The Sword and the Trowel • July, 1865
🧵 of highlights
In this edition of The Sword and the Trowel, Spurgeon used a report on a trip to Italy to make an assessment of the Roman Catholic Church, but not in the way it is commonly done.
Not “a consideration of her doctrines” which he says is a “most fitting work for the student.”
No, his inquiry in his words is “a narrow, but an interesting one”:
“Would the outer array of Popish worship strike the candid observer as being in accordance with the spirit of the New Testament? Does the ceremonialism of Rome accord with the taste which would be born and nurtured amidst the beauties and wonders of nature?”
In his judgment “the answer must be decidedly and altogether in the negative…Our conviction is that her mode of worship and display are as opposite to the genus of nature and the style of revelation, as the flaunting finery of a harlot to the modest apparel of a virtuous woman.”
Often when critiquing the Roman Catholic Church, we go straight to assessing her doctrine.
I like that the approach Spurgeon takes of assessing her outward worship with what Scripture teaches, showing us that looking at the fruit of a particular teaching is a helpful way of exposing the corruptions of that teaching (Matthew 7:20).
Spurgeon also shows us how to explain the gospel clearly and simply.
“Now the facts of salvation are these: God hath accepted Christ Jesus his own dear and only Son, in his living and dying righteousness as the substitute for his chosen people. As their substitute, Christ has finished all that the divine law required..."
"...and so saved his people, and the Lord has revealed to us in his Word that those who believe in his Son Jesus Christ are the objects of his choice and heirs of all the [favours] purchased by the Saviour’s blood.”
As well as showing us how to challenge hearers to respond to the gospel.
“Hell is not to be thought of without trembling, but it will soon be your eternal dwelling-place unless you repent. Can you endure its endless torments? Trembler, there is hope! Jesus died. Jesus lives. Trust in him who stood in the sinner’s place and you are saved.”