ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
We think we have converts, and we are not long before we are disappointed in them. Many are like blossoms on our fruit trees; they are fair to look on, but they do not come to anything. Others are like the many little fruits that fall off long before they have come to any size. A cold night or a blight will come, and away go our hopes of a crop; it is just so with hopeful converts.
He who presides over a great church, and feels an agony for the souls of men, will soon be convinced that if God does not work, there will be no work done. We shall see no conversion, no sanctification, no final perseverance, no glory brought to God, no satisfaction for the passion of the Savior. Our Lord said well, “Apart from me you are not able to do anything” (John 15:5).
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe how to escape conflict.
To remain quiet is generally the way to baffle an adversary. Indeed, there is no weapon with which he can wound you. If you will not yield so as to give railing for railing, what is to be done with you?
It is much the same as when a certain duke proclaimed war against a peaceful neighbor who was resolved not to fight. The troops came riding to the town, and found the gates open as on ordinary occasions. The children were playing in the streets, and the blacksmith was at his forge, and the shopkeepers at their counters. And so, pulling up their horses, the soldiers inquired, “Where is the enemy?”
“We don’t know. We are friends.” What was to be done under the circumstances but to ride home?
So it is in life, if you only meet evil with good the bad man’s occupation is gone.