When I was in Bible college, one of the assignments given
was to read the book Lectures to My Students by C. H. Spurgeon.
It was an excellent book. I would highly recommend anyone of
you who are contemplating on entering the full-time Christian
service that you read this book. Even if you are not entering
the ministry, this is an excellent book to own.
Pastor
Lectures
to My Students -
A Review by David Campbell
The three series of lectures
by the famous Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, bound
together in Lectures to My Students*, are doubtless familiar to
many in this country and overseas. They were originally published
between 1875 and 1894, and therefore were particularly relevant
to that time, yet they represent Spurgeon's mature thoughts on
important aspects of the work of the ministry and preaching. The
lectures were delivered on Friday afternoons to students in the
Pastor's College, which served Baptist churches in England from
1856. By Spurgeon's admission and express design they are 'colloquial,
familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous'. The passage of
time has not eroded any of these features and their republication
by the Banner of Truth highlights the contemporary relevance of
Spurgeon's approach to gospel preaching.
Perhaps the most obvious feature of the lectures, apart from the
style referred to and recognised as Spurgeon's very own, is their
great emphasis on the importance of both a natural and practical
presentation of the truth. Again and again this theme is addressed
and enforced. Spurgeon, more than any other writer on this subject,
shows his abhorrence of mechanical mannerisms and an artificial
preaching style. While a balance is clearly needed, this emphasis
was undoubtedly an overdue corrective to the clericalism and formalism
of many in Spurgeon's day. We perhaps live in times when the pendulum
has swung too far towards irreverence and banality in the pulpit.
The first series, which is possibly the most useful and wide-ranging,
deals with the subjects of the call to, and the dignity of, the
ministry, the choice of texts, the use of the voice and the minister's
ordinary conversation. Spurgeon famously opposed the practice
of preaching series of sermons on the same text, chapter or book.
He was noted for his soundly-biblical expositions and his penetrating
application of the truth. The abundance of sensible and often
highly-amusing instruction lends itself to a thorough reading
of this series. Students for the ministry in the Free Presbyterian
Church of Scotland are examined on this first series by their
presbyteries before entering the ministry.
While the first series of lectures is better known than the other
two, the first lecture of the second series is arguably the most
weighty and significant. Entitled, 'The Holy Spirit in Connection
with Our Ministry', it contains a biblical overview of the dependence
of the ministry on the Holy Spirit and highlights the solemn results
of the influences of the Spirit being withdrawn from preachers.
While we cannot agree with some of Spurgeon's statements (on pages
239-240) on the subject of Independent church government, we commend
this chapter heartily to readers.
Some of the lectures in the second and the third series, for example
those on open-air preaching, preaching posture, and also his references
to works useful for illustration, are now dated. Yet the general
importance of these subjects will not be lost on present-day preachers
reading Spurgeon's comments, even although they were addressed
to his students in Victorian London. Spurgeon is justly famous
for his own use of illustration in preaching and most of what
he says on this important subject is highly relevant and practical.
He advocates the use of illustrations from every possible source,
including history, fable, science and the natural world. He encourages
what other writers have called the 'sermonising habit' and lays
out guidance for the discerning and discreet use of illustrative
sources.
Importantly for one with a natural wit, Spurgeon warns against
humour in preaching. 'Those of us who are endowed with the dangerous
gift of humour have need, sometimes, to stop and take the word
out of our mouth and look at it, and see whether it is quite to
edification.' In our day, when the pulpit is much abused with
frivolous remarks in the name of illustration and relevance, Spurgeon's
restraint is exemplary. 'We need the Spirit of God,' he says,
'to put bit and bridle upon us to keep us from saying anything
that would take the minds of our hearers away from Christ and
eternal realities' (pp. 230-231). The solemnity of the office
and function of the gospel preacher cannot escape the attention
of those who read Spurgeon with care.
This new edition of Spurgeon's lectures includes his Commenting
and Commentaries, which was originally published for the benefit
of his students in 1876. Many of the works referred to are now
no longer in print, but Spurgeon's comments on the use of commentaries
in general are insightful and relevant. To those who shun their
use, he is scathing: 'It seems odd that certain men, who talk
so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should
think so little of what he has revealed to others' (p. 659). Spurgeon
gives first place to Matthew Henry, John Calvin, Matthew Poole,
John Trapp and John Gill, in that order. It is instructive to
notice that these perhaps remain the most widely-used Bible commentaries.
A preacher must use commentaries with much discretion. Clearly
plagiarism is dishonest, betrays laziness and will prove very
ineffective. Yet preaching which expounds the Word of God, such
as Spurgeon so persistently commended, requires close study of
the Scriptures. Spurgeon lived when popular preaching could be
topical, hortatory, experiential or doctrinal without being particularly
expository. He stressed the imperative of searching for the mind
of the Spirit in Scripture and recommended the accumulated wisdom
of older divines as aids to this study.
This volume, if not already acquired, should be found in every
preacher's study and will be useful and interesting to others
who may have a concern for the effectiveness of the gospel ministry
today.
**********************
My College lectures are colloquial,
familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous: they are purposely
made so, to suit the occasion. At the end of the week I meet
the students, and find them weary with sterner studies, and
I judge it best to be as lively and interesting in my prelections
as I well can be. They have had their fill of classics, mathematics,
and divinity, and are only in a condition to receive something
which will attract and secure their attention, and fire their
hearts.
The solemn work with which the Christian ministry concerns itself
demands a man's all, and that all at its best. To engage in
it half-heartedly is an insult to God and man. Slumber must
forsake our eyelids sooner than men shall be allowed to perish.
Yet we are all prone to sleep as do others, and students, among
the rest, are apt to act the part of the foolish virgins; therefore
have I sought to speak out my whole soul, in the hope that I
might not create or foster dullness in others. May he in whose
hand are the churches and their pastors bless these words to
younger brethren in the ministry, and if so I shall count it
more than a full reward, and shall gratefully praise the Lord.
C. H. Spurgeon
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