Lectures to My Students

Reread Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students recently.  So good.

Favorite Quotes

  1. The first sign of the heavenly calling is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work (26).
  2. He is not always in the act of prayer, but he lives in the spirit of it (42).
  3. Since, also, in the reading of the Scriptures comfort and instruction may be plenteously distributed, we shall pause over our opened Bibles, and devoutly seek to be guided to that portion of Holy Writ which shall be most likely to be made useful (81).
  4. What a pity that a man who from his heart delivered doctrines of undoubted value, in language the most appropriate, should commit ministerial suicide by harping on one string, when the Lord had given him an instrument of many strings to play upon (111)!
  5. In order to get attention, the first golden rule is, always say something worth hearing,  Most persons possess an instinct which leads them to desire to hear a good thing (130).
  6. Accustom yourselves to heavenly meditations, search the Scriptures, delight yourselves in the law of the Lord, and you need not fear to speak of things which you have tasted and handled of the good word of God (146).
  7. Even in our recreations we should still pursue the great object of our lives; for we are called to be diligent “in season and out of season” (167).
  8. No man may say that he has no well to draw from while the Scriptures are within reach (179).
  9. …real success is proportionate to the preacher’s earnestness.  Both great men and little men succeed if they are throughly alive unto God, and fail if they are not so (305).
  10. Illustrations tend to enliven an audience and quicken attention (351).

Book Overview

An excellent and useful gift for pastors and seminary students, church history enthusiasts, and even collectors and readers of classic Victorian literature.

“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 . . . and only in a condition to receive something which will attract and secure their attention, and fire their hearts.”

Though best remembered as the most popular preacher of the Victorian era, C. H. Spurgeon was also founder and president of the Pastor’s College in London. He supervised the training of over 800 students, presided at an annual conference for ministers, and, on Friday afternoons, delivered regular lectures on every aspect of pulpit ministry.

Featuring such gems as “The Minister’s Fainting Fits”; “Posture, Action, Gesture, etc.”; and “On the Choice of a Text,” this unabridged edition of 28 of Spurgeon’s classroom discourses on homiletics overflows with practical wisdom, discerning wit, and sage advice. Covering the call, open-air preaching, ordinary conversations, using illustrations, and conduct outside the church, Spurgeon’s words are as rich and nourishing for pastors and students today as they were more than a century ago.