Here's a few quotes I grabbed from Spurgeon's An All-Round Ministry. What fantastic stuff here. Thanks to the guys at Team Pyro for their link to this material.
What's interesting is that these addresses to his students and to ministers at the Baptist Union conferences were given between the years 1872 and 1890. We're dealing with the same nonsense and "tomfoolery" today as Spurgeon and other ministers dealt with years ago.
Same disease, same potent remedy!
R.J.
It
is not in our denomination alone or chiefly that these evils exist, but they
are everywhere. I know not what our
brethren mean when they deny the general prevalence of unbelief. Are they wilfully deaf and blind? Do they live on the dark side of the
moon? You must have noticed, in the
newspapers, apologies for Mohammedanism and Buddhism, in which these religions
are praised to the disparagement of Christianity: this is a sign of the times. Scribes are taking up their pens to write
upon themes which would not have been touched by the secular papers years ago; and they are only touched now because there
is an unbelief abroad which creates a market for anti-Christian
literature. Those against whom we fight
to-day are striking at the life of our religion. They are not cutting off its horns, but
tearing out its heart.
While
we do preach "the terror of the Lord," I may say of myself, and of
you also, that "we persuade men" in all tenderness. We do not worry them to Christ; but, with
much gentleness and patience, we endeavor to draw them with love, and urge them
on with tearful anxiety. We are under
trembling apprehensions of the wrath to come, and therefore we are in downright
earnest. We have no pleasure in their
death. Do our enemies dare to think that
we have? We grieve to think of their
dying in their sins. It is ungenerous to
represent us as cruel because we are honest in our interpretation of the threatenings
of Scripture.
Neutrals,
in the end, have the respect of neither party; and, assuredly, they are the
difficulty in every controversy.
Are
not important persons too much consulted? Is not position more valued than piety? Is there enough of downright faithfulness to truth and to Christ at all
hazards? Brethren, we want grace to say,
"I can be poor; I can be ridiculed; I can be abused; but I cannot be false
to my Lord."
What
is next to be done in our chapels? To
what length of tomfoolery will ministers of the gospel yet go? Amusements beneath the contempt of idiots
have been tolerated in our schoolrooms. It has not come to that yet with us, personally; but, brethren, we
ourselves have to battle hard against it, for the people are all agog for these
vanities, and there are so many societies and institutions more or less
remotely connected with our churches that it is difficult for us to keep them
all from wandering. Brethren, we are not
here to play away our time, but to win souls for Jesus and eternal bliss. By the solemnities of death, and judgment,
and eternity, I beseech you, keep yourselves clear of the follies, the
inanities of the day. Remark with
interest how "the wisdom of this world" and the follies of it seem to
be boon companions, and turn from them both with equal loathing.
Why
is this? Whence this distaste for the
ordinary services of the sanctuary? I
believe that the answer, in some measure, lies in a direction little suspected. There has been a growing pandering to
sensationalism; and, as this wretched appetite increases in fury the more it is
gratified, it is at last found to be impossible to meet its demands. Those who have introduced all sorts of
attractions into their services have themselves to blame if people forsake their
more sober teachings, and demand more and more of the noisy and the
singular. Like dram-drinking, the thirst
for excitement grows. At first, the
fiery spirit may be watered down; but
the next draught of it must be stronger, and soon it is required to be
overproof. The customary gin-drinker
wants something stronger than the pure spirit, deadly though that draught may
be. One said, as she tossed off her
glass, "Do you call that gin? Why, I know a place where, for threepence, I can get a drink that will
burn your very soul out!" Yes, gin
leads on to vitriol; and the sensational leads to the outrageous, if not to the
blasphemous. I would condemn no one, but
I confess that I feel deeply grieved at some of the inventions of modern
mission work.
Let
us inculcate with all our might the practice of holiness. Holiness is the visible side of
salvation. I thought it no ill sign when
the preaching of holiness was pushed even to an extreme. I trembled at the fanaticism, but I thanked
God for the earnestness out of which it grew. Let us seek the utmost degree of holiness. The doctrines of grace should be accompanied
by ethics of the purest kind. We have
been clear upon the fact that good works are not the cause of salvation; let us
be equally clear upon the truth that they are the necessary fruit of it. What is the use of our churches if they are
not holy? What is the use of ourselves
if we are not holy? Holiness is
practical orthodoxy, and it should walk hand-in-hand with doctrinal
orthodoxy. We must not only have a
high-toned morality, but a consecrated morality, quickened by the Spirit of
God; -- and that is holiness.
The
times are bad, but they have been bad before. You have to fight with Apollyon, but many have met this arch-enemy
before your day. Gird up the loins of
your mind, and stand fast, for the Lord is greater than the times. The days are evil, but evil days are followed
by good days. History repeats itself,
and this is one of the points in which history is very persistent. Let me read you a cheering passage from
Witherspoon:-- "Nothing is impossible to the power of God. I add, that the most remarkable times of the
revival of religion, in this part of the United Kingdom, immediately succeeded
times of the greatest apostasy, when 'truth' seemed to be 'fallen in the
street, and equity could not enter.' This was the case immediately before the year 1638. Corruption in doctrine, looseness in
practice, and slavish submission in politics, had overspread the Church of
Scotland; and yet, in a little time, she
appeared in greater purity, and in greater dignity, than ever she had done
before, or, perhaps, than ever she has done since that period. Let no Christian, therefore, give way to
desponding thoughts. We plead the cause
that shall at last prevail. Religion
shall rise from its ruins; and its oppressed state at present should not only
excite us to pray, but encourage us to hope for its speedy revival."
