Charles H. Spurgeon

WE do not measure great men by their specific opinions on this or that question, or by their adherence to this or that dogma. We rather estimate them by their volume of moral and spiritualising power, by the essential qualities of their manhood, by the leavening influences for righteousness that emanate from their own lives. Does true greatness consist in the accident of birth? Verily, no. This is a matter over which we have no control, and which brings with it only power and responsibility. Greatness is not hereditary. Hence we find the sons of some of our greatest men have only been “shadows of a mighty name.”
“What can ennoble fools and cowards?
Not all the blood of all the Howards.
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well thy part, there all the honour lies.”
It was such a greatness that was so strikingly manifested and beautifully set forth in the busy life-work of him who forms the subject of this brief sketch.