ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON) hopeful converts

We think we have converts, and we are not long before we are disappointed in them. Many are like blossoms on our fruit trees; they are fair to look at but do not come to anything. Others are like the many little fruits falling off long before they have come to any size. A cold night or a blight will come, and away go our hopes of a crop; it is just so with hopeful converts.

He who presides over a great church, and feels an agony for the souls of men, will soon be convinced that if God does not work, there will be no work done. We shall see no conversion, sanctification, final perseverance, glory brought to God, no satisfaction for the passion of the Savior. Our Lord said well, “Apart from me you are not able to do anything” (John 15:5).