{"id":8828,"date":"2018-01-08T15:10:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackaby.net\/members\/?p=8828"},"modified":"2018-01-08T15:10:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:10:48","slug":"the-c-h-spurgeon-collection-revival-by-c-h-spurgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackabyleadership.org\/bmiapp\/2018\/01\/08\/the-c-h-spurgeon-collection-revival-by-c-h-spurgeon\/","title":{"rendered":"The C.H. Spurgeon Collection: Revival by C.H. Spurgeon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[rating:4.0]<\/p>\n

(<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Greenville, South Carolina: <\/strong>Emerald House, 1998)<\/p>\n

220 pgs
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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 \u201crevival.\u201d 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\u2019s readers.<\/p>\n

The following are some of the quotes that stood out to me as I read:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe who would hear God speak needs not to wait long, for God speaks to men continually by the Scriptures\u201d (7).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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?\u201d (10)<\/p>\n

\u201cMen dying, the Church slumbering, and error covering the land\u2014doth not God say anything in all of this?\u201d (12)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo run upon the Master\u2019s errands is always well, but to sit at the Master\u2019s feet is quite as necessary.\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

\u201cWords, words, words; we have so many words, and they are but chaff.\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

\u201cWherefore does he compel us to use entreaties, unless it be that he loves to hear the voices of his children?\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen one knocks at a man\u2019s door it is a good thing to have some business to do, for then one knocks boldly.\u201d (33)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnswers 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\u2019s prayers. Gravitation and other laws may be suspended, but this cannot be. \u2018O\u2019 says one. \u2018I cannot believe that.\u2019 No, and so your prayers are not heard.\u201d (41)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe believed in predestination, but that truth never chilled his heart.\u201d (42)<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d (48)<\/p>\n

\u201cThose 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.\u201d (50)<\/p>\n

\u201cYour extremity is God\u2019s 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\u2019s working.\u201d (53)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shocking to reflect that a change in the weather has more effect on men\u2019s lives than the dread alternatives of heaven or hell. A woman\u2019s glance affects them more than the eye of God\u201d (70)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe who looks sinward has his back to God\u2014he who looks Godward has his back to sin.\u201d (71)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere 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.\u201d (76)<\/p>\n

\u201cDiminish your ideas of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion you will diminish the results of your work.\u201d (79)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is not believed in practice is in fact not believed at all.\u201d (84).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work of divine grace does not run in a groove, but it breaks out where it seems least likely to do so.\u201d (89)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat, 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?\u201d (103)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were Christians indeed, for they were Christians in their deeds.\u201d (113)<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly living is a grand pulpit. A godly character has a louder voice in it than the most eloquent tongue.\u201d (113)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wit and wisdom of man are altogether powerless to bestow life upon even the tiniest insect.\u201d (121)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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.\u201d (122)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the word of God.\u201d (125)<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the Holy Spirit does still speak to his chosen in a very remarkable way.\u201d (126)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot pluck the brand out of the burning if you are afraid of being singed yourself\u201d (127)<\/p>\n

\u201cA man of no desire gets what he longs for.\u201d (129)<\/p>\n

\u201cMan 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.\u201d (140)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are at home let no one see your face till God has seen it.\u201d (155)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some lazy people who like praying better than working.\u201d (159)<\/p>\n

\u201cPrayer 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.\u201d (160)<\/p>\n

\u201cHell is howling from within because it knows how soon its end must come.\u201d (162)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church never was earnest yet without sooner or later discovering that the devil was in earnest too.\u201d (163)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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.\u201d (164)<\/p>\n

\u201cGod 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.\u201d (167).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are thousands of men who would almost sooner be whipped than to be made to think.\u201d (170)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the pulpit is without Christ the pews are soon without people.\u201d (185)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have too many preachers of whom we might complain, \u2018they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!\u201d (185)<\/p>\n

\u201cA sermon without Christ at its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.\u201d (186)<\/p>\n

\u201cThou hast made me penniless as to all wealth of my own that I might dip my hand into they treasury.\u201d (190)<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of revelation we have philosophy.\u201d (193)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not what we should be; but then we are not what we shall be. We advance slowly, but then we advance surely.\u201d (202)<\/p>\n

\u201cAny sparrow can chirp in the daylight; it\u2019s only the nightingale that can sing in the dark.\u201d (205)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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.\u201d (206)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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.\u201d (211)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

by Richard Blackaby
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[rating:4.0] (\u00a0Greenville, 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 \u201crevival.\u201d They are taken from sermons he preached at his … <\/p>\n

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