Charles Spurgeon is one of the greatest preachers and expounders of the gospel who ever lived. Popularly known as the “Prince of Preachers, he spent his time in ministry travelling and teaching the word of God.
Here are over 150 Quotes by Charles Spurgeon that you need to know
Anxiety
“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”
The Bible / The Gospel
“A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”
“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”
“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”
“The mind of God is greater than all the minds of men, so let all men leave the gospel just as God has delivered it unto us.”
“Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.”
“The Word of God will be to you a bulwark and a high tower, a castle of defense against the foe. Oh, see to it that the Word of God is in you, in your very soul, permeating your thoughts, and so operating upon your outward life, that all may know you to be a true Bible-Christian, for they perceive it in your words and deeds.”
See The Biography, Life and Ministry Of Charles Spurgeon
“We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God’s grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible.”
“Newspapers are the Bibles of worldlings.
How diligently they read them!
Here they find their law and profits,
their judges and chronicles,
their epistles and revelations.”
“The word of God is always most precious to the man who most lives upon it.”
The Gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it just needs to be let out of its cage.
Character
“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”
Christians & Christianity
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
“The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.”
“A sheep in the midst of wolves is safe compared with the Christian in the midst of ungodly men.”
“If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in war time, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch-deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey. The Lord keep us watchful in all seasons, and give us a final escape from the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear.”
“Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began, and let the Lord be all in all to you.”
“All the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do us no injury if there were no corruption in our own natures.”
“I have not much patience with a certain class of Christians nowadays who will hear anybody preach so long as they can say, ‘He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born orator.’ Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, sirs, to me the ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my admiration.”
“Let us measure ourselves by our Master, and not by our fellow-servants, then pride will be impossible.”
“God grant, if we must have two eyes, that they may be both clear ones, one the eye of faith wholly fixed on Christ, the other the eye of obedience equally and wholly fixed on the same objective!”
“Half the disputes between Christian people arise from their not knowing one another. … When we know each other, our suspicions, prejudices, and dislikes will speedily disappear. I am sure it is so with our God. When you walk with him, when your communion with him is close and constant, your faith in him will grow exceedingly.”
Church
“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”
“The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it.”
List Of Books By Charles Spurgeon
“If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.”
Contentment
“You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.”
“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness”
Faith
“Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.”
“If you can’t see His way past the tears, trust His heart.”
“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”
“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.”
“If I am not today all that I hope to be, yet I see Jesus, and that assures me that I shall one day be like Him. “
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.”
“When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.”
“God’s thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return.”
“Bread is a second cause; the LORD Himself is the first source of our sustenance. He can work without the second cause as well as with it; and we must not tie Him down to one mode of operation. Let us not be too eager after the visible, but let us look to the invisible God.”
“Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation.”
“It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts…It is not the measure of faith, but the sincerity of faith, which is the point to be considered.”
“Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ.”
“To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.”
“I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.”
Fear
“The worst thing thou has to fear is the treachery of thine own heart.”
Free will
“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace.”
Friendship
“Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.”
“If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.”
“Do have a mind of your own. This is not just a spiritual matter only, but one which concerns ordinary manliness. I would do many things to please my friends, but to go to hell to please them is more than I would venture.”
God’s Will / His Nature
“When your will is God’s will, you will have your will.”
“I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”
“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
“As for His failing you, never dream of it — hate the thought of it. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.”
“He (Jesus) will reign over you, either by your consent, or without it.”
“The egg is white though the hen is black as coal…Out of evil comes good, through the great goodness of God.”
“There is no physician like Him, none can save as He can; we love Him, and He loves us, and therefore we put ourselves into His hands, accept whatever he prescribes, and do whatever He bids.We feel that nothing can be wrongly ordered while He is the director of our affairs; for He loves us too well to let us perish, or suffer a single needless pang”
“Wherever Jesus may lead us, He goes before us. If we don’t know where we are going, we know with whom we go.”
“He cannot be a glorious God unless His people ultimately are a glorified people.”
“God’s law is our pleasure when the God of the law is our God.
“It is a blessing for us that, as sin lives, and the flesh lives, and the devil lives, so Jesus lives. It is also a blessing that, whatever strength these may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater power to save us.”
Good Wife
“A thrifty housewife is better than a great income. A good wife and health are a man’s best wealth.”
Grace, Mercy & Sovereignty
“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.”
“The saints shall persevere in holiness, because God perseveres in grace.”
“You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing.”
“You shall find it greatly mitigates the sorrow of bereavements, if before bereavement you shall have learned to surrender every day all the things which are dearest to you into the keeping of your gracious God.”
“God could not have given this promise, except from love and grace; therefore it is quite certain his Word will be fulfilled.”
“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.”
“His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners after great lengths of time and then gives great favors and great privileges and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God!”
“Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved ‘through faith,’ but salvation is ‘by grace’.”
Hope
“Hope itself is like a star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. “
“Is there nothing to sing about to-day? Then borrow a song from tomorrow; sing of what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next.”
“To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.”
Human Nature
“You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.”
“Six feet of dirt make all men equal.”
“Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.”
“Let me ask you, how many atheists are now in this house? Perhaps not a single one of you would accept the title, and yet, if you live from Monday morning to Saturday night in the same way as you would live if there were no God, you are practical atheists.”
“But no thoughtful man’s life is uninteresting or devoid of marvels. A sincere life cannot be empty of memorable occurrences.”
Humility
“You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.”
“Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.”
“A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears.”
“True humility is a flower which will adorn any garden.”
“Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace.”
Ministry
“Ministers should be stars to give light,
not clouds to obscure. In some cases the text is as clear as a mirror, till the preacher’s breath bedims it.”
“There are no crown-bearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers here below. “
“Far better for a man that he had never been born than that he should degrade a pulpit into a show box to exhibit himself in.”
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.”
Other
“Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.”
“Free will has carried many souls to hell, but never a soul to heaven yet.”
“Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.”
Parenting
“If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.”
Prayer
“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.”
“The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.”
“Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.”
“I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.”
“Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request, ‘Do as Thou hast said.’ The Heavenly Father will not break His Word to His own child.”
“Do not sit down and try to pump up repentance from the dry well of a corrupt nature. It is contrary to the laws of your mind to suppose that you can force your soul into that gracious state. Take your heart in prayer to Him who understands it and say, “Lord, cleanse it. Lord, renew it. Lord, work repentance in it.” The more you try to produce penitent emotions in yourself, the more you will be disappointed. However, if you believingly think of Jesus dying for you, repentance will burst forth.”
“He bequeaths us His manger, from which to learn how God came down to man, and His cross to teach us how man may go up to God.”
“Never go to look on man till you have first looked on your God.”
“Prayer bends the omnipotence of heaven to your desire. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”
“A child’s cry touches a father’s heart, and our King is the Father of his people. If we can do no more than cry it will bring omnipotence to our aid. A cry is the native language of a spiritually needy soul; it has done with fine phrases and long orations, and it takes to sobs and moans; and so, indeed, it grasps the most potent of all weapons, for heaven always yields to such artillery.”
Pre-Destination
“I believe that nothing happens apart from divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the doctrine of divine predestination – the doctrine that God has foreordained certain people unto eternal life.”
Religion
“When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it he keeps a very small stock of it within.”
“Do not commit spiritual suicide through a passion for discussing metaphysical subtleties.”
Revival
“Revival begins by Christians getting right first and then spills over into the world.”
“Man is a fallen star till he is right with heaven: he is out of order with himself and all around him till he occupies his true place in relation to God. When he serves God, he has reached that point where he doth serve himself best, and enjoys himself most. It is man’s honour, it is man’s joy, it is man’s heaven, to live unto God.”
Salvation & Repentance
“Conversion is a turning onto the right road. The next thing to do is to walk on it.”
“Repentance was never yet produced in any man’s heart apart from the grace of God. As soon may you expect the leopard to regret the blood with which its fangs are moistened,—as soon might you expect the lion of the wood to abjure his cruel tyranny over the feeble beasts of the plain, as expect the sinner to make any confession, or offer any repentance that shall be accepted of God, unless grace shall first renew the heart.”
“There is no repentance where a man can talk lightly of sin, much less where he can speak tenderly and lovingly of it.”
“it seemed as if hell were put into His cup; He seized it, and at one tremendous draught of love, He drank damnation dry.”
“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart.”
“None but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to myself.”
“Repentance grows as faith grows. Do not make any mistake about it; repentance is not a thing of days and weeks, a temporary penance to be got over as fast as possible! No; it is the grace of a lifetime, like faith itself. God’s little children repent, and so do the young men and the fathers. Repentance is the inseparable companion of faith.”
“Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance.”
“I take leave to contradict those who say that salvation is an evolution! All that ever can be evolved out of the sinful heart of man is sin-and nothing else! Salvation is the free gift of God, by Jesus Christ, and the work of it is supernatural. It is done by the Lord Himself, and He has power to do it, however weak, no, however dead in sin, the sinner may be!”
“Repentance must dig the foundations, but holiness shall erect the structure, and bring forth the top-stone. Repentance is the clearing away of the rubbish of the past temple of sin; holiness builds the new temple which the Lord our God shall inherit. Repentance and desires after holiness never can be separated.”
Sin
“If He had not known with certainty that He would be Master over sin and that out of evil would evolve the noblest display of His own glory, He would not have permitted it to enter the world.”
“Evil things are easy things: for they are natural to our fallen nature. Right things are rare flowers that need cultivation.”
“My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy.”
“No sin, whatever it is, shall ruin any man if he shall come to Christ for mercy. Though you are black as hell’s midnight through iniquity, yet if you will come to Christ, He is ready to cleanse you. It is sin, after all, that lies at the door and blocks your way to the Savior.”–1895,”
Soul Winning
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you’re not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
“Let eloquence be flung to the dogs rather than souls be lost. What we want is to win souls. They are not won by flowery speeches.”
“We are not responsible to God for the soul that are saved, but we are responsible for the Gospel that is preached, and for the way in which we preach it”
“How often have you and I helped to keep sinners easy in their sin, by our inconsistency! Had we been true Christians, the wicked man would often have been pricked to the heart, and his conscience would have convicted him.”
Worldliness
“If you give your soul up to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth, or the honours, or the pleasures of this world, you might as well hunt after the mirage of the desert or try to collect the mists of the morning, or to store up for yourself the clouds of the sky, for all these things are passing away.”
“Stale godliness is ungodliness. Let our religion be as warm, and constant, and natural as the flow of the blood in our veins. A living God must be served in a living way.”
“He who does not hate the false does not love the true; and he to whom it is all the same whether it be God’s word or man’s, is himself unrenewed at heart.”
“The more objects you set your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds.”
“There should be as much difference between the worldling and the Christian, as between hell and heaven, between destruction and eternal life.”
Wisdom
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.”
“Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.”
“An ounce of heart knowledge is worth more than a ton of head learning.”
“He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own.”
Comment:How can one serve GOD in truth and spirit