Spurgeon Galore!

by Phil Johnson

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote Monday space to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive.



Finally! Some new Sermons at

My websites were recently moved to a new server that will enable me to modify files and upload new material from anywhere. So, to celebrate, I've formatted a bunch of sermons from the 1863 volume:

• Ben-Hadad's Escape—an Encouragement for Sinners
  
• Caleb—The Man for the Times
  
• Direction in Dilemma
  
• Encourage Your Minister
  
• Heavenly Love-Sickness!
  
• Jehovah-Shammah
  
• The Lambs and Their Shepherd
  
• Paul—His Cloak and His Books

I chose those sermons because they included "Encourage Your Minister," the sermon we excerpted here two weeks ago. It's a message that has been on my mind this week during Shepherds' Conference. Here's another excerpt:

The Pastor's Burden

Let a man carry out the office of a Christian minister aright, and he will never have any rest.

"God help," says Richard Baxter, "the man who thinks the minister's an easy life." Why, he works not only all day, but in his sleep you will find him weeping for his congregation, starting in his sleep with his eyes filled with tears, as if he had the weight of his congregation's sins resting on his heart, and could not bear the load.

I would not be that man in the ministry who does not feel himself so fearfully responsible, that if he could escape from the ministry by going with Jonah into the depths of the sea, he would cheerfully do it; for if a minister is what he should be, there is such a weight of solemn concern, such a sound of trembling in his ears, that he would choose any profession or any work, however arduous, sooner than the preacher's post. "If the watchman warn them not they shall perish, but their blood will I require at the watchman's hands." To sit down and spell over the question—"Am I free of his blood?" is terrible.

I have sometimes thought I must have a day or two of rest, but I frankly confess that rest is very little rest to me, for I think I hear the cries of perishing souls, the wailings of spirits going down to hell, who chide me thus: "Preacher, can you rest? Minister, can you be silent? Ambassador of Jesus can you cast aside the robes of your office? Up! and to your work again." As Mr. Whitefield said, when he thought of the ministry, and what was concerned in it, he wanted to stand on the top of every hackney coach in London and preach the gospel as he rode along.

If time permits, I'll also try to do a debrief on the Shepherds' Conference sometime Monday or Tuesday. It was a wonderful week. Among other things, I got to meet Tim Challies and Lig Duncan. I'll tell you all about it first chance I get.

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