The revealed Word awakened me, but it was the preached Word that saved me, and I must ever attach peculiar value to the hearing of the truth, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights.
Interpretation
The preached Word brings salvation and provides deep joy and peace to the soul.
In this quote, Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the transformative power of religious teachings. He suggests that while personal revelation is important for awakening one's spirit, it is the hearing of preached truth that truly brings salvation and profound inner happiness. For Spurgeon, valuing the preached Word is essential as it connects individuals to the joy and peace that enrich their lives.
In practice
In a sermon about the importance of scripture, one might use this quote to illustrate the significance of listening to God's Word.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
[I] learned ... that friends are a good source of food and soul when one has not yet gotten the hang of cooking or living (as opposed to dying) alone. That nothing-not booze, not love, not sex, not work, not moving from state to state-will make the past disappear. Only time and patience heal things. I learned that cutting up your arms in an attempt to make the pain move from inside to outside, from soul to skin, is futile. That death is a cop-out. I tried all of these things.
Forgiveness is for yourself because it frees you. It lets you out of that prison you put yourself in.
I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.
There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep.
Leave your front door and your back door open. _x000D_ Allow your thoughts to come and go. _x000D_ Just don't serve them tea.
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