I almost regret this morning that I have ventured to occupy this pulpit, because I feel utterly unable to preach to you for your profit. I had thought that the quiet and repose of the last fortnight had removed the effects of that terrible catastrophe; but on coming back to the same spot again, and more especially, standing here to address you, I feel somewhat of those same painful emotions which well-night prostrated me before. You will therefore excuse me this morning . . . I have been utterly unable to study. . . Oh, Spirit of God, magnify thy strength in thy servant’s weakness, and enable him to honour his Lord, even when his soul is cast down within him.

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Spurgeon, “The Exaltation of Christ,” NPSP, Sermon 101.  Quoted in Zack Eswine, Spurgeon’s Sorrows: Realistic Hope for Those Who Suffer from Depression (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2014), Kindle location 154.

Spoken the first time in the pulpit after the Surrey Gardens Music Hall tragedy in 1857 where seven died and over twenty were injured when hooligans yelled “Fire!” in the ten thousand seat complex, causing Spurgeon to sink in the deepest of depressions.