Isaiah 51:13 And forget the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth… Hast feared continually every day. We are not all constituted alike. The instrumentalities by which the great soul within us does its work are diverse in quality. In a material sense we are but dust, yet the dust itself has more steel in it with some than with others. Many have iron nerves and hereditary health, which make them strangers to the trepidations of others. They never walk those caves of terrible gloom in which others often are doomed to wander, nor have they felt the sensitiveness which often turns the experiences of life into torture. We are to meditate now on the nervous temperament, and to study especially the relation which the gospel occupies in relation to it. There may be other anodynes of consolation, physical and mental; but my argument will be this - that the religion of Christ stands in special relationship of solace and succour to those who feel with the psalmist, "I am feeble and sore broken, because of the disquietness of my heart." We cannot help being, in one sense, what we were born. The mimosa plant cannot avoid being a mimosa plant, and nothing else. The sensitiveness of a highly wrought nervous system is born with many, and, do what they will, they must carry it with them to the grave. Often misunderstood and misrepresented, often verging on despair, they are bowed down greatly, and go mourning all the day long. Much depends, of course, on the law of association, and on relationships of persons and things. Much, too, depends on religious ideas. There is, for instance, a form of piety sincere enough in itself which feeds perpetual introspection, and is ever tremulous concerning its own state. How different this from the rest which comes from entire trust in Christ! Then, again, there are human relationships which, instead of being ministrants of consolation, strain the heart and irritate the nerves. Oh, the depression that must come, the anxiety that will do its wear and tear, which is derived from alliance with unthankful and foreboding hearts, from fellowship with those who, if they do not consciously know the science of disheartenment, are at all events au fait at its practice! When Moses spake with Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, he had in his thought the carping spirit of those whose criticism suggests difficulty and danger too great to be overcome. Some men always see lions in the way, and do an anticipative roaring themselves. Thus he spoke of some who said," Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven." What an insight this gives on those whose imagination creates giants! Now though we may apply specially the words of our text to a nervous temperament - they simply represent a special occasion of depression in the prophet's life; they represent inward fears. I. THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE IS LIFE IN CHRIST. Not in self. Not in society. But in Christ. We must go out of ourselves, out of our "moods" and "feelings," that we may look unto Christ and be saved! I am speaking of those who are ever nervously anxious and sensitive. First of all about their salvation, which, alas! is like a "variable quantity" with them. But I wish, also, to apply the idea to human life. Christ is a perfect Brother as well as a perfect Saviour. Redemption is his. Yes; and so is common home-life; so is the gift of daily bread. The great realm of providence is under his sceptre. 1. Meditate well on this dual aspect of the subject. First of all, when you are tempted to be morbid analysts of your own spiritual state, to use the scales of weight and measurement for the depth of your love and the height of your faith. There can be no escape from trepidatory alarms so long as we apply aquafortis to the gold of our affection, so long as we microscopically survey the minutiae of our neglected duties and our multitudinous sins. We must ponder the consolatory words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And this argument applies as much to the ordinary life of every day. Do things happen to us, or are our times in God's hands? Our dread of fatalism, with its results of inertia and indifference, has sometimes hindered that quiet trust in God which is the secret of all true strength. Events are in his hand. You cannot make one hair black or white, or add one cubit to your stature. You will become worn and weary by retrospective fears. And what power have you over the dark, deep waves of coming tribulation, or over the advent-hours of grief and death? Bewise. Resolve with promptitude. Persevere with energy. Rise early with alacrity for the service of the day, but cast all anxious thoughts of to-morrow on your Lord. 2. I do not say that so doing all your fears will cease. No act of faith is so complete as to shut out all weakness of the soul. But I do say this will be your most perfect anodyne. Other things will help. The bracing air, the oxygen and ozone of the sea-coast, may tone your nerves, but it cannot create new ones. The gospel ('an do the most, but even that cannot reorganize the physical frame, so fearfully and wonderfully made; but its atmosphere is the best one for bracing the heart and soothing the tretted, irritated nerve. II. THERE IS CONTINUITY OF FEAR. We none of us know how frail we are till trial comes. The blooming maiden little thought that care would so soon write itself on her forehead, and that the silvery lines would so early be discovered in her hair. Yet so it is. A mother now, she has had to endure the anxieties of home and the agonies of bereavement. There are some constitutions that can brave much; they keep hale and well, with the pulse even and the eye bright, amid difficulties that would overwhelm. others. Let them thank God for the perfectness of the physical frame. But there are some that only look robust and bright, and when tribulation comes their strength gives way with marvellous rapidity. The physician says the vascular system is excellent, the muscles strong, the frame perfect, but the nervous system is fragility itself. 1. Advent-days of trouble do come. Even sin in its first consciousness overwhelms some with fear and trembling. A great horror overwhelms them. The invisible realm of the spirit is suddenly revealed to them, and where before they saw nothing hideous or evil, now reptiles crawl! Yes; there is a revelation of sin now as of old. We know what the first sight of accident or death is: how severely it shocks the senses of a child! So sin may, and does, come with an overwhelming consciousness of guilt on some minds. The old cry is heard, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" How terrible, then, it' such souls fall into the hands, not of wise physicians, but of unwise irritators of the evil! The nerves will break down, and have broken down in thousands of cases, and mania ensues. Study the history of monasteries and convents. Study the history of some revivals. The mediaevalists worked upon many delicate nervous systems by their hideous pictures of hell and by their fearful harangues concerning it. Nor has the modern Church escaped the danger. At once the anxious soul should be led to him who says," Daughter, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." 2. There are seasons when unforeseen calamity comes. No fleecy cloud presages the coming storm, no floating seaweed tells how near the vessel is to the rocks; but swift as the "bore" that rushes up the Hooghly from the Ganges, the water sweeps in with a swell, and engulfs the precious freights of unanchored vessels in its broadening wave. There are seasons when the nerves are made intensely sensitive. The heart is pierced by the coldness and neglect of some familiar friend. The spirit droops. Ingratitude has wounded, neglect has chilled, cruelty has crushed, and enmity has tried to slay reputation and renown. "The spirit of a man can sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Who? Certainly not the anxious temperament. Surely at such times it is heart-rest to know the Brother born for adversity, the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother; then is the hour to feel the warm radiance of the love of Christ. One smile from the Saviour then is worth all the honour and flattery of a fickle world. Doubt simply means misery and darkness to the anxious temperament. And in such a world as this, where we never know what a day or an hour may bring forth, surely it is wise to obey the counsel concerning God, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." III. THERE MAY BE MINISTRATIONS THAT ARE HUMAN AS WELL AS DIVINE. We can perform miracles of healing, not in the old sense, but wonders of restorative powers are within our reach. Is it a child that is nervous and sensitive? See to it, O parent, that you early discern the difference between that little trembling spirit and the stronger brother. Is it a life-companion? See that you do not treat this sensitiveness as a mere weakness to be cured by physical agencies alone - the best curative will be a cheerful mind within, working outwards. 1. Settled melancholy is terrible, and it often prevails. Try and avert it by all ministries of hope and cheer and comfort that you can command. Try and do as Wilberforce is said to have done - bring a ray of sunshine across every threshold you cross. We talk about courage, but we do not yet fully understand its true philosophy. It is altogether a related thing. If constitutionally brave - that is not the highest courage. It is easy for some who are born strong to be physically brave; it is easy for some to be determined and defiant; it does not spoil their rest at night to fight battles for themselves or others. But with the nervous temperament to act out all the truth that is in them is a costly affair; it tears their strength to pieces. With them to bear the slight of neglect, or the wound of insult, is like a crown of thorns on the heart. With them happiness itself is as the life of a plant which has its nerve-centres in other hearts. The best medicine for many is to be understood and appreciated. You cannot talk down or laugh down nervousness. You cannot even argue down the sensitiveness that springs from it. You cannot do all you desire to do even; but you can do much; and the evening of life will bring you no sweeter reward than for your Lord's sake to have fulfilled the scriptural command, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the Law of Christ." 2. Christ's spirit is little understood, and sometimes little honoured. You have but to study life to see how much hardness and cruelty there is in it. Begin at the beginning. Take school life - public school life! How are boys trained? Why, to admire the daring and defiant, to humiliate the weak, to laugh at sensibility as womanish, to deal with one another as brutes, where the strongest is lord. And it is said home-petting is cured by such means. Cured? I believe that Christ's book of record will contain martyr-lives of school-days more terrible than the martyrdoms once and for ever made at the stake. Grown-up men do not like to talk of such things; but many look back with a creeping sense of horror at their school-time. The nervous and the sensitive have had their natures repressed and their hearts crushed, who entered public schools with beautiful, child-like, Christ-like spirits. Take a nation. Even when it is called Christian, how often is it braggart, defiant, imperious, proud of military strength! how little conciliation to smaller nations! - that is thought to be unworthy of imperial greatness! We have to live and teach the cross, in its spirit as well as in its doctrine; in its beautiful revelation that he, the Highest and Strongest of all, suffered for us; that he was despised and rejected of men for us; that he gave himself for us. Remember, then, that you stand in Christian relationship to the timorous, the sensitive, and the anxious, and ever seek to manifest the spirit of him who would not break the bruised reed. IV. THERE MUST BE A STUDY OF THE DISEASE TO UNDERSTAND THE REMEDIES. That is why I ask you to meditate on the nervous temperament. How unreal are its images! How it trembles at the idea of solitude! How it fears to-morrow! How it bows in gloom before the advent of disease or death! You cannot see the delicate network of nerves; you cannot understand the mysterious functions of the brain. We are fearfully as well as wonderfully made; then let us remember how easily nervousness is promoted by self-indulgence and sloth, by morbid books, by strange tales told in childhood, by companionship with those who take foreboding views of life, and by the domination of "fixed ideas" so difficult to shake off. And all cannot afford change of scene and change of clime. 1. It is not in medicine to cure all this. It may alleviate, but it cannot recreate. Earthly appliances are wise in their own way; but the gospel of Christ is the relieving power - that alone brings out fully the blessed revelation of the fatherhood of God. From the lips that cannot lie we hear the all-sustaining words, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Christ is the great Physician. He can cure the very leprosy of sin, and make the Gehazis whole, so that the trembling child of guilt, whose sin has been of deepest dye, may hear the consoling words, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Christ can say to the leper, "Be thou dean." He gave purity to the penitent's heart, and peace to the publican with conscience distracted about ill-gotten gains; for "he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." 2. Christ alone can interpret life in all its fulness and meaning. He knows how sad is hopelessness. He came not to save alone the hale, the righteous, the strong, He came also to take the lambs in his arms, and to carry them in his bosom. Blessed Christ! Would he ever make amusement out of the nervous weaknesses of some? Would he ever say, "It cannot be helped; physical law is imperious, and must hold. on its way,"? Would he not rather comfort and hell) the weak-hearted? Sometimes a sense of rectitude sustains us in trouble, for unquestionably the upright Corinthian column can bear a greater weight than the leaning one. That erect attitude of the soul which the Scriptures call" uprightness" will enable many a man to be strong. But this cannot do all. We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and we have sinned against each other also. We want, above all else, a Saviour. Some suspect their own motives, and are questioners, not of their Lord's Divinity, but of their own sincerity. Yea! and some are sensitively anxious concerning the very foundations of their first repentance towards Go,t, and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Study, then, Christ's infinite compassion, his perfect knowledge of every human heart - yes, of yours. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." Never rest in yourself alone. Wait and pray! Not for ever will you tremblingly bear the burden of nervous sensibility. Not for ever will the immortal spirit dwell in so frail a tabernacle. In God's own good time, you will be clothed upon with your house from heaven. The day will come when the poor harp will be restrung, sorrow and sighing will be done away; and there shall be no night there. - W.M.S. Parallel Verses KJV: And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? |
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