Spurgeon
was perhaps England's most articulate yet unpredictable preacher. Certainly,
Martin Lloyd Jones was a similar tiger in the next era.
Spurgeon once took a church that met in an old stale musty stone cathedral which they had bought from a dying Church of England assembly. The building was useful, and Spurgeon got used to it, but it had horribly superstitious and Catholic type stained glass windows. Spurgeon suggested they be replaced with ordinary glass, but the leaders of the church refused. They said that the windows were valuable and ought to be preserved for their heritage value.
Spurgeon stewed for a long time over those windows. Finally, he could take them no longer. He went around to the church house one Saturday night very late. He then threw rocks through all of the stained glass windows, and he went home. Next morning, when the parishioners came to Sunday services, they were horrified to find their antique windows all smashed. Spurgeon got up in the pulpit and said, "We have been vandalized. What shall we do?"
"Replace them," came the answer from the church leaders.
Well, a committee was arranged which checked into the cost of restoring them. Their report was that the cost was far too high, and the only solution was to have the windows replaced with plain colored glass, which they did.
Now, some of you wimps may find fault with Spurgeon's methods. I think he did just exactly what God wanted him to do...
But, for those of you who feel it is culturally and spiritually
proper to spend God's money on stained glass windows of scummy "saints" of the
Whore of Rome, here is a little Old Anglican hymn, of the high church, just
for you...
Hymns or Rats?
During one of many holidays at Salmbourne, I had a varied experience which I am not likely to forget. My dear grandfather was very fond of Dr. Watt's hymns, and my grandmother, wishing to get me to learn them, promised me a penny for each that I should say to her perfectly. I found it an easy and pleasant method of earning money, and learned them so fast that grandmother said she must reduce the price to a halfpenny each, and afterpiano coversds to a farthing, if she did not mean to be quite ruined by her extravagance. There is no telling how low the amount per hymn might have sunk, but grandfather said that he was getting over-run with rats, and offered me a shilling a dozen for all I could kill.
I found, at the time, that the occupation of rat-catching paid me better than learning hymns, but I know which employment has been more permanently profitable to me. No matter on what topic I am preaching, I can, even now, in the middle of my sermon, quote some verse of a hymn in harmony with the subject; the hymns have remained with me, while those old rats for years have passed away, and the shillings I earned by killing them have been spent long ago.
- Charles Spurgeon
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
His Worst Sermon
Spurgeon once preached a sermon that he felt was his absolute worst. He floundered and stammered through it, and felt that it ended a complete failure. In his great humiliation he prayed to God that night, "Lord, God, Thou canst do something with nothing. Bless that poor sermon."
He prayed this prayer repeatedly throughout the week day and night. But, he also determined in himself that the next Sunday he would preach a great sermon.
He did exactly that. His next Sunday's sermon went splendidly and the people praised him highly for it. He was pleased with himself and slept beautifully that night without a care. But, the thought came to him, "I'll watch the results of those two sermons."
He was eventually able to trace forty-one souls saved through the effects of the poor, humiliating sermon while not one was saved through the highly praised one!
1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Don't Understand
Once a theology student came to Spurgeon much disturbed. He could not understand the meanings certain verses in the Bible. Spurgeon's wise advice to him was, "Young man, allow me to give you this word of advice. Give the Lord credit for knowing things you don't understand."
"A child of five, if properly instructed,
can as truly believe and be regenerated as an adult."
--
"Christian is the gentlest of men; but then he is a man."
--
"Cultivate forbearance till your heart yields a fine crop of it.
Pray for a short memory as to unkindness."
--
"Tale-baring emits a threefold poison; for it injures the teller,
the hearer and the person concerning whom the tale is told."
--
"We measure distance by time. We are apt to say that a certain place
is so many hours from us. If it is a hundred miles off, and there is no railroad,
we think it a long way; if there is a railway, we think we can be there in
no time. But how near must we say heaven is? -- for it is just one sigh,
and we get there."
--
"A lie travels around the world while Truth is putting on her
boots."
--
On his deathbed Spurgeon said to a friend, "My theology now is found in four little words: 'JESUS died for ME.' I don't say this is all I would preach if I were to be raised up again, but it is more than enough for me to die upon."
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Disclaimer on all perversions of the Bible and possibly some content.
spchk mt/--