In his final inaugural address at the Spurgeon College in 1891, Charles Spurgeon focused on the believer’s “armory” (the Word of God), “army” (the church), and their strength (the Spirit, “by which we wear the armor and use the sword”).[1] There’s much in this lecture, but here are three insights especially pertinent and challenging for today’s church:
- Our armory—“After preaching the gospel for forty years, and after printing the sermons I have preached for more than thirty-six years, reaching now to the number of twenty-two hundred in weekly succession, I am fairly entitled to speak about the fullness and richness of the Bible as a preacher’s book. Brothers, it is inexhaustible. No question about freshness will arise if we stay close to the text of the sacred book. It shouldn’t be difficult to find topics totally distinct from those we have taught on before; the variety is as infinite as the fullness. A long life will only be enough for us to go around the shores of this great continent of light. In the forty years of my own ministry, I have only touched the hem of the garment of divine truth, but what virtue has flowed out of it! The Word is like its author: infinite, immeasurable, without end.”[2]
- Our army – “I would urge you to resolve not to have a church unless it is a real one. Too often, religious statistics are shockingly false. . . . Let’s not keep names in our records when they are only names. Some of the good old people like to keep them there, and cannot bear to have them removed, but when you do not know where individuals are, nor what they are, how can you count them? They are gone to America, or to Australia, or to heaven, but as far as your list is concerned, they are with you still. Is this right? It may not be possible to be absolutely accurate, but let’s aim at it. We ought to see this in a very serious light and purge ourselves of the sin of false reporting, for God Himself will not bless mere names. It is not His way to work with those who act falsely. If there isn’t a real person for each name, modify your list. Keep your church real and effective, or don’t make a report. A merely nominal church is a lie. Let it be what it professes to be. We may not take delight in statistics, but we ought to know the facts.”[3]
- Our strength – “Remember the land of Canaan when the curse of Elijah fell upon it. For three years it didn’t have either dew or rain. This is how Christendom would become without the Spirit. . . . ‘We pray, blessed Spirit of the Lord, forgive us because we have done you such outrage by our forgetfulness of you, by our proud self-sufficiency, by resisting your influences, and by quenching your fire! From this point forward, work in us according to your own excellence. Make our hearts tenderly impressible, and then turn us as sealing wax on a document, and stamp upon us the image of the Son of God.’ With this prayer and confession of faith, let’s pursue our speaking and teaching topics in the power of the good Spirit about whom we speak.”[4]
Amen.
[1] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Greatest Fight (Updated, Annotated): Spurgeon’s Urgent Message for Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists (p. 6). Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.
[2] Ibid., 24.
[3] Ibid., 52.
[4] Ibid., p. 69.