Depression
95
to escape your lips, for it is like desolating hail to those around you.
Let cheerful, happy, loving words fall from your lips.—
Testimonies
for the Church 1:704
(1868).
[490]
No Need to be a Slave to Depression—Remember that in your
life religion is not to be merely one influence among others. It is to
be an influence dominating all others. Be strictly temperate. Resist
every temptation. Make no concessions to the wily foe. Listen not to
the suggestions that he puts into the mouths of men and women. You
have a victory to win. You have nobility of character to gain; but this
you cannot gain while you are depressed and discouraged by failure.
Break the bands with which Satan has bound you. There is no need
for you to be his slave. “Ye are My friends,” Christ said, “if ye do
whatsoever I command you.”—Lt 228, 1903. (.)
One Remedy Suggested to a Minister Suffering Depression—
You should labor with care and observe periods of rest. By so doing
you will retain your physical and mental vigor and render your labor
much more efficient. Brother F, you are a nervous man and move
much from impulse. Mental depression influences your labor very
much. At times you feel a want of freedom and think it is because
others are in darkness or wrong or that something is the matter, you can
hardly tell what, and you make a drive somewhere and upon somebody
which is liable to do great harm. If you would quiet yourself when in
this restless, nervous condition and rest and calmly wait on God and
inquire if the trouble is not in yourself, you would save wounding your
own soul and wounding the precious cause of God.—
Testimonies for
the Church 1:622
(1867).
Dwelling Upon the Disagreeable—When you see iniquity all
around you it makes you all the more glad that He is your Saviour, and
we are His children. Then shall we look at the iniquity around us and
dwell upon the dark side? You cannot cure it; then talk of something
that is higher, better, and more noble
Now we may go into a cellar and stay there and look around into
its dark corners, and we can talk of the darkness and say, “Oh, it is so
dark here,” and keep talking about it. But will it make it any lighter?
[491]
Oh no! What are you going to do? Come out of it; come out of the
dark into the upper chamber where the light of God’s countenance
shines brightly.