Lectures to my Students | First Series
C.H. Spurgeon | 1843-1892
Written: 1875-94
Banner of Truth Edition: 2008, 2011, 2021
Hello Ordinary Readers,
This post is going to be a bit different from the others. I am excited to be reading C.H. Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students over the course of probably many years. In his lectures, Sprugeon has broken it out into three different series. My goal is to have a separate post for each series. I personally am meditating on a little bit each day. I will not be posting thoughts on each quote and meditation, but as I complete each series, I will summarize what I gained from it and who else should read. I encourage you to read along with me. I will be adding quotes as I go and who knows how long it will take to get through the first series.
Happy Reading!
I
The Minister’s Self-Watch
Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine.
1 Timothy 4:16
“...we shall usually do our Lord’s work best when our gifts and graces are in good order, and we shall do worst when they are most out of trim.”
“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.”
“No amount of fees paid to learned doctors, and no amount of classics received in return, appear to us to be evidences of a call from above. True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite; whatever ‘call’ a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”
“How can he daily bid men come to Christ, while he himself is a stranger to his dying love? O sirs, surely this must be perpetual slavery. Such a man must hate the sight of a pulpit as much as a galley-slave hates the oar.”
“Will it not grieve thee to see thy whole parish come bellowing after thee into hell, crying out, ‘This we have to thank thee for, though wast afraid to tell us of our sins, lest we should not put meat fast enough into thy mouth. o cursed wretch, who wast not content, blind guide as though wast, to fall into the ditch thyself, but hast also lead us thither with thee.’”
“His pulse of vital godliness must beat strongly and regularly; his eye of faith must be bright; his foot of resolution must be firm; his hand of activity must be quick; his whole inner man must be in the highest degree of sanity.”
“...I question, gravely question, whether a man who has grossly sinned should be very readily restored to the pulpit.”
“Upon the whole, no place is so assailed with temptation as the ministry.”
“No man preaches his sermon well to others if he doth not first preach it to his own heart.”
“O do not so far gratify Sata; do not make him so much sport: suffer him not to use you as the Philistines did Samson - first to deprive you of your strength, and then to put out your eyes, and so to make you the matter of his triumph and derision. ”
“True ministers are always ministers.”
“The man of God should imitate his Master in this; he should be mighty both in the word of his doctrine and in the deed of his example, and mightiest, if possible, in the second.”
“...the truth must not only be in us, but shine from us.”
“Avoid little debts, unpunctuality, gossipping, nicknaming, petty quarrels, and all other of those little vices which fill the ointment with flies.”
“Here the minister must not fail. his private life must ever keep good tune with his ministry, or his day will soon set with him, and the sooner he retires the better, for his continuance in his office will only dishonour the cause of God and ruin himself.”
II
The Call to the Ministry
“...whether believers are male or female, they are all bound, when enabled by divine grace, t o exert themselves to the utmost to extend the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“In the present dispensation, the priesthood is common to all the saints; but to prophesy, or what is analogous thereto, namely, to be moved by the Holy Ghost to give oneself up wholly to the proclamation of the gospel, is, as a matter of fact, the gift and calling of only a comparatively small number...”
“...does not the very soul of the ambassadorial office lie in the appointment which is made by the monarch represented?”
“The Master is not to be denied the choice of the vessels which he uses, he will still say of certain men as he did of Saul of Tarsus, ‘He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles’ (Acts 9:15).”
“In order to further prove a man’s call, after a little exercise of his gifts, such as I have already spoken of, he must see a measure of conversion work going on under his efforts.”
“Brethren, if the Lord gives you no zeal for souls, keep to the lapstone or the trowel, but avoid the pulpit as you value your heart’s peace and your future salvation.”
“It is needful as proof of your vocation that your preaching should be acceptable to the people of God.”
“Churches are not all wise, neither do they all judge in the power of the Holy Ghost, but many of them judge after the flesh; yet I had sooner accept the opinion of a company of the Lord’s people than my own upon so personal a subject as my own gifts and graces.”
“The main difference between a minister and a private Christian, seems to consist in those ministerial gifts, which are imparted to him, not for his own sake, but for the edification of others. ”
“We must try whether we can endure browbeating, weariness, slander, jeering, and hardship; and whether we can be made the off-scouring of all things, and be treated as nothing for Christ’s sake.”