“My good ministering brother, have you got an empty church? Do you want to fill it? I will give you a good recipe, and if you will follow it, you will, in all probability, have your chapel full to the doors.
Burn all your manuscripts, that is No. 1. Give up your notes, that is No. 2. Read your Bible and preach it as you find it in the simplicity of its language. And give up all your Latinized English. Begin to tell the people what you have felt in your own heart, and beseech the Holy Spirit to make your heart as hot as a furnace for zeal. Then go out and talk to the people. Speak to them like their brother. Be a man amongst men. Tell them what you have felt and what you know, and tell it heartily with a good, bold face; and, my dear friend, I do not care who you are, you will get a congregation.”
This week’s dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs is well worth reading in its entirety. It fits in nicely with my current series on preaching, and in many ways parallels what the Doctor’s quote says about “dead orthodoxy” on my blog this morning. Spurgeon believed in Spirit and Word. What a tragedy that many of today’s cessationists would feel uncomfortable about this language concerning the Spirit, and that the average charismatic doesn’t value the Word of God sufficiently. The urgent need of the hour is inspired preaching. Spurgeon’s suggestion to throw away our notes is surely a great challenge — especially to the average preacher who is not so gifted as he was.
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