Charles Simeon, a minister from Scotland, was powerfully effective, writes Alistair Begg. He goes on and says: "There were correctives in Simeon’s life that came from all kinds of sources. John Thornton, who I think was the church warden in his time, wrote on one occasion to his vicar, 'Watch continually over your own spirit, and do all in love. We must grow downward in humility to soar heavenward. I should recommend you having a watchful eye over yourself, for generally speaking as is the minister so are the people.'" Thinking of another author, Samuel Rutherford who said; 'Be humbled,' he writes, 'walk softly, down … with your top sail: stoop, stoop; it is a low entry to go in at heaven’s [gate].'"

References

See: https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/standing-firm-in-the-grace-of-god/

John Thornton, quoted in Hugh Evan Hopkins, Charles Simeon of Cambridge (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), 43–44.

Rutherford to Cardoness, Elder, Aberdeen, 1637, in Joshua Redivivus; or Three Hundred and Fifty-Two Religions Letters, by the Late Eminently Pious Mr. Samuel Rutherfoord, 11th ed. (Glasgow: William Bell, 1796), 214.