While Spurgeon usually preaches on single texts he does not invariably preach isolated sermons. On Sunday 5th June, 1881, he preached from 1 Corinthians 3:6–9 about God’s co-labourers. On Sunday 12th June he took up the same theme of labourers on God’s farm, this time from Mark 4:26–29, explicitly linking the two sermons together. If the first sermon showed how far human agency is required in the work of the gospel, and how dependent all results are upon the Lord, the second sermon emphasises how far a holy labourer can go, and how far he cannot go: “the measure and limit of human instrumentality in the kingdom of grace.” As so often, Spurgeon’s structure is fairly simple and repetitive: what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot know, what we may and may not expect if we work for God, and what sleep workers may and may not take. It is an intensely practical sermon of particular encouragement and instruction to Christian workers—and which Christian ought not also to be a worker on God’s farm?

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Spurgeon regularly throws a little exegetical advice into his sermons, often at the beginning, and he does so here, encouraging his hearers to interpret each portion of Scripture in its context, which he immediately applies to his text, in which Job claims that “the root of the matter is found in me.” Spurgeon first examines this root and defines it in terms of confidence in a living Redeemer. Next, he digs deeper into the matter of something which lies at the root—something which is essential, vital, comprehensive of all the rest. Thirdly, Spurgeon addresses the fact that we can personally discern our possession of this root, not always easily but carefully and comfortingly. Finally, he presses some practical lessons upon our souls, especially considering the way in which we can—in various ways and to various degrees—be guilty of persecuting someone in whom is the root of the matter. It is another example of the remarkable number of directions in which Spurgeon can turn the truth in a single sermon.

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A man’s heart-longings provide an accurate index of his present and future character. Put simply, “Tell me what a man really wants and I will tell you what he is really like and what he will one day be.” Grace gives a man a new and heavenly set of desires for the judgments of God, what Spurgeon calls the saint’s absorbing object. Then he considers the saint’s ardent longing for those judgments. Finally, he points to the saint’s cheering reflections drawn from such desires of the heart. The structure is simple, with that happy repetition which helps both to follow the argument and to fix it in the mind. As so often, Spurgeon moves without fanfare from David’s experience to ours, unpacking the inner life of the believer in every age, giving preachers an example of what it means to enter into the mind and heart of his hearers. Spurgeon also excels in encouragements, which he offers both with regard to what a Christian is now and what he will one day be, so closing the loop of his sermon. And, of course, he wants us to be sure that such longing after God’s judgments makes Christ himself most precious to the saints.

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How much is joy a feature of your life as a Christian? While he recognizes that the fruit of the Spirit is one cluster, nevertheless Spurgeon wants us to focus in this sermon on joy as part of the believer’s spiritual experience. Some have a melancholy disposition which needs to be overcome; others seem to be committed to gloom as a religious essential. Spurgeon would have us understand that joy is a legitimate and inevitable element of the fruit of the Spirit (though varied in the experience of different believers), and also wants us to grasp the singular character of this joy as well as the various forms and circumstances in which a Christian may enjoy it. However, he also includes warnings about the way in which the growth of this spiritual fruit may be hindered, as well as encouraging us to cultivate what he considers to be the obligation of spiritual joy, giving us various reasons why joy is such a blessing which incite us to seek and keep this happy fruit. And there is a practical conclusion, as he calls his congregation to “rise as one man, and sing, ‘Then let our songs abound, / And every tear be dry: / We’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground / To fairer worlds on high.’”

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This is the last sermon in Volume 26 of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. After a fairly extended introduction in which the preacher sets out to demonstrate that “true penitents do not seek to extenuate or diminish the sin which has been forgiven them, but they own how great it is, and set it forth in all its enormity as it appears before their enlightened eyes,” Spurgeon launches into his main substance. Although it has no publication date, it may be selected for the last sermon of the year because of its retrospective emphasis. Look back, says Spurgeon, to excite adoring gratitude; look back to sustain deep humility; look back to renew genuine repentance; look back to kindle fervent love; look back to arouse ardent zeal; look back to make you hopeful for the salvation of others; look back to confirm your confidence for yourselves. Of course, you need not wait until year’s end for such a retrospective. Every child of God can consider what they were before, and be stirred up to such deep affections.

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In this sermon Spurgeon seeks to plumb something of the depths of Christ’s grief over sin. (Interestingly, the following week, and the following printed sermon, is an effort properly to record the joy of our Lord.) The preacher begins with a brief survey of the three occasions on which our Lord wept, revealing his grief over domestic sorrow, national troubles, and human guilt. It is the second of these to which he turns his attention. Spurgeon first of all assesses the Lord’s inward grief, looking at the heart from which poured forth such tears. While this might horrify some (and please others), Spurgeon also offers a fairly bold rejection of divine impassibility (which he does a few times over the course of the next few sermons, so it is no passing thought). He is not at his clearest at this point in the sermon, both with regard to Christ’s two natures and the nature of God himself, perhaps seeking to communicate something of the depths of the Mediator’s sorrow. But the heart which produced these tears of distress also produced words of sorrow, and these allow the preacher to trace something more of the cause of our Saviour’s anguish of heart. All this leads to a pointed conclusion, in which the Spurgeon holds out not only the horror of condemnation, but also the opportunity to enter into the new Jerusalem through faith in this same Jesus who wept over the earthly city.

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This is one of those sermons which seems to bubble over in a torrent from the preacher’s soul. Rather than broadening out, it narrows down, perhaps a reflection of pressure of time in the preaching, coming to an ever more narrow focus. The sermon begins with the excellence of a humble walk, considering what that means. It moves on to the humble walk as an evidence of salvation, with Christ in his proper place in your heart. This humble walk is also a symptom of spiritual health, calling us to self-examination, including in our response to providences which we may not appreciate. It is also a cause for very great anxiety, by which Spurgeon means that we must take it seriously, because it is too easy to presume upon. Finally, a humble walk is the source of the deepest conceivable pleasure, for “the man that leaves everything to God finds joy in everything.” The sermon is a great example of unpacking a very brief phrase in a thoroughly Christian fashion, pressing it into the conscience in a way that both brings us low and lifts us up.

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This very sweet sermon takes a seminal declaration of gracious forgiveness as the starting point of a very simple treatment of this central theme. After an introduction in which he presses home the need to believe what God says concerning forgiveness, Spurgeon launches into a warm treatment of the measure, manner, and manifestations of forgiving grace. In the first he emphasises the divine largesse, the greatness of God’s heart in putting away sin, the riches of divine grace. In the second, which is much like the first in tone, he calls us to reckon with God acting in accordance with those divine riches. In the third, his emphasis turns to the fact that it is through the redemption in Christ’s blood that these riches of grace are revealed and bestowed. As he concludes, he returns to the thrust of his introduction, asking us whether or not it is right for believers to speak of themselves using the same language as unbelievers, to pray or praise as if we had not received the forgiveness of sins. The preacher calls us to feel the love that arises from forgiven sin, the only proper response to such wonders of grace.

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