Several years ago I was listening to a John Piper sermon, where he was explaining how he came to have such a fascination with Jonathan Edwards. He explained that one of his professors in college had challenged the class to pick a puritan author and devote themselves to becoming a student of his writing. I’ve always thought this was a good idea, but my problem was that I could not find a puritan that I really wanted to read like that. After reading “Lectures to My Students” by Charles Spurgeon I’ve decided that rather than devoting myself to reading a puritan I want to read as much of Spurgeon as I can.
Spurgeon had a Pastor’s College where he would train young men for the ministry. The book Lectures to My Students is a collection of the talks that he would give at the college. While the book is over a hundred years old, the advice that Spurgeon gives is timeless and has proven to be a great help to me in the ministry.
It took me over a year to read through Lectures to My Students. I began with gusto, but somehow got distracted by other books along the way, but I always came back. Something about Spurgeon’s writing draws you in and holds you there while you are reading, but admittedly the size of the book is rather daunting. Lectures weighs in at 442 pages, which is not very much, but when you take into account the fact that the publisher used the smallest possible font available and filled the pages from top to bottom with virtually no margins, the size of the book grows dramatically. This is not a criticism, because what is in Lectures is pure gold, but it does take a significant investment of time to be read well.
Lectures to My Students covers almost every imaginable area of Pastoral Ministry from the call to the ministry to the use and care for one’s voice. Spurgeon leaves no stone unturned and fills his volume with useful, biblical advice for the ministry as well as humorous anecdotes from his own ministry.
One of my favorite lines from the book comes in the second to last chapter where Spurgeon writes, “The way to get a mind worth having is to get one well stored with things worth keeping.” This is a book worth reading because it will fill the mind with truths worth having.
June 08 2009 | Blog | No Comments »
“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne!” Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in heaven–with His wounds? The wounds of Jesus are–His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is lovely, because He is “white and ruddy”; white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the Lily of matchless purity–and as the Rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely in His life and His teaching–but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as He who hung upon the cross! There we behold all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed!Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more lovely in our eyes–than all the splendor and pomp of kings! The thorny crown is more attractive than any imperial diadem. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb–as His court dress in which He wooed our souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ–they are the trophies of His love and of His victory! He has redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number–and these scars are the memorials of the fight! Ah! if Christ delights to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people–how precious should His wounds be to us!
“Behold how every wound of His,
A precious balm distills,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;
The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected bliss,
In paradise above!”
April 09 2009 | Blog | No Comments »
“Casting all your care upon Him–for He cares for you!” 1 Peter 5:7
It is a happy way of soothing sorrow, when we can feel–”HE cares for ME!” Christian! do not dishonor God, by always wearing a brow of worry! Come–cast your burden upon your God! You are staggering beneath a weight–which your Father would not feel. What seems like a crushing burden to you–would be but as small dust to Him. Nothing is so sweet as to,
“Lie passive in God’s hands,
And know no will, but His.”
O child of suffering–be patient! God has not overlooked you in His providence. He who is the feeder of sparrows–will also furnish you with what you need. Do not sit down in despair.
There is One who cares for you!
His all-seeing eye is fixed on you!
His all-loving heart beats with pity for your woe!
His omnipotent hand shall yet bring you the needed help!
The darkest cloud–shall scatter itself in showers of mercy.
The blackest gloom–shall give place to the morning light.
If you are one of His family–He will bind up your wounds, and heal your broken heart. Do not doubt His grace, because of your troubles–but believe that He loves you as much in seasons of distress–as in times of happiness. What a serene and quiet life might you lead–if you would leave providing–to the God of providence!
If God cares for you–why need you care also? Can you trust Him for your soul–and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens–He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! Be done with fretful worry–and leave all your concerns in the hand of your gracious God! – Charles Spurgeon
April 03 2009 | Blog | No Comments »
The following is taken from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening. I have to warn you that it drove me to tears to read in such vivid terms about my precious Lord Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw his hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; he is manna always falling round the camp; he is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of his grace is always dropping; the river of his bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing. As the King can never die, so his grace can never fail. Daily we pluck his fruit, and daily his branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy. There are seven feast-days in his weeks, and as many as are the days, so many are the banquets in his years. Who has ever returned from his door unblessed? Who has ever risen from his table unsatisfied, or from his bosom un-emparadised? His mercies are new every morning and fresh every evening. Who can know the number of his benefits, or recount the list of his bounties? Every sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of his kindness, and with the yellow gold of his affection. The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sands of his favour. The countless stars are but as the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings. Who can count the dust of the benefits which he bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of the fourth part of his mercies towards Israel? How shall my soul extol him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as his bounty! O miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent? Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call thee no more my glory, but my shame. Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early.
April 23 2008 | Blog | No Comments »
I try to make a habit of reading Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening every day, at least in the mornings. Today’s reading touched my heart powerfully, so I decided to share it here.
Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”
February 26 2008 | Blog | No Comments »
Several years ago I was listening to a John Piper sermon, where he was explaining how he came to have such a fascination with Jonathan Edwards. He explained that one of his professors in college had challenged the class to pick a puritan author and devote themselves to becoming a student of his writing. I’ve always thought this was a good idea, but my problem was that I could not find a puritan that I really wanted to read like that. After reading “Lectures to My Students” by Charles Spurgeon I’ve decided that rather than devoting myself to reading a puritan I want to read as much of Spurgeon as I can.
