348
Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
Appendix B
Implicit Trust Irrespective of Changes in Emotional Atmosphere
The Author’s Personal Experience
When you are deeply shadowed, it is because Satan has interposed
himself between you and the bright rays of the Sun of righteousness.
In times of trouble the brightness is eclipsed, and we do not understand
why the assurance seems to be withdrawn. We are led to look at self
and the shadow of the cross, and this prevents us from seeing the
consolation there is for us. We complain of the way and withdraw
the hand from the hand of Christ. But sometimes God’s favor breaks
suddenly upon the soul, and the gloom is dispelled. Let us live in the
sunlight of the cross of Calvary. Let us no longer dwell in the shadow,
complaining of our sorrows, for this only deepens our trouble.
Let us never forget, even when we walk in the valley, that Christ
is as much with us when we walk trustingly there as when we are on
the mountaintop. The voice said to us, “Will you not roll your burden
upon the Burden Bearer, the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you not live
on the sunny side of the cross? saying, ‘I know [Him] whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed unto Him against that day.’ ‘Whom having not seen, ye
love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls’” (
1 Timothy 1:12; 11 Peter 1:8, 9
).
I have indeed been halting under the shadow of the cross. It is
not a common thing for me to be overpowered and to suffer so much
depression of spirits as I have suffered for the last few months. I
[812]
would not be found to trifle with my own soul and thus trifle with my
Saviour. I would not teach that Jesus is risen from the tomb and that
He is ascended on high and lives to make intercession for us before the
Father unless I carry out my teachings by practice and believe in Him
for His salvation, casting my helpless soul upon Jesus for His grace,