This is a continuation of the book, Man, Moral and Physical, Joseph Jones, 1860. How to get out of a continual desponding frame, be habitually occupied. We don't refer to bodily exercises merely so essential to vigorous health and to a lively flow of the animal spirits. But we speak of occupation for the mind in connection with some useful employment to save it from those morbid actings by which it is made to pray to its own energies. Many diseases of body are produced, increased, and perpetuated by the attention being directed to the disordered part. But the employment which diverts the attention from the disease often cures it. It is said that Immanuel Kant was able to forget the pain of gout by a voluntary effort of thought and paroxysms of his disease that would have laid others aside were scarcely heated, while his mind was absorbed by some problem in metaphysics. We once knew an enterprising and successful man of business who had hardly reached a meridian of his life before he had made a handsome fortune. He was now advised to sell his establishment and live for the future more at his ease. The council was well intended. It seemed to be judicious, and was followed. But the sudden abstraction of a much care, by which his mind had been distended, caused a collapse. He soon became unhappy, desponding, and would have sunk into a state of melancholy, but for the interposition of friends, her perceived at once, his alarming condition, and the obvious cause. Without asking his consent, they repurchased his place of business and induced him to resume it. In a few weeks, he recovered his former cheerfulness and mental energy. Employment gave a healthful stimulus to his mind, which suffered no relapse to its former morbid state through many years to the close of a long and useful life. Whoever has noticed the amazing power of the thoughts and disturbing the functions of the body will accord with a poet that, "'Tis a great art of life to manage well the restless mind." This is nonetheless true in relation to religious men than to others. There are many, Richard Cecil says, who sit at home, nerfing themselves over a fire, and then trace up the natural effects of solitude, and want to veer in exercise into spiritual desertion. But this is to confound nature and grace, and to make a sort of mystery of that which is readily connected with a natural cause. Now and then we find one who appears to be happy in a sort of quietism, or cloistered piety, which rather shuns and seeks communion with what is without. How will it be in the world to come, we do not pretend to say, but it has never been found in this, that they are the happiest in religion who withdraw from all active occupation and spend their whole time in devout contemplations. No man, it has been said, is ever more religious for having his mind constantly occupied with religion. This may seem a paradox, but those who know how little necessary connection there is between theological studies and spirituality of mind, and how much a professional familiarity with such subjects tends to deteriorate their influence, will readily subscribe to the truth of the assertion. Although the truly pious man can have but one dominant motive, the glory of God. Yet the active powers of the mind will find useful and pleasant exercise in a thousand different ways of promoting it. To be engaged in doing good, then, is alike needful to the happiness of the spiritual man and to his health. Under a former head, we quoted one of four rules for the relief of melancholy Christians. And here we add another from the same author, namely, to avoid idleness and lack of employment, which, as it is a life not pleasing to God, So it is the opportunity for melancholy thoughts to be working in the chiefest season for Satan to tempt us. It has often been observed in relation to clergymen who have been laborious and useful, that they ill endure a change to leisure from the occupation of a pastoral charge, but that in their sine to low condition, they're apt to become either nervous and low spirited or turn to doing harm. We were struck with a remark of Dr. Ashbel Green many years ago on his retirement from Princeton Seminary, that he did not know whether hereafter he should do much good, but he was resolved if possible to avoid doing mischief, which is more than was apt to be true of many of his brethren in similar circumstances. To brood over our spiritual maladies, watching from day to day our changing frames will no more help to attain a better spiritual condition, then the fingering of his pulse, or examining the tongue by the victim of dyspepsia, will conduce to his more healthful digestion. Such was the relief which William Cooper derived from his labor in translating Homer and the poetical works of Madame Gayon. And a fine antidote to his distress and melancholy was supposed to be Dr. Johnson's main inducement for proposing, towards the close of his life, to publish a translation of Thouinus. For the same purpose of turning his mind from his troubling meditations, He advised Boswell, who was as much given to despondency as himself, never to speak of it, to his friends and company, where I asked, as a well-known writer, upon what circumstance the prevention of low spirits chiefly depended, I should borrow the ancient orator's mode of enforcing the leading principle of his art, and reply, employment, employment, employment. This is a grand panacea for the tedium vitae. all the train of fancied evils which prove so much more insupportable than real ones. It is a medicine that may be presented in a thousand forms all equally efficacious. We remember the case of a fellow student in our theological course whose mind was so disquieted with fears about his spiritual condition that it became a serious question whether he should not renounce the hope of entering the ministry. But upon a statement of his case to one of his teachers, he was advised to discontinue his examinations of himself for a season. Take it for granted, if he pleased, that his state was as bad as he feared, but to turn his attention to the case of others, pray more for them, and resolve to do all in his power for their salvation. This counsel was received and was followed with the happiest results. His mind was gradually relieved. His spirits became buoyant and cheerful. And after finishing his studies, He entered the sacred profession with a joyful hope of his calling and salvation, which continued to the end of his life. Rev. Dr. Lobdell was at one time in a state of distressing doubt about three great questions pertaining to Christianity, whether it was true, was he personally interested in it, had he been called of God to preach it. The very solicitude which he felt on the subject was evidence of his spiritual change, although he seemed not to know it. But instead of first undertaken to investigate the evidences of Christianity, then the subject of his personal faith and salvation, and last of all, his call to the ministry, the process was exactly reversed. He first resolved to make it the purpose of his life to preach the gospel. Then and until then, did he experience the preciousness of the Savior to his own soul. His doubts and difficulties all vanished, like darkness and mist before the rising sun. It was by doing of the will of God that he was made to know the truth of his doctrine. And so on in all his future life, whenever doubts and difficulties revived, they were removed not by reasoning, but by losing sight of them and doing the will of his divine master. We would say then to every troubled believer, copy his example. Don't let an elevated condition in life and wealth, if you have them, tempt you to be idle, if not required to toil for your daily bread. Yet let a regard for your happiness and health and omniscience of conscience make you as industrious as if you were. Consider your affluence and leisure as talents, by means of which you have the enviable opportunity of promoting the welfare of others, gratuitously in a thousand modes which are forbidden to others. Go join yourself to the most active benefactors of society. Enter their ranks or plant yourself in the van. Take your full share in the labors of the Sunday school or Bible class teacher. the distribution of tracts, the visiting of the poor and sick and afflicted. Deny yourself many gratifications of ease and pleasure and advantage for the sake of redeeming the time and the means of doing more good. Aim directly, like Harlan Page, at the single object of saving men's souls, and whether your success shall correspond to your wishes or not, you shall enjoy the reflex advantage of your benevolence. In watering others, you shall be watered yourself. We are aware of the difficulty of complying with his counsel in many cases, and none are more peculiarly trying than those of clergymen, who from declining health, advancing age, or some onward events, have been dislodged from posts of active usefulness, and have now nothing to do which is suited to their character, capacity, and circumstances. Such it is well known as often the unhappy condition of some of the most useful, as well as respectable and venerable ministers of the Church. And it is one of the ominous signs of the times that their number seems to be increasing. From the emoluments of their calling few derive more than the means for a very frugal maintenance of their family, and therefore, when by reason of age and multiplied infirmities the grasshopper has become a burden, they find superadded to all their afflictions the trials of poverty. We will not enlarge, but for ourselves we are constrained to say that we feel it to be a material defect. in our ecclesiastical economy, that their condition and claims are not more particularly and tenderly regarded. That in view of the resources and benevolence of the Church, something has not been projected at least, if not carried into effect, by which such an important casus amicus should have been provided for. Some feasible plan by which their remaining strength, their stores of learning and experience may be turned to a profitable account. and he's nascent of the ministry, made happy and useful during the remnant of their pilgrimage. Look forward to Jesus Christ as a counsel of Mr. Timothy Rogers. When you find things perplexed and troubled in your own souls, look to him. And in the direct acts of faith, we have nobler objects to converse with than when we look and pour upon our guilty selves. When we look into our troubled hearts, we can see nothing beside confusion and disorder there. But we may at the same time discern an all-sufficient fullness in God and Christ to relieve our wants. It is a long and tedious work to consider the several steps by which we are to proceed in such a case, whether we have believed or not. Our duty is at this very instant to believe, i.e. under a penitent sense of what we have done amiss, to look unto Christ for help. We must carefully distinguish between justification and sanctification, between those habits and those holy actions that are the effects of faith and faith itself. Our sanctification is full of imperfection, but that righteousness of Christ in which alone we are to trust for acceptance with God is complete and perfect. Dr. Church, president of the Medical Society of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mentions numerous facts to illustrate the efficacy of faith in Christ and the prevention and cure of diseases of body as well as mind. His health is a result of nicely balanced appetites and passions. So, of course, anything that exerts a regulating or controlling influence over these in such a manner as to attune them into harmony will essentially aid us in forestalling diseases, as well as in curing them. Such a power as Dr. Church ascribes to evangelical faith would seem to be implied in the language of Dr. Bell, who says that, so intimate is the connection between physical comfort and moral well-being, that one cannot be seriously affected without the other suffering. Mr. Schrubsal tells us in his Christian memoirs, that he was once reduced so low that his case was apparently hopeless. For hours he was lying in convulsions, and during this time he was in a state of great spiritual darkness and distress of mind. But so soon as the light of divine truth broke in upon him and he experienced the support of true faith, his convulsions left him and he rapidly recovered. Dr. Church mentions the case of several sick persons of advanced age who would probably have died under the power of these attacks, but for the perfect composure of mind and freedom from fear that were ministered by their faith. In view of the many facts concerning the remedial influence of faith, alleged by other physicians of equal eminence, Dr. Ashbel Green takes occasion to combat what he calls a serious evil. He refers to the absurd, cruel, and wicked opinion, entertained by many physicians, and embraced by many of their patients, that a clergyman must be kept out of a sick room, at least till the person has passed recovery. An opinion which he averts was proved fallacious by his own experience in the pastoral charge of one of the largest congregations in the United States for more than the fourth part of a century. during which time he never knew an instance in which his ministerial visitations of the sick were apprehended, so far as he knew, to be injurious. What excuse, then, can be given, he asked, for depriving the sick of religious aid, when facts innumerable demonstrate that it may be afforded, not merely without harm, but often with evident advantage in helping the physician? The same sentiments on this important subject were entertained by his friend, Dr. Rush, who enumerates among the duties of a physician piety towards God, a respect for religion, and regular attendance on public worship. Without such moral endowments, he will meet with many cases of disease which he wants the requisite qualifications to treat. The sufferers need a medical counselor who can point them to the balm of Gilead and the physician there. There must be directed beyond the remedy of secondary or merely physical causes to him who can make them efficacious. And to mention all the cures that have been performed by faith and hope, he says, would require many pages. But while the despondent looked at Christ and prayed for themselves, let them seek an interest in the prayers of others. It is believed that the restoration of the Reverend Timothy Rogers, several times referred to in the preceding pages, was an answer to the special prayers of his pious friends and brethren in the ministry. many of whom were most earnest and importunate in their inner sessions, till at length his mind was completely relieved. He has left a monument of this deliverance from a dreadful thraldom and a book well worthy of the perusal of those who suffer under spiritual distress from physical or any other causes. But the prevailing temptation of Christians of this temperament, as we have shown in another place, is to look to themselves. to watch their own fluctuating frames canvass their motives and conduct, as if they expected to find the living among the dead, as if the Israelite in the wilderness, bitten of the fiery serpent, had depended for his recovery upon his former temperance, or the strength of his constitution, and not upon looking to the brazen image. Such reviews of the past and searchings of heart are not only proper, but they are exceedingly important in many respects, but not for spiritual comfort in distress, not for aid to arrive at assurance. To look back, as one observes, is more than we could sustain without going back. Indeed, the better the Christian, the more spiritually minded and holy, the more does he usually discover to cause sorrow and the keenest self-reproach whenever he takes a retrospective of his past life and experience. For many years we are told that even Richard Baxter was in great perplexity about himself for reasons which have been a common occasion of doubting among serious inquirers in every age of the Church. It was because he could not trace so distinctly the workings of the Spirit on his heart, as they were described in some practical writers to whom he was directed for instruction, and he could not ascertain the time of his conversion. because he felt great hardness of heart, supposed himself to be religious from early education rather than conviction of the Spirit, to be influenced more by fear than by love, and because his grief and humiliation on account of sin were not greater. But he was afterwards satisfied that these were not sufficient nor scriptural grounds for doubting his personal interest in the salvation of Christ. upon which William Orme, his accomplished biographer, remarks that persons who are agitated with perplexities similar to those of Baxter are frequently directed to means little calculated to afford relief. It is very questionable whether any individual will ever obtain comfort by making himself or the evidences of personal religion the object of chief attention. All hope to the guilty creature is exterior to himself. In the human character, even under Christian influence, sufficient reason for condemnation, and therefore for fear, will always be found. It is not thinking of the disease, nor of the mode in which the remedy operates, nor of the description given of these things by others, but using the remedy itself that will affect the cure. The gospel is the heavenly appointed balsam for the wounds of sin, and Jesus is a great physician. It is to him and to his testimony, therefore, as a revelation of pardon and healing, that the soul must be directed in all the stages of its spiritual career. When the glory of His character and work is seen, darkness of mind will be dissipated, the power of sin will be broken, genuine contrition will be felt, and joy and hope will fill the mind. It is from the Savior and His sacrifice that all proper excitement in religion must proceed. Any attempt to produce that excitement by the workings of the mind on itself must inevitably fail. Self-examination to discover the power of truth and the progress of principle in us is highly important. But when employed with a view to obtain comfort under a sense of guilt, it never can succeed. Nothing but renewed application to the cross can produce the latter effect. These sentiments are so important that they cannot be repeated too often. nor be too deeply impressed upon all, and especially upon every inquirer, after an assurance of hope. They describe the only way by which the perplexed believer, even when released from the embarrassment of physical influences, can obtain solid and permanent peace. It is by looking to Christ, not as holy in ourselves, but in order to be made holy. Not as a whole, whose distempers have been cured already, but as a sick, who must be cured by him alone or perish. We must go to Him feeling that we owe Him ten thousand times more than we can pay, but that all He requires of us is to accept a discharge and be happy in the enjoyment of this unmerited grace. In other words, we are only to exalt our glorious Redeemer to His true position as both the author and finisher of our faith. The Alpha and Omega in our salvation and our peace is secured. Those very views of ourselves, our self-reproach and feeling of ill-desert, which have caused so much disquiet, then become the evidences of that spiritual change which is the beginning of everlasting life. It is as easy for God to forgive a thousand sins as one sin, if we be never so unworthy and so vile, yet mercy seeks no other qualification of its object. but that it is necessitous and liable to ruin, and it is a good way to fly to his mere grace and mercy, for we have undone ourselves. Pouring upon ourselves does but increase our load. We're apt to say in our distress, were we so and so mortified to the world, were our hearts so purified and cleansed, then we might approach him with some boldness who is altogether holy. This is true, but yet we must first ask of him to make us such in whom he may delight. And as we sorrowfully cast our eyes upon our wounds and our miseries, Let us look at the same time to that physician who has provided a remedy for us by Christ, and who can heal all our backslidings and teach us to apply that remedy. If we are the worst and most sinful creatures upon earth, yet is the Savior tender to our acceptance and our choice, and if we will receive Him, all our transgressions, how heinous soever, will be blotted out. We repeat then the munition in the midst of distracting cares and temptations, which so much hinder the exercise of this faith. Let us not forget the promised help of the Holy Spirit. Let us watch against the common sin of the desponding, who undervalue his aid and practically question its reality, when we are taught not only that he helps our infirmities, but that he makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. To know that we are Christians does not imply that we are free from sin, but that we are united to Christ. Our peace and joy and hope, the fruits of this union, need not be destroyed by our imperfections, however great, while we cling to Him as our righteousness. If we see ourselves bad enough for Christ, Thomas Adams says, He sees us good enough. His people are safe notwithstanding their doubts and fears. not because of any inherent power in them to hold on to the end, but because of the grace which reigns in their calling and redemption in view of which he has said he will never leave them nor forsake them. The soul on his bosom that leans for repose is safe from the assaults of his bitterest foes. The soul of all hell should in vengeance awake. He'll never, no never, no never forsake. It is certainly among the deep mysteries of Providence some of the most eminent saints who ever lived should have been afflicted with despondency and gloom. And yet, as pious Samuel Rutherford remarks, quote, His nights and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight endues better than a continued sun. So is Christ's absence of special use, and it has some nourishing virtue in it, and gives sap to humility and furnishes a fair field for faith. But is there no difficulty, it may be asked, connected with the abandonment of pious man to such a state of mental darkness and suffering, especially when protracted to the hour of death? No greater difficulty, we can see, when viewed as a result of physical disease, than in a good man's being suffered to linger under a torturing complaint, or to be laid aside by paralysis, or to be the victim of brutal violence, of persecution, or a fatal accident. We know of no promise that ensures a truly religious man against such a trial, although we believe the physical influence of true religion to be the very best preservative against those exciting causes which are likely to develop a predisposition to mental disease. The history of Job is written to caution us against falling into the air of his friends and so judging by feeble sense. It is true that he emerged from his complicated and unparalleled afflictions, but in the case of diseases incurable, Except by miracle, what reason is there to expect an extraordinary interposition of divine power in anticipation of the blessed cure which death will effect when the spirit births its chains with sweet surprise? If William Cooper was permitted to expire in apparent mental darkness, let it not be regarded as either militating against the divine goodness, nor as indicating the divine displeasure against the sufferer. Should anyone under similar circumstances be allowed to close his days under the pressure of distemper and to give no sign in death? It has been suggested by way of explanation that these sufferings of good men are designed to enhance the joys of heaven by contrast. That these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, will tend to work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. In many cases, moreover, they are made instrumental in furnishing religious teachers with a sort of knowledge that conduces greatly to their usefulness, and which can be acquired only by experience. The Apostle represents our High Priest as one who could be touched with the filling of our infirmities, because he was in all points tempted as we are. Such, according to the Reverend Dr. Hall, was a discipline which gave so much sympathy, tenderness, and heart-reaching power to the discourses, conversation, and whole intercourse of the late Reverend J.W. Alexander. to qualify him for this service. The wise and gracious foresight of Almighty God saw it necessary to lead his disciple from his earliest Christian walk in the path of some of the most poignant and overwhelming distresses that can oppress the human soul. Describe it to what immediate cause we may, to delicate or disordered nerves, to morbid sensibilities, whether physical or moral, to excessive intellectual excitement, to preternatural susceptibility to the extremes of enjoyment and suffering. We know from the result that this part of experience, familiar to him in a greater or less measure from his youth to his last days, was a means sanctified to the production and maintenance of that depth, fullness and richness of his spiritual traits, which laid the foundation of and gave the predominant characteristics and direction to his piety and influence. It has been said that God can bring affliction to try and manifest the graces of his people. As the stars that are achieved part of the glory of the world are then most illustrious and visible when the day is gone. And then he makes the sun to rise again that displays new objects to us. The rods of God are many times very sharp, but at last we shall find that they were dipped in honey and managed with love. The conduct of providence is always wise and good, but very often mysterious and unfathomable, and in nothing more so than in his bringing abundance of his servants to heaven by the very gates of hell, and in suffering Satan to buffet and perplex them, that they may triumph over him in the latter end. It makes him to be in great perplexities that the sweet wonders of his deliverance may the more appear. We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place, because people should be well satisfied. John Rogers says that he carries them to heaven in the way he thinks most proper. It were indeed a thing very desirable to be at ease, to travel with light about us. But if we must go through darkness and danger and calamity to heaven, let us be satisfied that as well as done, though we go weeping and groaning a long thither. When his candle shines upon our tabernacle, we're well enough pleased. But when he begins to correct and chasten us for a season, we murmur and think he is a hard master. But out of the ruins of the flesh, God raises the glorious structure of the new creature. And from the destruction of our earthly comforts, he causes heavenly joys to spring. Let us not find fault with God's providence, for it will turn our water into wine, our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys. And as a marriage of Cana, we shall have the best at last. Two sorts of people, Dr. Watts observes, will be disappointed when they get to heaven. The melancholic Christian, to find himself there, and the censorious Christian to find others there. But what can be deeper, mysterious, and providence are hard for us to believe, when we have once received that amazing doctrine of grace. the great central truth of Revelation, that God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. To many it is a subject of distressing perplexity, that persons of unquestioned piety sometimes continue to manifest great imperfections to the very end of their life, even at the near approach of their transition from the earthly state to a heavenly. Their sanctification seems to be immature. The mind of William Guthrie appears to have been strongly impressed by this enigma in Christian experience of which he could offer no other solution than a change must take place at the moment of death, second only to that at the moment of conversion. There is much sin to be cast off, he says, like a slew with its mortal flesh. Saw we the spirit at its departure as Elisha saw his ascending master? We might see a mantle of imperfection and infirmity drop from the chariot that bears it in triumph to the skies. I have thought that there must be a mysterious work done by the Spirit of God in the very hour of death, to form the glorious crown and copestone of all His other labors. And that like the wondrous but lovely plant which blows at midnight, grace comes out in its perfect beauty amid the darkness of the dying hour. How that is done, I do not know. It takes one whole summer to ripen the fields of corn. and five hundred years to bring the oak to its full maturity. But he at whose almighty word this earth sprung at once into perfect being, loaded with orchards and golden harvests, and clustering vines and stately palms and giant cedars. Man in ripened manhood and woman in her full-blown charms is able in the twinkling of an eye, ere our fingers have closed the filmy orbs, or we have stopped to print our last fond kiss on the marble brow. to crown the work His grace began. With Him one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is one day. He shall perfect that which concerns you. He shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shouting, crying, grace, grace, unto it. Now wherefore unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. End of the book, Man, Moral and Physical, or The Influence of Health and Disease on Religious Experience, by the Reverend Joseph H. Jones, pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, published 1860.