“Nor is suspicion merely a source of disquietude, it is a moral evil, and injures the character of the man who harbours it. Suspicion . . . creates . . . in ministers bitterness; such bitterness as in spirit dissolves all the ties of the pastoral relation, eating like a corrosive acid into the very …
Don’t Let Gossips Drive the Ministry
“Every church, and, for the matter of that, every village and family, is plagued with certain Mrs. Grundys, who drink tea and talk vitriol . . . There are also certain persons who are never so happy as when they are ‘grieved to the heart’ to have to tell the minister that Mr. A. is …
Love More Than Books
“Many preachers are utterly ignorant as to how the bulk of the people are living; they are at home among books, but quite at sea among men . . . Read men as well as books, and love men rather than opinions, or you will be inanimate preachers” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. …
Preaching in the Graveyard
“Remember, you are not sent to whiten tombs, but to open them” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 314).
Lost Fire
“There is, no doubt, such a thing as feeding the brain at the expense of the heart, and many a man in his aspirations to be literary has rather qualified himself to write reviews than to preach sermons. A quaint evangelist was wont to say that Christ hung crucified beneath Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. It …
So Spit on Your Hands, and Throw Your Necktie Over Your Shoulder
“If we are not zealous, neither will they be. It is not in the order of nature that rivers should run uphill, and it does not often happen that zeal rises from the pew to the pulpit” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 306).
So Put Food on the Table, Man!
“Dogs often fight because the supply of bones is scanty, and congregations frequently quarrel becaue they do not get sufficient spiritual meat to keep them happy and peaceful. The ostensible ground of dissatisfaction may be something else, but nine times out of ten deficiency in their rations is at the bottom of mutinies which occur …
Foppery in a Minister
“As for sensible men, and especially the sturdy workmen of our great cities, they utterly abhor foppery in a minister . . . It is a pity that we cannot persuade all ministers to be men, for it is hard to see how otherwise they will be truly men of God . . . A …
Don’t Preach Like a Specimen of the Third Sex
“‘Rustic coarseness’ is quite refreshing after one has been wearied with inane primness. Well did Cicero exhort orators to adopt their gestures rather from the camp or the wrestling ring than from the dancers with their effeminate niceties. Manliness must never be sacrificed to elegance” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 299).
The Light Arrows of Ridicule
“And therefore if I may in any measure redress the evil I will cheerfully bear the criticism of my more sombre brethren. I am deeply in earnest, however playful my remarks may seem to be. These follies may be best shot at by the light arrows of ridicule, and therefore I employ them, not being …