Spurgeon on fishing for men.

At Jesus' feet we must learn the art and mystery of soul winning-
to live with Christ is the best education for usefulness.
It is a great boon to any man to be associated with a Christian minister whose heart is on fire. The best training for a young man is that which the Vaudois pastors were wont to give, when each old man had a young man with him who walked with him whenever he went up the mountainside to preach, and lived in the house with him, and marked his prayers and saw his daily piety.

This was a fine instruction. Was it not?
But it will not compare with that of the apostles who lived with Jesus himself, and were his daily companions. Matchless was the training of the twelve. No wonder that they became what they were with such a heavenly tutor to saturate them with his own spirit! And now to-day his bodily presence is not among us; but his spiritual power is perhaps more fully known to us than it was to those apostles in those two or three years of the Lord's corporeal presence. There be some of us to whom he is intimately near. We know more about him than we do about our dearest earthly friend. We have never been able quite to read our friend's heart in all its twistings and windings, but we know the heart of the Well Beloved. We have leaned our head upon his bosom, and have enjoyed fellowship with him such as we could not have with any of our own kith and kin. This is the surest method of learning how to do good. Live with Jesus, follow Jesus, and he will make you fishers of men. See how he does the work, and so learn how to do it yourself.

A Christian man should be bound apprentice to Jesus to learn the trade of a Savior. We can never save men by offering a redemption, for we have none to present; but we can learn how to save men by warning them to flee from the wrath to come, and setting before them the one great effectual remedy. See how Jesus saves, and you will learn how the thing is done: there is no learning it anyhow else. Live in fellowship with Christ, and there shall be about you an air and a manner as of one who has been made in heart and mind apt to teach, and wise to win souls.

My grace is sufficient for you.2 Corinthians 12:9 CHS

If none of God’s saints were poor and tried,
we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace.
When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say,
“Still will I trust in the Lord;”
when we see the pauper starving on bread and water,
who still glories in Jesus;
when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction,
and yet having faith in Christ,
oh! what honour it reflects on the gospel.

God’s grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring—that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as he is pleased to keep them in it.

This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night—I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit’s work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was.




The master-works of God are those men and women who stand in the midst of difficulties, steadfast, unmoveable,—

“Calm mid the bewildering cry,

Confident of victory.”

They who would glorify their God must set their account upon meeting with many trials. No person can be illustrious before the Lord unless their conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for his failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.
CHS

In heavenly love abiding,
no change my heart shall fear.
and safe in such confiding,
for nothing changes here.
the storm may roar without me,
my heart may low be laid,
but God is round about me,
and can I be dismayed?


Wherever he may guide me,
no want shall turn me back.
my Shepherd is beside me,
and nothing can I lack.
his wisdom ever waking,
his sight is never dim.
He knows the way He's taking,
and I will walk with Him


Green pastures are before me,
which yet I have not seen.
Bright skies will soon be over me,
where darkest clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
my path to life is free.
My Savior has my treasure,
and he will walk with me.





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Words: Anna Laetitia Waring, 1850

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel.
He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery,
but he entered upon it with intense delight.
Yet while Paul was thus thankful for his office,
his success in it greatly humbled him.
The fuller a vessel becomes,
the deeper it sinks in the water.
Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities,
because they are untried;
but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness.

If you seek humility, try hard work;
if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus.
If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the living God,
attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you will know, as you never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are.

Although the apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness, he was never perplexed as to the subject of his ministry. From his first sermon to his last, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but Christ. He lifted up the cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled thereon.

Follow his example in all your personal efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation, and let “Christ and him crucified” be your ever recurring theme. The Christian should be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun is shining, open their golden cups, as if saying, “Fill us with thy beams!” but when the sun is hidden behind a cloud, they close their cups and droop their heads. So should the Christian feel the sweet influence of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he must be the flower which yields itself to the Sun of Righteousness.

Oh! to speak of Christ alone, this is the subject which is both “seed for the sower, and bread for the eater.” This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and the master-key to the heart of the hearer.
CHS