The Puritan's Dealings with Troubled Souls: 7

This is the seventh and final part of an essay written by G. A. Hemming, taken from the collection of essays called "The Puritan Papers". This essay is from volume 1 in that series. Enjoy.  :  )

(c) The work of the Holy Spirit.
The Puritans taught that at times God Himself brings about this experience of desertion. They quoted and expounded Isaiah 50:10-11 in this connection and taught that "it is no new thing for the children and heirs of light sometimes to walk in darkness and for a time not to have any glimpse or gleam of light." At such a time the Christian may express himself in the words of Psalm 88, but he is also to stay himself upon God and await the gracious return of the Lord's known presence.

(d) Its purpose.
The purposes which God may have in mind in permitting these experiences may be summarised as follows:

a) To show God's power.
We need to be reminded that however long we have walked with God yet we are still kept only by His grace.
b) To cause a man to long for heaven.
In a time of desertion the Christian's desire for the unbroken fellowship of heaven itself may well be strengthened and increased.
If the desertion be such that the Christian falls into sin, its purpose may be
c) Chastisement.
The child of God is brought to deeper penitence and greater loathing of sin.
d) To reveal the Christian to himself.
He begins to see what a sinner he really is, and the depths to which he can sink.
e) To prevent worse sin.
The Christian may be so humbled by his fall into lesser sin that he avoids a greater sin into which he would otherwise have fallen.
If the desertion be such that the Christian loses the sense of God's favour, its purpose may be
f) To let him taste the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
The Lord drank the cup when His Father forsook Him. "And that cup hath gone round among God's people ever since."
g) To cause him to feel the loss of the damned, and hence give him a real compassion for souls.
h) To prove to the Christian the reality of his love to God.
In some cases a man may feel himself utterly lost---and at that point cry out from his heart, "If it please the Lord to damn me, let me be damned---only let the Lord do that which pleases Him."
This is agony at the time, but afterwards the Christian realises that such prayer, putting God's good pleasure before his own eternal salvation, could come only from a renewed heart. And here is comfort and assurance indeed.
These gleanings from the Puritans are offered in all humility in the hope that we ourselves may better understand the varied experiences which are ours as God's children and Satan's enemies and that as we are called to be under-shepherds in Christ's flock, so we may be able to comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God, to whose blessed name be glory. Amen.

Works:
Bolton: Directions for Right Comforting
Baxter: Right method for a Settled Peace of Conscience
T. Goodwin: A Child of Light walking in Darkness
Symonds: A Deserted Soul's Cause and Cure
Perkins: Works, vol. I
Owen: Exposition of Psalm 130
Sibbes: The Bruised Reed, and the Saint's Conflict.
Greenham: Grave Counsels
Gurnall: Christian in Complete Armour
Matthew Henry: Commentaries