despondency. He seems to lack the capacity of perceiving, or of applying the sort of truth which his case requires, however plainly it may be set before him; for, as President Edwards observes, in speaking of Brainerd, it is rare that melancholy people are sensible of their own disease-and that such things are to be ascribed to it as are undoubtedly its genuine fruits or effects. Otherwise we should be amazed at the perplexity and disconsolateness of some excellent characters, and the readiness with which they refuse to be comforted. Even the acute and discriminating Dr. Rush, so skilful in explaining and relieving the maladies of others, was utterly deceived in relation to his own. His Essay on the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty, evinces mature reflection, and accurate knowledge on this subject; and yet, when, in a state of religious despondency himself, he was assured by his pastor that it was a symptom of disease, he could not believe it. Nor did he become fully convinced that the cause of his spiritual distress was physical,

until it had been removed by the improvement of his general health. Indeed it is commonly found, that where mental depression results from impaired health, our attempts to relieve the mind by counsel tend rather to aggravate its sorrow, so long as the physical cause remains unmitigated. The Rev. Thomas Boston was, at one time, in such a state of doubt and spiritual depression during his ministry, without perceiving the cause, that he was tempted to give it up. But although this eminent Christian scholar was in so great darkness himself, he was a burning and a shining light to others. His exposition of Providence, under the quaint title of "Crook in the Lot," surpasses any work of the kind in our language. "I do not know that I could point out a work," Dr. A. Alexander says, "which is so well adapted to reconcile the afflicted saint to his lot in this world, and help him to improve the dealings of Providence towards him, especially in the dark and cloudy day' of adversity."

A late preacher, well known by his manifold.

useful labours, writes in his diary:-"Many of my people, and especially females, talk thus to me-'I am under continual distress of mind; I can lay hold of no permanent ground of peace. If I seem to get a little, it is soon gone again. I am out at sea, without compass or anchor. My heart sinks, my spirit faints, my knees tremble; all is dark above, and all is horror beneath.' 'And pray, what is your mode of life?' 'I sit by myself.' 'In this small room, I suppose, and over your fire?' 'A considerable part of my time.' 'And what time do you go to bed?' 'I cannot retire till two or three o'clock in the morning.' 'And you lie late, I suppose, in the morning? quently.' 'And pray what else can you expect from this mode of life than a relaxed and unstrung system, and, of course, a mind enfeebled, anxious, and disordered? I understand your case; God seems to have qualified me to understand it, by special dispensations. My natural disposition is gay, volatile, spirited. My nature would never sink. But I have sometimes felt my spirit absorbed in horrible

Fre

apprehensions, without any assignable natural cause. Perhaps it was necessary I should be suffered to feel this, that I might feel for others; for certainly no man can have any adequate sympathy with others, who has never thus suffered himself. I can feel for you, therefore, while I tell you that I think the affair with you is chiefly physical. I myself have brought on the same feelings by the same means. I have sat in my study till I have persuaded myself that the ceiling was too low to suffer me to stand and rise upright, and air and exercise alone could remove the impression from my mind.""

In the last illness of the commentator Scott, his mind was observed by his friends to be gloomy during the paroxysm of his fever; nor could his comfort be restored by any counsel. of his pious attendants, until the fever had abated. Andrew Fuller also suffered greatly on his deathbed, from a similar cause. when Dr. Madan once attempted to calm the mind of Cowper, by quotations from the Scriptures, it served only to increase his sufferings.

So

It was then at the commencement of a slow nervous fever, to which he was liable; but after four months skilful treatment by Dr. Cotton, his health was so far improved that the promises of the gospel were apprehended without hesitation, and whatever his friend Madan had said to him long before, revived in all its clearness. An aged minister of the gospel says, we have known persons, who were poor in spirit, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, glorying only in the cross of Christ, and yet gloomily concluding that they have no lot nor part in the matter, and that their heart is not right with God. And why? The reason is to be found in something beyond the preacher's province; and till there is a change in the animal economy, all the succours of religion are in vain.

In an admirable review of a paper on Moral Causes of Disease, by the Secretary of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, the author reproaches his medical brethren for their ignorance or neglect. He chides them for the overlooking of psychological causes of dis