Influence, Personal

C. H. Spurgeon

Romans 14:7-9

For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself.…

The greatest works that have been done have been done by the ones. The hundreds do not often do much, the companies never do: it is the units, just the single individuals, that, after all, are the power and the might. Take any church, — there are multitudes in it; but it is some two or three that do the work. Look on the Reformation! — there might be many reformers, but there was but one Luther: there might be many teachers, but there was but one Calvin. Look ye upon the preachers of the last age, the mighty preachers who stirred up the churches — there were many coadjutors with them; but, after all, it was not Whitefield's friends, nor Wesley's friends, but the men themselves, that did it. Individual effort is, after all, the grand thing. A man alone can do more than a man with fifty men at his heels to fetter him. Look back through all history. Who delivered Israel from the Philistines? — it was solitary Samson. Who was it gathered the people together to rout the Midianites? — it was one Gideon, who cried, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" Who was he that smote the enemy? — it was Shamgar, with his ex-goad; or it was an Ehud, who, with his dagger, put an end to his country's tyrant. Separate men-Davids with their slings and stones — have done more than armies could accomplish.

(C. H. Spurgeon)