And David's Son, when our sin was laid upon Him, felt the curse
and the horror of His state so much that His sweat was in drops of blood,
and His cry in the darkness was that His God had forsaken Him. And when
our spirits are wounded with our sins, as the spirits of all God's great
saints have always been wounded, we too shall feel ourselves more at home
with David and with Asaph, with Spira even, and with Bunyan. Despair is
not good, but it is infinitely better than indifference. 'It is a common
saying,' says South, 'and an observation in divinity, that where despair
has slain its thousands, presumption has slain its ten thousands. The
agonies of the former are indeed more terrible, but the securities of the
latter are far more fatal.'
5. 'I will,' says Paul to Timothy, 'that men pray everywhere, lifting up
holy hands without doubting.' And, just as Paul would have it, Christian
and Hopeful began to lift up their hands even in the dungeon of Doubting
Castle. 'Well,' we read, 'on Saturday night about midnight they began to
pray, and continued in prayer till almost break of day.
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