Instead of waxing eloquent upon the declining power of the pulpit, LEADING men in the church should use the
legitimate means for improving the pulpit’s power, by supplying the preacher with food for thought. Up to the
high-test measure of the a church’s ability they should furnish their minister, not only with the food which is needful
to sustain the life of his body, but with mental nutriment, so that his soul may not be starved. A good library for your
pastor should be looked upon as an indispensable part of the church furniture; and the deacons, whose business it is to
“serve tables”, will be wise if, without neglecting the table of the Lord, or of the poor, and without diminishing the
supplies of the minister’s dinner table, they give an eye to his study-table, and keep it supplied with new works and
standard books in fair abundance. It would be money well laid out, and would be productive far beyond expectation. I fear that a long succession of starveling ministers will alone arouse the miserly to the conviction that parsimony with a minister is false economy.
Charles Spurgeon,