Spurgeon's practical wisdom

Filled with gems

SPURGEON’S PRACTICAL WISDOM
Plain advice for plain people
By C.H. Spurgeon
Banner of Truth. 317 pages. £16.00
ISBN 978-1-84871-051-1

Spurgeon humorously writes under the pseudonym of John Ploughman, a wise old farm worker. Written in 1869, it is never more relevant than today.

It is plain advice for plain people on a wide variety of everyday subjects, from debt and temptation to ‘thoughts about thoughts’. A fantastic book of short talks easily read at bedtime.

The only problem is that, as one reads it, one thinks of all the people who you wished were reading it too so that their thinking would be corrected! This was never more keenly felt than one Sunday evening. A kindly person mentioned to my husband that he had omitted a particular point from his sermon.

In bed I happened to turn to the talk entitled ‘On Religious Grumblers’, where Spurgeon so aptly states: ‘I have heard men find fault with a discourse for what was not in it; no matter how well the subject in hand was brought out, there was another subject about which nothing was said, and so all was wrong; which is as reasonable as finding fault with a cornfield because there are no turnips in it’.

Before rushing out to buy a copy for the errant saint I noted some other advice from Spurgeon: ‘No offence is meant; but if anything in these pages should come home to a man, let him not send it next door, but get a coop for his own chickens. Please, good friend, if you find a hoe on these premises, weed your own garden with it’. On page after page, I was shown chickens and hoes of my own!

Spurgeon’s excellent sketches are a bonus, as is the hard cover. A wonderful gift filled with gems.

Telda Peskett,
pastor’s wife at Downe Baptist Church, Kent, who also works two days a week in kitchen design

© Evangelicals Now - July 2010
Please consider supporting this ministry by subscribing.

• Request Free Sample

Main Articles

• Artificial life - or not?
• The Commentary
  Church with walls
• Cohabiting then converted?
  Don Carson's advice on whether or not they should marry
• The Lord's supper
  A helpful acronym to aid biblical understanding
• Blind faith?
  Growing up blind
• Song for sorrowers
  First of two articles on Psalm 88
• A new type of government?
  Interview with Christian MP, David Burrowes
• Cold water in Jesus's name
  An article linked to the Lausanne Global Conversation
• Cannibal rising
  Mark Troughton considers our increasingly macabre society
• Monthly media and arts column
  The rockstar physicist
• Letter from America
  Environmentalism USA
• The Music Exchange
  Battle in the bands?
• Monthly youth leaders column
  End product?
• The Third Degree
  What students get up to during those long summers
• Shelf life
  Looking at secular books
• Renewal in Revelation
  Interview with Paul Mallard
• Afghanistan
  An urgent plea for help: a letter to the worldwide body of Christ from Afghan Christians

Other articles

• Ashes to ashes - The gospel according to Gene Hunt?
• Whatever works
• Step into the light
• Gospel-centred life - Seventh of a series of extracts
• Four lions
• Voices from the past - Puritan devotional readings
• A sweet & bitter providence - John Piper on the Book of Ruth
• Dealing with Dawkins
• Explore evolution
• Who saves, God or me?
• CY / CY Nano / Soul DVD
• The priority of preaching
• Preacher to the remnant - The story of James Renwick
• Let's study 1 Timothy
• Johnny Cornflakes - A story about loving the unloved
• Ecclesiastes & The Song of Songs
• Philosophy of religion - Thinking about faith
• Spurgeon's practical wisdom
• Gospel-powered parenting
• True love - 1 Corinthians 13