What caused Oswald Chambers’ “Dark Night of the Soul?”
I received the question recently while writing an article for a special edition of Christian History Magazine to be published in March 2025.
The entire issue is dedicated to Oswald Chambers (OC), his life, and his work.
No surprise, I’m writing about Biddy.
But I also wrote an article about OC’s experiences during World War I and how they connected to Oswald Chambers’ personal 1899 “Dark Night of the Soul.”
The answer?
You’ll have to read the magazine yourself.
What is a “dark night of the soul?“
Generally thought to be a spiritual crisis, the concept comes from 16th-century Spanish Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross.
The description refers to a faith crisis in a Christian’s spiritual life. The person can sense God’s presence but can’t connect well with Him.
Some believe it stems from a Christian’s reluctance to submit or sacrifice their life to God.
The period is frightening and painful and can last a long time. (In OC’s case, it went on for seven years–even as he taught at Dunoon College).
During a dark night of the soul, a person seeks God, wants to know Him, and prays for wisdom and insight.
It doesn’t stem from a lack of faith or fear—just an inability to connect with the Creator of the Universe.
The result? The Christian feels lost, uncertain, and unsure of what to do.
That describes Oswald Chambers as the nineteenth century turned to the twentieth.
So, what happened to Oswald Chambers?
Oswald Chambers originally studied art and earned an Art Master’s Certificate. He dreamed of becoming a commercial artist. He continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh–where his dreams fell apart.
Always an intellectual, OC saw himself as a man who could bridge the gap between Christianity and the arts.
But he could not find a job as a professional artist.
He felt like a failure.
About this time, his long-term romance with a London girl ended.
Then, there was his father–who wanted to know why he wasn’t earning any money.
What to do?
God called him? Didn’t he?
One 1897 night, in despair, OC climbed to the top of Arthur’s Seat, a tall hill opposite Edinburgh’s old town. He’d decided to stay up all night, praying on that hill, to discover what to do next.
He heard God speak that night: “I want you in My service–but I can do without you.”
When he returned to his lodgings in the morning, OC found an unsolicited report from Dunoon College–a theological school near Glasgow.
Was that his answer?
He wrote to the principal, Reverend Duncan MacGregor, with questions.
But then OC heard Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission speak.
“Hudson Taylor said that Our Lord’s words, ‘Have faith in God’ really means ‘Have faith in the faithfulness of God,’ not in your own faithfulness.”
(Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God p. 59)
OC went to Dunoon College in 1897.
But why didn’t his “dark night of the soul” lift?
Chambers’ emotions didn’t automatically change in his new location.
OC described those seven years in Dunoon as the most important of his life. As his faith wavered–and took him to the brink of despair–he continued to minister.
OC taught his classes, wrote for the local paper, ministered, and prayed–with McGregor’s wise counsel.
He felt like an imposter.
This went on for several years.
Then, a girl at a local church accused OC of impropriety.
The church authorities investigated. Their findings vindicated him and his character.
But the girl’s false accusation sobered him–not because it was true, but because the proud OC who taught at a Bible school realized he could have fallen into immorality.
That left him, a 26-year-old whose dreams were not working out, feeling bewildered– ‘What IS the point of my life?’
What changed?
As things came to a head in 1901, OC attended a Pentecostal League of Prayer meeting.
A woman told the congregation to pray while she sang, “Touch Me Again, Lord.”
As described in Oswald Chambers: His Life and Work:
“I felt nothing, but I knew emphatically my time had come, and I rose to my feet. I had no vision of God, only a sheer dogged determination to take God at His Word and to prove this thing for myself, and I stood up and said so.”
That evening marked the turning point of his life.
“His inner turmoil had given way to transforming peace . . . When you know what God has done for you, the power and the tyranny of sin is gone, and the radiant, unspeaking emancipation of the indwelling Christ has come . . . Finally, the long night was over and peace had come.
The citadel of his heart had fallen, not to a conquering Christ, but to the gentle knocking of a wounded hand. In a new and powerful way, at the age of twenty-seven, the story of Oswald Chambers’ life had just begun.”
(Abandoned to God, p. 87)
How did that tie into OC’s ministry during WWI?
In the lives of the soldiers he loved 15 years later, OC probably saw the same empty and purposeless feelings within them: dark nights of the soul.
Like OC, only stuck in the Egyptian desert awaiting a call to battle, they might have wondered:
- What am I doing here?
- Will I ever amount to anything?
- What led me to end up here when I had opportunities and talents unrelated to war?
- Is my life just a waste?
- Who does God see me to be?
OC was a much better minister to the soldiers because he recognized their struggles from his past.
He knew the internal and emotional pressures that might cause them to do something stupid because they felt valueless.
Most Zeitoun soldiers would have been between 15 and 30 years old–OC’s same age when the false accusation came.
The Zeitoun soldiers recognized his identification with them, which made OC’s ministry so profound.
Was Oswald Chambers’ dark night of the soul pointless?
Of course not.
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