Watson

As a seminary professor there is one phrase I have heard students use over the years that makes my blood boil; it is "C = M.Div". The idea is, of course, that if a student merely keeps a "C" average, then he will get through seminary and move on to the pastorate. In contrast to that minimalistic thought I have just read a passage written by Spurgeon about the Puritan Thomas Watson:

"We are not at all surpised to learn that Thomas Watson enjoyed the repute, while at Cambridge, of being a most laborious student; the great Puritanic authors must have been most industrious workers at the university, or they never would have become such pre-eminent masters in Israel. The conscientious student is the most likely man to become a successful preacher. After completinghis course with honour, Watson became rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, where in the very heart of London he executed for nearly sixteen years the office of a faithful pastor with great diligence and assiduity. Happy were the citizens who regularly attended so instructive and spiritual a ministry. The church was constantly filled, for the fame and the popularity of the preacher were deservedly great. . . he was a man of considerable learning, a popular, but judicious preacher, and eminent in the gift of prayer."