In this second lecture to his students at the Pastor's College Mr. Spurgeon clearly lays out helpful signs on what he believes are things to look for when contemplating whether or not a man has received a “Call to the Ministry.”
The first of these signs he describes as “an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work.” The “word of God”, he says, must be as “fire in our bones, otherwise, if we undertake this ministry, we shall be unhappy in it…”
Secondly, combined with the earnest desire to become a pastor, there must be “aptness to teach and some measure of the other qualities needful for the office of a public instructor.” Mr. Spurgeon suggests that he does not claim “that the first time a man rises to speak he must preach as well as Robert Hall did in his later years.”
The third point Mr. Spurgeon set before his students in order to prove a man's call was that “after a little exercise of his gifts…….he must see a measure of conversion-work going on under his efforts, or he may conclude that he has made a mistake…..” He gives a heart-felt illustration regarding the first convert under his ministry, “one poor labourer's wife who confessed that she felt the guilt of sin and had found the Saviour under his discourse on Sunday afternoon.” “Brethren, if the Lord gives you no zeal for souls, keep to the lapstone or the trowel, but avoid the pulpit as you value your heart's peace and your future salvation.”
This lecture was evidently a lengthy one, as at this point we were approximately half-way through, therefore, for the benefit of all we stopped the recording at this point and will bring the concluding portion of the lecture in a separate episode shortly.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist... | more..
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#23 - Top Downloaded Sermon (48-Hours) on 1/5/2009
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