This is a penetrating sermon, and perhaps not what you would expect as Spurgeon’s first sermon in the new year of 1876, but perhaps all the more valuable for that. Maybe we would assume that we need to start the year with something uplifting, but Spurgeon has decided to begin with humbling, God helping him. In truth, it is a theme we should appreciate at any time of the year, for pride is a perennial weed in the garden of the soul. So Spurgeon catechises pride, asking a series of questions that derive from his text and its underlying assumption. By the answers, pride is condemned, being exposed for the ugliness it is. Spurgeon’s method enables his hearers and readers to interrogate themselves, asking where pride has crept into our own hearts, where it has taken root with regard either to natural or spiritual distinctions, and the bitter fruits it bears where it begins to thrive. Of course, he does not conclude without some gospel correctives, encouraging us to remember the grace of God, and so uproot pride and bring forth better and sweeter flowers, including that of faith in Christ, recognising that—if no-one has anything in which to boast—then a sinner may come to the Lord for that which he freely gives.

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