The Sword and the Trowel • October, 1865
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There is an interesting reflection from Spurgeon on two episodes in his life of divine guidance.
The first was when a preacher, Mr Knill, was staying at his grandpa’s house when he was a young boy. Mr Knill gave up some of his time to instruct and pray for him including for his salvation. Before leaving, he said to Spurgeon some remarkable words which would come to pass.
“I do not know how it is, but I feel a solemn presentiment that this child will preach the gospel to thousands, and God will bless him to many souls."
"So sure am I of this, that when my little man preaches in Rowland Hall’s Chapel, as he will do one day, I should like him to promise me that he will give out the hymn beginning, ‘God moves in a mysterious way, He wonders to perform.’”
What effect did this have on Spurgeon?
“Did the words of Mr Knill help to bring about their own fulfilment? I think so. I believed them, and looked forward to the time when I should preach the Word: I felt very powerfully that no unconverted person might dare to enter the ministry..."
"...this made me, I doubt not, all the more intent upon seeking salvation and more hopeful of it, and when by grace enabled to cast myself upon the Saviour’s love, it was not long before my mouth began to speak of his redemption.”
Interesting Spurgeon doesn’t give an answer to the question, “How came that sober-minded minister to speak thus of one into whose future God alone could see?”
Instead he draws out a practical lesson to learn from this incident, which was about the willingness of Mr Knill to spend time praying with children when he could have got on with other duties and how we should therefore “despise no opportunity of usefulness”.
The second was when Spurgeon was looking to get formal training as part of preparing more fully for the ministry.
He was due to meet with the tutor of the College, yet having arrived for the meeting, the servant girl failed to tell of his arrival, and the tutor ended up leaving without meeting with Spurgeon. This “strange providence… forced my steps into another and far better path.”
Following this and having not given up on entering into a college, he was on his way to a preaching engagement when he “was startled by what seemed a loud voice, but may have been a singular illusion, which ever it was the impression was most vivid..."
"...I seemed very distinctly to hear the words, ‘Seekest thou great things for thyself, seek them not!’”
This caused Spurgeon to give up on going to college and instead commit to serving the people he was regularly preaching to at the time.
These two instances, where “God occasionally grants to his servants a special and perceptible manifestation of his will for their guidance, over and above the strengthening energies of the Holy Spirit, and the sacred teaching of the inspired Word,” he says are...
“special interpositions of providence” and “generally appear unexpectedly, and as things not to be looked for, or waited for, to the interruption of ordinary life and its reasonable arrangements, but as afforded merely on exceptional occasions.”
He concludes, “Our ordinary guides are right reason and the Word of God, and we may never act contrary to these, but still we accept it as matter of faith and experience to us that on exceptional occasions, special interpositions do come to our aid..."
"...so that our steps are ordered of the Lord and made to subserve his glory.”
What are we to take from this?
The two incidents in Spurgeon’s life give a helpful reminder that God in His providence can and does guide in surprising ways, but we shouldn’t expect this to be a regular occurrence.
There was also article with the heading ‘Prayer Requested’ and outlined concerns about Sundays losing its status as a day of rest in the UK.
Two pieces of evidence are sighted. “The running of Sunday trains in Scotland” and “the partial opening of the Crystal Palace on Sundays.”
His solution to what he saw happening was not to “ask for legislative interference” or “to hold public meetings to denounce the evil” but “to seek unto the Lord concerning it.”
“United, earnest prayer is therefore suggested, that a spirit of love to the day of rest may be imparted to our fellow-countrymen.”
If we have a concern, the first and most important thing we should do is pray about it!