Spurgeon Quote of the Day! 4-11-12

“Is not My Word like as a fire? says the LORD; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29.

God’s Word is like a hammer—“and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.” So that, whenever a minister has the Gospel to use, this simile should teach him how he ought to use it—with all his might, let him strike with it mighty blows for his Lord! I should think that it does not require any great education to learn how to use a hammer. I do not know, it may, but it seems that to use a hammer aright, one has nothing to do but to strike with it. A stone-breaker, for instance, gets a good strong hammer and a heap of stones to strike at—and he has but to hit them as hard as he can and to keep on hitting till all are broken. Brothers, when you preach, take the Gospel hammer and strike as hard as you can with it!

“Oh, but I must try to improve the look of my hammer! It must have a mahogany handle!” Never mind about the mahogany handle! Use your hammer for striking—hammers are not for ornament—they are meant to be used for real hard work! And when you come to use the Gospel as it ought to be used, the result is wonderful! It is a rock-breaking thing. “Oh,” you cry, “there is a very obdurate man there!” Strike at him with the Gospel! “Oh, but he ridicules and scoffs at the Truth of God!” Never mind if he does—keep on smiting him with the Gospel. “Oh, but, in a certain district, I have wielded this hammer against the rock for years and nothing has come of it!” Still go on wielding it, for this is a hammer that never failed! Only continue to use it! Everything is not accomplished with one stroke, nor, perhaps, with 20 strokes. The rock that does not yield the first time, nor the second time, nor the third time, nor the 20th time, will yield at last! There is a process of disintegration taking place at every stroke—the great mass is inwardly moving even when you cannot see that it is doing so. And there will come, at last, one blow of the hammer which will seem to do the deed. But all the previous strokes contributed to it and brought the rock into the right state for breaking it up at last. Hammer away, then, Brothers—hammer away with nothing but the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The heart that is struck may not yield even year after year, but it will yield at last!

C.H. Spurgeon - "Gods Fire and Hammer"