GRACE ALONE! The following article is taken from a small volume entitled “All of Grace.” It was written and published by C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), over 100 years ago and is available presently. I am glad to be identified with men like Mr. Spurgeon and his dear old grandfather and to boldly proclaim the same old gospel that they declared. “I am led to remember this by the fact that a somewhat singular circumstance, recorded in my memory, connects the text Ephesians 2:8 with my grandfather and myself. The event occurred many years ago. It was announced that I was going to preach in a certain country town in the eastern counties. I am not often late, for I feel that punctuality is one of those little virtues that may prevent great sins. But, I have no control over railway delays and breakdowns. Thus I was considerably tardy when I reached the appointed place. Like sensible people, they had begun their worship and had proceeded as far as the sermon. “As I neared the chapel, I perceived that someone was in the pulpit preaching, and who should the preacher be but my dear, venerable grandfather? He saw me as I came in the door and made my way up the aisle. At once he said, ‘Here comes my grandson! He may preach the Gospel better than I can, but he cannot preach a better Gospel—can you Charles?’ “As I made my way through the throng, I answered, ‘You can preach better than I can. Do, I pray, go on.’ But, he would not agree to that. “He insisted that I must take the sermon, and so I did, continuing with the subject just where he left off. ‘There,’ said he, ‘I was preaching on For by grace are ye saved. I have been setting forth the source and fountainhead of salvation, and I am now showing them the channel of it, through faith. Now, you take it from there and go on.’ “I am so much at home with these glorious truths that I did not feel any difficulty in taking from my grandfather the thread of his message and joining my thread to it, so as to continue without a break. Our agreement in the things of God make it easy for us to be joint-preachers of the same topic. I went on with through faith, and then I proceeded to the next point, and that not of yourselves. “Based on this essential phrase, I was explaining the weakness and inability of human nature and the certainty that salvation could not be of ourselves, when I had my coattail pulled, and my beloved grandfather took his turn again. When I spoke of our depraved human nature, the good old man said, ‘I know most about that, dear friends.’ So he took up the parable and for the next five minutes set forth a solemn and humbling description of our lost estate, the depravity of our natures, and the spiritual death under which we were found. “When he had said his say in a very gracious manner, his grandson was allowed to go on again, to the dear old man’s delight, for now and then he would say in a gentle tone, ‘Good! Good!’ Once he said, ‘Tell them that again, Charles,’ and of course I did tell them once again. It was a happy exercise for me to share in bearing witness to truths of such vital importance that are so deeply impressed upon my heart.” A sad day indeed, when so many preachers will own C.H. Spurgeon’s fame but deny his doctrine, and despise me for preaching it.
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