Give Your All to Jesus by Charles Spurgeon

This is, practically, a promise that, by diligent meditation and the giving up of our whole mind to our work for the LORD we shall make a progress which all can see. Not by hasty reading but by deep meditation we profit by the Word of God. Not by doing a great deal of work in a slovenly manner, but by giving our best thought to what we attempt, we shall get real profit. "In all labor there is profit" but not in fuss and hurry without true heart-energy.

If we divide ourselves between God and mammon, or Christ and self, we shall make no progress. We must give ourselves wholly to holy things, or else we shall be poor traders in heavenly business, and at our stocktaking no profit will be shown.

Am I a minister? Let me be a minister wholly and not spend my energies upon secondary concerns. What have I to do with party politics or vain amusements? Am I a Christian? Let me make my service of Jesus my occupation, my lifework, my one pursuit. We must be in-and-in with Jesus, and then out-and-out for Jesus, or else we shall make neither progress nor profit, and neither the church nor the world will feel the forceful influence which the LORD would have us exercise.

Gleanings from an 1894 Sword and Trowel: Spurgeon at a Wedding (part one).

I now introduce to you one of my favourite selections from the 1894 Sword and Trowel—Mr. Spurgeon at a Wedding. The article is doubly sweet; it first gives an account by a Pastors’ College man of Spurgeon conducting his marriage ceremony, and then is followed by a recording of the sermon by the one of the editors of the magazine. (The editing of The Sword and the Trowel was a collaborative effort after Spurgeon died, so I am unsure of who authored the piece.) I’ll include the editor’s introduction and the groom’s account in this post, and will provide the sermon in another.

Here’s the article:

Among the reminiscences of the late beloved President, sent to us, two years ago, by brethren trained in the Pastors’ College, was one which we thought it well to retain until we could give a report of the special service to which the writer alludes. The right time for its publication appears now to have arrived; and the present article will appropriately follow the touching address printed in the last month’s Magazine under the title, Mr. Spurgeon at a Funeral. [I plan to publish that article soon to TheLifeWord.] There, we saw our late dear Editor sympathizing with the sorrowing; here, we think of him as increasing the joy of those who had reached the happiest hour of their lives. Pastor E.A. Hobby of Macclesfield, is the minister referred to, and his note concerning the memorable event is as follows:—

“How well do I remember my last interview with our beloved President! It was on a bright spring morning, in the month of May, 1890, when he came down from ‘Westwood’ to Thornton Heath, to conduct our marriage service in Beulah Baptist Chapel. Having arrived a few minutes before time, we waited for him in the vestry. Presently the door opened, and he entered, with a bright, happy smile upon his face. After a pleasant greeting, in a few kind words he presented my wife with Morning by Morning, in which he had written ‘To Mrs. Hobby, on her wedding day, May 6th, 1890, with best wishes and prayers of C. H. Spurgeon,’ and Evening by Evening, containing the inscription, ‘The Lord bless thee and keep thee!’ He also gave me a morocco-bound Revised New Testament, inscribed, ‘With the Christian love of C.H. Spurgeon.’

“After expressing our hearty thanks, we adjourned to the chapel, where the ceremony took place. After the legal part of the service was completed, and he had addressed us in some wise, cheery words, he turned to those who had witnessed the ceremony, and made a very touching appeal to the unconverted. What an appeal that was! How our hearts throbbed, and our eyes filled with tears, as the great preacher, in simple, searching, pathetic language pleaded for some soul to yield to Christ as a fitting seal to that happy covenant of love! After the address came the closing prayer,—such a prayer as he alone could offer; it was full of yearning for souls, gratitude for the Lord’s goodness, and holy unction.

“It is needless to say that we thanked our beloved President very heartily for his great kindness; but he persisted in saying that the obligation was on his side, thanking us for coming such a great distance to be married by him, and then adding, ‘Would you like an hour at “Westwood”?’ Of course we should; and time-tables were soon consulted, and later trains arranged for. So to ‘Westwood’ we went. He did not begrudge us the time, which he could ill afford to spare; but himself conducted us through the greenhouses and grounds. How those plants seemed to speak, as he described them to us! He appeared to be introducing us to friends as well as to flowers; a little tale about one, a sweet promise associated with another, and in a marvellous way he unveiled the works of God in nature. We had all the poetry of Pantheism set to the metre of the personality of God. From the greenhouses we went to the fernery, where we were shown the famous ‘mother-fern’, mentioned in The Sword and the Trowel for December, 1891.

“Last, but not least, we visited the President’s special ‘sanctum’, ‘the den.’ This seemed to us a peculiarly-consecrated room; for there, the man of God held secret communion with his Maker; there the famous Jerusalem blade was sharpened for the fray; there, the mighty warrior buckled on the breastplate of righteousness, and was shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Fain would we linger in this heavenly atmosphere; but time forbids. We must say, ‘Farewell,’ and feel thankful for the unexpected pleasure of spending an extra hour with the one we love so well. As we pass out, through the casement by which we entered, I turn for a parting glance, and breathe an almost inaudible ‘Good-bye.’ The indefatigable toiler was already at work; but his quick ear caught my words, and he responded, ‘Good-bye, dear brother, and God bless you!’ Thus ended my last interview with our beloved President.”

As soon as time allows, I will post the rest of this excellent article. The address Spurgeon gave included a most interesting charge to the wife in anticipation of her future role as the wife of a pastor. Be sure to return to read it.

Coming Soon: More 1894 Sword and Trowel Posts

If you are new to my blog, the life word, welcome. The chart above reveals that I’m not accustomed to having so many show up. Phil Johnson’s kind recommendation brought a surge of visits! My dear friend's tip led you here, and I hope what you find will bring you back.

For the next several posts, I plan to continue pulling out sections from an 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowel I acquired. I've listed below the kind of things you’ll find here over the next several weeks. I do hope you’ll return. And, if you like what you see, please bookmark my site, link me to yours and let others know too.

Here’s a sampling of posts coming soon:

Spurgeon’s sermons burned!

A cripple’s recollection of Spurgeon

Spurgeon’s charge at a wedding

Spurgeon preaching a Funeral

Excerpts from otherwise unpublished sermons preached at New Park Street Chapel

Bruised Reeds: Suffering Pastors battling the Downgrade in their Churches (several posts)

Spurgeon’s appeal for Home Mission Evangelists

Tom Spurgeon’s visit to see D.L. Moody in Chicago

Sermons from Mentone

Remembrances and other choice remarks from Mrs. Spurgeon

The Met Tab’s calling of Tom Spurgeon as pastor

Gleanings from 1894 Sword and Trowel: At the Pastors' College

I’ll never forget my first visit to The Master’s Seminary, over which John MacArthur presides as president. I sat in a theology class taught by George Zemek and took in with sheer delight God’s word expressed so fully, so completely, so passionately.

What would it be like to spend time at the Pastors’ College, where Spurgeon presided as President? One of the former students, Pastor W. D. McKinney, gave this account; remembrances flavoured by the recent and bittersweet loss of President Spurgeon:

All through the week, there was, usually, plenty of hard work for the students. English Literature and Mental Philosophy were taught by the laborious Fergusson. Those who were in his classes had to work, or woe be to them! Gracey, mildly yet firmly, led his men through Greek, Latin, and Elisha Cole’s Divine Sovereignty, till their brows throbbed, and their backs ached. He smiled on the industrious and quietly marked the laggards. Then Mr. Rogers, in the general classroom, conducted us to the fountain-head of Theology. The march was over the old highway of logical and Scriptural reasoning; but, often, “the old man eloquent” would cheer our drooping spirits by rare bursts of matchless oratory. The Vice-President drilled us in Charnock on the Attributes, and then made us grub Hebrew roots till we were as weary as the Israelites in the brickfields of Egypt.

Friday afternoon came at last. The old, familiar clock pointed to three; the door opened on the stroke of the hour, the beloved President appeared, and walked up to the desk, while hands clapped, feet stamped, and voices cheered, till he had to hold up his hand, and say, “Now, gentlemen, do you not think that is enough? The floor is weak, the ceiling is not very high, and I am sure, you need all the strength you have for your labours.”

In those days, the President was in his prime. His step was firm, his eyes bright, his hair raven-black, his voice full of music, pathos, and merriment. Before him were gathered a hundred men from all parts of the United Kingdom, and not a few from beyond the seas. They were brought together by the magic of his name, and the attraction of his personal influence. His fame has gone out into all lands. His sermons were published in almost all languages. Many sitting before him were his own sons in the faith. Among his students he was at his ease, as a father in the midst of his own family. The brethren loved him, and he loved them.

Soon, the floods of his pent up wisdom poured forth; the flashes of his inimitable wit lit up every face, and his pathos brought tears to all eyes. It was an epoch in student-life to hear him deliver his Lectures to my Students. What wide discourse he gave us on the subject of preaching! How gently he corrected faults, and encouraged genuine diffidence! What withering sarcasm for all fops and pretenders! Then came those wonderful imitations of the dear brethren’s peculiar mannerisms,—one with the hot dumplings in his mouth, trying to speak; another, sweeping his hand up and down from nose to knee; a third, with his hands under his coat-tails, making the figure of a water-wagtail. Then the one with his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat showing the “penguin” style of oratory. By this means, he held the mirror before us so that we could see our faults, yet all the while we were almost convulsed with laughter. He administered the medicine with effervescing draughts.

After this, came the wise advice, so kind, so grave, so gracious, so fatherly; then the prayer that lifted us to the mercy-seat, where we caught glimpses of glory, and talked face to face with the Master Himself. Afterwards, the giving-out of the appointments for the next Lord’s-day took place. The dear President read from the letters in his hand, while we listened in expectation. “Here is one from an important church in a large city. They want a brother who must be eloquent, learned, polite, and very pious. Gentlemen, you are all endowed with these qualifications, how can I make a selection? Here, Small, you can go, for you are about the smallest of the lot, and we must keep our large men for the little places; they will be sure to fill them.

“Another brother is wanted for Ireland. There they have killed one already, and made two invalids. Here, Smith, you look tough; start off for the bogs, ‘Come back with your shield, or on it.’

“An extra good brother is called for from Scotland. He must be sound in the faith, and able to live on a pound a week. My thin brother Snooks, will you try ‘the land o’ cakes and heather’? Yes, I knew you needed less than any man in the College; you lived on eighteenpence one week, before you entered. If you get any thinner, come back at once for some English beef and plum-pudding.

“Gentlemen, here is another letter from the ancient church of Puddleton. It has had sixteen men in weekly (weakly) succession. Remember that it is a ‘hyper’ church, and wants at least sixteen ounces to the pound. Who will volunteer? Black is the man. Go, my brother, but be wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove. In the meantime, hold on with both your hands; when they fail, catch hold with your teeth; if they give out, hang on with your eyebrows.

After the letters were disposed of, and the class dismissed for tea, then came the men who wanted advice. Some were in trouble, others in joy; and the President listened patiently to all their tales; anon he would laugh, and then he would weep. At last he is through, “weary in the work, but not weary of it.” His cheery voice gradually dies away as he ascends the stairs to his “Sanctum.” We did not grieve as we parted from him, for we knew that, God willing, on the next Friday afternoon, we should once more see his bright, genial face and hear his wit and wisdom again.

The present students listen in vain for the tones of that wonderful voice in the class-room; they hear only its echoes. He has gone up in the “the unseen holy,” where he awaits his sons in the faith.

Gleanings from 1894 Sword and Trowel; Pastors' College Statistics

Well, after that Fool’s Day diversion, it is time to return to better and more important things. In my reading I came across a report on the Pastor’s College that astounded me. I’ll provide the excerpt from the 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowel and then explain what captured me:

During the past thirty-eight years, nine hundred and nine men exclusive of those at present studying with us, have been received into the College, “of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some (ninety-six) are fallen asleep.” Making all deductions, there are about seven hundred and thirty brethren. Of these, six hundred and fifty-one are in our own denomination as Pastors, Missionaries, and Evangelists.

They may be thus summarized:--

Number of brethren who have been educated in the College...909
Number now in our ranks as Pastors, Missionaries and Evangelists...651
Number without Pastorates, but regularly engaged in the work of the Lord...30
Number not now engaged in the work, but useful in secular callings...28
Number educated for other Denominations...2
Number dead (Pastors, 87; Students, 9)...96
Number permanently invalided...15
Number removed from the College List for various reasons...87

To this “summary” the late beloved President in one of the Reports appended the following note: “The last were not removed from our list in all cases from causes which imply any dishonour, for many of them are doing good service to the common Lord under some other banner. We are sorry for their leaving us, and surprised that they should change their views; but this also is one of those mysteries of human life which are beyond our control.”

We ought to add, that for years past we have lost all traces of many of those referred to, and have reason to believe that several of them are dead.

I would love to hear your reaction to that little article. What amazes me is the high percentage of pastors, missionaries and evangelists that were produced in relation to the number of graduates from the Pastor’s College. I’m not versed in seminary stats, but I am astounded that well over 700 of 909 trained men went into full-time ministry.

What is your estimate of the reasons for that? Please comment.

Spurgeon's charge to Trinity Road Chapel

You’ll discover in volume 28 of C.H. Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit that the last sermon (no. 1697, titled The Word of a King) was preached “at the opening of a new Baptist Chapel, Trinity Road, Upper Tooting.” In an earlier post, I outlined the significant influence Spurgeon had upon the church I serve, Trinity Road Chapel.

After giving three fine points in his sermon about the power of the Word of God, Spurgeon made some direct remarks to our church. His remarks, powerful as they were when first uttered, are just as timely today. They deserve to be heard. No. Rather, they deserve the attention necessary to memorize them. Better yet; they deserve repeated again and again till the whole of the church is saturated with them and welcomes them in their practice.

Here is Spurgeon’s charge to Trinity Road Chapel:

I intend to address myself to all people of God who are associated in church-fellowship, and striving to do the Lord’s service; and to you who will be so associated here. My text is to be used TO DIRECT YOUR EFFORTS.

You need power; not the power of money, or mind, or influence, or numbers; but “power from on high.” All other power may be desirable, but this power is indispensable. Spiritual work can only be done by spiritual power. I counsel you in order to get spiritual power in all that you do to keep the King’s commandment, for “where the word of a king is, there is power.”

Lay not a stone of your spiritual church without his overseeing; do all things according as he has ordained; regard him as the wise Master-builder, and be all of you under the command of his word. The day cometh when much that has been built shall be destroyed, for the fire will try every man’s work of what sort it is. It is very easy to heap up a church with wood, hay, and stubble, which the fire will soon destroy; and it is very hard work to build one up with gold, silver, and precious stones; for these are rare materials, and must be diligently sought for, laboriously prepared, and carefully guarded. The materials that will stand the fire of temptation, trial, death, and the like, are not to be brought together by any word but the word of the Lord; but these alone are worth having.

I had sooner have half-a-dozen Christian people, truly spiritual and obedient to the word of the Lord in all things, than I would have half-a-dozen thousands of nominal Christians who neither care about the word nor the King.

If you want power, keep the King’s commandment, keep close to it in all things, and make it the law of your house and the motto of your flag. Wherein you go beyond the word. you go beyond the power, and wherein you stop short of the word you also stop short of the power. In the King’s word there is power, and you will have power as long as you keep to it: but real power is nowhere else to be found. Let us take care that we do not look elsewhere for power, for that will he leaving the fountains of living waters to hew out to ourselves broken cisterns which hold no water.

I fear that some Christian people have been looking in many other directions for the power which can only be found in the word of the King.

At one time we were told that power lay in an educated ministry; people said, “We must have a minister who knows Greek and Latin: you cannot save souls unless you are familiar with the heathen classics.” This superstition has suffered many a blow from the manifest successes of those whose only language is the grand old Saxon.

Then the cry was, “Well, really, we do not want these men of education; we need fluent speakers, men who can tell a great many anecdotes and stories. These are men of power.” I hope we shall outgrow this delusion also.

The Lord works by either of these classes of men, or by others who have not the qualifications of either of them, or by another sort of men, or fifty sorts of men, so long as they keep to the word of the King, in which there is power. There is power in the gospel if it be preached by a man utterly without education: unlearned men have done great things by the power of the word. The polished doctor of divinity has been equally useful when he has kept to his Master’s word. But if either of these has forgotten to make Christ’s word first and last, the preaching has been alike powerless, whether uttered by the illiterate or the profound.

Others have thought it necessary, in order to have power among the masses (that is the cant phrase), that there should be fine music. An organ is nowadays thought to be the power of God; and a choir is a fine substitute for the Holy Ghost. They have tried that kind of thing in America, where solos and quartets enable singing men and singing women to divide their services between the church and the theater. Some churches have paid more attention to the choir than to the preaching. I do not believe in it. If God had meant people to he converted in that way, he would have sent them a command to attend the music-halls and operas, for there they will get far better music than we can hope to give them.

If there be charms in music to change the souls of men from sin to holiness, and if the preaching of the gospel will not do it, let us have done with Peter and Paul, with Chalmers and with Chrysostom, and let us exalt Mozart and Handel into their places, and let the great singers of the day take the places of the pleaders for the Lord. Even this would not content the maniacs of this age, for with the music-room they crave the frippery of the theater. Combine with philosophy the sweet flowers of oratory and those of Covent Garden, adding thereto the man-millinery and gewgaws of Rome, and then you can exclaim, with the idolaters of old, “These be thy gods, O Israel.”

Men are now looking for omnipotence in toys. But we do not believe it. We come back to this, “Where the word of a king is, there is power,” and while we are prepared to admit that all and everything that has to do with us can be the vehicle of spiritual power if God so wills, we are more than ever convinced that God has spiritual power to give by his word alone. We must keep to the King’s word if we desire to have this spiritual power for the Lord’s work.

Whatsoever you find in Scripture to be the command of the Mug, follow it, though it leads you into a course that is hard for the flesh to bear: I mean a path of singular spirituality, and nonconformity to the world. Remember that, after all, the truth may be with the half-dozen, and not with the million. Christ’s power may be with the handful as it was at Pentecost, when the power came down upon the despised disciples, and not upon the chief priests and scribes, though they had the sway in religious matters.

If we want to win souls for Christ we must use the word of God to do it. Other forms of good work languish unless the gospel is joined with them. Set about reforming, civilizing, and elevating the people, and you will lose your time unless you evangelize them.

The total abstinence movement is good, and I would that all would aid it, but it effects little unless the gospel furnishes the motive and the force. It will win its way in proportion as it is carried on in subordination to the gospel, and is viewed as a means to reach a still higher end. The rod works no wonder till Moses grasps it; and moral teaching has small force till Jesus operates by it. Those who doubt the power of the gospel, and leave it for other forms of hopeful good, leave strength for weakness, omnipotence for insufficiency.

More and more I am persuaded that it is where the word of a King is that there is power, and all the rest is feebleness until that word has infused might into it. Everyone must buy his own experience, but mine goes to prove to me that the direct and downright preaching of the gospel is the most profitable work which I ever engage in: it brings more glory to God and good to men than all lecturing and addressing upon moral subjects. I should always, if I were a farmer, like to sow that seed which would bring me in the best return for my labor.

Preaching the gospel is the most paying thing in the world; it is remunerative in the very highest sense. May your minister stick to the gospel, the old-fashioned gospel, and preach nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. If people will not hear that, do not let them hear anything at all it is better to be silent than to preach anything else. Paul said, and I will say the same, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

Then again, if you want power, you must use this word in pleading. If your work here is to be a success, there must be much praying; everything in God’s house is to be done with prayer. Give me a praying people, and I shall have a powerful people. The word of the King is that which gives power to our prayers. I have been requested to preach, in certain places, and I have replied that I could not go. In a little time I have received a letter to remind me that two years before I promised to go. This altered the case: I had no choice. I must go, whether I could or not, for my word was pledged to it. So if you can go to the Lord with his pledged word, and say, “Lord, thou hast said it: thou must do it,” he will be true to his word to you, for there is power in the word of a King.

There is power in accepting that word, in getting it into you, or receiving it. You never keep the truth till you have received this word of a King into your spiritual being, and absorbed it into your spiritual nature. Oh, that you might every one of you eat the word, live on it, and make it your daily food!

And then, there is power in the practising of it. Where there is life through the King’s word, it will be a strong life. The sinner’s life is a feeble life; but an obedient life, an earnest Christian life, is a life of strength. Even those who hate it and abhor it cannot help feeling that there is a strange influence about it which they cannot explain, and they must respect it.

You will see its power in this place; I know you will see it, for you are resolved in God’s strength that it shall he so. You will see its power to fill the place. There is nothing so attractive as the gospel of Christ. If you were to give a man the Tabernacle at Newington, and say to him, “There, you may lecture on geology, astronomy, or any thing you like, twice on the Sunday, and every night in the week as well, if you please, and see if you can keep up a full congregation,” he would fail. The people would not come for any length of time; and yet without any great oratory we preach the gospel again and again, and the people come: they cannot help it. They hear nothing new; it is always the same thing over again, and yet it is never monotonous; there is always a glorious freshness about the gospel. That one silver bell of the gospel has more melody in it than can be drawn from all the bells in all the steeples in the world. There is more sweetness in that one name Jesus than in all the harps of angels, let alone the music of men.

When Jesus Christ’s deity is denied in any chapel, it soon becomes a howling wilderness. If Christ, the son of God, is gone, all is gone. A certain minister preached Universalism, or the doctrine that everybody would be saved in the end, and after a time his chapel became empty. His neighbor, who preached that those who did not believe would be lost for ever, had his house full. One day the Universalist met his neighbor, and asked him, “How is it that the people come to you when you preach that unbelievers will be sent to hell, and they do not come to me though I tell them that in the end they will all be in heaven?” The other replied, “They suspect that what I tell them is true, and that what you tell them is false.” Where gentlemen of this order have been preaching, people have sense enough to come to the conclusion that if what they say is false it is not wise to hear them, and if what they say is true there is no need to hear them.

Certain gentlemen are proving to the world that there is no need of themselves, for if men are not lost what need is there of a preacher to tell them how they can be saved? He that crieth peace and safety, if he be a watchman, might as well hold his tongue. If the watchman woke you up in the middle of the night crying out, “All’s well! A fine starlight night!” you would be very much inclined to exclaim, “Why on earth do you go about disturbing people when there is nothing the matter? Go home and get to bed with you!” And thus these smooth-speaking gentlemen are finding out that they are not wanted, and people are ready to say of them, “Let them go home to bed, and there let them abide.” But on the other hand, if you preach Jesus Christ, and even the terrible things of his word, there will be a fall house, for conscience bids men hear.

When you preach the gospel, souls will be saved. To secure that end you must stick to the gospel, for that is the one means ordained by God for the conversion of sinners. The other day a gospel minister ’spoke to a woman who had attended certain revival services, in which there was much shouting of “Come to Jesus,” but nothing about Jesus. She said, “I heard you preach this afternoon, and if what you preached is true, then I am a lost woman. I have been converted ten times already.”

Ah me! what is the use of such poor work as this? We must teach the King’s word if our work is to be blessed to the salvation of souls. We must plough with the law, and let the people know what sin means, and what repentance means; then we may hopefully sow them with the gospel. Some time ago we were told that there was no need of repentance, and that repentance only meant a change of mind: but what tremendous change of mind true repentance does mean! Never speak lightly of repentance.

Then, too, the preaching of the truth, and the whole truth, will bring a power of union among you, so that you who love the Lord will he heartily united. When Christian people quarrel, it is generally because they do not get sufficient spiritual food. Dogs fight when there are no bones, and church-members fall out when there is no spiritual food. We must give them plenty of gospel; for the gospel has the power of sweetening the temper, and making us put up with one another.

Preach the King’s word, for it will give you power in private prayer, power in the Sunday-school, power in the prayer-meeting, power in everything that you do; because you will live upon the King’s own word, and his word is meat to the soul. The prophet said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” If you try this meat you will all find it is nourishing to you also. The Lord bless you, and grant that it may be so. Amen.

Searching Words for Churches in our Generation

I came across these words today while searching the internet. After reading them, I left off searching the internet and began an earnest searching of my own heart:

An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its impudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." That is clear enough. So it would have been if He has added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, "He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry." Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? "Ye are the salt," not sugar candy-something the world will spite out, not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance, "Let the dead bury their dead." He was in awful earnestness!

Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, "Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!" Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel amusement. Their message is, "Come out, keep out, keep clean out!" Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon. After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had a prayer meeting, but they did not pray, "Lord grant Thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are." If they ceased not for preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They "turned the world upside down." That is the difference! Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to affect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy-laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God's link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.

C. H. Spurgeon

Gleanings from 1894 Sword and Trowel, part 2: Gems from an Unpublished Sermon

There's much to gather, even from the very beginning of this volume. The first page starts out with a sermon preached and revised by Spurgeon that is not published (or mentioned, to my knowledge) elsewhere.

The message is titled "The Gleanings of the Olives" and based on Deuteronomy 24:20, "When thou beatest thine olive trees, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow."

The whole of the sermon is filled with helpful information, and the following section contains much for the preacher and church member:

"The divine command may also suggest to us the beauty of a kind consideration of those who are poor and needy in spiritual things. When we are preaching the gospel, we beat down from the olive tree the thick ripe fruit of the doctrines of grace; but we should remember that there are some who, through their weakness in the faith, are not able to participate with us in the higher truths; we ought therefore to remember them, and permit them to share in other portions of the Divine Word more suited to their capacities.

"There should be handfuls let fall on purpose for the trembling and for the desponding; we should not be so strict in the description of character as to hand over every cluster of the spiritual vine to a small company of rich saints, but we should leave branches of the grapes of Eshcol for those whose evidences are dim, whose faith is feeble, and who but for our thoughtfulness concerning them would exclude themselves from all heavenly comfort. It is true that the comfort of the text may chiefly belong to a certain character; but be not so rigid as to shut out the humble souls who dare not put in their claim for a share in it. Leave some olives on the tree. Do not beat the text too closely.

"Nor is the lesson for the preacher only; it ill becomes the hearer of the Word to be always clamorous to be himself fed under every sermon, especially if he is well instructed in the faith, and if a relish for the mysteries of the kingdom has been given to him. He must not be so selfish as to complain when the more elementary truths are preached again and again. What if they do not feed him? Are the olive trees of the Word to be so beaten for him that nothing shall remain for others? Are there not feebler folk who need spiritual sustenance?

"What if he be no longer a babe in grace, and having grown to ripe manhood, is able to digest the strong meat? Yet let him not demand of his Master's servant that he should always set strong meat, and nothing else, on the table. Let the babes be fed with milk even if the man of perfect stature cares not to partake of it. Let the humble soul have his portion; yea, let even the stranger who is within the gates of the Lord's house have a share in the produce of Emmanuel's land.

"We have known some who appeared to be utterly thoughtless of everybody but themselves: their one test of a sermon is their own profiting by it, and they never think that other classes beside instructed believers are to be considered by the true pastor. They demand that we shall beat the olive trees scores of times to get every berry for them alone: they even want us to extort more from our texts than they truly yield, by beating them with the rod of spiritualizing; and meanwhile, the poor in spirit are to be left to shift for themselves, that these 'dear people of God' may be surfeited.

"We scorn to be subservient to their unchristian greed. Misers who hoard their gold are rightly despised; but what shall we say of those who would monopolize the Word of God? Our heart is not in the slightest sympathy with them; we hope ever to leave large gleanings for the poor of the kingdom, and never to gather all the olives for those who are in their own opinion rich and increased with goods.

"In preaching, of what is thought to be a high order, there is too frequently a forgetfulness of the uninstructed. Words are used which are only understood by the cultured, and phrases are employed which are like another tongue to the common people. Where such preaching is natural, we will not indulge a censure upon it; but we earnestly maintain that at least some portions of every religious discourse ought to be so simple that the most illiterate should be able to understand them, and profit by them. There should be some gleanings even for the children, a bunch of grapes for the eager mouth of the hopeful boy, a few olives for the poor aged widow, a handful of corn for the weary labourer, a portion for seven, and also for eight. To forget the lower classes in our ministrations, will be a sin against the Lord.

"It is the glory of the dispensation of Christ that 'the poor have the gospel preached unto them,' yet it would seem in the judgment of too many, to be the glory of the pulpit if its teaching is only suited to the elite, and if the pews around it are never occupied by the peasant or the artizan. We would far sooner use such 'great plainness of speech' as to appear to neglect the refined classes, than that we would be charageable with the 'wisdom of words,' or with casting a veil over the truth so that the multitude are unable to perceive it. O ye masters of Israel, think of this, and in the largeness of your hearts act accordingly!

"Another bearing of the same precept would lead us in our arrangements for public teaching and evangelization, largely to consider those that are without, in the depths of spritual poverty. Provision must certainly be made for Christian people, for their families, and for those who attach themselves to our congregations; yet when this is done, all is not accomplished. Let the olives be well beaten for the household, and let the children have their portion in due season; but we must also think of the stranger, and lay ourselves out for the neglected classes.

"The City of God is not a close borough, imprisoned within gateless walls, within which provender is to be hoarded, while the famine rages without. No, the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and the gospel is a feast for those who lie in the highways and the hedges. By some means, the careless crowds must be brought under the sound of the truth; and if they will not come to us, we must go to them, and preach Christ in the marketplace, or even in the theatre and the music-hall.

"No single class should be forgotten, and the poorest and most degraded should lie heaviest upon our hearts. They need the light, and they must have their share of the oil, and of the olives. Some churches appear to beat their trees only for their seat-holders; but it must not be so among us, we must gather together the outcasts of Israel, and have it said of us as it was of our great Examplar, 'Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners to hear Him.'

"The subject grows upon our consideration when we remember the teeming millions of the heathen world, for whom but a few olives are left when the Christian Church is gathering her fruit. Alas! the money spent upon the heathendom is far too little even in proportion to that which is spent at home, and that is none too great. When we are ourselves being fed with the finest of the wheat, can we not spare a sheaf for China? When our faces are made to shine with the annointing oil, have we no oil for India and Japan? And when we are gathering the clusters of Eshcol, and satisfying our mouths with the good things of the Lord's vineyard, have we no grapes for the parched lips of Africa, no draught of wine of consolation for the dying millions of South America? Surely, there is no need to press the point; but, henceforth, Israelites indeed will not plead home claims as a reason for stinting missionary contributions. Leave a fair share of olives for the stranger; and may the Lord therefore send a blessing on the whole olive-yard, according to His wont!

Gleanings from 1894 Sword and Trowel: A Concerned Letter from Spurgeon to his Students

During the late summer of 1865, Spurgeon's heart laboured over some troubling circumstances brought on by the sinful acts of a pastor sent out from the Pastors' College. Duties surrounding that situation demanded his attention and took him away from a routine meeting with his beloved students. In a letter informing them of his necessary absence, Spurgeon called his students to carefulness and watchful prayer, lest they too succumb to temptation.

I found this letter profitable for its balance, tact, and emphasis on holiness, evangelism and pastoral concern for individuals and churches. I pray you will find it equally helpful:

Nightingale Lane,
Clapham,
September 11th, 1865.

Beloved Brethren,

I am called away from you this afternoon; and I should much regret this if it were not that it has come into my heart to suggest to you to spend our usual time in prayer, instead of in teaching and learning. My heart is often heavy with trials, arising out of the College work, which is so dear to me, that I am perhaps unduly anxious over it. I am bowed to the very dust when I fear that any brother is erring in doctrine, lacking in grace, or loose in behaviour. I have as little to lament as it is possible there should be where we are all such imperfect creatures.

But, my brethren, I would fain have you all the best men living; and when you are not, I am distressed exceedingly. Just now, one brother, by his general self-indulgent habits, has lost the respect of his people, and must move. I do not want to inflict a curse on another congregation, and I do not want to cast him off. Between these two courses I am perplexed. Pray for me, for him, for all the brethren, and for yourselves.

In your society I always feel so much at home, that I must appear to you to be all happiness and mirth. Alas! it is not so; I am happy in the Lord, and blest in Him; but I am often a poor cast-down mortal, groaning under the burden of excessive labour, and sad at heart because of the follies of those whom I hoped to have seen serving the Lord, with zeal and success. Do give me your warmest consideration in your supplications. Believe me when I assure you that you are, for Christ's sake, very dear to me. Do not be led away from the faith which you professed when you entered the College. Cling to the collateral truths of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Live near to God, and love the souls of men. I make some sacrifices for your sake; but I count them gain, and my work for you is a delight. But do plead for more grace to rest on us all, and upon those settled in the ministry. Levity of conduct in my brethren brings heaviness of heart to me; and, what is inconsistent pleasure to them, is terrible agony to me. Oh, how can the ministers of God be smoking and drinking when souls are dying, and talking lightness and wantoness when sinners are perishing? It must not be so among us. May the Lord prevent it! Seeking ever your soul's best interest, and desiring your fervent prayers,

I am, dearly-beloved brethren,
Your affectionate brother,
C.H. Spurgeon

Now Blogging: Gleanings from 1894 Sword and Trowel.

Yesterday I received in the post a hard-bound copy of the 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowel, the magazine launched and edited by C.H. Spurgeon. As I read through its pages, I will publish various parts I think are worth repeating.

The 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowel comes a mere two years after the Lord called C.H. Spurgeon to his heavenly home. With the loss of that great preacher, pastor and Christian leader, several of his family and friends shared together their grief and reflected back on the influence Spurgeon had on their lives. Thus, the 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowl seems more Spurgeon saturated than earlier issues of the magazine published when Spurgeon was living.

I trust you'll return frequently to read the many profitable items I glean from the 1894 edition of the Sword and Trowel.

Spurgeon and Church Planting Lecture

Last autumn, I had the joy and privilege of giving a lunchtime lecture at the Evangelical Library (78A Chiltern Street, London, W1U 5HB) on C H Spurgeon and the Work of Planting Churches.

An audio copy of the lecture is available here.

We were delighted to find the Banner of Truth mentioning the lecture in its magazine, and Gary Brady providing this encouraging review.

We commend the lecture to you, in the hope that the spirit and heart of C. H. Spurgeon might stir you toward the great gospel work of planting churches.

Spurgeon and Church Planting, part 2

The Means by which Churches were Planted

Before he died, Charles Spurgeon participated in the establishment of nearly 200 churches in and around London. Of course, he wasn’t alone; with his encouragement, many others acted directly in the effort. In this second instalment, we investigate three places where Spurgeon found help in the work of church planting.

A Sacrificial Church

The folks at the Metropolitan Tabernacle carried their pastor’s burden for church planting and made it a reality through their sacrifice. Before the Tabernacle was even completed, Spurgeon encouraged them to think more broadly,

“We must build this Tabernacle strongly, I am sure, for our friends are always with us….But our desire is, after we have fitted up our vestry, schools and other rooms, that we shall be able to build other chapels.”

One expression of their participation came through their giving. Again, Spurgeon challenged them to stretch forth in faith, while at the same time commending them for their dedication to the work:

“Cheerfully you give week after week for the support of our young ministers, and I think our friends will continue to do this. At any rate the Lord will provide, and friends far away may be moved to assist us. I want still more aid, for the field is ripe and we want more harvest men to reap it. It grows, the thing grows, every day it increases, it started but as a little flake of snow, and now like an avalanche it sweeps the Alps’ sides bare before its tremendous force. I would not now that ye should prove unworthy of the day in which ye live, or the work to which God has called us as a church. Four churches of Christ have sprung of our loins in one year, and the next year shall it not be the same, and the next, and the next, if the Holy Ghost be with us, and He has promised to be with us if we be with Him.”

Perhaps a more significant and sacrificial expression of the church’s commitment to church planting came through sending out the best of the church to establish other churches. A recent biography noted that “Spurgeon encouraged his people to be out carrying the gospel on Sundays. During his career he frequently arranged to have a group of members leave the Tabernacle to start a new church, and often one of the prominent men of the Tabernacle went with them to provide leadership” (Dallimore, Spurgeon: A New Biography, 1984). On one occasion, 250 of the church people went away into a new church start.

How the church delighted Spurgeon by their missionary zeal! One church member described his encouragement thus, “The Pastor was always pleased when such a battalion left the main army to carry on operations elsewhere.” Spurgeon said,

“It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties to form other churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other churches; nay, we seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land, to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this, we shall prosper. I have marked other churches that have adopted the other way, and they have not succeeded.”

The Pastor’s College

Spurgeon was 22 years old when he founded the Pastor’s College. Out of his desire to see men prepared to preach the everlasting gospel to a lost world, nearly 900 pastors and evangelists during his lifetime owed their training to the college.

Almost 200 new churches were planted in Britain by the graduates. Dallimore remarks that by 1866, “in London alone the Spurgeon men had formed eighteen new churches...Preaching was carried on at another seven stations, and the plans were that in each of those a church would shortly be organized.”

Of that work, Spurgeon was more than just a figurehead. He participated intimately and sacrificially to see these churches started. Dallimore again states, “Mention has been made of the work of the College students in bringing new churches into being. In all those efforts Spurgeon took a vital interest, giving toward them himself, raising money for them at the Tabernacle, and obtaining helpers for the students from among his people.”

The London Baptist Association

When Spurgeon was 31, he and two other ministerial friends, Charles Brock and William Landels, established the London Baptist Association. The primary purpose for launching the association was the sharing and promoting of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They aimed to plant one new Baptist church per year in London or the surrounding towns. During the first eleven years, sixty-two new churches were founded, fifty-three as a direct result of help from Spurgeon’s students at the Pastor’s College.

Burdened Hearts

Certainly, God blessed the church planting efforts of Spurgeon and his colleagues. The evidence is all around, and much fruit remains to this day. Lest we be tempted to make excuses for the thinness of blessing in our day and speak of how things were different in those days, let us hear the passion and love for God and the lost evident in Spurgeon’s own words, and then ask God to give us that burden too:

“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

“Every true Christian should be exceedingly earnest in prayer concerning the souls of the ungodly, and when they are so, how abundantly God blesses them, and how much the church prospers. But beloved, souls may be damned, yet how few of you care about them! Sinners may sink into perdition, yet how few tears are shed over them! The whole world may be swept away by a torrent down the precipice of woe, yet how few really cry to God on its behalf. How few men say, ‘Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!’ We do not lament before God the loss of men’s souls, as it well becomes Christians to do.”

“Oh, minister of the gospel! stand for one moment and bethink thyself of thy poor fellow creatures! See them like a stream, rushing to eternity-ten thousand to their endless home each solemn moment fly! See the termination of that stream, that tremendous cataract which dashes streams of souls into the pit!

Oh, minister, bethink thyself that men are being damned each hour by thousands, and that each time thy pulse beats another soul lifts up its eyes in hell, being in torments; bethink thyself how men are speeding on their way to destruction, how “the love of many waxeth cold” and “iniquity doth abound.” I say, is there not a necessity laid upon thee? Is it not woe unto thee if thou preachest not the gospel?”

Spurgeon and Church Planting (part one)

Anyone who attends TRC for any length of time will soon become familiar with the name of C. H. Spurgeon, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Southwark during the latter part of the 19th century. An earlier post to this blog outlined Spurgeon’s significant role in the establishment of TRC as a gospel witness in Upper Tooting, London.

Lest one think that TRC was some prized jewel to Spurgeon, it must be said that several other churches share a similar story to TRC’s. These excerpts from various documents provide a snapshot of the breadth of Spurgeon’s church-planting efforts:

“Enfield Baptist church was founded with help from C. H. Spurgeon in 1867, when services were held in a room over the Rising Sun, Church Street.” “Totteridge Road church was opened with help from Spurgeon in 1868.” “Hornchurch Baptist church: In 1877 the members of the mission formed a church…they sought the help of Spurgeon, who sent students from his Baptist college at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.” “Westminster Baptist Church: Spurgeon preached at the stone-laying and gave £100 to the building fund.” And another church had this record: “Closed 1865, but reopened same year by C.H. Spurgeon.”

Estimates of upwards of two hundred churches were started by Spurgeon, the people of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and the men of the Pastor’s college. In London alone, Spurgeon claimed that over forty churches were started.

A Burdened Pastor

In an address in 1882, Spurgeon revealed his passion for planting churches began early in his London ministry,

Years ago, when I had newly commenced my ministry, I felt a burden from the Lord laid upon me; and this was the nature of it, — I was bound over not only to preach the gospel myself, but to see that others were helped to do the same. In Paul’s word to Timothy I found my own pastoral charge: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (See 2 Timothy 2. 1, 2.)

A Challenged Church

After eighteen months of being with his new congregation at New Park Street Baptist in London, Spurgeon challenged his church

Now, my dear hearers, one word with you. There are some persons in this audience who are verily guilty in the sight of God because they do not preach the gospel. I cannot think out of the fifteen hundred or two thousand persons now present, within the reach of my voice, there are none who are qualified to preach the gospel besides myself....This is a very serious question. If there be any talent in the Church at Park Street, let it be developed. If there be any preachers in my congregation let them preach.... I have preached this sermon especially, because I want to commence a movement from this place which shall reach others. I want to find some in my church, if it be possible, who will preach the gospel. And mark you; if you have talent and power, woe is unto you if you preach not the gospel.

A Remarkable Start

Spurgeon’s first church plant occurred in East Hill, Wandsworth in 1859, when he was just twenty-five. In an appeal for funds to assist in erecting its building, Spurgeon told how the church plant began,

When I was sore sick some three years or more ago, I walked about to recover strength, and walking through the town of Wandsworth, I thought “How few attend a place of worship here. Here are various Churches, but there is ample room for one of our own faith and order, something must be done.” I thought “If I could start a man here preaching the Word, what good might be done.” The next day, some four friends from the town called to see me, one a Baptist, and the three others were desirous of baptism, “Would I come there and form a Church?” We took the large rooms at a tavern, and preaching has been carried on there ever since. Beginning with four, the Church has increased to one hundred and fifty.

In May 1863 Spurgeon joyfully opened their new chapel, capable of accommodating nearly 700 persons, and costing £3,000, towards which he contributed a considerable amount.

A Shared Passion

At the ceremony of laying the first stone at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on August 16, 1859, Spurgeon opened his heart before the many gathered and made a startling revelation of his earnestness in seeing churches started. After mentioning that the Park Street chapel would remain under the direction of the church and two elders would conduct regular services there, Spurgeon pronounced,

God sparing my life, if I have my people at my back I will not rest until the dark county of Surrey be covered with places of worship. I look on this as the beginning of the end. I announce my own schemes: visionary they may appear, but carried out they will be. It is only within the last six months that we have started two churches — one in Wandsworth and the other in Greenwich, and the Lord has prospered them. The pool of baptism has been stirred with converts. And what we have done in two places I am about to do in a third, and we will do it not for the third or the fourth, but for the hundredth time, God being our helper. I am sure I may make my strongest appeal to my brethren because we do not mean to build this as our nest, and then to be lazy. We must go from strength to strength, and be a missionary church, and never rest until not only this neighbourhood, but our country, of which it is said that some parts are as dark as India, shall have been enlightened with the gospel.

A Wider Appeal

In his eighth year of ministry in London, Spurgeon spoke these words:

I have constantly letters like this, “Sir, I live in a village where the gospel is not preached ....cannot you do something for us? You have many young men training for the ministry, could you not send a friend to preach in my drawing room?” Then comes another — “Sir, the chapel has been shut up in our village a long time, could you not come and help us?” This happens every week, and your minister feels that as long as ever he has a man, he will say, “I will do it for you;” and as long as he has any money of his own he will say, “Oh, yes, I will do it for you;” but every now and then he wishes that he had some who would stand by him in larger attempts.

Sharing the Work

It goes without saying that Spurgeon was but one man and that he wasn’t the sole labourer behind the planting of upwards of two hundred churches in his lifetime. There were four key places Spurgeon found assistance—his own church, other ministries, the Pastor’s College and the London Baptist Association. More will be said about this, Lord willing, in another post.

Christ is all the heaven I want

From today's entry in Morning by Morning, by Spurgeon:

Rutherford says, “Heaven and Christ are the same thing;”

To be with Christ is to be in heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ.

That prisoner of the Lord very sweetly writes in one of his glowing letters—“O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want.”

It is true, is it not, Christian? Does not thy soul say so?

A Series Worth Reading

The forth volume of Terence Crosby's 365 Days with Spurgeon series has just been released. I had the privilege of writing the foreword:

Certainly many will join me in welcoming the publication of the fourth volume of 365 Days with Spurgeon. On behalf of all who read this book, thanks goes to Terence Crosby for dedicating many hours to gathering a fine collection of Spurgeon gems. Through his evident editorial skill and diligent research, along with ready and able assistance from Day One Publications, he has laid in our hands a beneficial source of spiritual nourishment to add to the previous three gladly received.

A careful observer of these volumes of 365 Days with Spurgeon will note they follow the preaching of Spurgeon chronologically, each covering approximately six years of his ministry, with the daily readings drawn from sermons preached as near as possible to the actual dates. The present volume covers Spurgeon’s preaching ministry from 1873 to 1879.

Those were fruitful and happy years for C. H. Spurgeon. Behind him lie the varied taunts he received during the early days of his London ministry. His continued and maturing presence in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle long silenced those who had prophesied the quick extinguishing of his brilliant star. Some years ahead of him waited the awful Downgrade Controversy. And approaching, just off the horizon, was the warring disease that would come with such fury it often struck Spurgeon from his gospel steed and finally silenced him at the age of fifty-seven.

Biographer Arnold Dallimore said of this middle season of Spurgeon’s life, “Between 1875 and 1885 Spurgeon’s ministry reached heights it had never attained before. Although the seeds sown in London had already brought a great harvest, during these years the fruit proved still more abundant, and it came with the richness and a steadiness that was new even to a work so blessed of God as his had been.”

Space doesn’t allow a full listing of the many efforts that prospered under Spurgeon’s care. A few of the more influential ministries were the Pastor’s College, the Stockwell Orphanage, and the Metropolitan Tabernacle Colporteurs Association. Other well-known ministries found first form during these years of Spurgeon’s life—the Pastor’s Aid Society and the Book Fund ministry to name two.

Many today know Spurgeon solely through his sermons published in many forms, including helpful books like 365 Days with Spurgeon. Nothing in English church literature can compare to the usefulness found from his preaching—it is a lasting legacy. But a fruitful bounty remains to this very day from his enthusiastic support of church planting. As early as 1859, he declared,

God sparing my life, if I have my people at my back I will not rest until the dark county of Surrey be covered with places of worship…. I announce my own schemes: visionary they may appear, but carried out they will be. It is only within the last six months that we have started two churches—one in Wandsworth and the other in Greenwich, and the Lord has prospered them. The pool of baptism has been stirred with converts. And what we have done in two places I am about to do in a third, and we will do it not for the third or the fourth, but for the hundredth time, God being our helper….We must go from strength to strength, and be a missionary church, and never rest until not only this neighbourhood, but our country, of which it is said that some parts are as dark as India, shall have been enlightened with the gospel.

These excerpts from documents electronically preserved at www.british-history.ac.uk provide a snapshot of the fruitful blessing God poured upon Spurgeon’s church-planting labours:

“Enfield Baptist church was founded with help from C. H. Spurgeon in 1867, when services were held in a room over the Rising Sun, Church Street.” “Totteridge Road church was opened with help from Spurgeon in 1868.” “Hornchurch Baptist church: In 1877 the members of the mission formed a church…they sought the help of Spurgeon, who sent students from his Baptist college at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.” “Westminster Baptist Church: Spurgeon preached at the stone-laying and gave £100 to the building fund.” And another church had this record: “Closed 1865, but reopened same year by C.H. Spurgeon.”

Estimates of upwards of two hundred churches were started by Spurgeon, the people of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and the men of the Pastor’s college. In London alone, Spurgeon claimed that over forty churches were started. Of particular interest to Terence Crosby and me is the influence C.H. Spurgeon had on Trinity Road Chapel, Upper Tooting, London—the church I presently serve as pastor and where Terence holds membership.

Here’s the story:

William Winsford, a member of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, moved to then rural Upper Tooting and came across a few others with a desire to see an evangelical church established. Three Sundays after services began, C.H. Spurgeon invited Winsford to his nearby home on Nightingale Lane, relayed his approval of the work, and generously offered to help. His involvement in those early days set the trajectory of the church—an influence that lasts to this day.

When it was clear the growing church needed larger accommodations, Spurgeon came and preached, and issued an appeal to other churches to provide financial help for the church’s building project. His interest in the success of the church is clear when he wrote, “Our friends have made a good beginning, and if my purse holds out I will double all they can raise in the next year up to £250. I wish the friends every success.”

The money was soon raised, Spurgeon kept his promise, donated the £250, and offered to preach at the stone-laying. The preacher Winsford purchased the property, but soon fell ill and couldn’t conduct the services. Spurgeon heard of the church’s need, surveyed the property, and encouraged the church to get on with building the chapel. On June 6, 1877, Spurgeon laid the memorial stone and gave what was described as “a wise and happy address.” That evening, his sons joined him—Charles led in prayer and Thomas delivered an address.

On Thursday, September 27, 1877, the new building opened with Spurgeon preaching from Ecclesiastes 8:4 “Where the word of the king is.” The sermon is found in volume 28 of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (sermon 1,697). He closed with this charge, “Preach the King’s word, for it will give you power in private prayer, power in the Sunday School, power in the prayer meeting, power in everything that you do; because you will live upon the King’s own word, and his word is meat to the soul.”

Spurgeon stamped an indelible mark on Trinity Road Chapel that has continued long after his death. One pastor was a student at the Pastor’s College and another, Henry Oakley, supported Spurgeon through the Downgrade Controversy and maintained Spurgeon’s model for biblical, Christ-centered preaching.

In the 1940s, Ernest Kevan kept the church closely in line with its past by writing an article on the church’s faith and practice as set out in its trust deeds. Explaining that document, Kevan wrote, “The accurate interpretation of these requirements with regard to the life of the Church and the character of its ministry seems to be summed up by saying that as a Baptist Church, it is required that the minister who is called shall be a convinced Baptist, and that his views shall be Calvinistic, or, rendered in more modern terms, along the lines of teaching such as we have come to associate with the name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.”

A quote of Spurgeon found in the church’s magazine, The Witness, summarizes what that means, “As the hammer comes down on the anvil ever with the same ring, so we will preach Christ, Christ, Christ and nothing else but Christ.”

May God empower us to do that! And through reading 365 Days with Spurgeon, may you be inspired and equipped to hold high the gospel torch among our generation, just like C.H. Spurgeon did so wonderfully in his.

Doug McMasters
Pastor, Trinity Road Chapel
Upper Tooting, London

Preach Christ Crucified

But it is especially Christ crucified whom we are to preach. His wounds and bruises remind us that we must tell you that “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” It is at Calvary that salvation is to be found; where Jesus bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, he overcame the powers of darkness, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. There is one word that every true servant of Christ must be able to speak very distinctly; and that word is substitution. I believe that substitution is the key-word to all true theology; — Christ standing in the place of sinners, and numbered with the transgressors because of their transgressions, not his own — Christ paying our debts, and discharging all our liabilities. This truth involves, of course, our taking Christ’s place as he took ours, so that all believers are beloved, accepted, made heirs of God, and in due time shall be glorified with Christ for ever. Brother ministers, whatever you fail to preach, make your hearers always clearly understand that there is a divine and all-sufficient Substitute for sinners, and that all who put their trust in him shall be eternally saved.

C. H. Spurgeon, PREACHING CHRIST CRUCIFIED, Sermon no. 3218

The Gospel

There is much talk in our day about the gospel, even great defenses for it, but I wonder if there is enough clear proclamaton of the gospel to those who need it most, those yet without Christ. Whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or not, you'll find help from this message by Charles Spurgeon. If you are a Christian, learn how to proclaim Christ. If not, come, learn of Christ and His wonderful salvation.

This message is for you. You will find the text in Romans 4:5, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

I call your attention to those words, “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” They seem to me to be very wonderful words.

Are you not surprised that there should be such an expression as that in the Bible, “That justifieth the ungodly”? I have heard that men that hate the doctrines of the cross bring it as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives to Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts the charge and plainly states it! By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He takes to Himself the title of “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve no favor. Did you think that salvation was for the good and that God’s grace was for the pure and holy who are free from sin? Perhaps you think that if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and maybe you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there could be no way of your enjoying His favor. You must be somewhat surprised to read a text like this: “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” I do not wonder that you are surprised; for with all my familiarity with the great grace of God, I never cease to wonder at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it should be possible for a holy God to justify an unholy man? We, according to the natural legality of our hearts, are always talking about our own goodness and our own worthiness, and we stubbornly believe that there must be something in us in order to win the notice of God. Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). He knows that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6), and, therefore, the Lord Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness among men, but to bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so; He justifieth the ungodly.

When a lawyer comes into court, if he is an honest man, he desires to plead the case of an innocent person and justify him before the court from the things which are falsely laid to his charge. It should he the lawyer’s object to justify the innocent person, and he should not attempt to screen the guilty party. It is not man’s right nor in his power to truly justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man upon earth who does good and does not sin. Therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task, not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly. God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand justly accepted before Him. He has set up a system by which with perfect justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been free from offence; yes, can treat him as if he were wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing, a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me, even to this day, the greatest wonder that lever heard of that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin apart from His almighty love. I know and am fully assured that I am justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and I am treated as if I had been perfectly just and made an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ. And yet, by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas before I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this? Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.

Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how available it makes the Gospel to you and to me. If God justifieth the ungodly, then He can justify you. Is not that the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted at this moment, it is a very proper description of you. You have lived without God; you have been the reverse of godly. In one word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even attended a place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in disregard of God’s day and house and Word. This proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder still, it may be you have even tried to doubt God’s existence and have gone the length of saying that you did so. You have lived on this fair earth which is full of the tokens of God’s presence, and all the while you have shut your eyes to the clear evidences of His power and Godhead. You have lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would have been very pleased if you could have positively demonstrated to yourself that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have lived a great many years in this way so that you are now pretty well settled in your ways, and yet God is not in any of them. If you were labeled ungodly, it would describe you as well as if the sea were to be labeled salt water. Would it not?

Possibly you are a person of another sort. You have regularly attended to all the outward forms of religion, and yet you have had no heart in them at all, but have been really ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never met with God for yourself; you have been in the choir, and yet have not praised the Lord with your heart. You have lived without any love to God in your heart, or regard to His commands in your life. Well, you are just the kind of person to whom this Gospel is sent, this Gospel which says that God justifieth the ungodly. It is very wonderful, but it is happily available for you. It just suits you. Does it not? Howl wish that you would accept it! If you are a sensible person, you will see the remarkable grace of God in providing for someone such as you are, and you will say to yourself, “Justify the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and justified at once?”

Now, observe further, that it must be so. The salvation of God is for those who do not deserve it and have no preparation for it. It is reasonable that the statement should be put in the Bible, for no others need justifying but those who have no justification of their own. If any of you are perfectly righteous, you want no justifying. You feel that you are doing your duty well, and almost putting heaven under an obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour or with mercy? What do you want with justification? You will be tired of this book by this time, for it will have no interest to you.

If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen to me for a little while. You will be lost as sure as you are alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness is all of your own working, are either deceivers or deceived, for the Scripture cannot lie and it says plainly, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” In any case, I have no Gospel to preach to the self-righteous, no, not a word. Jesus Christ Himself came not to call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did not do. If I called you, you would not come; therefore, I will not call you. No, I ask you rather to look at that righteousness of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is not half so substantial as a cobweb. Be finished with it! Flee from it! Believe that the only persons that can need justification are those who are not just in themselves. They need something to be done for them to make them just before the judgment seat of God. Depend upon it, the Lord only does that which is needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To make him just who is just is no work for God; that were a labor for a fool. But to make him just who is unjust, that is work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the ungodly is a miracle worthy of God, and it is.

Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who has discovered sure and precious remedies, to whom is that physician sent? To those who are perfectly healthy? I think not. Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons, and he feels that he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to do. “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick” (Mark 2:17). Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had just such as you are in His eye when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to him; it is clear that this can only apply to those really in his debt. One person owes him a thousand pounds, and another owes him fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill receipted, and the liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot forgive the debts of those who do not owe him anything. It is out of the power of Omnipotence to forgive where there is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin. Pardon must be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It would be absurd to talk of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness or pardoning those who have never offended.

Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner? This is the reason why you can be saved. Because you realize that you are a sinner, I would encourage you to believe that grace is ordained for such as you. One hymn writer even dared to say:


A sinner is a sacred thing: The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
It is true that Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. He died and made a real atonement for real sinners. When men are not playing with words or calling themselves “miserable sinners” in false humility, I feel overjoyed to meet with them. I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The inn of mercy never closes its doors upon such, neither on weekdays nor on Sunday. Our Lord Jesus did not die for imaginary sins, but His heart’s blood was spilled to wash out deep crimson stains which nothing else can remove.

He that is a dirty sinner is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make clean. A Gospel preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, “Now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees” (Luke 3:9), and he delivered such a sermon that one of his hearers said to him, “One would have thought that you had been preaching to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail.” “Oh, no,” said the goodman, “if I were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text, there I should preach ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15). This is true.” The Law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride; the Gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.

If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should the shepherd go after those who never went astray? Why should the woman sweep her house for the pieces of money that were never out of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the quickening is for the dead; the pardon is for the guilty; liberation is for those who are bound; the opening of eyes is for those who are blind. How can the Saviour and His death upon the cross and the Gospel of pardon be accounted for unless they be upon the supposition that men are guilty and worthy of condemnation? The sinner is the Gospel’s reason for existence. If you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of man for whom the Gospel is ordained and arranged and proclaimed. God justifies the ungodly.

I want to make this very plain. I hope that I have done so already. But, still, plain as it is, it is only the Lord who can make a man see it. At first it does seem most amazing to an awakened man that salvation should really be for him when he is lost and guilty. He thinks that it must be for him when he is penitent, forgetting that his penitence is a part of his salvation. “Oh,” he says, “but I must be this and that,” all of which is true, for he shall be this and that as the result of salvation. But salvation comes to him before he has any of the results of salvation. It comes to him, in fact, while he deserves only this bare, beggarly, base, abominable description: ungodly. That is all he is when God’s Gospel comes to justify him.

May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about them — who fear that they have not even a good feeling or anything whatever that can recommend them to God — to firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them spontaneously, not because they are good, but because He is good. Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good? Does He not give fruitful seasons and send the rain and the sunshine in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Yes, even Sodom had its sun, and Gomorrah had its dew. The great grace of God surpasses my conception and your conception, and I would have you think worthily of it. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God’s thoughts above our thoughts. He can abundantly pardon. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; forgiveness is for the guilty.

Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some time ago had painted a picture of a part of the city in which he lived, and he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well known in the town. A street sweeper who was unkempt, ragged, and filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this ragged and rugged individual, “I will pay you well if you will come down to my studio and let me paint you.” He came around in the morning, but he was soon sent away, for he had washed his face, combed his hair, and donned a respectable suit of clothes. He was needed as a beggar and was not invited in any other capacity. Even so, the Gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, and that takes you up where you now are; it meets you in your worst estate.

Come in your disorder. I mean, come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are: filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come, for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you. I put it in the language of the text, and I cannot put it more strongly: the Lord God Himself takes to Himself this gracious title, “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, those who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you? Do not delay till you have considered this matter well.

Spurgeon on Whitsunday

From early days, the church celebrated Whitsunday to commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other believers fifty days after the resurrection of Christ; an event that occurred during the Jewish festival called the “feast of weeks” or Pentecost (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10). The festival of Whitsunday owes its name to the white garments worn by those who were baptised during the vigil. And Pentecost derives its name from the Greek for “the fiftieth” (day after Easter).

Many interesting things have happened on Whitsunday through the Church’s history. After a disastrous season ministering in Georgia, the Wesley brothers returned to England believing their lives and ministry had failed. John Wesley wrote of his experience in Georgia, “I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh, who shall convert me?” The answer to his question came shortly after their return from America. Charles Wesley was the first of the two to be justified by faith. On Whitsunday, May 21, 1738, he experienced Pentecost. He wrote in his journal that the Spirit of God “chased away the darkness of my unbelief.”

Nearly 130 years later, Charles Spurgeon preached a message that explains why we must keep looking back to the church’s first Whitsunday (Pentecost) to find instruction on how to engage today’s generation with the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Below is an edited portion from that sermon titled simply, “Pentecost.”

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

How absolutely necessary is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit! It is not possible for us to promote the glory of God or to bless the souls of men, unless the Holy Ghost shall be in us and with us.

Those who were assembled on that memorable day of Pentecost, were all men of prayer and faith; but even these precious gifts are only available when the celestial fire sets them on a blaze. Among them were the apostles and the seventy evangelists; yet even these favored and honoured saints can do nothing without the breath of God the Holy Ghost.

Surely, my brethren, if so it was with them, much more must it be the case with us. Let us beware of trusting to our well-adjusted machineries of committees and schemes; let us be jealous of all reliance upon our own mental faculties or religious vigor; let us be careful that we do not look too much to our leading preachers and evangelists, for if we put any of these in the place of the Divine Spirit, we shall err most fatally. Let us thank God for all gifts and for all offices, but oh, let us ever be reminded that gifts and offices are but as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, unless the quickening influence be present.

Now, I earnestly pray that, this morning I may stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, by a simple exposition of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We are not observers of days and months, but it happens to be the season of the year in which the Early Church celebrated the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. We commonly talk of Whitsuntide, or White-Sunday, which name is not without its lesson.

In the earlier centuries on this particular day, in commemoration of the great baptism of the three thousand converted under the preaching of Peter, it was the custom of the Church to hold a great baptism, and the candidates for immersion being, as with us, robed in white — (hence the name “Candidates,” or “White ones”) — that Sunday was called White-Sunday.

The Season when the Spirit of God was given.

“When the day of Pentecost was fully come.” We may observe, first, that the Spirit of God was given in God’s chosen and appointed time. There is a set time to favor Zion. The Spirit is not at all times alike active in his manifest workings. Both to try our faith and to prove his own sovereignty, the right hand of the Lord is sometimes thrust into his bosom, and he will only make bare his arm only at such times and seasons as he shall have himself appointed. Brethren, if every drop of rain has its appointed birth-day, every gleam of light its predestinated pathway, and every spark of fire its settled hour of flying upward, certainly the will, foreknowledge, and decree of God must have arranged and settled the period of every revival, place of every gracious visitation. Times of refreshing, in a Church or a commonwealth, come not except as the Creator-Spirit has determined. In God’s accepted and appointed time, therefore, the light of heaven shall go forth; and although this is not to withhold or restrain us from asking for the Spirit every day, it is to encourage us if he do not at once begin to work, for if the vision tarry we are to wait for it, it shall come in due time — it will not tarry.

There was a further mystery in the season, for it was after the ascension. The Spirit of God was not given till after Jesus had been glorified. The various blessings which we receive are ascribable to different parts of Christ’s work. His life is our imputed righteousness; his death brings us pardon; his resurrection confers upon us justification; his ascension yields to us the Holy Spirit and those spiritual gifts which edify the body. “Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” As when Roman heroes returned from blood-red fields and the senate awarded them a triumph, they rode in their chariot drawn by milk-white steeds through the thronging streets of the capitol, so did Jesus Christ when he led captivity captive receive a triumph at his Father’s hands. The triumphal chariot bore him through the streets of glory, while all the inhabitants thereof with loud acclaim saluted him as Conqueror.

“Crown him! crown him! Crowns become the victor’s brow!”

It was the wont of the Roman conqueror as he rode along to distribute large quantities of money which were scattered among the admiring crowd. So our glorified Lord scattered gifts among men, yea to the rebellious also he gave those gifts that the Lord God might dwell among them; in this manner, then, to grace the triumph of Jesus, the Spirit of God was liberally poured out upon the Church below. Perhaps you remind me that our Lord had ascended ten days before. I know he had, but the delay might teach them patience. Not always does the flower bloom from the root in one hour. Christ has ascended and heaven is ringing with his praise, they have kept ten days of joyous holiday before the eternal throne, and now when Pentecost is fully come, the rushing mighty wind is heard.

Do you think, my brethren and sisters, that we plead Christ’s ascension enough as a reason why the Church should be blessed with the Spirit? I know we often reach as far as “By thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial, by thy glorious resurrection,” — but do we proceed to “by thine ascension we beseech thee to hear us?” I am afraid we fail to perceive that the ascension of Christ is to be used as an argument in prayer, when we would have the Church revived by the holy breath of God, or have gifts bestowed upon her ministers and Church-officers.

Moreover, there is yet more teaching in the season. It was at Pentecost. Pentecost was a harvest-festival. On that day the sheaf was waved before the Lord and the harvest consecrated. The Passover was to our Savior the time of his solving, but Pentecost was the day of his reaping, and the fields which were ripe to the harvest when he sat on the well, are reaped now that he sits upon the throne.

But certainly the Spirit of God was given at Pentecost because there was then the most need of it. On that occasion vast crowds were gathered from all regions. The God of wisdom always knoweth how to time his gifts. What would have been the use of granting the many tongues when no strangers were ready to hear? If there had been no Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia collected in Jerusalem, there would have been no need for the cloven tongues; but inasmuch as the city was full and the high festival was being kept by unusual multitudes, it was most fit and right that now the Lord should say — “Thrust in thy sickle, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

Dear friends, I think that whenever we see unusual gatherings of men, whenever the Spirit of hearing is poured out upon the people, we ought to pray for and expect an unusual visitation of the Spirit; and when I look upon these crowds assembled in this house every Sabbath year after year, I can but entreat you to cry mightily to him with whom is the residue of the Spirit that he would give us a Pentecost, for though neither Parthians, nor Medes, nor Elamites are here, yet there scarcely ever passes a Sabbath without there being representatives of almost all nations under heaven who hear the wonderful works of God, not in their own tongue it is true, but yet in a language which they understand. Oh! pray that the Spirit of God may fall upon the unexampled hosts assembled here.

Still, dear friends, we have not dwelt upon a leading reason why the Holy Spirit descended at this special season. “They were all with one accord in one place.” We have been expecting to see the days of heaven upon earth. Our soul has longed to hear the voice of God thundering out of heaven. We have hoped for days such as our fathers have told us comforted them in the old time. We looked to see thousands born in a day; alas, the vision cometh not. But look at our country! We have had spasms of revival; that is as much as I can say. Even the Irish revival, for which we can never sufficiently bless God, was but as a passing cloud; it was not an abiding, resting shower, and so with all the shakings we have had in these later times. We have had but glimpses where we wanted sights; we have had but twilight where we needed the sacred, everlasting noon.

What is the reason of this? Perhaps it is to be found in our want of union. “They were all with one accord in one place.” Christians cannot all be in one place. We have no room that would be large enough to hold them, blessed be God! But if they cannot all be in one place, yet they can all be of one accord. Oh! when there are no cold hearts, when there are no prejudices to divide us, no bigotries to separate; no apathy shall hold us down, no false doctrine shall thrust the flocks from one another, and no schism to rend the one sacred garment of Christ, then may we expect to see the Spirit of God resting upon us. And in any one Church where shall be no strife which shall be the greatest, no division about peculiarities, no fighting for respectabilities and selfishnesses, but when the Church are of one accord, then may we expect to hear the sound of abundance of heaven’s rain.

Note, dear friends, what they were doing. They were not merely unanimous, but they were earnest about one grand object. They had all been praying. Read the first chapter and you will perceive that they had been much in prayer. The whole of the time since the ascent of our Lord they had been occupied in constant supplication, and so pleading both day and night, it was no great wonder that the granaries of heaven should be unlocked. We have had weeks of prayer at the beginning of the last few years, and it was well, but if we had continued in prayer all the weeks of the year, if we had always been with one accord still crying unto heaven, still wrestling with the angel, still interceding, surely the little cloud, like a man’s hand, which the eye of faith has seen, would by this time have covered all the heavens, and have discharged a plenteous shower upon all nations of men. There must be unity, but that unity must not be the frozen union of death, but the glorious welding of a glowing furnace heat.

They had been much in prayer, and now I see them sitting still. Wherefore sit they so quietly? It is the quietude of expectation. When God’s Church adds expectation to supplication, then a blessing tarries no longer. We ask, but we do not expect to receive. We pray, but probably nothing would so alarm us as the answer to our prayers. If after having pleaded with God to send his Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit did come, there are many who would not believe it, there are others who would think it a mere excitement, and there are multitudes who would shut their eyes to it altogether. Oh Spirit of God! work in the hearts of thy children perfect harmony, intense anxiety, and confident expectation, and then wilt thou come to do thy mighty deeds once more.

These remarks concerning the season may lead to many practical questions; I will but put them rapidly, and leave them. Do I help to hinder the coming of the Spirit by any bitterness of my temper? Do I by any want of love tend to divide the Church? Are my prayers such as are likely to prevail? And when I pray do I expect the blessing of God? If not, how mournful that I should be the means of restraining and limiting the Holy One of Israel, that I should be a Church-robber, and commit sacrilege against the Church of God, not by stealing its gold and silver, but by closing the treasury of God! Let us as a Church humble ourselves under the hand of God, and then, girding up the loins of our mind, to wait upon him with patience and earnestness until the Spirit be poured out from on high!