IT is a sad feature of our day that so many children of God are suffering from extreme spiritual depression. They are melancholy and not ashamed to own it. They confess they have an “all-gone” sensation. They look back upon joys that they believe are vanished forever. What they once loved and looked up to and lived for appears to be hopelessly wrecked by the devastating influences of the past few years. And they weep and mourn that what appeared so fair and beautiful and true should now be so ravaged and laid waste by the enemy.
We would remind such that this state of things has been fully anticipated in the word of God. An outline of the “down-grade movement” was sketched in apostolic times. For Revelation 2 and 3 describe the history of spiritual declension from loveless Ephesus to lukewarm and loathsome Laodicea.
But what is the counsel and command of the Lord of the churches in describing these various phases of decay? Ever and anon through those epistles comes the cry from Him Who walks amid the golden candlesticks, ringing like a clarion blast to cheer the hearts of the faithful, “HOLD FAST.” When others are abandoning divine principles, hold fast that which you have. When your nearest and dearest slip away from the truth, hold fast. When you are absolutely forsaken because you will not deny His name, let His voice sound again in your ears: “Hold fast till I come.”
Away with this faintheartedness. The Lord is unchanged; the Spirit abides; the word of God endures forever. However great the ruin, your responsibility to be true remains. Let the truth hold you fast, that you may hold fast the truth. For in order to hold the word of life forth you must hold it fast.
It is an evil day which waxes worse. But whoever gives up and whatever is given up, “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. 3:1414But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; (2 Timothy 3:14)).