Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon: A Review

Lectures to My Students is a collection of lectures delivered to the students of The Pastor’s College in London, England by the “Master Pulpiteer”, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Lectures has become an essential collection of practical advice for the pastorate. God has continued to use Spurgeon mightily for the spread of the gospel long after his forty-year ministry; as exemplified in this compendium. These twenty-eight lectures cover a range of disciplines within the pastorate. Spurgeon is not bland nor imprecise, he speaks with personableness and brevity. The pastor who has little formal training will receive stimulant from Spurgeon’s admonitions on preaching, prayer, sermonizing, and one’s self-conduct. I am surprised that there is little said about the minister’s family life concerning his children and wife. As well, a couple arguments could be brought up to speed. Such as "on the voice", since the invention of microphones, and his comments on the pastor’s library, since the all-pervasive online libraries. His speech occasionally contains archaisms and uncommon colloquialisms common to the KJV but is to be expected in the 1800s; it then being the primary translation of English speakers. If a pastor doesn’t mind checking his dictionary and Bible translation on occasion for clarity, he will benefit from the use of the Lectures within his own ministrations. Spurgeon’s wisdom from the pastorate is worth the divulgence.