“A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything; it is flippant, hollow, unreal. A hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry. I speak of that religious …
Stay Real
“We must put away all notion of self-importance. God will not bless the man who thinks himself great. To glory even in the work of God the Holy Spirit in yourself is to tread dangerously near to self-adulation. ‘Let another praise thee, and not think own lips,’ and be very glad when that other has …
Yelling Is Not Preaching
“We must cultivate a cogent as well as a clear style; our speech must be forceful. Some imagine that this consists in speaking loudly, but i can assure them they are in error. Nonsense does not improve by being bellowed . . . Let us be forcible by reason of the excellence of our matter, …
Deep Preachers
“I believe that many ‘deep’ preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 210).
A Slander on the Oyster
“I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment this was a slander on the oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings, and knows when to close” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. …
If It Be Truth
“Be sure you have the truth, and then be sure you hold it. Be ready for fresh truth, if it be truth, but be very chary how you subscribe to the belief that a better light has been found than that of the sun” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 208).
To Whom Much Is Given
“Be masters of your Bibles, brethren . . . When grace abounds, learning will not puff you up, or injure your simplicity in the gospel. Serve God with such education as you have, and thank Him for blowing through you if you are a ram’s horn, but if there be a possibility of your becoming …
A Minister’s Family
“We ought to be such husbands that every husband in the parish may safely be such as we are. Is it so? We ought to be the best of fathers. Alas! some ministers, to my knowledge, are far from this, for as to their families, they have kept the vineyards of others, but their own …
Take It Easy
“Little learning and much pride comes of hasty reading. Books may be piled on the brain till it cannot work” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 177).
Watering the Soup, To Use Another Image
“This age is full of word-spinners — professional book-makers, who hammer a grain of matter so thin that it will cover a five-acre sheet of paper; these men have their uses, as gold-beaters have, but they are no use to you” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 177).