Wednesday, February 13

Spurgeon's Lectures

For several years on Friday afternoons, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great "prince of preachers," addressed the students of his Pastor's College (founded in 1857 to train young men for evangelistic, pastoral, and parish ministry). Quite a few of the talks were published and made famous as Lectures to My Students. It has long been a mainstay in my library and I have read it again and again over the course of my life and ministry. Some of the omitted lectures were collected separately in The Art of illustration; still others in Commenting and Commentaries. Those too, I have long found to be invaluable.

But amazingly, a complete and unabridged, single-volume edition of the lectures has never been published. Until now, that is. Thanks to Banner of Truth, transcriptions of all the talks have finally been brought together in a beautiful, newly-typeset, smyth-sewn, hardback volume. A century and a half after they were first delivered, the lectures are as profound, powerful, and pertinent as ever. This is must-reading for all pastors and teachers.

8 comments:

  1. George,

    I've always been amused at Spurgeon's advise to his students regarding pastoral prayer to try to limit themselves to 10 minutes as we seem to struggle to do 5 minutes.

    David

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  2. David: I've got a volume of Spurgeon's pastoral prayers. They are evidence that he didn't always follow his own advice! Some of them are really long!

    But, the prayers are also evidence to me that we Moderns have much, much, much to learn about how to pray. Spurgeon quite obviously knew his Lord and knew the Word so thoroughly that his concourse was a fountain of intimate profundity.

    Like the Puritan prayers of The Valley of Vision, Spurgeon's The Pastor in Prayer is a powerful reminder of a great, lost legacy.

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  3. Surprisingly, Amazon doesn't have this book listed. (I found the ISBN on Banner of Truth's Website and then did a search on Amazon.) I guess I'll order it from BOT. Lectures has always been one of my favorites. However, I have never read the second volume you mentioned. I can't wait to read it. Thanks for the lead.

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  4. Another one for the list. Thanks for the heads up.

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  5. Thank you for this information.
    I found Spurgeon's Lectures to His
    Students after Christmas at a used bookstore which was closing ~~ half price. Good to know about those other lectures. Always grateful to you , Dr. Grant ~~ for teaching me.

    Bonnie

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  6. The Spurgeon is also available (30 percent off) from Westminster:

    www.wtsbooks.com

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  7. Thank you for the heads-up on this...had I not read your post I would have thought this new book was expurgated in the same manner as previous editions!

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  8. Commenting and Commentaries by Spurgeon is one of my favorite books as well as his Lectures to My Students. Excellent reading!

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