The Prince of Divines

Spurgeon on Owen:

It is unnecessary to say that he is the prince of divines. To master his works is to be a profound theologian. Owen is said to be prolix, but it would be truer to say that he is condensed. His style is heavy because he gives notes of what he might have said, and pass on without fully developing the great thoughts of his capacious mind. He requires hard study, and none of us ought to grudge it.

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1893), 103. 

Like a Loaf of Bread without Any Flour in It

C. H. Spurgeon:

The motto of all true servants of God must be, "We preach Christ, and him crucified." A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

—"Sermon 2899," in Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1904), 50:431, as cited in Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 84.

The Truest Devotion

"To desire my fellow creatures' good and to seek after it, to desire God's glory, and so to live as to promote it, is the truest of devotion."

—C. H. Spurgeon, "The Importunate Widow," in Miracles and Parables of Our Lord (vol. 3; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 435.

Spurgeon on Toning Down the Doctrines of Grace

"Oh to have done with all glory but glorying in the cross! . . . I am so sure about the whole matter, that if I were left alone in the world as the last believer in the doctrines of grace, I would not think of abandoning them, nor even toning them down to win a convert."

—C. H. Spurgeon, "The Search for Faith," in Miracles and Parables of Our Lord (vol. 3; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 453.

Carried to Heaven While Asleep in an Easy Chair?

C. H. Spurgeon on John Buynan's depiction of the Christian life in the Pilgrim's Progress:

John Buynan has not pictured Christian as carried to heaven while asleep in an easy chair. He makes him lose his burden at the foot of the cross, but he represents him as climbing Hill Difficulty on his hands and knees. Christian has to descend into the Valley of Humiliation, and to tread the dangerous pathway through the gloomy horrors of the Shadow of Death. He has to be urgently watchful to keep himself from sleeping in the Enchanted Ground. Nowhere is he delivered from the necessities incident to the way, for even at the last he fords the black river, and struggles with its terrible billows. Effort is used all the way through, and you that are pilgrims to the skies will find it to be no allegory, but a real matter of fact. Your soul must gird up her loins; you need your pilgrim's staff, and your armour. You must foot it all the way to heaven, contending with giants, fighting with lions, and combating Apollyon himself.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 134.

A Fight for One's Life

I'm not a pastor. But I still find this to be an important word about guarding time to read. More to the point, it is an important word about finding time for unhurried, unbroken communion with God over books. It is literally a fight for one's life!

Christian's Charity

C. H. Spurgeon sees Christian in Pilgrim's Progress as an example of being charitable toward all who profess to be Christians. In the words below, he's referring to the time when Christian met Formalist and Hypocrisy:

Well, these two men drew up apace to Christian, and he saluted them, for it is not Christian's duty to suspect anybody; and when he finds people in the right road, he must treat them as if they were sincere until he has proof to the contrary. If it is the law of England that every man is to be accounted honest, till he is proved to be a rogue, it should certainly be the law of the Christian Church.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 96.

Come, Let Us Spite the Devil

The apostle Paul commands the redeemed of the Lord to "rejoice always" (1 Thess. 5:16). And seeing the importance of this, he urges this upon believers regularly (e.g., Phil. 3:1; 4:4). Now for the religiously minded person, this is troublesome. That person says, "Just tell me what program or ritual to perform. Tell me where to show up, what motions to push through. Don't give me any of this feelings or emotions business. I can't generate that. And certainly not 'always.'" Exactly. You must be born again to obey such commands. You must be born again to be a Christian!

But if you are born again, rejoicing always should be at the top of your scale of priorities. And obeying the command to rejoice in the Lord always really ought not to be so hard for the regenerate. There are innumerable inducements to be joyful. But we miss them. We look right beyond them. So often we prefer to groan over some trifle that, in eternity, will prove to be like an irksome gnat that bothered you for two minutes on a bright, cool summer day off in the distance.

So C. H. Spurgeon says a good word about this privilege of every believer. It is one of our most potent weapons against Satan's stratagems. Let's hear it, and take it to heart:

It is the privilege of the true believer to be "singing all the time." Joy in God is suitable to our condition. Joy in the Lord is more injurious to Satan's empire than anything. I am of the same mind as Luther, who, when he heard any bad news, used to say, "Come, let us sing a psalm, and spite the devil."

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 86-87.

Sermons that Stoop

C. H. Spurgeon on the preacher humbling himself in the pulpit for the sake of coming clear to his listeners:

It is said that many of the sermons of Augustine are full of shockingly bad Latin, not because Augustine was a poor Latin scholar, but because the dog-Latin of the day was better suited to the popular ear than more classically correct language would have been; and we shall have to speak in similar style if we want to get hold of men.

There is a certain prudery about ministers which disqualifies them for some kinds of work; they cannot bring their mouth to utter the truth in such plain speech as fisher-women would understand, but happy is that man whose mouth is able to declare the truth in such a way that the person to whom he is speaking will receive it.

So Spurgeon concludes, "Learn to stoop."

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 58-59.

The Man Whose Name Was "Help"

Recalling the man named "Help" in Pilgrim's Progress, C. H. Spurgeon has a wonderful chapter in his Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress on how to be a "Help." You'll perhaps remember that Help found Christian in the Slough of Despond, and he compassionately stooped to help Christian out of the muck with his wise counsel.

Spurgeon tells of how he himself knew "about that awful Slough of Despond." He says, "I myself floundered in it for five years, or thereabouts, and am therefore well acquainted with its terrible geography." Moved with pity for those who also find themselves in the mire of despair, he says to his flock: "So, a little knot of Christian people, both men and women, should always be ready, in every church, to listen for cries of distress, and to watch for broken hearts and cast-down spirits."

Urging his people to imitate the man named Help, Spurgeon gave the following instruction for how they might be of help to those who, like Christian, need to be lifted out of the muck:

1. Get him to state his own case. When Help assisted Christian, he did not at once put out his hand to him; but he asked him what he did there, and why he did not look for the steps. It does men much good to make them unveil their spiritual griefs to their comforters. Confession to a priest is an abomination, but the communication of our spiritual difficulties to a fellow-Christian will often be a sweet relief and a helpful exercise.

2. Enter, as much as lieth in you, into the case before you. Help came to the the brink of the Slough, and stooped down to his poor friend. This may seem to you, perhaps, as an unimportant direction; but, depend upon it, you will be able to give very little help, in any, if you do not follow it. Sympathy is the mainspring of our ability to comfort others. If you cannot enter into a soul's distress, you will be no "Son of Consolation" to that soul. So, seek to bring yourselves down to "weep with them that weep," that you may uplift them to the platform of your joy.

3. Comfort these poor brethren with the promises of God. Help asked Christian why he did not look for the steps; for there were good and substantial stepping-stones placed through the very midst of the Slough; but Christian said he had missed them through excessive fear. We should point sinking souls to the many precious promises of God's Word. Brethren, mind that you are yourselves well acquainted with the consoling declarations of Scripture; have them on the tip of your tongue, ready for use at any time that they are required.

4. Try to instruct those who may need your help more fully in the plan of salvation. The preacher cannot, even with all his attempts, make the simple Gospel plain to some of his hearers; but you, who are no preachers, may be able to do it, because your state of mind and education may happen just to suit the comprehension of the person concerned. . . . If my brethren and sisters, the "helps," will be constantly and intelligently active, they may, by homely language, often explain where theologians only confuse; that which may not have been understood, in the form of scholastic divinity, may reach the heart when uttered in the language of daily life. We need parlour and kitchen and workshop preachers, who can talk the natural speech of men; Universities and Colleges often obscure the truth by their modes of speech.

5. Tell the troubled one your own experience. Many have been aided to escape from the Slough of Despond in this way. "What! exclaims the young friend to whom we are speaking, "did you ever feel as I do?" I have often been amused, when I have been talking with enquirers, to see them open their eyes with amazement to think I had ever felt as they did, whereas I should have opened mine with far greater astonishment if I had not. We tell our patients all their symptoms, and then they think we must have read their hearts; whilst the fact is, that our hearts are just like theirs, and, in reading ourselves, we read them.

6. Pray with them. Oh the power of prayer! When you cannot tell the sinner what you want to say, you can sometimes tell it to God in the sinner's hearing. There is a way of saying, in prayer with a person, what you cannot say direct to his face; and it is well, sometimes, when praying with another, to put the case very plainly and earnestly.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 38-48.

Preacher: Be Bold and Calm

C. H. Spurgeon on a man's public conduct as a preacher called of God:

My brethren, if the Lord has indeed ordained you to the ministry, you have the best reasons for being bold and calm, for whom have you to fear? You have to deliver your Lord's errand as he enables you, and if this be done, you are responsible to no one but your heavenly Master, who is no harsh judge. You do not enter the pulpit to shine as an orator, or to gratify the predilections of you audience; you are the messenger of heaven and not the servant of men.

 —“The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 163.

Preacher: Acquire Other Languages

C. H. Spurgeon on the value of learning languages to the expositor of sacred Scripture:

The acquisition of another language affords a fine drilling for the practice of extempore speech. Brought into connection with the roots of words, and the rules of speech, and being compelled to note the differentia of the two languages, a man grows by degrees to be much at home with parts of speech, moods, tenses, and inflections; like a workman he becomes familiar with his tools, and handles them as every day companions.

I know of no better exercise than to translate with as much rapidity as possible a portion of Virgil or Tacitus, and then with deliberation to amend one's mistakes. Persons who know no better, think all time thrown away which is spent upon the classics, but if it were only for the usefulness of such studies to the sacred orator, they ought to be retained in all our collegiate institutions.

Who does not see that the perpetual comparison of the terms and idioms of two languages must aid facility of expression? Who does not see moreover that by this exercise the mind becomes able to appreciate refinements and subtleties of meaning, and so acquires the power of distinguishing between things that differ—a power essential to an expositor of the Word of God, and an extempore declarer of his truth.

Learn, gentlemen, to put together, and unscrew all the machinery of language, mark every cog, and wheel, and bolt, and rod, and you will feel the more free to drive the engine, even at an express speed should emergencies demand it.

—“The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 160-161.

LIke a Silkworm Eating into the Leaf

C. H. Spurgeon on devouring the Word à la John Buynan:

Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts.  

It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord.  

I would quote John Buynan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim's Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, "Why, this man is a living Bible!" Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 5-6.

Orators Born, Not Bred

"All the rules of rhetoric, and all the artifices of oratory cannot make a man eloquent, it is a gift from heaven, and where it is withheld it cannot be obtained."

—C. H. Spurgeon, “The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 156.

Calvinism's Conservative Force

This is undoubtedly true.

Preacher: Pursue the Spirit's Power

C. H. Spurgeon gives a "diamond rule" for gaining and holding hearers' attention:

I will now give you a diamond rule, and conclude. Be yourself clothed with the Spirit of God, and then no question about attention or non-attention will arise. Come fresh from the closet and from communion with God, to speak to men for God will all your heart and soul. . . . When God speaks men must listen; and though he may speak through a poor feeble man like themselves, the majesty of the truth will compel them to regard his voice. Supernatural power must be your reliance. . . . If you do not touch the heart you will soon weary the ear. Clothe yourself, then, with the power of the Spirit of God, and preach to men as those who must soon give an account, and who desire that their account may not be painful to their people and grievous to themselves, but that it may be to the glory of God. 

—“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 149-150.

Preacher: Preach upon Practical Themes

C. H. Spurgeon on gaining your hearers' attention:

In order to secure attention all through a discourse we must make the people feel that they have an interest in what we are saying to them. This is, in fact, a most essential point, because nobody sleeps while he expects to hear something to his advantage. I have heard of some very strange things, but I never did hear of a person going to sleep while a will was being read in which he expected a legacy, neither have I heard of a prisoner going to sleep while the judge was summing up, and his life was hanging in jeopardy. Self-interest quickens attention. Preach upon practical themes, pressing, present, personal matters, and you will secure an earnest hearing.

—“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 149.

Preacher: Have Something to Say

C. H. Spurgeon's counsel on being interesting enough to be heard:

Your subject must weigh so much upon your own mind that you dedicate all your faculties at their best to the deliverance of your soul concerning it; and then when your hearers see that the topic has engrossed you, it will by degrees engross them.

And,

Romaine used to say it was well to understand the art of preaching, but infinitely better to know the heart of preaching; and in that saying there is no little weight. The heart of preaching, throwing of the soul into it, the earnestness which pleads as for life itself, is half the battle as to gaining attention. . . . Have something to say, and say it earnestly, and the congregation will be at your feet.  

—“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 146.

Preacher: Avoid Being Too Long

C. H. Spurgeon's counsel on the sermon's length:

A man with a great deal of well-prepared matter will probably not exceed forty minutes; when he has less to say he will go on for fifty minutes, and when he has absolutely nothing to say he will need an hour to say it in.

—“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 145.

Preacher: Spread Your Table Quickly

C. H. Spurgeon's counsel on the preacher's introduction:

As a rule, do not make the introduction too long. It is always a pity to build a great porch to a little house. . . . Spread your table quickly, and have done with the clatter of the knives and the plates. . . . I prefer to make the introduction of my sermon very like that of the town-crier, who rings his bell and cries, "Oh, yes! Oh, yes! This is to give notice," merely to let people know that he has news for them, and wants them to listen. To do that, the introduction should have something striking in it. It is well to fire a startling shot as the signal gun to clear the decks for action. Do not start at the full pitch and tension of your mind, but yet in such way that all will be led to expect a good time. 

 —“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 143.