Talks to Farmers

Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
514K words
Chapters
52

Tags

English Originals Religion Rustic SentimentHumanistic CareLife PhilosophyFaith and LifeExhortationSocial ConductSpiritual ComfortLife WisdomMoral CultivationPopular Narrative

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Talks to Farmers by C. H. SpurgeonAuthor: Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892,Language: English, Class: BR: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity, Release Date: Apr 12, 2013

Editor's review

Talks to Farmers is a collection of sermons by the nineteenth-century English preacher C. H. Spurgeon, addressed to rural congregations and using farming experience as a metaphor for faith and daily life. Its value lies in plain language and imagery drawn from plowing and harvest, grounding abstract ideas in soil and labor so that it reads warmly rather than obscurely. The book preserves the oral rhythm and exhortatory tone of the sermons, offering both a window into Spurgeon's preaching style and a view of Victorian rural religious life. For Chinese readers, it is best read as religious literature and public address, appreciating its use of metaphor and structure of exhortation; it can also serve those studying the style of English sermons. It suits slow reading and excerpted reading, one piece at a time, with no need to hurry. Note that this is an original English-language e-book whose theme and background are firmly Christian; readers outside the faith may treat it as a cultural text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and choose pieces related to plowing and harvest to build interest.
  2. Read only one sermon at a time, then summarize its metaphor and main point in a sentence or two.
  3. Look up unfamiliar biblical allusions first, then return to the passage.
  4. Read alongside essays on similar themes, noting the oral rhythm and exhortatory structure.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52

FAQ

Is this book about farming techniques? No. "Farmers" in the title refers to rural congregations; the book uses farming as a metaphor for faith and life and offers no farming techniques such as tilling or fertilizing. If you need agricultural knowledge, look for agronomy books instead.
Can I understand it without a Christian background? You can follow the general meaning. The book quotes the Bible extensively, and some passages will feel remote without knowledge of the relevant allusions. It helps to learn basic biblical figures and common metaphors first, or to read it as a cultural text and focus on appreciating its language and use of metaphor.
How much should I read each day? One sermon a day is recommended; they are not long, and it helps to pause briefly afterward. Sermons are meant for exhortation and reflection, and reading quickly in succession tends to leave only the gist while missing the layers of metaphor; slow reading better captures the oral rhythm.

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About the author

Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892 Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) was a well-known nineteenth-century English Baptist preacher, noted for a plain, vivid preaching style rich in metaphor and illustration. Four of his works are held in this collection: The Art of Illustration, Gleanings among the Sheaves, Talks to Farmers, and the Finnish-language collection of sermon stories Viisauden sanoja: Mieleen pantavia kertoelmia. These works are largely gathered sermons, parables and illustrations written for ordinary readers, dealing with the Christian life, moral exhortation and everyday rural experience in accessible, story-rich language. The Art of Illustration in particular discusses how examples and metaphors can convey truth, showing his concern for expressive technique and for the audience's understanding. Because public information is limited, biographical details are not developed here; the works themselves show a writer who combines instruction with readability and who found a wide readership in the English-speaking world.