About six feet to the right of where I am typing this....matted and framed and hanging on the wall....is a sheet of paper with lines of black ink cursive writing.....and in between those lines....in a few places....purple cursive writing....and one purple splotch about the size of a dime. The purple splotch...to me...just sets it off.
Someone in the church's employ would write down the sermons as Charles Spurgeon preached from the Metropolitan Tabernacle....this one was from March 30, 1890.....and Spurgeon himself after the service went over the copy and made corrections if necessary....in purple ink. The sermon would then be sent by cable to America and other points all across the globe. This original sheet of paper with Spurgeon's writing.....and splotch....was a gift from my son.....and it thus means a lot to me....for these two reasons.
Yesterday I listened to a Spurgeon sermon while working in the yard....today while walking was yet another Spurgeon sermon....I think it was a J. C. Ryle sermon the day before....and oh....I listened to a Michael Horton yesterday while cleaning in the basement....and Michael Reeves on Monday. That's five sermons this week.....sermons from the past.....or sermons from men who preach like men from the past.
Why bring this up. Is it some attempt to brag.....to pridefully boast....."Oh how many sermons I listen to!" Well first of all only a few people who read these posts actually know me personally....so that wouldn't make much sense. No....this multiple sermons a week has been going on with me for almost two years now. I put myself in the dock....so to speak....to write about this.....to hopefully encourage you to do the same thing! Just start Googling the names!
It has become such that a few times a week at the very least I need to hear one of these faithful men preach the glories of Jesus Christ.....I just must have it! I think that in a previous post I phrased it like this...."If this be fanaticism.....then you must go out and get it....for you do not know what you are missing!" The following post is from this past July:
Two or three times a week I search for a Charles Spurgeon sermon to listen to on YouTube while either exercising or walking....so I'm pretty familiar with the titles....but today a title came up near the top of YouTube offerings that I had not seen before. The sermon title is....The Voice Of The Cholera....and the message was given at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on August 12, 1866. It's a sermon for today as Spurgeon was commenting on the 1866 cholera epidemic in London. He also focuses in the sermon on two 'ills' that plagued society of his day. They may not be the specific 'ills 'that plague America today but you could substitute two of your own choice and the message would be the same.
Cholera and coronavirus aside....it's a sermon you may want to think about listening to. If you are not familiar with the 19th century London Prince of Preachers....most Christians I believe are....you might want to know in advance that Spurgeon's sermons went around the world....and his influence in the church was and is still enormous.....but also that towards the end of his life in 1892....fighting with everything that he had....and warning of the modernist liberal doctrines taking over much of the church....he was censured by the Baptist Union for his ardent defense of the gospel....which would be like the Southern Baptists if they were to have censured Billy Graham for his crusades. Spurgeon's warnings at the time went on deaf ears...and the 20th century came fast and furious upon England....but he continues to speak....we being only the latest. to be blessed.
Note: Benjamin Franklin famously penned.....maybe you have heard of it....this in 1739 as a revival of religion was sweeping Philadelphia...."From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street." Friends....would not something like the need to hear Christ preached as often as possible be but one way that God might work in a nation....or constant prayer....or the priority of daily reading God's Word over anything else one must do in life?
You can Google....Charles Keolsch, Spurgeon Sermons....and have dozens available from Spurgeon Audio Series.
