“Sensible persons do not expect a garden to yield them herbs from year to year unless they enrich the soil; they do not expect a locomotive to work without fuel, or even an ox or an ass to labour without food; let them, therefore, give over expecting to receive instructive sermons from men who are …
Fling Away the Stilts
“I am persuaded that one reason why our workingmen so universally keep clear of ministers is because they abhor their artificial and unmanly ways. If they saw us, in the pulpit and out of it, acting like real men, and speaking naturally, like honest men, they would come around us . . . The vice …
No Dualism Here
“A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 158).
Laid Up In Lavender
“We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed; we are to spend and be spent, not to lay ourselves up in lavender, and nurse our flesh” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 157).
And Other Days Your Tongue is a Brick
“It may save you much surprise and grief if you are forewarned that there will be great variations in your power of utterance. To-day your tongue may be the pen of a ready writer, to-morrow you thoughts and words may be alike frost-bound” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 152).
Courage in the Pulpit
“I must urge upon you the necessity of being cool and confident. As Sydney Smith says, ‘A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage'” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 150).
Seems Reasonable
“Take it as a rule without exception, that to be able to overflow spontaneously you must be full” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 145).
So Really Feed Them
“Churches are not to be held together except by an instructive ministry; a mere filling up of time with oratory will not suffice. Everywhere men ask to be fed, really fed” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 140).
Always Consistent, Never Predictable
“Do not say what everybody expected you would say. Keep your sentences out of ruts. If you have already said, ‘Salvation is all of grace’ not not always add, ‘and not by human merit,’ but vary it and say, ‘Salvation is all of grace; self-righteousness has not a corner to hide its head in.’ . …
Egg the Pudding, But Don’t Overegg the Pudding
“It is well that there should be a goodly number of illustrations in our discourses. We have the example of our Lord for that: and most of the greatest preachers have abounded in similies, metaphors, allegories, and anecdotes. But beware of overdoing this business” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 136).