In making some concluding remarks, let us remind ourselves of several things. First of all, let us emphasize again that God has allowed mental illness in the lives of believers, just as He has allowed physical illness. Often His grace is shown more in overcoming such problems than if we had never experienced such a difficulty. The words of a poem come to mind:
“Full many a rapturous minstrel
Amid those courts of light
Will say of his sweetest music,
‘I learned it in the night!’
“And many a rolling anthem
That fills the Father’s home
Sobbed out its first rehearsal
In the shade of a darkened room.”
How many have enjoyed the hymns of those like William Cowper, whose name we have already mentioned. Yet such hymns were written with the background of manic-depressive illness. How many saints of God have suffered under serious difficulties, yet have found the grace of God sufficient to help them overcome them and have borne a bright testimony in spite of them!
Second, let us remember that “the things which are seen are temporal” (2 Corinthians 4:1818While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)) and that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:1717For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (2 Corinthians 4:17)). The difficulties of this life may seem overwhelming at times, but the believer can view them all in the light of eternity. Such things are not only temporal, but, as our verse tells us, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. No doubt such difficulties are most trying at times, but if they are accepted from the Lord and gone through with Him, they can produce an eternal weight of glory. Only in this life can we learn God as the God of all comfort, the God of all encouragement, and the God who can give us the grace to go through the hardest circumstances. We cannot learn such things in heaven, for there will be nothing there for which we need comfort or encouragement. We can have such experiences only down here, yet the weight of glory thus worked for us is eternal.
Let us close with a quotation from C. H. Mackintosh:
“Look at yonder bent and withered frame — that body racked with pain and worn out with years of acute suffering. It is the body of a saint. How humiliating to see it like that! Yes, but wait a little. Let but the trumpet sound, and in one moment that poor crushed and withered frame shall be changed and made like to the glorified body of the descending Lord.
“And there, in yonder mental hospital, is a poor patient. He has been there for years. He is a saint of God. How mysterious! True; we cannot fathom the mystery; it lies beyond our present narrow range. But so it is; that poor patient is a saint of God, an heir of glory. He too shall hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and leave his illness behind him forever while he mounts into the heavens in his glorified body to meet his descending Lord.
“Oh, what a brilliant moment! How many sick chambers and beds of languishing shall be vacated then! What marvelous changes shall then take place! How the heart bounds at the thought and longs to sing, in full chorus, that lovely hymn:
“Christ the Lord will come again;
None shall wait for Him in vain;
We shall then His glory see —
His who died to set us free.
“Then when the archangel’s voice
Calls the sleeping saints to rise,
Rising millions shall proclaim
Blessings on the Saviour’s name.
“‘This is our redeeming God!’
Ransomed hosts will shout aloud:
‘Praise, eternal praise be given
To the Lord of earth and heaven!’”
(Little Flock Hymnbook, #266)