Caustic Comments By C.H.S.

I'm not sure what forum to place this topic.Mods,feel free to move this to any spot you wish.

I have enjoyed Charles Haddon Spurgeon's book :Commenting And Commentaries for a long time.It's a valuable reference guide.There are some serious observations from his pen on books which he considers valuable and why.

But here I will dwell on his biting sense of humor.Quite appropriately I'll give just bite-sized snips.Most of the time the author he is taking to task will not be mentioned.

I hope you enjoy this miniseries!

much ado about nothing

It contains little to repay the student for toiling through the old-fashioned expressions.

We grudge the four shillings which we gave for it.

Of no importance

A pile of paper,valuable to housemaids for lighting fires.

More eloquent than accurate

Sermons as good as these are plentiful as blackberries.Why were they printed?

Tainted with infidelity.

His day is over.

Paper spoiled.

Likely to send the servants to sleep.

A queer old book.

In all his commentaries he lumbers alone in his six-wheeled wagon.

Unimportant.

One of the dreariest works ever written...It is as dry as Noah in the ark.

its rarity is no great calamity.

Full,exhaustive,and exhausting.

 

Continuing His Critiques

There is much rubbish.

the spiritual element is absent.

devoid of the evangelical spirit.

Words and only words.[This was his full comment --Rip]

Rubbish.This bishop ascribes the authorship of Job to Ezekiel!

Mere fragments in a style which we do not admire,which seems to be peculiar to certain brethren.Only the inflated can understand what such writers mean.

We see no use whatever in this production.

Too mystical for ordinary minds.If the author would write in plain English his readers would probably discover that there is nothing very valuable in his remarks.

 

The Comments Of Charles Continues

Very poor and prosy.

about as dry as Gideon's unwetted fleece.

feequently absurd.The author confounds rather than expounds.

A small affair in all ways.

his exposition can be dispensed with.

The author was Wake,but not awake,or he would never have wasted so much good paper.

The style is scholastic and pointless.

Dry and tedious;in the stiff antique style.

We need no longer wonder how spiders make such long threads with such little material,for here is an equally amazing instance of spinning.

it reads rather wearily to us.

Let it alone.

his theological views render him a very poverty-stricken commentator

The Proverbs themselves are plainer than this author's exposition of them.

he is rather wearying.

Mr.Dale says he is a man of one book,and we are glad to hear it:for we should be sorry for another book to suffer at his hands.

,eccentric,and happily very rare.

 

The fruit is ripe,but lacks flavor.

Expounding on this needs an acrobatic imagination.

Framed on a fanciful theory.Verses flowing and feeble.Insignificant.

Worthless rhymes.

Useless.

It is just a little dull and commonplace.

Theologically his standing is very dubious.

He says he wrote for his children,and certainly he is childish enough.

Incomprehensible.One of Broughton's wilder pieces.It may as well die.

In his own day some considered him a sage and others a quack.He was a little of both.

It is worse than useless.

More of rolling sound than anything else.

He is by no means a favorite author with us.

Roos,however,is dull to a dreadful degree...we cannot keep awake while reading him.

 

Of no importance.

Plenty of paper.

What intelligent man in this kingdom could learn anything from these lectures?

Rainolds ...had a main hand in our Authorized Veresion of the Bible...We ought to be enraptured with a commentary from such a divine,but we confess that we are not.

He is too grammatical and dry to be generally interesting.

If bought could they refrain from sleeping while trying to read them?...no possible use to a sensible man,except as an opiate.

absolutely nothing in them

Dr.Whedon lacks common sense,and is no expositor.He is furiously anti-calvinistic,and as weak as he is furious.

"Milk for babies" watered beyond measure.

To most men these volumes will simply be a heap of lumber.

Arminian views crop up at every opportunity.

we can never bring our souls to like him,he always seems to us to be so graceless.

We do not see what a man can get out of it.But, hush! It is by an archbishop!

 

Mediocre discourses much appreciated by the clergy who borrow their sermons.

70 pages of rubbish and 50 more for advertisements.

Platitudes sleepily worded.

soporific sermons...They will not make the hearers lie awake at nights,or cause them palpitations of heart through excess of original and striking thought.

Dr.Parker is an able though somewhat --.But stop,he is a near neighbor of ours.

solid,but dry

The notes do not charm us.

The spirit of the book is vicious.

 

This pile of printed paper may safely be left on the bookseller's shelves.

It is easy to divide an egg by letting it drop on the floor,and in this fashion this author divides texts.

We do not admire this author.

Anti-calvinistic in doctrine,and in style involved,obscure,and terribly parenthetical.

We judge it to be poor as poverty itself.

Anti-calvinistic.Why do not such writers let Romans alone?

his mediocrity is respectable.

This epistle has a fascination for Arminian writers.It affords them an opportunity for showing their courage and ingenuity.Mr.William's book is instructive.

Truth compels us to confess that we find it dull.

Useful in showing the preacher how not to do it.By a violent effort we forced ourselves to read one lecture;but we have done nothing to deserve to read another.The author was domestic chaplain to an earl,meant well,and did his little best.

Rather mystified with expressions peculiar to "dispensational truth." Whatever that may mean,but devout,candid,sober,and sound.

Sermons which do not rise above mediocrity.

 

You know,I was thinking the same thing.

And since he encountered such poor "Christian books" in his time --whatever would he say in his critiques of contemporary "Christian literature"?He might be a bit more severe in his remarks.

Do you have any favorite comments of his which I listed?

 

TomButler,these are some of my favorites from my 7th post.

 

These quotes are gems from my 6th post.

 

These quotes are culled from my 5th post.

 

Some choice tidbits from my 4th post.

 

These golden oldies are from my 3rd post.

 

This one in particular stood out in my 2nd post.

 

And my first post shall be the last (in my review of past quotes).

 

Ok,End Of The Recycled Items :Onto The New!

Still more remarks from Charles H.Spurgeon from his book on commentaries.

read with half a ton of salt

Exposition in a trance

We scarcely remember a more flagrant case of high-sounding verbiage.

Only the inflated can understand what such writers mean.

We pity the hearer who sat out these 60 lectures.

We hope they benefited the printer;they will not help the reader much.

Families will best use these commentaries and prayers by lining their cake tins with them.

To listen to these sermons must have afforded a suitable Lenton penance to those who went to church to hear them.

Faultlessly feeble.

 

This maundering author...rhymes no end of rubbish theron.

This grovelling interpretation...this vicious theory

Blind!

[Remarking upon a book title :Bowels Opened] :His title is most unfortunate.

He was more spiritual than those with whom he became associated,which is not saying much.

We are not enraptured with Delitzsch.

His work is rather a curiosity than a treasure.

The name of the writer sufficently indicates the character of the book.

We had sooner read a table of logarithms.

A queer collection.

We are not enamored of him.

 

Each Line Deals With A Different Author

His work is utterly worthless.

Common humanity leads us to admire a man who struggles for a weak cause.[An Arminian commentator of the book of Romans.-Rip]

The work will greatly edify those whom it does not confuse.

We do not call these lectures expounding,but confusing.

remarkably commonplace

Short,but not particularly sweet.

Utter rubbish.

A small affair in all respects.