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SPURGEON'S SORROWS: Realistic Hope for Those Who Suffer from Depression
ZACK ESWINE
THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF A BOOK THAT HAS TOUCHED MANY THOUSANDS WITH THE HOPE OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL THAT REACHES THE BROKEN AND WOUNDED SHEEP OF CHRIST!
This precious book offers the following:
*A reflection on Spurgeon's struggles with the darkness of despair
*Help to understand & support those suffering with depression
*How Jesus can bring light to the darkness of the soul
Christians should have the answers, shouldn't they? Depression affects many people both personally and through the ones we love. Here Zack Eswine draws from C.H Spurgeon, 'the Prince of Preachers' experience to encourage us. What Spurgeon found in his darkness can serve as a light in our own darkness. Zack Eswine brings you here, not a self-help guide, rather 'a handwritten note of one who wishes you well.'
"I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to." (CHS)
"We very speedily care for bodily diseases; they are too painful to let us slumber in silence: and they soon urge us to seek a physician or a surgeon for our healing. Oh, if we were as much alive to the more serious wounds of our inner man." (CHS)
"Personally I know that there is nothing on earth that the human frame can suffer to be compared with despondency and prostration of mind." (CHS)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: Trying to Understand Depression
1. The Road to Sorrow: "The road to sorrow has been well trodden, it is the regular sheep track to heaven, and all the flock of God have had to pass along it." (CHS)
2. Depression and our Circumstances: "The mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits." (CHS)
3. The Disease of Melancholy: "I wouldn't blame all those who are much given to fear, for in some it is rather their disease than their sin, and more their misfortune than their fault." (CHS)
4. Spiritual Depression: "Spiritual sorrows are the worst of mental miseries." (CHS)
PART TWO: Learning How to Help Those Who Suffer from Depression
5. Diagnosis Doesn’t Cure: "Especially judge not the sons and daughters of sorrow. Allow no ungenerous suspicions of the afflicted, the poor, and the despondent." (CHS)
6. A Language for our Sorrows: "He who now feebly expounds these words (of Ps. 88) knows within himself more than he would care or dare to tell of the abysses of inward anguish." (CHS)
7. Helps that Harm: "Ah, says one, I used to think of such and such person that he must be a fool to be always in so gloomy a state of mind; but now I cannot help sinking into the same desponding frames, and oh! I would to God that I had been more kind to him!" (CHS)
8. Jesus and Depression: "It is an unspeakable consolation that our Lord Jesus knows this experience." (Richard Winter, 'The Roots of Sorrow')
PART THREE: Learning Helps to Daily Cope with Depression
9. Promises and Prayers: "An ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well skilled in heavenly pharmacy and knows how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God." (CHS)
10. Natural Helps: "We need patience under pain and hope under depression of spirit...Our God...will either make the burden lighter or the back stronger; He will diminish the need or increase the supply." (CHS)
11. Suicide and Choosing Life: "I wonder ever day that there are not more suicides, considering the troubles of this life." (CHS)
12. The Benefits of Sorrow: "To be cast down is often the best thing that could happen to us." (CHS)
ENDORSEMENTS
"There are few men I trust more to write a book on depression than Zack Eswine. His tears have freed me to embrace my tears, and his story of heartache has taken me further into my own. So Zack hasn't merely written a book chronicling Spurgeon's often debilitating struggles with melancholy and depression; he has given us a grace-full en ramp to understand OUR sorrows, and an incredibly practical guide for caring for heart-pained friends God places in our lives. I cannot wait to buy many copies of this book to give to strugglers and caregivers alike." - Scotty Ward Smith, Founding Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin TN
"You can almost taste Spurgeon's tears in this book. Depression is a barely understood, silent assassin in the church. If you, like me, have succumbed to this debilitating disease, then Zack Eswine's gentle, poetic, unmasking of Spurgeon's inner turmoil may become a soothing balm to your soul. It may not heal you, but a healthy empathy emerges when you read about the struggles of a man who has walked down the same dark alleys you stumble along, and somehow found God in the valley of despair. If you don't struggle with depression yourself, it will help you love those who do!" -Jeremy McQuoid, Teaching Pastor, Deeside Christian Fellowship, Aberdeen, Scotland
"...Spurgeon from early years to final days found dark distress ever hovering on the edges of his mind and sometimes launching an all out assault on his very being. How he managed all this, by the grace of God, both for himself and for others, drives both the gripping content and the riveting literary style of Zack Eswine in 'Spurgeon's Sorrows.' Showing both comprehensive and deep knowledge of the sermonic literature Spurgeon produced on this subject, this book if for those in such dark times, those that would seek to understand and help them, and those who have suffered life-changing loss through the inability of someone to escape the clutches of such deceitful darkness." - Tom Nettles, Senior Professor of Historical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
"Most Christian books on depression depress me. This book is a very rare and precious gift of encouragement and help. In it two godly pastor-scholars open up their lives to us and share their hearts. Both have suffered profoundly and both have known seasons of deep despair and darkness. Together they bring us God's word, helping us wrestle with the scary fact that our Heavenly Father loves us dearly and sometimes calls us to lifelong struggles with dark despair. I wish I could give this book to everyone I have ever counselled or ever will counsel. It gives us a life-changing, gospel-saturated perspective on this very prevalent, painful, and confusing problem." -Barbara Duguid, Author, Extravagant Grace
"The river of life often flows through sloughs of despond. Charles Spurgeon knew that well. He knew depression. He knew the God from whom life flows. Ditto Zack Eswine in this unusual, refreshing, sensible book. Too often in our day, depression gets reinterpreted as a 'thing,' is objectified into a merely medical diagnosis, is alienated from our humanness. This book shows us a good way forward... Read it, and take it to heart." - David Powlison, late CCEF Executive Director, Senior Editor, Journal of Biblical Counseling
"Zack Eswine is a pastor with the mind of a scholar and the heart of a poet. His wisdom gleaned from Charles Spurgeon's struggle with depression is theologically profound and pastorally lucid." - Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor, Boone United Methodist Church, Boone, North Carolina
"Zack Eswine, like Spurgeon, a preacher, pastor, and no stranger to suffering... there is much encouragement, comfort and practical help to be found in this rich and poetic treasure." - Richard Winter, Author of When Life Goes Dark: Finding Hope in the Midst of Depression, Director of Counseling at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri
"Eswine's work demonstrates the value of reading biographies, old books, and sermons. Interacting with godly men and women from church history can be a vital aid to Christian maturity. He handles Spurgeon carefully, yet provocatively at points, and produces a volume that promises to help pastors and laypeople confront the sad terror of the dark night of the soul." -The Gospel Coalition
"The words 'realistic hope' are in the subtitle, and that is exactly what this book offers. The writing style is winsome and the way he frames Spurgeon's quotes almost make it sound as if the great man was writing last week." -The Evangelical Magazine, Published by Evangelical Movement of Wales
OUR SPECIAL SPURGEON CLASSIC TEN PACK IS THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
(1) ACCORDING TO PROMISE: God’s Promises to Every Christian
(2) CHRIST'S GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS: What Jesus Has Done for You
(3) DELIGHTING IN THE SUNLIT UPLANDS OF GRACE: Spurgeon on Joy
(4) MOTHER, SISTER AND FOLLOWER: Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene
(5) NO TEARS IN HEAVEN: Spurgeon on the Glories of Heaven
(6) THE GREATEST FIGHT IN THE WORLD: The Final Manifesto
(7) THE SILENT SHADES OF SORROW: Healing for the Wounded
(8) THE SOUL WINNER: Advice on Effective Evangelism
(9) SPURGEON'S PRAYERS: Including Advice on How to Improve Prayer Meetings
(10) SPURGEON'S SORROWS: Realistic Hope for Those Who Suffer from Depression
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THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IN 2024
 SGCB Price: $7.50 (list price $10.00)
ORDER OUR SPECIAL 'TEN PACK' OF SPURGEON TITLES AND SAVE EVEN MORE
SGCB Price: $60.00 (list price $110.00)
THIS IS OVER 45% DISCOUNT PRICE FOR ALL TEN SPURGEON CLASSICS
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