25 November 2018

How to attract (or distract) a congregation


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Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon


The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Sword and the Trowel, August, 1883, Pilgrim Publications.

"If you want to know how to distract a congregation, you have only to go to the great drum-thumping establishments, and hear for yourself how noise can be glorified." 

Outside of those emporiums instruments of brass are in full blast, with their still small voices proclaiming peace on earth, good will toward men. To put it more plainly, the age of the tin-kettle and the banjo has arrived, and with these weapons of our warfare the strong-holds of evil are to be thrown down. 

In certain districts the Sabbath is made hideous, the streets are rendered dangerous, and quiet is banished, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and with the view of attracting the masses to Him. The design is admirable, the method intolerable. Among our natural rights and liberties there is one which is in some danger in these turbulent days, and that is the right of occasionally being free from the banging of drums and the blaring of trumpets in the open streets. 

A contemporary has been asked: “Can a man belong to a brass band and be a Christian?” It replies, “We see no impediment in the way; but if he is a member of a brass band, and is given to practicing on his cornet or trombone at home, it is an impossibility for the man next door to be a Christian.” 

This verdict is one in which I heartily coincide, only I extend it a little further, and include the equal difficulty of displaying a Christian temper when Salvation Bands go banging through the streets day after day. A tremendous noise is one way of attracting a congregation; but whether or not it is one which Jesus and his apostles would have followed, I leave to be decided by those best able to judge. 

The other day we read in an official report, “Brass band better than ever: thirteen blowing salvation through their instruments.” If this be so, let them blow till all is blue: it is not for us to rail at sounding brass if it has indeed become a channel of salvation. Blow by all means. If any of you judge that this is your high calling, pursue it ardently; and if outraged humanity should pelt you with mud and rotten eggs, do not reckon that a strange thing has happened unto you. 

If you should also create about twice as much blasphemy as religious feeling, do not be surprised: if your course of action should bring ridicule on all religion, and educate the mob in the art of rioting, which they may use by-and-by with unexpected results, do not marvel. If you conceive this to be your line of usefulness, listen to no advice; reckon all who differ from you as your enemies; become martyrs; and go forward like good soldiers, so long as leather and brass hold out.

Only be prepared for contingencies. Suppose the big drum and the tambourine should cease to charm, what next? What else is to be done? Will you stand on our head? Hornpipes have been tried; will you try the tight-rope? cannot suggest to you a novelty—since we have already heard of Brummagem Bruisers, devil-dodgers, converted clog-dancers, etc. 

No, I cannot continue the list, for it must include several profane titles if it become at all complete; and, above all, and worst of all, it must needs contain those blasphemous insults to the eternal and incommunicable name which arise out of the desecration of the word “hallelujah.” It only occurs to me to suggest the question—Might it not be possible to be a little less vulgar, and so to create variety without extreme exertion? It might be a novelty to some people to conduct a meeting in which there should be no slang;—let it be attempted.

18 November 2018

“We shall get home"


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Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Sword and the Trowel, September, 1883, Pilgrim Publications.

Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. Exodus 15:17

Conversing just now with an elder of the church, I remarked that he must be somewhere about seventy-five, and he replied, “I am eighty-two.” “That,” I replied, “is a good old age.” “Yes,” said he, “it is”; and then he cheerfully nodded his head, and added, “We shall get home; WE SHALL GET HOME!” 

And so we shall, brothers; so we shall, sisters. In chorus we will take up our brother’s word, and say, “We shall get home.” “We shall get home.” There is music in that simple sentence; a soft melody, as of the evening bell. 

Early in life its sound may be more stirring and trumpet-like, nerving our youth to energy, and making us cry “Excelsior” but as our years increase, and the sun descends, its note is sweet and soothing, and we love to listen to it in our quiet moods, for each word has a silvery tone—“We shall get home; WE SHALL GET HOME.” 

This is our great comfort: however long the way, we shall get home. We may live to be eighty-two, or even ninety-nine; but we shall get home in due time. We may not doubt that blessed truth, for the Lord has taught us to sing in the song of Moses, his servant, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance.” 

The way may be rough, but it is the king’s highway, and no brigands can drag us off from it: we shall by this road get home to the Father’s own house above. Some of us are not nearing threescore years as yet, and perhaps we have many long leagues to traverse, but we shall get home—glory be to God!

His love has fixed the happy day
When the last tears will wet our eyes,
And God shall wipe those dews away,
And fill us with divine surprise,
To be at home, and see his face, 
And feel his infinite embrace.


11 November 2018

“Is it I?"


Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon


The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from The Gospel of the Kingdom, page 234, Pilgrim Publications.

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And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? Matthew 26:22

That short sentence fell like a bombshell among the Saviour’s body-guard. It startled them; they had all made great professions of affection for him, and, for the most part, those professions were true. 

And they were exceeding sorrowful: and well they might be. 

Such a revelation was enough to produce the deepest emotions of sorrow and sadness. It is a beautiful trait in the character of the disciples that they did not suspect one another, but every one of them enquired, almost incredulously, as the form of the question implies, "Lord, is it I?" 

No one said, "Lord, is it Judas?" Perhaps no one of the eleven thought that Judas was base enough to betray the Lord who had given him an honourable place among his apostles.

We cannot do any good by suspecting our brethren; but we may do great service by suspecting ourselves. Self-suspicion is near akin to humility.

04 November 2018

Charles Spurgeon: Parson Killer

Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from C.H. Spurgeons Autobiography, volume three, pages 143-144.



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"Certain of our charitable neighbours accuse me of having 'a parson manufactory,' but the charge is not true at all. I never tried to make a minister, and should fail if I did; I receive none into the College but those who profess to be ministers already. It would be nearer the truth if they called me 'a parson-killer,' for a goodly number of beginners have received their quietus from me; and I have the fullest ease of conscience in reflecting upon what I have so done."

One brother I have encountered—one did I say?—I have met ten, twenty, a hundred brethren, who have pleaded that they were quite sure that they were called to the ministry—because they had failed in everything else! 

This is a sort of model story:—“Sir, I was put into a lawyer’s office, but I never could bear the confinement, and I could not feel at home in studying law. Providence clearly stopped up my road, for I lost my situation.” 

“And what did you do then? Why, sir, I was induced to open a grocer’s shop.” “And did you prosper? Well, I do not think, sir, I was ever meant for trade; and the Lord seemed quite to shut up my way there, for I failed, and was in great difficulties.

Since then, I have done a little in a life-assurance agency, and tried to get up a school, beside selling tea; but my path is hedged up, and something within me makes me feel that I ought to be a minister.” 

My answer generally is, “Yes, I see; you have failed in everything else, and therefore you think the Lord has especially endowed you for His service; but I fear you have forgotten that the ministry needs the very best of men, and not those who cannot do anything else.” 

A man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do right well either as a grocer, or a lawyer, or anything else. A really valuable minister would have excelled in any occupation. There is scarcely anything impossible to a man who can keep a congregation together for years, and be the means of edifying them for hundreds of consecutive Sabbaths; he must be possessed of some abilities, and be by no means a fool or a ne’er-do-well. 

Jesus Christ deserves the best men to preach His gospel, and not the empty-headed and the shiftless.