They have their purposes. This is only an illustration of a point. Having said that, allow me to digress.

I was listening to a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones a couple of nights ago. Though he did not use this terminology, for the terminology had not yet been developed at the time, he was doing a fine piece of presuppositional apologetics. He was demonstrating how modern detractors of Christianity contradict themselves. One interesting story he told was of what he called one of the greatest speeches he ever heard.

He listened to a political leader, before World War II, arguing that Germany had acted so immorally in the breaking of one of its alliances that it demanded war. His speech concerned the sanctity of national contracts, treaties, and alliances. Compacts and treaties are sacred, and dare not be broken. For one nation to break its vow of fidelity to another is the unpardonable political sin.

Lloyd-Jones said that this speech was eloquent and compelling. Only, in later years it came out that the man who gave this speech was in the midst of marital infidelity as he delivered it. So much for the sacredness of compacts, at least as far as wedding vows are concerned. We are walking contradictions.

Which leads me to a story. This is one ‘work story’ that I have shared several times from the pulpit. And it is a true story.

I have worked at a pharmacy for years. One day I was ringing up a customer at the cash register while she continued to talk on the phone. She had no idea that I was a Christian, much less a preacher of the gospel. She was highly emotional, and very much tuned in to her phone conversation, virtually oblivious to the fact that she was in a public place (let this be a lesson for those who talk on cell phones in public!). She raised her voice and said to the person on the other end of the phone, ‘Can you believe so and so (she said a name here) says she’s become a Christian? What a joke! Religion is just a crutch for weak people who can’t cope with life!’ She pounded her little hand on the counter as she said this.

In that moment I felt a deep sympathy for her. For as I looked down on the counter, I saw that what this lady was purchasing was a large bottle of prescription Xanax!

MLJ on Medicine and Pastoral Counseling, etc

I recently listened to several talks given by Martyn Lloyd-Jones to the Christian Medical Fellowship in the 1970’s. These talks are pure gold for a number of reasons. First, even as one who took a full semester on pastoral counseling in seminary, and as a student of psychology, his talk on the subject of counseling is far more thought-out, rational, spiritual, and balanced than anything I’ve ever heard. Second, his precise method of diagnosing the spiritual, physical, and psychological problems is clear and helpful. I will never forget it. Third, his take on demon possession is intriguing and helpful. Fourth, his handling of questions from his listeners is masterful. I do not think I have ever heard someone handle a question and answer session so logically and thoroughly. I will re-listen to the Q and A just to soak up how he answers questions. Finally, as someone who works in the pharmacy industry, his take on medicine is tremendously helpful and it is amazing to note how many of his predictions in the ‘medicine in modern society’ talk have come true.

These talks are worth a listen just to hear such logic in action, not to mention that they are tremendously helpful for someone in any sort of pastoral or medical field. I am of the opinion that, at least in America, the role of medicine is going to be a central area of pastoral concern in the years to come. We are often concerned about technology as the main thrust of the issues coming down the pike, but we must consider that medicine is a big part of modern technology. From ADHD meds to anti-anxiety drugs, we need to be aware of what is going on in our pews and how it effects our people. These talks are extremely helpful for the principles they set forth concerning such issues.

Links:

The Supernatural in Religion and Medicine

Q & A on Healing and Demon Possession

Mind, Body, and Spirit PART 1 and PART 2

The Role of Medicine in Modern Society

Not Yea and Nay (MLJ)

The Doctor applies Ephesians 6:15 to us and our world: Are your feet rooted down deep in the gospel? Are you prepared to stand unmoved? Have your feet been placed on the unmoving Rock that is Christ?:

Have you a definite position? Are you prepared to stand in it, and say, ‘I will never yield, I will never move from this?’ The moment you begin to compromise on this Word of God you will soon be slipping and sliding both in doctrine and in practice. Some people are constantly contradicting themselves; they praise the Protestant and the Nonconformist Fathers in the first half of their address or article; then criticize them in the second half. That is not ‘standing’; that is sliding. They do not know where they are, and no-one else knows.

As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:19, the Gospel of Christ is not yea and nay at one and the same time. That is true of politics, of ecclesiasticism, of ‘the world’; but it is not true of Christ.

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier, pp. 276-277

  • …and being firm-footed in the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15, ISV).

On Devotions

A commenter asked me to say a word about Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ advice in Preaching and Preachers that Christians should make use of devotional books in order to ‘warm their hearts’ for prayer. So, here goes.

The Doctor’s remarks are from chapter 9, The Preparation of the Preacher. This may very well be the best chapter of the book, at least from my perspective, though chapters 4 (The Form of the Sermon) and 15 (The Pitfalls and the Romance) are right up there with it. What am I saying?, the whole book is very, very good. But I digress.

MLJ was keenly aware of what it felt like to be ‘cold at heart.’ He therefore encouraged folks to do things that would liven their affections with the intent of praying. There is a place for disciplined prayer to be sure, but if prayer is mainly cold and dry in your life, something is amiss. Perhaps your emotions have become dull. And so he pointed to regular, systematic Bible reading, the reading of devotional books, and music as the three primary means of thawing out a cold heart.

The frequent, systematic reading of Scripture is absolutely essential here. If you are cyclically reading the Bible, you will constantly be finding new things that move you. Just tonight this happened to me as I was reading 2 Kings 7 with my family. It tells the story of four lepers who trek into the camp of the Syrians in the midst of a famine only to find that the Syrian forces had fled and left all their goods. The lepers alerted officials to their findings and Israel found a new supply of cheap food, and gold and silver.

The premise, though not made up, is not unlike Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She found the house empty, and she enjoys the porridge. That’s what Israel did, on a much larger scale. As I thought about this passage, my mind was drawn to Christ, and particularly to the words of the Apostle Paul, that ‘he who was rich, for your sake became poor, that you might become rich in him.’ Which led me to the words of Charles Wesley, ‘He left his Father’s throne above, so free so infinite his grace. Emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race.’ Christ is ransacked for our sake. He gives up his goods, his wares, so that they can become ours, and he does so voluntarily.

My point is simply that reading the Bible systematically, as MLJ contended, is a, make that the, major source of the fire that warms the heart toward God.

Next, he encouraged the reading of devotional books. He does not name them in Preaching and Preachers, but I have read enough of him to know what he considered to be gold. He loved the Puritans, as do I. When I find myself down or cold, I inevitably turn to the Puritans for warmth. Thomas Watson, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Brooks, and John Owen are my go to devotional writers. But notice I call them devotional. Today the word devotional usually equals short and fluffy, like Our Daily Bread. But this is not what devotional should mean. The Doctor used the term to denote something ‘with a note of worship in it.’ Devotional then, for him and for me, means something that exalts God and his grace and his glory. Something that draws you up into something of his glory. The Puritans do this.

The Doctor also liked Whitefield and Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. He read Charles Hodge often. He read Charles Spurgeon. These are names that he mentions repeatedly. He read their sermons. If you want your soul warmed, read the good preachers. A couple of months ago when I was reading The Pilgrim’s Progress, I happened to turn one night to a sermon by Spurgeon called Enchanted Ground. I was looking through a table of contents in a collection of his sermons and said to myself, ‘That sounds like it came straight out of Bunyan.’ So it did. But I found in the sermon a call to wake up from slumber, to not let the devil woo you to sleep with his devices and distractions. I needed that, it warmed my heart. Lately I have been reading a collection of sermons by Francis Shaeffer and it has had much the same impact. It has provoked me to praise God in prayer.

Lastly, MLJ mentions music. The devotional power of good music is fairly evident and doesn’t need explanation. Get to know the great old hymns. Learn the psalms. Sing the psalms. On days when I find myself cold, stressed, and melancholy, you will likely find me at some point singing the words of Psalm 43, ‘Send out thy light, send out thy truth, let them lead me…O my soul, why art thou cast down, why so discouraged be? Hope thou in God! I’ll praise him still. My help, my God, is he!’

And in addition, let me encourage here the practice of Christian meditation. Think about what you read and sing. Think deeply about it. Don’t read simply in order to get information. Don’t sing just to work up raw emotions. Read and sing to get fuel. Raw reading and raw singing are cheap fuel that don’t go very far. Reading and singing with an eye toward thinking – deep thinking – however, will provide lasting fuel. I am still living off the fuel I gained from reading Preaching and Preachers years ago – because I have kept thinking about what I read, internalizing it, applying it. The same, of course, is the case with the Bible. Think about what you read. Don’t be content to simply let your eyes pass over words. Embed those words in your soul, apply them to your soul, let them lead you to Jesus every day of your life. The Bible is like a fire, and meditation blows on that fire and makes it come to life and bring heat in your soul.

All of this will lead to more fervent prayer. And it cannot simply be a thing you do in the morning when you wake up. It has to be a part of your lifestyle, it needs to be engrained into who you are every waking moment. Every star in the sky should be fuel for devotion. Every rose in the flowerbed. Every hurricane or tornado. Every book, even the bad ones, even the godless ones. It’s all fuel if you will use it to point your heart back to Jesus Christ and his glory. Ask the Holy Spirit for help.

For more on meditation, see HERE and HERE.