Once upon a time, there was a traveling preacher on the American frontier. Hungry and tired, he arrived at the home of Christian people to stay the night. Before he went to bed he entered this optimistic note in his journal:

“Arrived at the home of Brother Brown late this evening hungry and tired after a long day in the saddle. Had a bountiful supper of cold pork and beans, warm bread, bacon and eggs, coffee and rich pastry. I go to rest feeling that my witness is clear; the future is bright and I feel called to a great and glorious work in this place. Brother Brown’s family are godly people.”

On the basis of his entry the next morning before he left his room, however, it appears that his bountiful supper had changed his spiritual outlook. This is what he wrote in his journal the very next morning:

“Awakened late this morning after a troubled night. I am very much depressed in soul; the way looks dark; far from being called to work among this people, I am beginning to doubt the safety of my soul. I am afraid that the desires of Brother Brown and his family are set too much on earthly things . . . ”

Even deeply spiritual men and women down thru history have experienced depression. Martin Luther, great Protestant reformer, suffered periods of black gloom. Charles Spurgeon, probably the most effective British preacher of his generation, was immobilized for weeks at a time by depression. Soren Kierkegaard, influential nineteenth century writer, suffered chronic depression. And J.B. Phillips sank into a debilitating depression after the popular success of his paraphrase of the New Testament.

Lovers of Jan Karon and her mythical town of Mitford know that in the latest volume in the series, Father Tim, godly Episcopalian, experiences depression. Father Tim grapples with whether or not to take his prescribed antidepressants.

Elizabeth Sherrill is a Christian writer, one of the editors of Guidepost magazine.

She grew up in a loving family and has a loving family of her own. She is a successful author. She enjoys many material blessings. She has had every reason to be happy. But Elizabeth Sherrill has struggled much of her life with bouts of depression. “A nameless, bottomless sadness,” is what she calls it. “Depression,” she observes in a recent Guidepost article, “can throw its gray pall about us when the sun is brightest.”

David, son of Jesse, poet-king of Israel, and other contributors to the great hymnbook of God’s people, the Psalms, knew depression. Asaph, temple musician, in the psalm read this morning, speaks of his depression:

“When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;

At night I stretched out untiring hands