Spurgeon's Sorrows

Zack Eswine has woven together C H Spurgeon's personal experience and words on depression to produce a sympathetic 'handwritten note of one who wishes you well', rather than 'an exhaustive word or prosaic treatise.' Here are some quotes:-

The Road to sorrow has been well trodden, it is the regular sheep track to heaven, and all the flock of God have had to pass along it.

Personally, I also bear witness that it has been to me, in seasons of great pain, superlatively comfortable to know that in every pang which racks his people the Lord Jesus has a fellow-feeling. We are not alone, for one like unto the Son of man walks the furnace with us.

It might puzzle us to tell why Elijah should get under a juniper bush, but when we get under the juniper ourselves, we are glad to recall the fact that Elijah once sat there.

I am certain that I have seen more in the dark than ever I saw in the light - more stars, most certainly - more things in heaven if fewer things on earth. The anvil, the fire, and the hammer, are the making of us; we do not get fashioned much by anything else.

There is much more here that is helpful for sufferers and caregivers. Some of it enters into general Christian experience; some of it reaches to the exceptional.
Newly published by Christian Focus Publications. £6.99 p/b.
Jeremy

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow

"Purge me with hyssop. Sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolise. Nothing but blood can take away my blood stains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me. Let the sin offering purge my sin. Let him who was appointed to atone, execute his sacred office on me; for none can need it more than I.
The passage may be read as the voice of faith as well as a prayer, and so it runs -- "Thou wilt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." Foul as I am, there is such power in the divine propitiation, that my sin shall vanish quite away. Like the leper upon whom the priest has performed the cleansing rites, I shall again be admitted into the assembly of thy people and allowed to share in the privileges of the true Israel; while in thy sight also, through Jesus my Lord, I shall be accepted. Wash me. Let it not merely be in type that I am clean, but by a real spiritual purification, which shall remove the pollution of my nature. Let the sanctifying as well as the pardoning process be perfected in me. Save me from the evils which my sin has created and nourished in me. And I shall be whiter than snow. None but thyself can whiten me, but thou canst in grace outdo nature itself in its purest state. Snow soon gathers smoke and dust, it melts and disappears; thou canst give me an enduring purity. Though snow is white below as well as on the outer surface, thou canst work the like inward purity in me, and make me so clean that only an hyperbole can set forth my immaculate condition. Lord, do this; my faith believes thou wilt, and well she knows thou canst.
Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense the psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. Considering also the deep natural inbred corruption which David saw and experienced within, it is a miracle of faith that he could rejoice in the hope of perfect purity in his inward parts. Yet, be it added, the faith is no more than the word warrants, than the blood of atonement encourages, than the promise of God deserves. O that some reader may take heart, even now while smarting under sin, to do the Lord the honour to rely thus confidently on the finished sacrifice of Calvary and the infinite mercy there revealed."

Quoted from 'The Treasury of David, Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms' by C H Spurgeon, 3 vol set, £39.95

Lorna

Spurgeon v Spurgeon?

Have Banner of Truth gone head to head with Christian Focus Publications (CFP) over this old favourite? These two books are both meaty hardbacks, both priced just under £20, both 2008 editions. So, how to decide which one to go for? Well, what you see is less than you get with the Banner one. They seem to me to have undersold themselves, in that Commenting and Commentaries is helpfully included after the lectures. It does lead to a book one and a half times thicker and greatly heavier than CFP's, but this is surely worthwhile. Both editions are fully re-typeset. I think Banner's is more traditionally styled, whereas CFP have gone for a slicker 'signature' look, fitting within their other books in the C H Spurgeon Classics range. So if all were collected it would look nice on the shelf. But I first read this book as a battered paperback, and thought it most useful off the shelf! In fact I think Mr Spurgeon is better in his lectures than in the pulpit...so having said that I will now quietly withdraw to my nuclear bunker and await the explosion.

Jeremy

C H Spurgeon

For all those who enjoy the writings of C H Spurgeon, we have just taken stock of another 4 titles of his...

The Complete John Ploughman combines John Ploughman's Talk and John Ploughman's Pictures. They give answers to common questions of the day on doctrine and behaviour as explained by a ploughman to his wayward audience. p/b, £7.99.

The Suffering Letters of Spurgeon give a unique insight into Spurgeon's life. p/b £6.95.

Devotional Thoughts on the Bible - The Pentateuch. Spurgeon's expositions of Scripture given as he read biblical passages before preaching are mini sermons in themselves and ideally suited to daily reading. Once published in one volume, they are now being republished as a series of paperbacks. £9.95.

Spurgeon's Sermons on Prayer. h/b, £11.95

Lorna