Service and Honor Spurgeon

S E RV I C E A N D H O N O R
S E RV I C E
and H O N O R
Encouragement for Ministry

From Charles Spurgeon
Charles H. Spurgeon
1
his ebook is a collection of chapters from Charles Haddon
T Spurgeon's lesser-known work, We Endeavor, which is a series of
lectures to the members of The Young People’s Society of Christian
Endeavour, a group devoted to service, honor, stewardship, and
discerning the work of the Holy Spirit. In the following five chapters, you
will find encouragement from Spurgeon to persevere in the ministry,
remembering that your calling and strength come from Christ. This
ebook has been created on the occasion of Pastor Appreciation Month,
October 2024. In an age when pastors need encouragement more than
ever, we hope that the words of Spurgeon will remind you that your
labors, though largely unseen, matter for the glory of God and the beauty
of the Church.
This resource was made possible by the Spurgeon Library at
Midwestern Seminary. More of Spurgeon’s works can be found through
their site spurgeon.org. Additionally, these works will be included in an
upcoming publication from Jason Duesing and Geoff Chang. We hope
you’re encouraged in your ministry for the Church through reading this
excerpt from the Prince of Preachers.

CONTENTS
S E RV I C E A N D H O N O U R 05
“ T H E L O R D WO R K I N G W I T H T H E M” 19
T H E H O LY S P I R I T N O T S T R A I T E N E D 33
THE DIVINE COMMISSION 42
G R E AT FA I T H A N D G R E AT WO R K S 52
“If any man serve
Me, let him follow
Me; that is, let him
do just what I bid
him to do; follow
Me by imitating
My example.”
1
S E RV I C E A N D H O N O R 1
True service
True service toisChrist
to Christ aboutisfaithfully
about faithfully
following following Him
Him in daily in daily
tasks. In thistasks. In this
chapter, Spurgeon
chapter, Spurgeon emphasizes that serving Christ brings freedom, rest, and
emphasizes that serving Christ brings freedom, rest, and eternal reward. Pastors are encouraged
eternal reward. Pastors are encouraged that their labor, even if unnoticed, is
that their labor, even if unnoticed, is valuable and honored by God. This assurance motivates
valuable and honored by God. This assurance motivates leaders to serve with
leaders to serve with
humility, humility,
knowing their knowing
work istheir work is meaningful
meaningful regardlessregardless
of human ofpraise.
human praise.
ou cannot have Christ if you will not serve Him. If you
Y take Christ, you must take Him in all His characters, not
only as Friend, but also as Master; and if you are to become His
disciple, you must also become His servant. I hope that no one
kicks against that truth. Surely it is one of our highest delights
on earth to serve our Lord, and this is to be our blessed
employment even in heaven itself: “His servants shall serve
Him: and they shall see His face.”
1
John xii. 26
5
This thought also enters into our idea of salvation; to be
saved, means that we are rescued from the slavery of sin, and
brought into the delightful liberty of the servants of God. O
Master, Thou art such a glorious Lord that serving Thee is
perfect freedom, and sweetest rest! Thou hast told us that it
should be so, and we have found it so. “Take My yoke upon you,
and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall
find rest unto your souls.” We do find it so; and it is not as
though rest were a separate thing from service, the very
service itself becomes rest to our souls. I know not how some
of us would have any rest on earth if we could not employ our
daily lives in the service of Christ; and the rest of heaven is
never to be pictured as idleness, but as constantly being
permitted the high privilege of serving the Lord.
Learn hence, then, all of you who would have Christ as
your Saviour, that you must be willing to serve Him. We are not
saved by service, but we are saved to service. When we are once
saved, thenceforward we live in the service of our Lord. If we
refuse to be His servants, we are not saved, for we still remain
evidently the servants of self, and the servants of Satan.
Holiness is another name for salvation; to be delivered from
6
the power of self-will, and the domination of evil lusts, and
the tyranny of Satan, — this is salvation. Those who would be
saved must know that they will have to serve Christ, and those
who are saved rejoice that they are serving Him, and that thus
they are giving evidence of a change of heart and renewal of
mind.
So you are proposing to yourself that you will serve Christ,
are you? You are a young man, as yet you have plenty of vigour
and strength, and you say to yourself, “I will serve Christ in
some remarkable way; I will seek to make myself a scholar, I
will try to learn the art of oratory, and I will in some way or
other glorify my Lord’s name by the splendour of my
language.” Will you, dear friend? Is it not better, if you are
going to serve Christ, to ask Him what He would like you to do?
If you wished to do a kindness for a friend, you certainly would
desire to know what would best please that friend, or else your
kindness might be mistaken, and you might be doing that
which would grieve rather than gratify. Now listen. Your Lord
and Master does not bid you become either a scholar or an
orator in order to serve Him. Both of those things may happen
to fall to your lot in that path of duty which He would have you
7
to take; but first of all He says, “If any man serve Me, let him
follow Me.”
This is what Christ prefers beyond anything else, that His
servants should follow Him. If we do that, we shall serve Him in
the way which is according to His own choice. I notice that
many good friends desire to serve Christ by standing on the top

round of the ladder. You cannot get there at one step, young
man; your better way will be to serve Christ by following Him,
by “doing the next thing,” the thing you can do, that little
simple business which lies within your capacity, which will
bring you no special honour, but which, nevertheless, is what
your Lord desires of you. In effect, you can hear Him say to you,
“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, not by aiming at great
things, but by doing just that piece of work that I put before him
at the time.” “Seekest thou great things for thyself?” said the
prophet Jeremiah to Baruch, “seek them not.” So say I to you.
One friend, perhaps, blessed with great riches, is saying, “I
will lay by in store until I acquire a considerable amount, and
then build a row of almshouses for the poor; I will give very
largely to some new foreign missionary effort, or I will build a
house of prayer in which Christ’s name shall be preached.” God
8
forbid that I should stop you in any right design whatever! Still,
if you would do what is absolutely certain to please Christ, I
would not recommend the selection of any one particular
object, but I would advise you just to do this, — follow Him,
remembering that He said, “If any man serve Me, let him follow
Me.” You will, by simply going behind your Master, following

His footsteps, and being truly His disciple, do that .which
would please Him more than if you could endow His cause
with a whole mint of riches. This is what He selects as the
choicest proof of your love, the highest testimonial of your
regard: “‘ If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.”
He requires of you that you should become as a little
child, that you may be taught by Him. His own words are,
“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” If you would be a
servant of Christ, come to Him as a little child; sit on the
infants’ form, to be taught by Him the gospel A B C. “If any man
serve Me, let him follow Me, — follow Me as My disciple,
regarding Me as his Teacher, to whom he bows his
understanding and his entire mind, that I may fashion it
according to My own will.” This is the language of our Lord,
9
and I would impress it very earnestly upon you all, and
especially upon any who are beginning the Christian life,. If
you are to serve Christ, put your mind like a tablet of wax under
His stylus, that He may write on you whatsoever He pleases. Be
you Christ’s slate, that He may make His mark on you. Be His
sheet of paper, on which He may write His living letters of love.

You can serve Him in this way in the best possible manner.
“Whatsover HE saith unto you, do it.” If you want truly to
serve Christ, do not do what you suggest to yourself, but do
what He commands you. Remember what Samuel said to Saul,
“To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
rams.” I believe that the profession of consecration to God,
when it is accompanied by action that I suggest to myself, may
be nothing but will-worship, an abomination in the sight of
God; but when anyone says to the Lord, “What wilt Thou have
me to do? Show me, my Master, what Thou wouldst have me to
do,” — when there is a real desire to obey every command of
Christ, then is there the true spirit of service, and the true
spirit of sonship. “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me,
running at My call, following at My heels, waiting at My feet to
do whatsoever I desire him to do.” This makes life a very much
10
simpler thing than some dream it to be. You are not to go and
carve a statue out of the marble by the exercise of your own
genius; if that were the task set before us, the most of us would
never accomplish it. But you have just to go and write
according to Christ’s own example, to copy His letters, the up-
strokes and the down-strokes, and to write exactly as He has

written. The other day, I was asked to sign my name to a deed,
and when it was handed to me, I said, “Why, I have signed my
name!” “Yes,” said the one who brought it, “you have the very
easy task of marking it all over again.” Just so, in that case I
followed my own writing; and you have the easy task of writing
after Christ, blacking over again the letters that He Himself has
made, and you cannot do Him better service than this. “If any
man serve Me, let him follow Me; that is, let him do just what I
bid him to do; follow Me by imitating My example.” It is always
safe to do what Christ would have done under the same
circumstances in which you are placed. Of course, you cannot
imitate Christ in His miraculous work, and you are not asked to
imitate Him in some of those sorrowful respects in which He
suffered that we might not suffer; but the ordinary life of
Christ is in every respect an example to us. Never do what you
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could not suppose Christ would have done. If it strikes you
that the course of action that is suggested to you would be un-
Christly, then it is un-Christian, for the Christian is to be like
Christ. The Christian is to be the flower growing out of the
seed, Christ; and there is always a congruity between the
flower and the seed out of which it grows. Keep your eyes fixed
on your heavenly model, and pattern, and seek in all things
ever to imitate Christ. If you want to serve Christ, repeat His
life as nearly as possible in your own life. “If any man serve Me,
let him follow Me by copying My example.”
You do not need to run away from your father and mother,
and leave your home and friends, and go away to the blacks in
Africa, in order to serve Christ. It is not the getting of some idle
speculation in your own brain, and working that out according
to your ,own whims and fancies, that constitutes service for
Christ; it is just simply this, — if any man will serve Christ, let
him follow Christ. Let him put his foot down as nearly as he can
where Christ put His foot down; let him tread in Christ’s steps,
and be moved by His spirit, actuated by His motives, live with
His aim, and copy His actions. This is the noblest way in which
to serve the Lord.
12
“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am,
there shall also My servant be.” I do not know any other master
but Christ who ever said that. There are some places where an
earthly master does not want his servant to be; he must have
some room to himself, and some engagements which he
cannot explain to his servant, and into which his servant must
not pry. But the Lord Jesus Christ makes this the glorious
privilege of everyone who enters His service that, where He is,
there shall His servant be.
But where is Christ? He is and always was in the place of
communion with God. He was always near to His Father. He
often spoke with God. He ever had the joy of God filling His
spirit. And you, perhaps, are saying to yourself, “I wish that I
had communion with God.” Well, through Jesus Christ, it is; to
be had by serving Him in that particular kind of service which
consists in following Him. If you want to walk with God, why,
of course, you must walk! If you sit down in idleness, you
cannot walk with Him; and if you do not keep up a good brisk
pace, He will walk on in front of you, and leave you behind, for
the Lord is no laggard in His walking. Therefore, you see, there
must be diligent progress, and activity in service, in order that
13
we may keep pace with Him, and have communion with Him;
and if we act thus here, lie has promised that we shall be in the
place of communion with our blessed Master.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was in the place of confidence.
Whenever Christ went to work, He worked with assurance. He
never had a doubt as to His ultimate success. No haphazard

work ever came from Christ’s hands;. He spoke with certainty,
and He worked with the full assurance that His labor would not
be in vain. If you want to have confidence in your work for
Christ, so as to perform it without any doubts and fears, you will
have to obtain it by serving Him, and to serve Him by following
Him; and then, into that hallowed place of confidence where
your Master always stood, there shall you also come.
It is very sweet to notice how the Lord Jesus brings His
Father into His speech; it is as if He said, “When a man joins
himself to Me, then he joins himself to My Father also. It is not
only I who will love him, and do My best to honour him, but My
Father, the great and ever-blessed Lord over all, keeps an eye on
that man.” On whom does He look with this gaze of approval? Not
on those who have some grand project of serving themselves,
but on those who serve Christ, and who do it by following Him.
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It is delightful to have a sense of the approbation of God,
such as you never had when you had the approbation of men.
Sometimes, when even Christian people cry, “Well done, well
done,” the Lord says, “That is quite enough praise for him; I
shall not give him My ‘Well done.’” But when you get no “Well
done” from men, but, on the contrary, are misunderstood and

misrepresented, then the Lord comes and puts His hand upon
you, and says, “Be strong, fear not, I have accepted your
service. I know your motive, and I approve your action. Be not
afraid of them, but go on your way.” Such approval as that is the
highest honour we can have here. “If any man serve Me,” says
Christ, “him will My Father honour,” with a sense of sonship,
and with a sense of approbation.
If a man will serve Christ by following Him, the Father will
give him honour in the eyes of the blood-bought family. There
are certain of the Lord’s people who do not carry yard
measures with them, but they carry scales and weights, and if
they do not measure by quantity, they measure by quality;
their approval is worth having. They are often the poorest and
most afflicted members of the church; but being the most
instructed, and living the nearest to God, to be had in honour
15
of them is a thing worth having. I believe that, if any man will
lead the life of a Christian, however few his talents, and if his
service lies in close obedience and imitation of Christ, the real
saints, not the mere professors, especially not the shining
worldly ones among them, but real saints will say, “That is the
man for us; that is the woman with whom we like to converse.”
Thus it comes to pass that those who really do serve the Lord
by following Him have honour in the estimation of those who
sit at meat with them at their Lord’s table.
And then, when we come to die, or when we stand at the
judgment seat of Christ, or when we enter upon the eternal
state, what a glorious thing it will be, to find the Father ready
to honour us for ever because we served the Son! Our reward
will not be of debt, but of grace; it is grace that gave us the
service, and grace that will reward us for our service; but no
man and no woman shall serve the Lord Jesus Christ here on
earth by following Him, without finding that the Father has
some special honour, some rich and rare reward, to give to
such soldiers in due time. This is the fighting day, expect
nothing now but bullets, bruises, wounds, scars; but the battle
will soon be over, and when the war is ended, the King will
16
come, and ride up and down the ranks, and in that day you who
have been most battered and most wounded in the battle shall
find Him pause when He reaches you, and He will fasten on
your breast a star that shall be more honour to you than all the
Victoria Crosses that have decorated brave men here below.
Stars and garters they may have who want them, but blessed
are they who shall shine as the stars in the kingdom of our
Father! And this honour is to be had by that believer who will
faithfully serve his Lord; not by any who merely talk about it, or
dream of it, or propose to do it, but to those who serve Him by
following Him this honour shall be given.
17
“The Holy Ghost
made what they
said to be divinely
powerful.”
2
“ T H E L O R D WO R K I N G
W I T H T H E M” 1
Spurgeon reminds pastors that their mission is a God-ordained work of

lasting significance. Like the early disciples, they must preach the gospel
despite obstacles. This chapter encourages pastors to remain faithful,
trusting that God empowers their efforts and that their obedience will be
made effective through the Holy Spirit, even in challenging times.
like the thought of Christ being taken up to heaven because
I His work was done, and His people being left on earth because
there was still work for them to do. If we could steal away to
heaven, what a pity it would be that we should do so while there is
a single soul to be saved! I think that, if I had not brought to Christ
the full number of jewels that He intended me to bring to adorn
His crown, I would ask to come back again even from heaven. He
knows best where we can best serve Him, so He ordains that, while
1
Mark xvi.20.
19
“ T H E L O R D W O R K I N G W I T H T H E M”
He sits at the right hand of God, we are to abide here, and go forth
to preach everywhere, the Lord working with us.
This work of the disciples was aggressive: “they went
forth.” Some of them were bound to stay for a while at
Jerusalem; though that old nest was eventually pulled down,
not a stick of it was left, and the very tree on which it was built
was cut down. Persecution drove forth the bulk of them
further and further; we do not know where they all did go.
There are traditions, which are not very valuable, to show
where each of the apostles went, but it is quite certain that
they all went somewhere or other; starting from the one
common center, they went in various directions preaching
Christ. They worked: “They went forth, and preached.”
The disciples did not say : — “Well, the Master has gone to
heaven, the eternal purposes of God will be quite sure to be
carried out, it is not possible that the designs of infinite love
should fail, the more especially as He is at the Father’s side,
therefore let us enjoy ourselves spiritually. Let us sit down in
the happy possession of covenant blessings, and let us sing to
our hearts’ content because of all that God has done for us and
given to us. He will effect His own purposes, and we have only
20
to stand still and see the salvation of God.” No, it was not for
them to judge what they ought to do. When they were told to
tarry at Jerusalem, they did tarry at Jerusalem. There are times
of tarrying; but, inasmuch as the Master had commanded
them to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature, they also, when the hour had struck, went into all the
world, and began to preach everywhere the gospel they had
learned at Jesu’s feet. It is not for us to judge what would seem
most reasonable, much less what would be most comfortable;
it is for us to do as we are bidden, when we are bidden, and
because we are bidden, for are we riot servants and not
masters? It is not wise to map out the proceedings even of a
single day, but to take our cue from Him who is our Guide and
Leader, and to follow Him in all things.
There are some who only come to the communion; why?
Because they are always at work for Christ in some way or
other. They are at work in some mission-station, or trying to
open a new room for preaching, or doing something or other
for the Master; the Lord bless them! I do not want all to go out
at one time; but I do want you all to feel that it is not the end,
though it may be the beginning, of Christian life to come and
21
hear sermons. Scatter as widely as ever you can the blessing
which you get for yourself; the moment you find the light, and
realize that the world is in the dark, run away with your
match, and lend somebody else a light. Be glad of the light
yourself; but, depend upon it, if God gives you a candle, and
all you do is to lock yourself up in a room, and sit down, and

say, “Sweet light! Sweet light! I have got the light while all the
world is in the dark; sweet, sweet light!” your candle will soon
burn out, and you also will be in the dark. But if you go to
others, and say,” I shall have none the less light because I give
some to you,” by this means God the Holy Spirit will pour
upon you fresh beams of light, and you shall shrine brighter
and brighter even to the perfect day.
“They went forth.” Oh, that some people I know of could
have their chapels burnt down! They have stuck in a hole
down a back street for the last hundred years. They are good
souls, and so they ought to be; they ought to be matured by
now after so much storage; but if they would only come out in
the street, they might do much more good than at present.
“Oh, but there is an old deacon who does not like street-
preaching!” I know him very well; he will be gone to heaven
22
soon. Then, as soon as ever you have had his funeral sermon,
turn out into the street, and begin somehow or other to make
Christ known. Oh, to break down every barrier, and get rid of
every restraint that hides the blessed gospel! Perhaps we
must respect these dear old believers’ feelings just a little, but
not so much as to let souls die; we must seek to bring sinners

to Jesus whether we offend men or whether we please them.
These disciples went forth promptly, for though there is
not a word here about the time, yet it is implied that, as soon as
the hour had struck, and the Holy Ghost had descended from
Christ, and rested upon them, “they went forth, and preached
the word everywhere.” Alas, too often are we “going” to do
something! If about a tenth part of what we are going to do
were only done, how much more might be accomplished!
“They went forth.” They did not talk about going forth, but
“they went forth.” They did not wait until they received
directions from the apostles where they were to go, but
Providence guided each man, and each man went his own way,
preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You believe the gospel; you believe that men are perishing
for lack of it; therefore, I pray you, do not stop to consider, do
23
not wait to deliberate any longer. The best way to spread the
gospel is to preach the gospel. I believe the best way of
defending the gospel is to spread the gospel.
They served their Master obediently: “They went forth,
and preached.” Suppose they had gone forth, and had “a
service of song”? Suppose they had gone forth, and held a

meeting that was partly comic, with just a little bit of a moral
tacked on to the end of it? We should have been in the
darkness of heathendom to the present day. There is nothing
that is really of any service for the spreading of the gospel but
preaching. I mean by preaching, as I have already said, not
merely the standing up in the pulpit, and delivering a set
discourse, but talking about Christ, — talking about Him as
risen from the dead, as the Judge of quick and dead, as the
great atoning Sacrifice, the one Mediator between God and
men. It is by preaching Jesus Christ that sinners are saved. “It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.” Whatever may be said outside the Bible about
preaching, you have only to turn to the Word of God itself to
find what a divine ordinance it is, and to see how the Lord
makes that mainly to be the means of the salvation of men.
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This is the gun that will win the battle yet, though many have
tried to silence, it. They have had all sorts of new inventions
and contrivances: but when all their inventions shall have had
their day, and proved futile, depend upon it the telling out of
Jesus Christs name, and gospel, and work amongst mankind
will be found to be effectual when all things else have failed.

“They went forth and preached.” It is not said that they went
forth and argued, or that they went forth, and wrote Apologies
for the Christian faith. No, they went forth and proclaimed —
told out the truth as a revelation from God; in the name of
Christ they demanded that men should believe in Him, and left
them, if they would not believe, with this distinct
understanding, that they would perish in their unbelief. They
wept over them, and pleaded with them to believe in Jesus;
and they felt sure that whosoever did believe in Him would
find eternal life through His name. This is what the whole
Church of Christ should do, and do at once, and keep on doing
with all its might, even until the end of the age.
There is one more word, everywhere. One of our great
writers, in a very amusing letter which he has written to a
person who had asked for a contribution towards the removal
25
of a chapel debt, wants to know whether we cannot preach
Christ behind hedges and in ditches. Of course we can, and we
must do so, provided it does not rain too hard. Can we not
preach Jesus Christ at a street corner? Of course we can. Yet in
such a climate as ours we often need buildings in which we can
worship God, but we must never get into the idea of confining
our preaching to the building. “They went forth, and preached
everywhere.” John Wesley was complained of for not keeping
to his parish, but he insisted that he did, for all the world was
his parish; and all the world is every man’s parish. Do good
everywhere, wherever you may be. Some of you are going to
the sea-side for a holiday; do not go without a good stock of
tracts, and do not go without seeking an opportunity, when
you are sitting on the sands, to talk to people about the Lord
Jesus Christ. A man had nothing particular to do except to go
and sit down on a seat in Hyde Park, and there talk with ladies
and gentlemen who came and sat there; he would tell them
that he had a pew at the Tabernacle, and he would lend them
his ticket, so that they might have a comfortable place; and
then he took care after the sermon to talk to them about
Christ. He said, “I cannot myself preach, but I can bring people
26
to hear my minister, and I can pray God to bless them when
they come.” I saw another brother, who leaves his home at 8
o’clock on Sunday morning. There are, or there were, church
members who walked twelve miles every Sunday morning to
hear the gospel, and walked back again to their homes at night.
This brother starts at 8 o’clock in the morning, and puts one of

my sermons into each of the letter-boxes in a certain district
as he comes along. So he utilizes a long, walk, and in the course
of the year circulates many thousands of sermons. What a
capital way he has found of spending the Sabbath-morning!
Having done that service for his Lord, he enjoys the gospel all
the better because of what he has himself done in making it
known to others.
You remember the passage in which we are said to be
laborers together with God. Is it not gracious and kind on the
Lord’s part to let us come and work with Him? Yet it seems to
my mind more condescending for God to come and work with
us, because ours is such poor, feeble, imperfect service, yet so
He does: “the Lord working with them.” The Lord is working
with that dear sister who, when she takes her class, feels that
she is quite unfit for it; and with that brother who, when he
27
preaches, thinks that it is not preaching at all, and is half
inclined never to try again. Oh, yes, “the Lord working with
them,” such as they were, — fishermen, humble women, and
the like! This was wonderful condescension.
The Holy Ghost made what they said to be divinely
powerful. However feebly they uttered it, according to the

judgment of men, there was an inward secret power that went
with their utterances, and compelled the hearts of men to
accept the blessed summons of God. I believe that when we
are seeking to serve Christ, we little know often how very
wonderfully God is working with us. I had an instance; there
was a certain district of which I heard that there was great
need of the gospel there, and that there were many people in
that district who were as ignorant of the way of salvation as
Hottentots, and the various places of worship seemed to
affect a very small proportion of the people. A brother visited
the neighborhood for me, and I prayed very earnestly that his
visits might be blessed. It is a very curious thing that, while I
was thinking about that district, there were certain Christian
people close to it who were thinking about me, and longing for
the gospel to be carried to their neighbors; and after I had
28
moved ever so little in the matter, I received a letter from them
saying how much they wanted somebody to come and labor
for the Lord among them. I said to myself, “This is strange; I
have known this district for years, yet I have never noticed that
anybody wanted me or my message; but the moment I begin to
move towards the people they begin to move towards me.” You
do not know that you may not have a similar story to tell. There
is that street you feel moved to go and work in, — God has been
there before you. Do you not remember how, when His
children had to go and destroy the Canaanites, the Lord sent
the hornet before them? Now, when you have to go and preach
to sinners, God sends some preparatory work before you, He is
sure to do so.
In other cases God works afterwards; sometimes,
immediately afterwards; at other times, years afterwards.
There are different sorts of seeds in the world. The seeds of
some plants and trees, unless they undergo a peculiar process,
will not grow for years. There is something about them which
preserves them intact for a long time, but in due season the
life-germ shoots forth: and there are certain kinds of men who
do not catch the truth at the time it is uttered, and it lies
29
hidden away in their souls till, one day, under peculiar
circumstances, they recollect what they heard, and it begins to
affect their hearts.
If we work, and God works with us, what is there that we
may not expect? Therefore, the great need of any working
church is for God to work with them, and therefore this ought
to be our daily confession, that we need God to work with us.
We must always realize that we are nothing apart from His
working; we must not pretend to compliment the Holy Ghost
by now and then talking about Him, as though it were the
proper thing to say that of course the Holy Spirit must work. It
must be a downright matter of fact with us that the Holy Spirit
must work, as much as it would be with a miller that his sails
could not go round without the wind; and then we must act as
the miller does. He sets his sails and tries to catch the wind
from whatever quarter it blows; and we must try to work in
such a way that the Holy Ghost is likely to bless us. I do not
think the Holy Ghost will bless some service that is done even
by well-meaning people, because if He did, it would seem as if
He had set His seal to a great deal that was not according to the
mind of the Lord. Let us so act in our work, that there is never
30
the smudge of a dirty thumb across the page, and nothing of
pride, or self-seeking, or hot-headedness, but that all is done
humbly, dependently, hopefully, and always in a holy and
gracious spirit, so that we may expect the Holy Spirit to own
and bless it. That will, of course, involve that everything must
be done prayerfully, for our Heavenly Father gives the Holy

Spirit to them that ask Him; and we must ask for this greatest
of blessings, that God the Holy Spirit may work with our work.
Then we must believe in the Holy Spirit, and believe to the
highest degree, so as never to be discouraged or think
anything difficult. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Can
anything be difficult to the Holy Spirit? It is a grand thing often
to get into deep water so as to be obliged to swim; but we like
to keep our feet touching the sand. What a mercy it is to feel
that you cannot do anything, for then you must trust in God
and God alone, and feel that He is quite equal to any
emergency! Thus trusting, and thus doing His bidding, we shall
not fail. Come, Holy Spirit, and work with all Thy people now!
Come and rouse us to work; and when we are bestirred to a
holy energy, then work Thou with us!
31
“No rock will
remain unbroken
when tie wields the
hammer, no metal
will be unmelted
when He is the fire.”
3
T H E H O LY S P I R I T N O T
STRAITENED
Spurgeon reassures pastors that their ministry success relies on the Holy
Spirit's power, not their own abilities. In challenges, God renews hope by
shifting focus from personal limits to His omnipotence. Spurgeon urges
leaders to rely on prayer and faith, trusting God's Spirit to work powerfully,
reminding them that no heart is too hardened for God to transform.
ave faith in God, and never let your discovery of your
H own weakness shake your firm conviction that with God
all things are possible. It seems to me to be a fountain of
comfort, a storehouse of strength. Do not limit the Holy One
of Israel, nor conceive of the Holy Ghost as bounded and
checked by the difficulties which crop up in fallen human
nature. No case which you bring to Him with affectionate tears
and with an earnest faith in Jesus shall ever be dismissed as
incurable. Despair of no man, since the Lord of hosts is with
33
T H E H O LY S P I R I T N O T S T R A I T E N E D
us. Sometimes we are troubled because of the hardness of
men’s hearts. You that work for the Lord know most about this.
If anybody thinks that he can change a heart by his own power,
let him try with any one he pleases, and he wilt soon be at a
nonplus. Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon: our
trembling arm cannot roll away the stone of natural depravity.

‘Well, what then? The Spirit of the Lord is not straitened! Did I
hear you cry, “Alas! I have tried to reclaim a drunkard, and he
has gone back to his degradation”? Yes, he has beaten you, but
is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Do you cry, “But he signed
the pledge, and yet he broke it”? Very likely your bonds are
broken; but is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Cannot He
renew the heart, and cast out the love of sin? When the Spirit of
God works with your persuasions, your convert will keep his
pledge. “Alas!” cries another, “I hoped I had rescued a fallen
woman, but she has returned to her iniquity.” No unusual thing
this with those who exercise themselves in that form of service;
but is; the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Cannot He save the
woman that was a sinner? Cannot He create a surpassing love to
Jesus in her forgiven spirit? We are baffled, but the Spirit is not.
What narrow and shallow vessels we are! How soon we are
34
empty! We wake up on the Sabbath morning and wonder where
we shall find strength for the day. Do you not sigh, “Alas! I
cannot take my Sunday-school class to-day with any hope of
teaching with power; I am so dreadfully dull and heavy; I feel
stupid and devoid of thought and feeling”? In such a case say to
yourself, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” He will help you.
You purpose to speak to someone about his soul, and you fear
that the right words will not come. You forget that He has
promised to give you what you shall speak. “Is the Spirit of the
Lord straitened?” Cannot He prepare your heart and tongue?
No, the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened. Still is that promise
our delight “My grace is sufficient for thee.” It is a joy to become
weak that we may say with the apostle, “When I am weak then
am I strong.” Behold, the, strength of the Lord is gloriously
revealed, revealed to perfection in our weakness. Come, ye
feeble workers, ye fainting laborers, come and rejoice in the
unstraitened Spirit. Come you that seem to plough the rock
and till the sand, come and lay hold of this fact, that the Spirit
of the Lord is omnipotent. No rock will remain unbroken when
tie wields the hammer, no metal will be unmelted when He is
the fire. Still will our Lord put His Spirit within us and gird us
35
with His power, according to His promise, “As thy days, so shall
thy strength be.”
But some have said, “Yes, but then, see how few the
conversions are nowadays! We have many places of worship
badly attended, we have others where there are scarcely any
conversions from the beginning of the year to the end of it.”

This is all granted, and granted with great regret; but “is the
Spirit of the Lord straitened: are these His doings?” Cannot we
find some other reason far more near the truth? If there are no
conversions we cannot fall back upon the Spirit of God, and
blame Him. Has Christ been preached? Has faith been
exercised? The preacher must take his share of blame; the
church with which he is connected must also inquire whether
there has been that measure of prayer for a blessing on the
word that there ought to have been. Christians must begin to
look into their own hearts to find the reason for defeat. If the
work of God be hindered in our midst, may there not be some
secret sin with us which hinders the operation of the Spirit of
God? May He not be compelled by the very holiness of His
character to refuse to work with an unholy or an unbelieving
people? Have ye never read, “He did not many mighty works
36
there because of their unbelief”? May not unbelief be turning
a fruitful land into barrenness? The Spirit Himself is not
straitened in His power; but our sin has made Him hide
Himself from us. The want of conversions is not His doing: we
have not gone forth in His strength. We shake off with
detestation the least trace of a thought that should lay any

blame to the Spirit of the Most High. Unto us be shame and
confusion of face as at this day.
But it is also said that there is a want of power largely
manifested by individual saints. Where are now the men who
can go up to the top of Carmel and cover the heavens with
clouds? Where are the apostolic men who convert nations?
Where are the heroes and martyr spirits of the better days?
Have we not fallen upon an age of little men, who little dare
and little do? It may be so; but this is no fault of the great
Spirit. Our degeneracy is not His doing, We have destroyed
ourselves, and only in Him is our help found. Instead of crying
to-day, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord,” we ought to listen
to the cry from heaven which saith, “Awake, awake, O Zion;
shake thyself from the dust, and put on thy beautiful
garments.” Many of us might have done great exploits if we had
37
but given our hearts thereto. The weakest of us might have
rivaled David, and the strongest among us might have been as
angels of God. We are straitened in ourselves; we have not
reached out to the possibilities of strength which lie within
grasp. Let us not wickedly insinuate a charge against the good
Spirit of our God; but let us in truthful humility blame

ourselves. If we have not lived in the light, can we marvel that
we are in great part dark? If we have not fed upon the bread of
heaven, can we wonder that we are faint? Let us return unto
the Lord. Let us seek again to be baptized into the Holy Ghost
and into fire, and we shall yet again behold the wonderful
works of the Lord. He sets before us an open door, and if we
enter not, we are ourselves to blame. He giveth liberally and
upbraideth not, and if we be still impoverished, we have not
because we ask not, or because we ask amiss.
“Look at the condition of the world. After the gospel has
been in it nearly two thousand years, see how small a part of it
is enlightened, how many cling to their idols, how much of
vice, and error, and poverty, and misery, are to be found in the
world!” We know all these sad facts; but are these His doings?
Tell me, when has the Holy Spirit created darkness or sin?
38
Where has He been the author of vice or oppression? Whence
come wars and rightings? Come they from Him? Come they
not from our own lusts? What if the world be still an Augean
Stable, greatly needing cleansing; has the Spirit of God in any
degree or sense rendered it so? Where the gospel has been
fully preached, have not the words of the Lord done good to
them that walk uprightly? Have not cannibals, even during the
last few years, been reclaimed and civilized? Has not the slave
trade, and other villainies, been ended by the power of
Christian influence? How, then, can the Spirit of Christ, the
Spirit of the gospel, be blamed? Will you attribute the
darkness to the sun? Will you charge the filthiness of swine to
the account of the crystal stream? Will you charge the pest
upon the fresh breeze from the sea? It were quite as just, and
quite as sensible. No, we admit the darkness and the sin and
the misery of men. Oh, that our head were waters and our eyes
a fountain of tears, that we might weep day and night
concerning these things! But these are not the work of the
Spirit of God.
These come of the spirit from beneath. He that is from
above would heal them. He is not straitened. These are not His
39
doings. Where His gospel has been preached, and men have
believed it and lived according to it, they have been
enlightened, and sanctified, and blessed. Life and love, light
and liberty, and all other good things, come of the Spirit of the
Lord.
“Blessings abound where’er He reigns;

The prisoner leaps to lose his chains,
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are bless’d.”
40
“All power is given
unto Christ, He
passes on that
power to His people,
and sends them
forth to battle
and to victory.”
4
A DIVINE COMMISSION
Spurgeon reminds ministry leaders that their calling and strength come
from Christ, who holds all authority. This assurance of Christ's constant
presence ("Lo, I am with you always") provides courage and comfort. True
success comes from fellowship with Christ and reliance on the Holy Spirit,
not personal abilities.
f any of us would receive a commission for Christian service,
I it must come from Christ Himself; if we would carry out that
commission, it must be in loyalty to Christ; and if we hope to
succeed in that commission, it must be in a perpetual, personal

fellowship with Christ. We must begin to work with Him, and go
on working with Him, and never cease to work until He Himself
shall come to discharge us from the service because there is no
further need of it. Oh, that we did all our work in the name of
the great Head of the Church! Oh that we did all Christ’s work
consciously in the presence and in the strength of Christ!
42
A DIVINE COMMISSION
Christ at this moment possesses a royal authority; — by might,
it is true, but chiefly by right. His is the power which comes of
His merits, of His glorious nature, and of the gift of the Divine
Spirit who rests upon Him without measure. The word we
translate” power “has a wider meaning than that; you find a
good instance of it in John i.12:” As many as received Him, to

them gave He power to become the sons of God,” where the
word “power” might be rendered “privilege” or “right” or
“liberty”, and yet be correctly translated “power” also. Christ
at this moment has all rights in heaven and in earth; He has all
sovereignty and dominion, and, of course, He has all the might
which backs up His right; but it is not mere power in the sense
of force, it is not the dynamite power in which earthly kings
delight, it is another and a higher kind of force which Christ
has, even the Divine energy of love. He possesses at this
moment all authority in heaven and in earth.
“All power,” He says, “is given unto Me”; that is to say, He
has it now. You and I are not sent out to preach the gospel in
order to get power for Christ; He has it now. We are not sent
out, as we sometimes say, to win the world for Christ; in the
strictest sense, it is His now. He is the King of Glory at this very
43
moment, He is even now Lord over all, King of kings, and Lord
of lords; all authority is given unto Him. I shall not try to
explain the particular time when it was given, but I remind you
that it has been given. That great act is accomplished; our
Lord Jesus holds in His hand the scepter which gives Him
power over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to as many as
the Father hath given Him. He has already in His hand that
scepter with which He shall break the nations as with a rod of
iron, and dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel, He has not to
go up to His throne, He is already enthroned. He has not to be
crowned, He is already crowned, as we have said, King of kings
and Lord of lords.
I have met with some who have tried to read the Bible the
wrong way upwards, They have said, “God has a purpose which
is certain to be fulfilled, therefore we will not budge an inch. All
power is in the hands of Christ, therefore we will sit still;” but
that is not Christ’s way of reading the passage. It is “All power is
given unto Me, therefore go ye, and do something.” “But, Lord,
what dost Thou want from us when Thou hast all power? We are
such poor insignificant, useless creatures that we shall be sure
to make a muddle of anything that we attempt.” “No,” says the
44
A DIVINE COMMISSION
Master, “all power is given unto Me, therefore go ye.” He puts us
on the go because He has all power. I know that with many of us
there is a tendency to sit down and say, “All things are wrong,
the world gets darker and darker, and everything is going to the
bad.” We sit and fret together in most delightful misery, and try
to cheer each other downwards into greater depths of despair!

Do we not often act thus? Alas! it is so, and we feel happy to
think that other people will blend in blessed harmony of
misery with us in all our melancholies; or if we do stir ourselves
at little, we feel that there is not much good in our service, and
that very little can possibly come of it. This message of our
Master seems to me to be something like fine sound of a
trumpet. I have given you the strains of a dulcimer, but now
there rings out the clarion note of a trumpet. Here is the power
to enable you to “go.” Therefore, “go” away from your dunghills,
away from your ashes and your dust. Shake yourselves from
your melancholy. The bugle calls, “Boot and saddle! Up and
away!” The battle has begun, and every good soldier of Jesus
Christ must be to the front for his Captain and his Lord.
Because all power is given unto Christ, He passes on that power
to His people, and sends them forth to battle and to victory.
45
“Go, go ye,” say’s Christ. “But, Lord, if we go to men, they
will ask for our passports.” “Take them,” says He, “all authority
is given unto Me in heaven and earth. You are free of heaven,
and you are free of earth. There is no place, — whether it be in
the far-off Ethiopia, or in the deserts of Scythia, or in the
center of Rome, — there is no place where you may not go.

There are your passports ‘All authority is given unto Me,
therefore go ye.’”
“But, Lord, we want more than passports, we need a
commission.” “There is your commission,” says the Lord; “all
power is given unto Me, and I delegate it to you. I have
authority, and I give you authority; go ye therefore because I
have the authority. Go and teach princes and kings and
beggars, teach them all alike. I ordain you, I authorize you, as
many of you as know Me, and have My love shed abroad in your
hearts, I commission you to go and-
“‘Tell to sinners round
What a dear Saviour you have found;’
and if they ask how you dare to do it, tell them not that the
bishop ordained you, or that a synod licensed you, but that all
power is given to your Master in heaven and in earth, and you
46
A DIVINE COMMISSION
have come in His name, and nobody may say you nay.”
“Moreover,” says the Master, “I send you with My power
gone before you.” Observe that, for I bring it again to your
recollection. Christ does not say, “Go and win the power for
Me on earth, go and get power for Me among the sons of men.”
No; but “All authority and power are already vested in Me, go
ye therefore. I send you to a country which is not an alien
kingdom, I send you to a country which is Mine, for all souls
are Mine, If you go to the Jews or to the Gentiles, they are Mine;
if it be to India or China that you go, you need ask no man’s
leave; you are in your own King’s country, you are on your own
King’s errand, you have your own King’s power going before
you.” I do believe that, often, when missionaries go to a
country, they have rather to gather ripe fruit than to plant
trees. As the Lord sent the hornets to clear the way for the
children of Israel, so does He oftentimes send singular
changes, political, social, and religious, before the heralds of
the Cross, to prepare the way for them; and this is the message
which sounds with clear clarion note to all the soldiers of King
Jesus : — “I have all authority in heaven and in earth, therefore,
without misgivings. or questionings, go ye and evangelize all
47
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we are of all men
most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is
impossible, we have entered upon a sphere where nothing
but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not
renew hearts, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not
regenerate them, we cannot. If He does not send the truth
home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of
a corpse. All that we have to do is quite beyond our unaided
power; we must have our Master with us, or we can do
nothing. We deeply feel our need of this great truth; we not
merely say it, but we are driven every day, by our own deep
sense of need, to rejoice that our Lord has declared, “All
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.”
Why are we ever cast down? Why do we ever begin to
question the ultimate success of the good cause? Why do we
ever go home with aching head and palpitating heart
because of the evils of the day? Courage, courage; the King
has all power, it is impossible to defeat Him. ‘The right wing
of our army may be shattered for a moment; but the King in
48
A DIVINE COMMISSION
the center of the host still rides upon the white horse of
victory, and He has but to will it, He has but to speak a single
word, and the enemy shall be driven away like chaff before
the wind.
Christ says, “Go.” Then, let us go at once, according to His
Word, in the track which God’s own hand marks out for us.
Let us go and disciple all nations, let us tell them that they
are to learn of Christ, and that they are to be obedient to His
will.
Next, let us be loyal to Him in all things, and let us train
up His disciples in loyalty to Him: “teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” As He has all
authority, let us not intrude another authority. Let us keep
within the Master’s house, and seek to know the Master’s
mind, to learn the Master’s will, to study the Master’s Book,
and to receive the Master’s Spirit, and let these be dominant
over all other power; and all the while let us endeavor to keep
in fellowship with Him: “Lo, I am with you always.” Let us
never go away from Him. Because all authority is given unto
Him, let us keep close by His side; let us be the yeomen of His
guard. Let us be the servants who unloose the latchets of His
49
shoes, who bring water for His feet, and who count ourselves
highly honoured thereby. “Lo, I am with you always,” saith He,
so let us always be with Him.
50
“Faith is our
connection with
Christ; break the
connection, and
then what can
we do?
5
G R E AT FA I T H A N D
G R E AT WO R K S
Spurgeon reminds pastors that setbacks, even experienced by Christ's
disciples, are opportunities for spiritual growth and deeper reliance on God.
He encourages leaders to focus on present faith in God's power rather than
past successes. Emphasizing prayer, fasting, and communion with God,
Spurgeon offers hope that challenges can be overcome with renewed
strength and persistence.
hose nine disciples, who remained at the foot of the
T mountain when the Saviour took the other three to
behold His transfiguration, had each of them a true
commission from the Lord Jesus Christ. They were nine of His
chosen apostles. He had elected them in His own good
pleasure, and there was no doubt about their being really
called to the apostleship They were not only elected, but
they were also qualified, for on former occasions they had

healed the sick, they had cast out devils, and they had
52
G R E AT F A I T H A N D G R E AT W O R K S
preached the Word of Christ with great power. Upon them
rested miraculous influences, and they were able to do great
wonders in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and they were
not only qualified to do this, but they had actually performed
many marvels of healing. When they went forth, girded with
divine power, they healed the sick, and cast out devils
everywhere; yet on this occasion they were completely
baffled and beaten.
A poor father had brought to them his epileptic son, who
was also possessed with an evil spirit; and they could neither
cast out the evil spirit nor heal the epileptic boy. They came,
as it were, to a great difficulty which quite nonplused them;
and the scoffing scribes were there, ready enough to take
advantage of them, and to say in scorn and contempt, “You
cannot cure this child, for the power you have received from
your Master is limited, lie can do some strange things, but
even He cannot do all things. Perhaps He has lost His former
power, and now, at last, a kind of devil has appeared that He
cannot master. You see, you are mistaken in following Him;
your faith has been fixed upon an impostor, and you had
better give it up.” Oh, how ready the evil spirit ever is to
53
suggest dark thoughts if we cannot always be successful in
our work of faith and labor of love! Why do you think that the
Lord allows his servants to be beaten at all? Well, of course,
the chief reason in this case was — because God gives the
victory to faith, and if we will not believe, neither shall we be
established. If we fall, as those disciples probably had fallen,

into an unspiritual frame of mind and a low state of grace,
our commission will not be worth much, our former
qualifications will be of little value, and all successes we have
had in earlier days will not take away the effect of present
failures. We shall be like Samson, who went out and shook
himself as he had done aforetime; but the Spirit of God had
departed from him; and the Philistines soon overcame him,
— those very Philistines whom, if his Lord had still been with
him, he would have smitten hip and thigh with great
slaughter. If we are to do the Lord’s work, and to do it
successfully, we must have faith in Him, we must look beyond
ourselves, we must look beyond our commission, we must
look beyond our personal qualifications, we must look
beyond our former successes, we must look for a present
anointing by the Holy Spirit, and by faith we must hang upon
54
the living God from day to day. If I am successful, why is it that
I succeed? Let me know the secret, that I may put the crown
on the right head. If I do not succeed, let me know the reason
why, that I may at any rate try to remove any impediment, if it
be an impediment of my own making. If I am a vessel that is
not fit for the Master’s use, let me know why I am not fit, that
I may, as much as lieth in me, prepare myself for the great
Master’s service. I know that, if I am fit to be used, He is sure
to use me; and if He does not use me, it will most probably be
because there is some unfitness in me. Try to know why you
get baffled in holy service, for it will be wise to know.
Probably, it may tend very greatly to your humiliation. It
may make you go, with tears in your eyes, to the mercy-seat.
You may not yet know all that is in your own heart; there may
be a something, which to you seems to be a very trifling affair,
which is grieving your God, and weakening your spiritual
power. It may seem to you to be a little thing, but in that little
thing may lie the eggs of so much mischief that God will not
tolerate it, and He will not bless you until you are altogether
clear of it. It wilt be wise and right, therefore, even though it
be to your sorrow and regret, that you should find the answer
55
to the question, “Why could not we cast him out?” I am sure
that anything that makes us often come back to our Lord,
must be a blessing to us. It is very humiliating to have so long
preached in vain; to have gone to that village so many times,
and yet to see no conversions; to visit that lodging-house so
often, and apparently to have made no impression upon the

careless inmates, or to have gone into that dark garret, and
told out the story of the Cross, only to find that the hearer is
just as dark, and, possibly, just as brutal as ever. It seems as if
our hearts must break, when we are really in earnest, yet we
cannot achieve the blessed purpose that we feel sure must be
dear to the Saviour’s own heart; but it may be that our non-
success has much of divine instruction in it, and it may be the
preface and preparation for future success that shall greatly
honour the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a part of the training
of the twelve. They were at college now, with Christ as their
Tutor. They were being prepared for those grand days when
they should do even greater things than He had done,
because He had gone back again to His Father, and had
received still greater power, and had given it to them. “It is
good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”
56
For, whatever may be the reason of your failure, it may be
cured. In all probability, it is not a great matter, certainly not
an insuperable difficulty to the Lord. By the grace of God,
this hindrance may be taken away from you, and no longer be
allowed to rob you of your power. Search it out, then; look
with both your eyes, and search with brightest light that you
can borrow, that you may find out everything that restrains
the Spirit of God, and injures, your own usefulness.
“Why could not we cast the evils out of them?” That
question each teacher may ask concerning his class, and
each worker concerning his sphere of labor. I ask it
concerning some who have made a profession of religion,
and then have foully fallen, and others who have backslidden
into coldness or luke-warmness, and many who, after years of
preaching, remain just the same as ever. What devil is this
that has got into them? Why cannot we cast him out?
The Lord Jesus told them that their failure was due to
their want of faith. He did not say, “Because of the devil, and
his peculiar character, and the strength of his entrenchment
within the poor sufferer’s nature;” but he said, “Because of
your unbelief.” They might have said, and it would have been
57
true, “This demon has been long in possession.” The father
said that the affliction came upon him when he was a child.
You know that it is not easy to turn out a devil that has lived
in any place, say, for twenty years. It is a difficult thing to cast
out evils of long standing; still, if we have faith, there will be
no difficulty in overcoming even those sins that have held

possession of the sinner for a great length of time.
Moreover, in this case, there was the strength of this
devil as well as the length of his possession. He took this poor
child, and threw him into the fire or into the water, and
hurled him to and fro at his cruel and wicked pleasure. He did
this even before the disciples’ eyes. Yes, but if they had had
faith, they would have understood that, though Satan is
strong, Christ is far stronger. The devil is mighty, but God is
almighty. If the disciples had only believed, they might have
overcome the demon by the power of Christ.
You see, the want of faith breaks the connection
between us and Christ. We are like the telegraphic wire,
which can convey the message as long as the electricity can
travel along it; but if you break the connection, it is useless.
Faith is our connection with Christ; break the connection,
58
and then what can we do? It is by faith that God works in us
and through us; but if unbelief comes in, we are unfit for Him
to work with us. Would you have God to bless the man who
will not believe in Him? Would you have God to set His seal to
the works of the unbelieving? That cannot be. The first
condition of success in any work for God must be hearty faith

in the God for whom we are working.
Looking now upon the condition of our times, and upon
the work allotted to each one of us, I feel that what we want is
more faith. Never mind how firmly fixed are the mountains of
iniquity; they must move if faith be strong. Never mind how
deep have gone the roots of the sycamine tree; it shall be
plucked up by its roots if faith be strong. We do not half
believe! Dare and venture, and yet find no daring and no
venturing in it, as you simply trust your God as a child trusts
his father. We have often failed because of our unbelief.
It may be that there are cases in which God will not yield
to your faith until your faith works in prayer; and then, when
prayer has wrought to its utmost, you shall get the blessing.
I think that I can understand some of God’s reasons for
acting thus. First, He wants to make us see the greatness of
59
the mercy, so He occupies our thoughts with the greatness of
the distress that needs to be relieved, and with the
impossibility of that distress being relieved except by His
own power and Godhead. That experience does us good. It
makes us feel that the mercy, when it does come, will be
remarkably precious.
The Lord intends also to excite our desires, and that,
likewise, does us good. To be all aglow with holy desires is, in
itself, a healthy exercise. Then the Lord means to create in us
unity of action. One brother finds that he cannot get on
alone, so he will call in another to help him in prayer; and
much holy united supplication will be called forth by the very
desperateness of the case which cannot be met by simple
faith, or even by the prayer of one. Let us always seek the
united prayers of many brethren and sisters. You remember
that man who was carried by four, and let down from the roof
into Christ’s presence. Oh, I wish that, in your houses, you met
frequently, in twos and threes, for united prayer! I should like
to hear of little bands formed of Christian men and women,
who pledged themselves to pray, four at a time, for somebody
possessed by a devil of the kind that will not go out by
60
ordinary means, and must be ejected by four of you. Get
together, and say to yourselves, “We will not rest until this
soul, and that soul, shall have the devil cast out, and shall sit,
clothed, and in their right mind, at Jesus Christ’s feet.” “This
kind” — these certain kinds of devils are not to be driven out,
except by special, importunate, continued, united prayer.

They can be cast out if you only believe, and pray; there is
never a devil but will have to go, if you have faith enough and
prayer enough to drive him out.
“By prayer and fasting.” Our Lord Jesus Christ never made
much of fasting He very seldom spoke about it; and when the
Pharisees exaggerated it, he generally put them off by telling
them that the time had not come for his disciples to fast,
because the Bridegroom was still with them, and while He was
with them their days were to be days of joy. But, still, Holy
Scripture does speak of fasting, in certain cases it advises
fasting, and there were godly men and godly women, such as
Anna, the prophetess, who “served God with fastings and
prayer night and day.” I do not mean to spiritualize this away. I
believe, literally, that some of you would be a great deal the
better if you did occasionally have a whole day of fasting and
61
prayer. There is a lightness that comes over the frame,
especially of bulky people like myself; we begin to feel
ourselves quite light and ethereal. I remember one day of
fasting and prayer, in which I realized to myself, spiritually, the
meaning of a popish picture, which I have sometimes seen, of
a saint floating in the air. Well that, of course, was impossible;

and I do not suppose that, when the picture was painted, it was
believed in its literal sense; but there is a lightness, an
elevation of the spirit above the flesh, that will come over you
after some hours of waiting upon God in fasting and prayer. I
can advise brethren sometimes to try it; it will be good for their
health, and it certainly will not harm them. If we only ate about
half what is ordinarily eaten, we should probably all of us; be in
better health; and if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short
commons, not because there is any virtue in that, but in order
to get our brains more clear, and to help our hearts to rest
more fully upon the Saviour, we should find that prayer and
fasting have great power.
Permit me to say just one thing more. I believe that the
devil of drunkenness will not go out of some men, unless
Christian people, who pray for them, and talk with them, will
62
practice fasting in the matter of total abstinence. I do mean
this, not that it is wrong for you to take what you do take, but
that there are some souls that you cannot win unless you say to
them, “For your sakes we are going to give up what might be
lawful to us, that ,we may save you from the public-house and
all its temptations. Come, Jack, I intend to take the pledge; I

never was drunk, and probably never shall be, but I will sign the
pledge for your sake.” There are some devils that will not go out
till you act like that; and we ought to do anything that may
result in the saving of a soul. We ought to deny ourselves
anything of which we can deny ourselves, if it be necessary to
bring one single person to the cross of Christ. Let us see to it
that we are quite clear in this matter, for there are still many
devils that will not go out without prayer and fasting. Well then,
say, “I will not fast to please the devil, or to please other
people; but I will fast to spite the devil, and to get him out of
that man. I will fast from anything so that I may but bring him
to the feet of Jesus, that he may be saved.” We who love the Lord
are, I trust, all agreed on that matter, that no cost on our part
should be spared to win a soul from the dominion of Satan, and
bring him into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
63
To read more works from
Charles H. Spurgeon visit
Spurgeon.org

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S E RV I C E A N D H O N O R

Encouragement for Ministry

T Spurgeon's lesser-known work, We Endeavor, which is a series of

lectures to the members of The Young People’s Society of Christian

Endeavour, a group devoted to service, honor, stewardship, and

will find encouragement from Spurgeon to persevere in the ministry,

ebook has been created on the occasion of Pastor Appreciation Month,

October 2024. In an age when pastors need encouragement more than

This resource was made possible by the Spurgeon Library at

Midwestern Seminary. More of Spurgeon’s works can be found through

their site spurgeon.org. Additionally, these works will be included in an

upcoming publication from Jason Duesing and Geoff Chang. We hope

excerpt from the Prince of Preachers.

THE DIVINE COMMISSION 42

ou cannot have Christ if you will not serve Him. If you

kicks against that truth. Surely it is one of our highest delights

on earth to serve our Lord, and this is to be our blessed

employment even in heaven itself: “His servants shall serve

Him: and they shall see His face.”

This thought also enters into our idea of salvation; to be

brought into the delightful liberty of the servants of God. O

Master, Thou art such a glorious Lord that serving Thee is

perfect freedom, and sweetest rest! Thou hast told us that it

find rest unto your souls.” We do find it so; and it is not as

though rest were a separate thing from service, the very

of us would have any rest on earth if we could not employ our

daily lives in the service of Christ; and the rest of heaven is

never to be pictured as idleness, but as constantly being

permitted the high privilege of serving the Lord.

Learn hence, then, all of you who would have Christ as

saved by service, but we are saved to service. When we are once

saved, thenceforward we live in the service of our Lord. If we

refuse to be His servants, we are not saved, for we still remain

evidently the servants of self, and the servants of Satan.

Holiness is another name for salvation; to be delivered from

the power of self-will, and the domination of evil lusts, and

the tyranny of Satan, — this is salvation. Those who would be

they are giving evidence of a change of heart and renewal of

and strength, and you say to yourself, “I will serve Christ in

some remarkable way; I will seek to make myself a scholar, I

other glorify my Lord’s name by the splendour of my

language.” Will you, dear friend? Is it not better, if you are

If you wished to do a kindness for a friend, you certainly would

kindness might be mistaken, and you might be doing that

and Master does not bid you become either a scholar or an

orator in order to serve Him. Both of those things may happen

This is what Christ prefers beyond anything else, that His

servants should follow Him. If we do that, we shall serve Him in

the way which is according to His own choice. I notice that

many good friends desire to serve Christ by standing on the top

man; your better way will be to serve Christ by following Him,

simple business which lies within your capacity, which will

bring you no special honour, but which, nevertheless, is what

prophet Jeremiah to Baruch, “seek them not.” So say I to you.

One friend, perhaps, blessed with great riches, is saying, “I

will lay by in store until I acquire a considerable amount, and

largely to some new foreign missionary effort, or I will build a

house of prayer in which Christ’s name shall be preached.” God

if you would do what is absolutely certain to please Christ, I

would not recommend the selection of any one particular