What God Blesses by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 4, 1883

What God Blesses.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

GOD blesses very slender things to the conversion of souls. It is very humbling, sometimes, to a preacher who thinks, "Well, I did preach a pretty fair sermon that time," to find God does not care a pin about him or his sermon, and that a stray remark he made in the street, which he hardly thought was of any value whatever, was what God had blessed; that when he thought he had succeeded best he had done nothing, and when he thought he had succeeded worst then God blessed him. Many a soul has had his eyes opened by an instrumentality which never dreamed of being so useful; and, indeed, the whole way of salvation is in itself extremely simple, so as to be well compared to the clay and spittle which the Saviour used.

I do not find many souls converted by bodies of divinity. We have received a great many into the church, but never received one who became converted by a profound theological discussion. We very seldom hear of any great number of conversions under very eloquent preachers—very seldom indeed. We appreciate eloquence, and have not a word to say against it by itself, but evidently it has no power spiritually to enlighten the understanding, neither does it please God to use the excellency of words for conversion. When Paul laid aside human wisdom and said he would not use the excellency of speech, he only laid aside what would not have been of much service to him. When David put off Saul's armor, and took the sling and the stone, he slew the giant; and giants are not to be conquered to-day any more than they were then by champions arrayed in Saul's armor. We must keep to the simple things, to the plain gospel, plainly preached.—Spurgeon.