In almost every Christian's experience come times of despondency and gloom, when there seems to be a depletion of the spiritual life, when the fountains that used to burst with water are grown dry; when love is loveless, hope hopeless, and enthusiasm so dead that it is hard to believe that it ever lived. At such times, there is nothing for us to do but hold to the bare, rocky truths of our religion, as shipwrecked people hang to cliff when the waves and eddies try to sweep them back into the deep. The rough rock tears their hands, but still they cling.

Phillips Brooks