Words from Spurgeon for This Weekend’s Teachers and Preachers

If you will be teaching a small group or preaching to the congregation this weekend, I encourage you to listen to these words from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students.* I hope they challenge you as much as they challenge me.

1. “The best and holiest men have ever made prayer the most important part of pulpit preparation.” (p. 44)
2. “Your doctrinal teaching should be clear and unmistakable. To be so, it must first of all be clear to yourself. Some men think in smoke and preach in a cloud. Your people do not want a luminous haze, but the solid terra firma of truth.” (p. 77)
3. “As a rule, do not make the introduction too long. It is always a pity to build a great porch to a little house.” (p. 133)
4. “Remember, however, that nothing will avail if you go to sleep yourself while you are preaching.” (p. 138)
5. “Above all things beware of letting your tongue outrun your brains.” (p. 152)
6. “Far better for a man that he had never been born than that he should degrade a pulpit into a show box to exhibit himself in.” (p. 194)
7. “Be masters of your Bibles, brethren: whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles.” (p. 206)
8. “I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment this was a slander on the oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings, and knows when to close.” (pp. 208-209).

Tell us how we can pray for you this weekend. Readers, take time today to pray for each request.