Heavy heart, this book is meant for you. He who sends forth this volume knows the heart of a mourner by a kindred experience and is most anxious to be a "son of consolation" to the sorrowing. This little volume is meant to scare the night-raven, of which Milton tells us that it sits "where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings." By most men it is known as Religious Melancholy, but we call it by the older and more scriptural name of Mourning in Zion. By whatever name it is called it is none the more pleasant.
To meet the sadness of the heart, we have taken a prescription, not from Galen or Hippocrates, but from the great gospel prophet, Isaiah; and its one and only ingredient is Christ Jesus himself, who is anointed to comfort the distressed in heart, and fulfills his office by giving himself to them to meet all their needs. The sermons which make up this book are full of Christ Jesus, the consolation of Israel; and if, in any degree, they cheer the desponding it will be entirely due to himself, their object and their theme. He is to a mourning heart:
"Sweet as refreshing dews or summer showers; To the long parching thirst of drooping flowers."
No heart, however broken, needs any balm but Jesus to work its perfect cure. Sorrows, which like Noah's flood, drown all are soon assuaged by a word from his lips. Get him and keep him, O bruised and bleeding heart and you are healed. For broken hearts the broken-hearted Savior died, and for them he lives and pleads. Look to him, mourner and the black horror of despair shall end.
Your heartily,
Charles Spurgeon
