Spurgeon on Blaming the Times

“Come fair or come foul, my comrades, hold ye the fort. Some men attempt to excuse their own negligence by blaming the times. What have you and I to do with the times, except to serve our God in them? The times are always evil to those who are of morbid temperament.”

“Carlyle speaks somewhere of the house-cricket chirping on while the trump of the archangel is sounding; --who blames it for so doing? If God had made you a house-cricket, and bidden you chirp, you could not do better than fulfill His will. As He has made you a preacher, you must abide in your vocation. Even if the earth should be removed, and the mountains should be cast into the midst of the sea, would that alter our duty? I trow not. Christ has sent us to preach the gospel; and if our life-work is not yet finished, (and it is not), let us continue delivering our message under all circumstances till death shall silence us.”

Spugeon on Conversion as Our Chief Aim

The grand object of the Christian ministry is the glory of God.
Whether souls are converted or not, if Jesus Christ be faithfully
preached, the minister has not laboured in vain, for he is a sweet
savor unto God as well in them that perish as in them that are
saved. Yet, as a rule, God has sent us to preach in order that
through the gospel of Jesus Christ the sons of men may be
reconciled to him. Here and there a preacher of righteousness,
like Noah, may labour on and bring none beyond his own family
circle into the ark of salvation ; and another, like Jeremiah, may
weep in vain over an impenitent nation ; but, for the most part,
the work of preaching is intended to save the hearers. It is
ours to sow even in stony places, where no fruit rewards our
toil; but still we are bound to look for a harvest, and mourn if
it does not appear in due time.