Spurgeon’s Insights

Something I stumbled upon while looking for something: the great nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s comments on proverbs, The Salt-Cellars. They vary in quality, of course, and his teetotalling comes out in a few, but many of them are witty, insightful, provocative, etc. Here are some from the “M” section in volume two:

Many can get money; few can use it well.

Even to keep it is not easy. Many of the silliest investments have been made by men who, in their own business, were shrewd to the highest degree. It is harder to weave than to gather wool.

Many a pearl is still hidden in its oyster.

No doubt there are as many good pearls in the sea, as ever came out of it. Let us not despair for the times. God has jewels in hiding.

Make your mark, but mind what the mark is.

Too many seem eager for mere notoriety; but if we are not famous for goodness we are practically infamous.

Mind what is preached, more than how it is preached.

Meat is more than its carving, and truth is more than oratory.

Make home happy, and you will be happy at home.

A golden sentence. When anyone ceases to care for his home, it is one of the worse possible signs of moral sickness.

Mice must not pay with kittens.

Nor must men toy with temptations, for they are not able to resist them.

Maidens should be mild and meek,
Swift to hear and slow to speak.

 The advice will apply to men also; but the men like advising the women, better than doing right themselves.

Make much of little.

By economy use a small income well; by grateful praise express your value of the least of God’s mercies; and by charitable judgments come to a favourable conclusion concerning those in whom you see even a little grace. One can see the sky in a single drop of rain, and a work of grace in a tear of repentance.