It was said of Martin Luther that the times he felt most in need of God’s support, comfort and consolation, a close presence of the Lord, were the times he experienced some of his biggst desertions. When he was about to speak before the Diet of Worms is one such example.

John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments of 1555, tell us of Mr Robert Glover of coventry, two or three days before his death, overwhelmed with the prospect of martyrdom, and mentioning to a friend his earnest supplication for the light of God’s countenance, yet without any sense of comfort. His darkness continued up to the period of his arriving within sight of the stake, when suddenly his whole soul was so filled with consolation, that he could not forbear clapping his hands, and crying out–”He is come!–he is come!” He appeared to go up to heaven in a chariot of fire, exhibiting little or no sensibility of his cruel death. Was not this the word of his righteousness to one, whose eyes failed in looking for it? [Ps. 119:123]