Charles Spurgeon Quotes
By Alan Reiner – July 17, 2024
‘It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘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.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘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.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘By perseverance the snail reached the ark.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that – it is spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Of two evils, choose neither.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘In the same way the sun never grows weary of shining, nor a stream of flowing, it is God’s nature to keep His promises. Therefore, go immediately to His throne and say, ‘Do as You promised.” – Charles Spurgeon
‘Grow in the root of all grace, which is faith. Believe God’s promises more firmly than ever. Allow your faith to increase in its fullness, firmness, and simplicity.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I think that is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘All the goodness I have within me is totally from the Lord alone. When I sin, it is from me and is done on my own, but when I act righteously, it is wholly and completely of God.’ – Charles Spurgeon
”You are no saint,’ says the devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink or swim, I go to Him; other hope, I have none.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Do you not realize that the love the Father bestowed on the perfect Christ He now bestows on you?’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We are in a wrong state of mind if we are not in a thankful state of mind.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Think not that humility is weakness; it shall supply the marrow of strength to thy bones. Stoop and conquer; bow thyself and become invincible.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God’s grace.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Young men, trust God, and make the future bright with blessing. Old men, trust God, and magnify him for all the mercies of the past.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A daily portion is really all we need. We do not need tomorrow’s supply, for that day has not yet dawned, and its needs are still unborn.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Nothing reflects so much honor on a workman as a trial of his work and its endurance of it. So it is with God. It honors Him when His saints preserve their integrity.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘What if others suffer shipwreck, yet none that sail with Jesus have ever been stranded yet.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Think of what you are, you Christians. You are God’s children; you are joint heirs with Christ. The ‘many mansions’ are for you; the palms and harps of the glorified are for you. You have a share in all that Christ has and is and shall be.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Fill the earth with your songs of gratitude.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Let not a libation of tears be the only offering at the shrine of Jesus; let us also rejoice with joy unspeakable. If we have need to lament our sin, how much more to rejoice at our pardon!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We cannot have communion with Christ till we are in union with Him; and we cannot have communion with the Church till we are in vital union with it.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Do I live as carelessly and worldly as unbelievers while professing to be a follower of Jesus? If so, I am exposing Christianity to ridicule and leading people to speak evil of the holy name by which I am called.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Purposes, plans, and achievements of men may all disappear like yon cloud upon the mountain’s summit; but, like the mountain itself, the things which are of God shall stand fast for ever and ever.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I desire to press forward for direction to my Master in all things; but as to trusting to my own obedience and righteousness, I should be worse than a fool and ten times worse than a madman.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘It is not well to make great changes in old age.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Lord Jesus, we come just as we are; this is how we came at first, and this is how we come still, with all our failures, with all our transgressions, with all and everything that is what it ought not to be, we come to Thee.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘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.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘None are more unjust in their judgments of others than those who have a high opinion of themselves.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘You will never exaggerate when you speak good things of God. It is not possible to do so. Try, dear brethren, and boast in the Lord.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A sinner can no more repent and believe without the Holy Spirit’s aid than he can create a world.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A dark cloud is no sign that the sun has lost his light; and dark black convictions are no arguments that God has laid aside His mercy.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There is no injustice in the grace of God. God is as just when He forgives a believer as when He casts a sinner into hell.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul’s husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s range of delight.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Giving is true having.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The first fresh hour of every morning should be dedicated to the Lord, whose mercy gladdens it with golden light.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word – prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We are all at times unconscious prophets.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Now I will say this to every sinner, though he should think himself to be the worst sinner who ever lived: cry to the Lord and seek Him while He may be found. A throne of grace is a place fitted for you. By simple faith, go to your Savior, for He is the throne of grace.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘In prayer, we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith?’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘O God, we praise Thee for keeping us till this day, and for the full assurance that Thou wilt never let us go.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘May we have communion with God in the secret of our hearts, and find Him to be to us as a little sanctuary.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘This thing comes to me, not by the hearing of the ear, but by my own personal experience: I know of a surety that Jesus manifests Himself unto His people as He doth not unto the world.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘No one knows who is listening, say nothing you would not wish put in the newspapers.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There is a power in God’s gospel beyond all description.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘To every soul that knows how to pray, to every soul that by faith comes to Jesus, the true mercy seat, divine sovereignty wears no dark and terrible aspect but is full of love.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We have communion with Christ in His thoughts, views, and purposes; for His thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and sanctity. Believers take the same view of matters as Jesus does; that which pleases Him pleases them, and that which grieves His grieves them also.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The exercise of benevolence is joy to loving hearts: the more pain it costs, the more joy it is. Kind actions make us happy, and in such joy we find communion with the great heart of Jesus.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There are many men who are forgotten, who are despised, and who are trampled on by their fellows, but there never was a man who was so despised as the everlasting God has been!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He should do; neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the method of the divine working.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘How sweet it is to learn the Savior’s love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Savior does not forsake us but still keeps us and holds us fast and clings to us and will not let us go!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We do not wish to enter Heaven until our work is done, for it would make us uneasy if there were one single soul left to be saved by our means.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I believe that some of us who were kept by God a long while before we found Him love Him better perhaps than we should have done if we had received Him directly, and we can preach better to others – we can speak more of His loving-kindness and tender mercy.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Occasionally, some brother sings very earnestly through his nose, often disturbing those around him, but it does not matter how the voice sounds to the ears of man. What is important is how the heart sounds to the ears of God.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Have we been going up and down in business, and are those round about us as yet unaware of our Christian character? Have we never spoken to them the Word of Life? Lord, arouse us to a deep concern for all with whom we come in contact from day to day.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There are some people who need to wear a label round their necks to show that they are Christians at all, or else we might mistake them for sinners, their actions are so like those of the ungodly.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘In spiritual things, it is God who performs all things for you. Rest in Him, then.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘As for our great King, when we venture into His presence, let us have a purpose there. Let us beware of playing at praying; it is insolence toward God.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Conversion is a change of masters. Will we not do as much for our new master, the Lord Jesus, as we did once for our old tyrant lusts?’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I tell you the groans of the damned in hell are the deep bass of the universal anthem of praise that shall ascend to the throne of my God for ever and ever.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘A man will speedily sit down and sympathize with a friend’s griefs, but if he sees him honored and esteemed, he is apt to regard him as a rival and does not so readily rejoice with him. This ought not to be; without effort, we ought to be happy in our brother’s happiness.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘All our actions, as well as our thoughts and words, should praise Him who always blesses us.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The roaring thunder of the law and the fear of the terror of judgment are both used to bring us to Christ, but the final victory culminating in our salvation is won through God’s loving-kindness.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Oh, this base heart of ours! Hath it not enough tinder in it to set on fire the course of nature? If a spark do but fall into it, any one of our members left to itself would dishonour Christ, deny the Lord that bought us, and turn back into perdition.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We object not to the narration of the deeds of our unregenerate condition, but to the mode in which it is too often done. Let sin have its monument, but let it be a heap of stones cast by the hands of execration – not a mausoleum erected by the hands of affection.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I groan daily under a body of sin and corruption. Oh for the time when I shall drop this flesh, and be free from sin!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The three most powerful and most apparent means used by Rome to retain her power over the minds of her votaries are Ignorance, Superstition, and Persecution.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The wounds of calumny, the reproaches of the proud, the venom of the bigoted, the treachery of the false, and the weakness of the true, we have known in our measure; and therein have had communion with our Lord Jesus.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘May we do good everywhere as we have opportunity, and results will not be wanting!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘To despise no opportunity of usefulness is a leading rule with those who are wise to win souls.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘When we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Behold, at this hour our moral history is being preserved for eternity. Processes are at work which will perpetuate our every act and word and thought.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘To feel not only submitted but willing to be anything or nothing as the Lord wills it – this is, in truth, to sing a song to our Well Beloved.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘O, Thou precious Lord Jesus Christ, we do adore Thee with all our hearts. Thou art Lord of all.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Oh, come, Divine Physician, and bind up every broken bone. Come with Thy sacred nard which Thou hast compounded of Thine own heart’s blood, and lay it home to the wounded conscience and let it feel its power. Oh! Give peace to those whose conscience is like the troubled sea which cannot rest.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘What an encouraging thought that Jesus – our beloved Husband – can find comfort in our lowly feeble gifts! Can this be, for it seems far too good to be true? May we then be willing to endure trials or even death itself if through these hardships we are assisted in bringing gladness to Immanuel’s heart.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘If in prayer I come before a throne of grace, the faults of my prayer will be overlooked.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘You and I, the people of God, have permission to come before the throne of Heaven at any time we will, and we are encouraged to come there with great boldness.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Lord sanctify us. Oh! That Thy spirit might come and saturate every faculty, subdue every passion, and use every power of our nature for obedience to God.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Men know not the gold which lies in the mine of Christ Jesus, or surely they would dig in it night and day. They have not yet discovered the pearl of great price, or they would have sold their all to buy the field wherein it lies.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The goose that lays the golden eggs likes to lay where there are eggs already.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I glory in the distinguishing grace of God and will not, by the grace of God, step one inch from my principles or think of adhering to the present fashionable sort of religion.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘We have lived long enough to experience the hollowness of earth and the rottenness of all carnal promises.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘I do think that a minister who can preach a sermon without addressing sinners does not know how to preach.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Oh, hour of forgiven sin, moment of perfect pardon, our soul shall never forget you while, within you, life and being find immortality!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The revealed Word awakened me, but it was the preached Word that saved me, and I must ever attach peculiar value to the hearing of the truth, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Has Jesus saved me? I dare not speak with any hesitation here; I know He has. His Word is true; therefore, I am saved.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Living animals are too eccentric in their movements, and the law of gravitation usually draws me from my seat upon them to a lower level; therefore, I am not an inveterate lover of horseback.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘My grandfather once ventured upon publishing a volume of hymns. I never heard anyone speak in their favour or argue that they ought to have been sung in the congregation. In that volume, he promised a second if the first should prove acceptable. We forgive him the first collection because he did not inflict another.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘As a child, when asked what I would be, I usually said I was going to be a huntsman. A fine profession, truly!’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Lord keep us all from sin. Teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘However weak we are, however poor, however little our faith, or however small our grace may be, our names are still written on His heart; nor shall we lose our share in Jesus’ love.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Time was when they that feared the Lord spake often to one another; I am afraid that now they more often speak one against another.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Knowing that the time to sleep has come, the Lord sleeps, and does well in sleeping. Often, when we have been fretting and worrying, we should have glorified God far more had we literally gone to sleep.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘He who has felt his own ruin will not imagine the case of any to be hopeless; nor will he think them too fallen to be worthy his regard.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘The astronomer will believe that the most erratic comet will yet accomplish its journey and revisit our sphere; but we give up those for lost who have not wandered one-half the distance from the centre of light and life.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘He incurs a fearful amount of guilt who in the least promotes the aim of the Evil One by trampling upon a tender conscience in a child.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘There is such a thing as ‘thanks-feeling’ – feeling thankful. This ought to be the general, universal spirit of the Christian.’ – Charles Spurgeon
‘Dear friends, we may well sing to our Beloved when it is near the time of our departure. It draws near, and as it approaches, we must not dread it, but rather thank God for it.’ – Charles Spurgeon