ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON) The best preparation for teaching Christ’s lambs is love:

The best preparation for teaching Christ’s lambs is love: love for Jesus and them. We cannot be priests on their behalf unless like Aaron we wear their names upon our breasts.

We must love or we cannot bless.

Teaching is poor work when love is gone; it is like a smith working without fire, or a builder without mortar.

A shepherd who does not love his sheep is a hireling and not a shepherd: he will flee in the time of danger, and leave his flock to the wolf.

Where there is no love there will be no life; living lambs are not to be fed by dead men.

We preach and teach love; our subject is the love of God in Christ Jesus. How can we teach this if we have no love for ourselves?

Our object is to create love in the hearts of those we teach, and to foster it where it already exists; but how can we convey the fire if it is not kindled in our hearts?