Aid of the Spirit

In the pulpit do we really and truly rest upon the aid of the Spirit ?  I do not censure any brother for his mode of preaching , but I must confess that it seems very odd to me when a brother prays that the Holy Ghost may help him in preaching , and then I see him put his hand behind him  and draw a manuscript out of his pocket , so fashioned that he can place it in the middle of his Bible , and read from it without being suspected of doing so . These precautions for ensuring secrecy look as though the man was a little ashamed of his paper ; but I think that he should be far more ashamed of his precautions. Does he expect the Spirit of God to bless himwhile he is practising a trick ? And how can He help him when he reads out of a paper from which anyone else can read without the Spirit's help?  What has the Holy Ghost to do with this business ? Truly He may have had something to do with the manuscript in the composing of it  , but in the pulpit his aid is superfluous  .  The truer thing would be to thank the Holy Spirit for assistance rendered , and ask that what he has enabled us to get into our pockets may now enter the people's hearts . Still, if the Holy Ghost should have anything to say to the people that is not in the paper , how can He say say it by us ? He seems to me to be very effectually blocked as to the freshness of utterance by that method of ministry . Still, it is not for me to censure , although I may quietly plead for liberty in prophesying , and room for the Lord to give us in the same hour what we shall speak .spurgeon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Church discipline

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri
Read more