“Be clad with zeal as with a cloak. We ought to be all alive, and always alive. A pillar of light and fire should be the preacher’s fit emblem.
Our ministry must be emphatic, or it will never effect these thoughtless times; and to this end our hearts must be habitually fervent, and our whole nature must be fired with an all-consuming passion for the glory of God and the good of men…
Earnestness may be, and too often is, diminished by neglect of study. If we have not exercised ourselves in the word of God, we shall not preach with the fervor and grace of the man who has fed upon the truth he delivers, and is therefore strong and ardent.
An Englishnan’s earnestness in battle depends, according to some authorities, upon his being well fed: he has no stomach for the fight if he is starved. If we are well nourished by sound gospel food we shall be vigorous and fervent.
Brethren, never neglect your spiritual meals or you will lack stamina and your spirits will sink. Live on the substantial doctrines of grace, and you will outlive and outwork those who delight in the pastry and syllabubs of “modern thought.”
Zeal may, on the other hand, be damped by our studies. There is, no doubt, such a thing as feeding the brain at the expense of the heart, and many a man in his aspirations to be literary has rather qualified himself to write reviews than to preach sermons.
A quaint evangelist was wont to say that Christ hung crucified beneath Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. It ought not to be so, but it has often happened that the student in college has gathered fuel, but lost the fire which is to kindle it.
It will be to our everlasting disgrace if we bury our flame beneath the coals which are intended to sustain it. If we degenerate into bookworms it will be to the old serpent’s delight, and to our own misery.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1875/2008), 379-381.
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