Lectures to my students - Spurgeon - XX - Chapter 8 (Earnestness: Its marring and maintenance)

Required reading
Lectures to my students by Charles Spurgeon (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 8 (Earnestness: Its marring and maintenance).

My summary
This week Spurgeon encourages the minister to be earnest.

We are told to:
(i) be earnest in reference to our pulpit work;
(ii) be earnest when actually engaged in preaching;
(iii) be genuine in our earnestness in the pulpit;
(iv) follow our preaching with intense solicitude;
(v) kindle our earnestness at an immortal flame;
(vi) keep close to God;
(vii) keep close to our fellow men whom we are seeking to bless.

What grabbed me
I liked Spurgeon's antidote to stagnation: 'I find it good for myself to have some new work always on hand. The old and usual enterprises must be kept up, but somewhat must be added to them. It should be with us as with the squatters upon our commons, the fence of our garden must roll outward a foot or two, and enclose a little more of the common every year. Never say "it is enough" nor accept the policy of “rest and be thankful.” Do all you possibly can, and then do a little more. I do not know by what process the gentleman who advertises that he can make short people taller attempts the task, but I should imagine that if any result could be produced in the direction of adding a cubit to one’s stature it would be by every morning reaching up as high as you possibly can on tiptoe, and, having done that, trying day by day to reach a little higher. This is certainly the way to grow mentally and spiritually, — "reaching forth to that which is before." If the old should become just a little stale, add fresh endeavors to it, and the whole mass will be leavened anew. Try it and you will soon discover the virtue of breaking up fresh ground, invading new provinces of the enemy, and scaling fresh heights to set the banner of the Lord thereon. This is, of course, a secondary expedient to those of which we have already spoken, but still it is a very useful one, and may greatly benefit you.'

Fresh work equals fresh workers!

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 9 (The blind eye and the deaf ear).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.