Meditations on Manhood: 100 Devotions from Charles Spurgeon

By Charles Spurgeon

The world needs real men. 
Here is deep yet accessible encouragement from one of history’s greatest preachers.
 
Charles Spurgeon, “the Prince of Preachers,” is well remembered and remarkably readable some 130 years after his death. This brand-new devotional on the topic of biblical manhood is compiled from his decades of weekly sermons.
 
You’ll find spiritually deep but personally accessible teaching on this vital topic as Spurgeon distills godly principles for men of all ages. With entry titles such as

• “Manly Sympathy”
• “The Imitation of Christ” and
• “Sanctified Manhood”

these 100 entries are each accompanied by a brief description of the source of the reading.  Meditations on Manhood is a powerful, needful book for our times.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbour Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781636097701

Charles Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), nació en Inglaterra, y fue un predicador bautista que se mantuvo muy influyente entre cristianos de diferentes denominaciones, los cuales todavía lo conocen como «El príncipe de los predicadores». El predicó su primer sermón en 1851 a los dieciséis años y paso a ser pastor de la iglesia en Waterbeach en 1852. Publicó más de 1.900 sermones y predicó a 10.000,000 de personas durante su vida. Además, Spurgeon fue autor prolífico de una variedad de obras, incluyendo una autobiografía, un comentario bíblico, libros acerca de la oración, un devocional, una revista, poesía, himnos y más. Muchos de sus sermones fueron escritos mientras él los predicaba y luego fueron traducidos a varios idiomas. Sin duda, ningún otro autor, cristiano o de otra clase, tiene más material impreso que C.H. Spurgeon.

Book preview

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.

ROMANS 8:29

Perhaps nothing in the world is a surer sign of littleness than a slavish imitation of any man. Men lose that which is an honor to them—individuality—and then, they lose that which is a power to them—originality—the moment they commence walking in another man’s shoes. When one painter slavishly copies another, he is only known as the satellite of the greater luminary; he himself is neither respectable nor respected.

But this is not the case when men select models which are confessed to be perfect. You never hear a man accused of a lack of originality because he studies the models in sculpture of ancient Greece. It is not usual to hear the accusation of imitation brought against painters who have studiously examined the works of Michelangelo or of Raphael. These men are put at the head of their respective schools and the following of these masters of the art is voted to be no folly, but true wisdom. ’Tis even so with the imitation of Christ. To imitate other men is weakness; to copy Christ is strength.

Christ is the perfect type of manhood. He who should imitate Him the most nearly, would be the most original man upon earth! It may seem a paradox, but it is one which, nevertheless, needs only to be tried to be proved; no man will be looked upon as so strange, so singular a being among his fellows, as the man who shall nearest approach to the image of the Lord Jesus! He imitates, we grant you; he copies, we confess it; but he is himself, despite his copying, an original to other men, and he stands out from the common herd as being a distinguished and celebrated individual—he will be known and read of all men.

PORTRAITS OF CHRIST, THE NEW PARK STREET PULPIT, NO. 355 (1861)

SANCTIFIED MANHOOD

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

ACTS 26:8

The whole manhood of the Christian has already been sanctified! It is not merely that with his spirit he serves his God, but he yields his members to be instruments unto righteousness to the glory of his heavenly father.

Know you not, says the apostle, that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit? Surely that which has been a temple of the Holy Spirit shall not be ultimately destroyed! It may be taken down, as the tabernacle was in the wilderness, but taken down to be put up again! Or, to use another form of the same figure, the tabernacle may go, but only that the temple may follow. We know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

It is a joy to think that as Christ has redeemed the entire man, and sanctified the entire man, He will be honored in the salvation of the entire man, so our complete manhood shall have it in its power to glorify Him! The hands with which we sinned shall be lifted in eternal adoration; the eyes which have gazed on evil shall behold the King in His beauty; not merely shall the mind which now loves the Lord be perpetually knit to Him, and the spirit which contemplates Him, delight forever in Him, and be in communion with Him—but this very body which has been a clog and hindrance to the spirit, and an arch rebel against the sovereignty of Christ, shall yield Him homage with voice, and hands, and brain, and ears, and eyes!

THE RESURRECTION CREDIBLE, METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, NO. 1067 (1872)

MEN WHO FEED ON GOD’S WORD

I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

1 JOHN 2:13–14

A man instructed in the scriptures is like an armed knight, who when he goes among the throng inflicts many a wound, but suffers none, for he is locked up in steel.

Yes, but that is not all; it is not the word of God in you alone, it is the word of God abideth in you. It is always there; it cannot be removed from you. If a man gets the Bible right into him, he is all right then, because he is full, and there is no room for evil. When you have filled a measure full of wheat you have effectually shut the chaff out. Men go after novel and false doctrines because they do not really know the truth; for if the truth had gotten into them and filled them, they would not have room for these daydreams. A man who truly knows the doctrines of grace is never removed from them: I have heard our opponents rave at what they call the obstinacy of our brethren. Once get the truth really into you, it will enter into the texture of your being, and nothing will get it out of you. It will also be your strength, by setting you watching against every evil thing.

The word of God will be to you a bulwark and a high tower, a castle of defense against the foe. Oh, see to it that the word of God is in you, in your very soul, permeating your thoughts, and so operating upon your outward life, that all may know you to be a true Bible-Christian, for they perceive it in your words and deeds.

This is the sort of army that we need in the church of God—men that are strong by feeding on God’s Word.

A DESCRIPTION OF YOUNG MEN IN CHRIST, METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, NO. 1715 (1883)

MANLY SYMPATHY

Rejoice with them that do rejoice.

ROMANS 12:15

Sympathy is a duty of manhood. We are all brethren sprung from the same stock, and that which is a good to any man ought to be a joy to me. That any man should be sick or sorry should in a measure make me sad, but that any man should rejoice with a worthy joy—worthy of a creature made by God—should make other men thankful. But what is thus a natural duty is elevated into a yet higher duty, and a more sacred privilege amongst the regenerate—amongst the family of God, for over and above the ties of manhood in the first Adam, there are the ties of our new manhood in the second Adam, and there are bonds which arise out of our being quickened by the same life.

We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We are members of one body, having only one Head, and one life throbs through all the members of that body. Hence, for us to strive with one another in joy and in sorrow would be to act contrary to the sacred instincts which arise out of Christian unity. If, indeed, we are one with Christ, we are also one with each other, and we must participate in the common joys and common sorrows of all the elect family.

This, again, gathers yet higher force when the joys in question shall be spiritual joys. I am bound as a Christian to be thankful when my brother prospers in business, but I may not be quite sure that that will be a real blessing to him. But if I know that his soul prospers, then I may safely rejoice to the very full, for that must be a blessing to him, and will bring honor to God.

SYMPATHY AND SONG, METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, NO. 3517 (1872)

THE WORK OF A MAN

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

ECCLESIASTES 9:10

You have not the work to do of saving yourselves. That is done—the dear Redeemer has finished it. It is finished, says the Savior, and that is joy for you.

But now you have another work to do because you are saved. Man was not created to be idle. He was not elected to be idle. He was not redeemed to be idle. He was not quickened to be idle, and he is not sanctified by God’s grace to be idle.

Oh, sirs, do not promise to do anything tomorrow—leave off promising and come to real actions! Never mind what you will do next year! What will you do now?

The masters of assemblies should remember this. If a thing is worth doing, let it be done well. If it is not worth doing, let it alone. Do not pick it over and say, All these things I could do for Christ, but I shall only do a part of them. Here is a duty which I could perform with my gloves on, like a gentleman. I could do this without trouble, labor, or expense and earn a good deal of credit by it. This is the kind of thing I will do. Do you think God will accept such obedience as that? Man, do it, if it stains you from head to foot with mire, if it brings contempt upon you and the universal hiss of all your fellows. Whatever—whatever God appoints you to do, do it right straight through. Servants, like beggars, must not be choosers, but what their masters appoint, they must do. And with such a Master, who never can appoint us a dishonorable task, it is a shame that we should think any service too hard.

THE SPUR, METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, NO. 1119 (UNDATED, LIKELY 1873)

A CHARGE TO KEEP THY HEART

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

PHILIPPIANS 4:7

Inasmuch as the heart is the most important part of man—for out of it are the issues of life—it would be natural to expect that Satan, when he intended to do mischief to manhood, would be sure to make his strongest and