[rating:4.0]
( Greenville, South Carolina: Emerald House, 1998)
220 pgs
This is a great little book. Of course, anything by Spurgeon is worth the read! This is one in a series of books, pulling sermons from Spurgeon on particular themes. The theme of this book is “revival.” They are taken from sermons he preached at his church in London. There are several things that make this book of value. First, Spurgeon is a master at unpacking a biblical text. Each chapter is Spurgeon unpacking a particular text on revival. It is wonderful to see him consider each word and its rich application. Second, Spurgeon is preaching these sermons to his own church. It is always valuable to see Spurgeon feeding his own flock and speaking to his congregation as their pastor. There are several places where he speaks very specifically about his church that gives us a glimpse into what it must have been like to have had Spurgeon as your pastor. Third, this book is on revival. Spurgeon claimed that his church had experienced almost constant revival since he had been their pastor, yet he was keenly aware that God still had more for his church. There is therefore much in this book that is relevant to today’s readers.
The following are some of the quotes that stood out to me as I read:
“He who would hear God speak needs not to wait long, for God speaks to men continually by the Scriptures” (7).
“What if it be true that within the last 12 months the Church of the living God has scarcely made the slightest approach to an advance?” (10)
“Men dying, the Church slumbering, and error covering the land—doth not God say anything in all of this?” (12)
“To run upon the Master’s errands is always well, but to sit at the Master’s feet is quite as necessary.” (21)
“Words, words, words; we have so many words, and they are but chaff.” (21)
“Wherefore does he compel us to use entreaties, unless it be that he loves to hear the voices of his children?” (21)
“The church of God has never gained a victory but in answer to prayer. Her whole history is to the praise of the glory of a prayer-hearing God.” (21)
“When one knocks at a man’s door it is a good thing to have some business to do, for then one knocks boldly.” (33)
“Answers to prayer do not appear to us to be contrary to the laws of nature; it seems to us to be the greatest of all the laws of nature that the Lord must keep his promises and hear his people’s prayers. Gravitation and other laws may be suspended, but this cannot be. ‘O’ says one. ‘I cannot believe that.’ No, and so your prayers are not heard.” (41)
“He believed in predestination, but that truth never chilled his heart.” (42)
“I believe that half a dozen persons, with vital religion in their souls, and really in earnest, may pray a church right out of any ditch which it may have fallen, or bring it up even from the sepulcher where it has been buried, and make it live again in the fullness of life.” (48)
“Those people who only sail in a little boat on a lake have no stories to tell of adventures at sea; but he who is to write a book describing long voyages must travel far out of sight of land, and behold the sea in time of storms, as well as in a calm.” (50)
“Your extremity is God’s opportunity. The difficulty all along has been to get to the end of you; for when a man gets to the end of himself, he has reached the beginning of God’s working.” (53)
“It is shocking to reflect that a change in the weather has more effect on men’s lives than the dread alternatives of heaven or hell. A woman’s glance affects them more than the eye of God” (70)
“He who looks sinward has his back to God—he who looks Godward has his back to sin.” (71)
“Where are the preachers for the next generation? Today they are amongst the ungodly., and we must labor to bring them to God. Who will fill our places? Who will bear the banner? Who will blow the trumpet? Who will wield the sword? We must find new champions in the ranks of the foe; they must be born unto God.” (76)
“Diminish your ideas of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion you will diminish the results of your work.” (79)
“What is not believed in practice is in fact not believed at all.” (84).
“The work of divine grace does not run in a groove, but it breaks out where it seems least likely to do so.” (89)
“What, will you choose the doom from which no one but he can rescue you, and let go the glory to which none but he can admit you?” (103)
“They were Christians indeed, for they were Christians in their deeds.” (113)
“Holy living is a grand pulpit. A godly character has a louder voice in it than the most eloquent tongue.” (113)
“The wit and wisdom of man are altogether powerless to bestow life upon even the tiniest insect.” (121)
“You may go up into your pulpit; you may illustrate, explain, and enforce the truth; with a mighty rhetoric you may charm your hearers; you may hold them spellbound; but no eloquence of yours can raise the dead. Another voice than ours must be heard.” (122)
“If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the word of God.” (125)
“I believe the Holy Spirit does still speak to his chosen in a very remarkable way.” (126)
“You cannot pluck the brand out of the burning if you are afraid of being singed yourself” (127)
“A man of no desire gets what he longs for.” (129)
“Man has free will and God does not violate it; but the free will is sweetly bound with fetters of the divine love till it becomes more free than it ever was before.” (140)
“When you are at home let no one see your face till God has seen it.” (155)
“There are some lazy people who like praying better than working.” (159)
“Prayer is a decree escaped out of the prison of obscurity, and come to life and liberty among men. Pray, brother pray, for when God inspires you, your prayer is as potent as the decrees of God.” (160)
“Hell is howling from within because it knows how soon its end must come.” (162)
“The church never was earnest yet without sooner or later discovering that the devil was in earnest too.” (163)
“You have a great work on hand for you have to move the arm that moves the world; watch, then, for every means of moving that arm.” (164)
“God keeps the mercy back at times, and puts it out at compound interest, because he means to pay it to us interest and all; whereas if we had it at once, we should miss the interest, which sometimes doubles and trebles the principal. We are never losers by his delays, but always gainers.” (167).
“There are thousands of men who would almost sooner be whipped than to be made to think.” (170)
“When the pulpit is without Christ the pews are soon without people.” (185)
“We have too many preachers of whom we might complain, ‘they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!” (185)
“A sermon without Christ at its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.” (186)
“Thou hast made me penniless as to all wealth of my own that I might dip my hand into they treasury.” (190)
“Instead of revelation we have philosophy.” (193)
“We are not what we should be; but then we are not what we shall be. We advance slowly, but then we advance surely.” (202)
“Any sparrow can chirp in the daylight; it’s only the nightingale that can sing in the dark.” (205)
“If you are quite alone, so much the better: there is more room for God. When desertions have cleaned the place out and left you no friend, now every corner can be filled with deity.” (206)
“As well may you try and calm the tempest with poetry or stay the hurricane with rhetoric as to bless the soul by mere learning and eloquence.” (211)
As you can see, Spurgeon is always good for a quote. That is why he continues to exert such a lasting and strong influence on preachers to this day.
by Richard Blackaby