Today's Expositor's Quote is another from the rich legacy God has left us in the writings of Charles Spurgeon:

How frequently have I noticed, and I tell it to his praise, for though it shows my weakness, it proves his compassion, that sometimes, after preaching the gospel, I have been so filled with self-reproach, that I could hardly sleep through the night because I had not preached as I desired. I have sat me down and cried over some sermons, as though I knew that I had missed the mark and lost the opportunity. Not once nor twice, but many a time has it happened, that within a few days someone has come to tell me that he found the Lord through that very sermon, the shortcoming of which I had deplored. Glory be to Jesus; it was his gentleness that did it. He did not want his servant to be too much bowed down with a sense of infirmity, and so he had compassion on him and comforted him. Have not you noticed, some of you, that after doing your best to serve the Lord, when somebody has sneered at you, or you have met with such a rebuff as made you half-inclined to give up the work, an unexpected success has been given you, so that you have not played the Jonah and ran away to Tarshish, but kept to your work? Ah! how many times in your life, if you could read it all, you would have to stop and write between the lines, "He was moved with compassion."

Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 60, from a sermon on Matthew 9:36, entitled "The Compassion of Jesus." Available on the web. Part of this quote is cited on page 161 of Tom Carter's excellent compilation of 2200 Quotations from the Writings of Charles Spurgeon, Baker Books, 1988.

[When did you last cry over a sermon? We unworthy servants certainly need His compassion, don't we? May the faith of your listeners not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God -- Coty]


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