It comes over the most of us. Cheerful as we may be,

we must at intervals be cast down.

The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready,

the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.

There may be here and there men of iron

to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment,

but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men,

the Lord knows and makes them to know that they are but dust.

Knowing by most painful experience

what deep depression of spirit means,

being visited therewith at seasons

by no means few or far between,

May it be consolatory to some if we give our thoughts thereon,

that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy;

and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shown right joyously did not always walk in the light.

C H Spurgeon