Obsessed by one thing .... Jesus!

Some of you asked if I'd put this quote of Spurgeon's about the naturalist, John James Audubon (1785 - 1851).



You may, perhaps, have read the life of Audubon, the celebrated American naturalist. He spent the major part of his life in preparing a very valuable work on the birds of America. He tracked these birds into their remotest haunts, painted them from nature, lived in the cane-brakes, swamps, and prairies – even among the red men, exposed to all kinds of dangers – and all simply to become a complete ornithologist. When he was in Paris, collecting subscriptions for his new work, his diary was full of wretchedness – there was nothing in Paris for him’ and the only bright dream that he had was when he saw the stock-pigeons building their nests in garden of the Tuileries. The broad streets, the magnificent palaces, the pictures of the Louvre, these were all nothing to him – the stock-pigeons everything. He came to London, and he was equally dull there. Not a single incident shows a comfortable frame of mind, till he sees one day a flock of wild geese passing over the city. He wrote in London a paper on birds; and he says ‘While I am writing I think I hear the rustle of the wings of pigeons in the backwoods of America.’ The man’s soul was full of birds, nothing but birds; and of course he became a great naturalist. He lived and he was willing to die for birds. We need to muster a band of ministers who live only for Christ, and desire nothing but opportunities for promoting His glory – opportunities for spreading His truth – opportunities for winning by power those whom Jesus has redeemed by His precious blood. Men of one idea – these are they that shall do exploits in the camp of Israel

Cited in G. Holden Pike, Life and Work of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 2 Vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 2:352