Thread: For my family
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Old 03-22-2008, 01:51 AM
Connie
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I never liked any of the psychology categories even before I got saved and I agree with George that it's very important to keep away from them as Christians. But there is a state of mind that Christians are prone to that today we call "depression," that in the old days they called "melancholy." Perhaps the biblical "cast down" is the better choice of terminology but the condition is very real whatever we call it. The poet William Cowper continued with bouts of deep "melancholy" throughout his Christian life, that some believe may have originated with being homosexually abused as a boy at school. He wrote a veiled but emotionally charged description of an experience that strongly suggests that. He never married. The great John Newton (Amazing Grace) befriended him and shepherded him closely through many such bouts of emotional blackness, and encouraged his poetry, which glorifies the Lord in spite of it all. They put together a book of hymns, "The Olney Hymns," which included Newton's "Amazing Grace," and many by Cowper, the one that begins "There is a fountain filled with blood" and another that included the line "God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."

Last edited by Connie; 03-22-2008 at 02:00 AM.