Do not think that this is an excuse for anybody who is not doing much, you Issachar-like people, like “a strong ass between two burdens,” too lazy to lift either! I am not giving you a word of comfort. You are not growing, for you are doing nothing—and those who are doing something must not boast of their growth. It has more to do with private devotion than with public exercise. It has more to do with meditation than with explanation. It has more to do with contemplation and adoration than with public service. We must look more to the state of the internal matters, keeping up private prayer and attending to the reading of the Scriptures. If we do not, however much we may seem to progress utwardly, we are not any richer—we are only beating out the little gold we had into a thinner plate, and spreading it over a wider surface.
Charles Spurgeon
“Growth in Grace”