Eswine's work demonstrates the value of reading biographies, old books, and sermons. Interacting with godly men and women from church history can be a vital aid to Christian maturity. He handles Spurgeon carefully, yet provocatively at points, and produces a volume that promises to help pastors and laypeople confront the sad terror of the dark night of the soul.

Zack Eswine, like Spurgeon, a preacher, pastor, and no stranger to suffering... there is much encouragement, comfort and practical help to be found in this rich and poetic treasure.

You can almost taste Spurgeon's tears in this book... Eswine's gentle, poetic, unmasking of Spurgeon's inner turmoil may become a soothing balm for your soul. It may not heal you, but a healthy empathy emerges when you read about the struggles of a man who has walked down the same dark alleys you stumble along, and somehow found God in the valley of despair. If you don't struggle with depression yourself, it will help you love those who do!

Zack Eswine is a pastor with the mind of a scholar and the heart of a poet. His wisdom gleaned from Charles Spurgeon's struggle with depression is theologically profound and pastorally lucid.

I highly recommend this book. It will help Christians at every stage of their Christian life to understand how to help those who often suffer in silence with depression and discouragement. This book will also help those who do struggle with discouragement and depression with the gospel. This is a must read book for pastors, counselors, biblical counselors to learn how to walk with those who struggle with discouragement and depression. This excellent book will bring much encouragement, comfort, and practical help to strugglers and ministers alike

There are few men I trust more to write a book on depression than Zack Eswine. His tears have freed me to embrace my tears, and his story of heartache has taken me further into my own. So Zack hasn't merely written a book chronicling Spurgeon's often debilitating struggles with melancholy and depression; he has given us a grace-full en ramp to understand our sorrows, and an incredibly practical guide for caring for heart-pained friends God places in our lives. I cannot wait to buy many copies of this book to give to strugglers and care-givers alike.

Most Christian books on depression depress me. This book is a very rare and precious gift of encouragement and help. In it two godly pastor-scholars open up their lives to us and share their hearts. Both have suffered profoundly and both have known seasons of deep despair and darkness. Together they bring us God's word, helping us wrestle with the scary fact that our Heavenly Father loves us dearly and sometimes calls us to lifelong struggles with dark despair. I wish I could give this book to everyone I have ever counselled or ever will counsel. It gives us a life-changing, gospel-saturated perspective on this very prevalent, painful, and confusing problem.

The words 'realistic hope' are in the subtitle, and that is exactly what this book offers. The writing style is winsome and the way he frames Spurgeon's quotes almost make it sound as if the great man was writing last week.