The sin of sins

In order that Jesus Christ, being appointed, should be fit for his office, it was necessary that he should become man. Man had sinned, and man must make reparation to the broken law. God would not accept an angel as a substitute, for the law had to do with man, and as the race had revolted, it must be through one of the race that God’s justice should be vindicated. But Jesus was God: how then could he become our Savior? Behold the mystery! God was manifest in the flesh. He descended to the manger of Bethlehem, he nestled in a woman’s bosom; for as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he himself also took part in the same. Sinner, behold your incarnate God, the Eternal one, dwells among dying men, veiled in their mortal flesh, that he may save men.

This is the greatest fact ever related in human ears. We hear it as a common thing, but the angels have never ceased to wonder since first they sang of it and charmed the listening shepherds. God has come down to man to lift man up to God. Surely it is the sin of sins if we reject a Savior who has made such a stoop in order to be perfectly qualified to save.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Savior You Need," delivered May 10, 1874. Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Receive correction when it comes to you

The Spirit of God often sends home the reproofs of Scripture to our hearts; while we are reading the word we feel that it searches us and rebukes us. So also the Lord will employ his ministers to chide us. Little is that ministry worth which never chides you. If God never uses his minister as a rod, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be both to your soul.

The Lord will also chide you through your own conscience, causing you to judge and condemn yourself. The Spirit of God will quicken your understanding, and then it will be said of you as of David, “David’s heart smote him.” It is hard hitting when the heart smites, for it comes to such close quarters, but blessed is that man who can thus be corrected: it is a sad sign when conscience is too dead to be of any service in this direction.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Lord Chiding his People," delivered May 3, 1874. Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The door to each man's heart

There is a door to each man’s heart, and we have to find it, and enter it with the right key, which is to be found somewhere or other in the word of God. All men are not to be reached in the same way, or by the same arguments, and as we are by all means to save some, we must be wise to win souls, wise with wisdom from above. We desire to see them conquered for Christ, but no warrior uses always the same strategy; there is for one open assault, another a siege, for a third an ambush, for a fourth a long campaign. On the sea there are great rams which run down the enemy, torpedoes under water, gunboats, and steam frigates; one ship is broken up by a single blow, another needs a broadside, a third must have a shot between wind and water, a fourth must be driven on shore, even thus must we adapt ourselves, and use the sacred force entrusted to us with grave consideration and solemn judgment, looking ever to the Lord for guidance and for power.

All the real power is in the Lord’s hands, and we must put ourselves fully at the disposal of the divine Worker, that he may work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure; so shall we by all means save some.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "By All Means Save Some," delivered April 26, 1874. Image by Sergio Lordao on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The fullness of God in Jesus Christ

Brethren, I am going to say nothing but what you all know, and I do not mean to garnish it with finery of words. The truth is that there are many who are barely Christians, and have scarcely enough grace to float them into heaven, the keel of their vessel grating on the gravel all the way; my prayer is that we may reach deep waters, and have so much grace that we may sail like a gallant bark on the broad ocean with a glorious cargo on board and all colors flying, so that there may be administered unto us an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this everything is provided. Christ has not merely placed enough bread on the table to keep us from starving, his oxen and fatlings are killed, he has spread a royal festival. He has not provided a scanty garment which may barely hide your nakedness, but he has brought forth the best robe, and has procured earrings for your ears jewels for your necks, and a crown royal for your heads; for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell for all his saints. If you have not these riches the fault lies with yourself. It is there, you might have it if you had but faith to take it.

Too often we sit down like beggars on the dunghill, and groan and cry because of the poverty of our nature when we ought to be rejoicing in the Lord. I thank God that we can groan, for that is something; but there is a more excellent way, a better gift to be earnestly coveted. In Christ ye are rich to the fullness of riches; get ye up, I pray you, to the high places, and realize for yourselves the fullness of God in Christ Jesus.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Fulness of Christ, The Treasury of the Saints," delivered April 19, 1874. Image by Geof Wilson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Remember what He was

His royal face was marred with “wounds which could not cease to bleed, trickling faint and slow,” yet that "noblest brow and dearest” had once been fairer than the children of men, and was even then the countenance of Immanuel, God with us. Remember these things, and you will gaze upon him with enlightened eyes and tender hearts, and you will be able the more fully to enter into fellowship with him in his griefs. Remember whence he came, and it will the more astound you that he should have stooped so low. Remember what he was, and it will be the more marvellous that he should become our substitute.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Crown of Thorns," delivered April 13, 1874. Image by Will Hale on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Preaching set on fire

The Holy Spirit is divine, and consequently he knows how to influence all kinds of men, and he can by the instrumentalities now in use reach just as many as he pleases. I recollect well when I first preached in London a remark made by a friend, which very greatly encouraged me at the time, and has proved true in my experience. When he heard that my little country chapel had been filled by the inhabitants of the village in which I had preached, he gave me hope of filling a far larger place in London: “For,” said he, “what will draw two hundred will draw two thousand, and what was useful to a few may be made just as useful to a multitude.” I saw at once that it was so.

When we are dealing with spiritual forces we have not to calculate by pounds and ounces, or by so many horse power. We have not to think of quantity. As an illustration: give me fire, I will not bargain for a furnace, give me but a single candle, and a city or a forest may soon be in a blaze. A spark is quite sufficient to begin with, for fire multiplies itself: So give us the truth, a single voice, and the Holy Spirit with it, and none can say where the sacred conflagration will end. One Jonah sufficed to subdue all Nineveh by one monotonous sentence oft repeated, and despite the weakness of our present instrumentality, if God does but bless the gospel, there is no reason why it should not speedily be felt by the whole of London.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Additions to the Church," delivered April 5, 1874. Image by Jan Tik on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Humbled by His mercies

And let us here remark that nothing humbles a man like the mercy of God. Unkind, ungenerous remarks do not humble the soul, they rather gender pride. Under the criticisms of unkindness a man who is a man finds all that is strong within him coming to the front, and, as in Job’s case, self-assertion straightway leads the van. Reproach and rebuke tend rather to make men proud than humble, love is the melting power. Nothing weighs a man down like a load of blessing. When you see God blotting out your sin, accounting you righteous in his sight, for Jesus’ sake, and saying to you, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee,” where is boasting then? It is excluded. Love shows boasting to the door, and bars its return.

Peter was ready enough to speak of what he had done, but in the presence of his loving Lord, when be saw his ship sinking through the plenteous draught of fishes, he knelt down and cried in deep humiliation, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Marrow and Fatness," delivered March 29, 1874. Image by Hamed Saber on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Let us not displease His heart

Cross, crabbed, morose natures do not please the Lord. Unkind husbands, fractious wives, rebellious children, and domineering parents are far from pleasing him. God cannot smile upon oppression, craftiness, greed, or the grinding of the poor. Neither is “covetousness, which is idolatry,” pleasing with God. He that is covetous, angers the great Giver of all good, whose liberal soul cannot endure churls and misers. The like is true of all worldliness; the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, these are things which God condemns; in them he hath no pleasure whatsoever.

O ye believers, I pray ye purge yourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and as for the deeds of darkness, have no fellowship with them, but rather reprove them. Come ye out from among them, be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing, and then will you please your heavenly Father.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Christian's Motto," delivered March 22, 1874. Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The business of the preacher

Let every unconverted person recollect that God knows what his excuse is for turning a deaf ear to the voice of a dying Savior’s love. You may not have spoken it to yourself so as to put it into words; you might not even dare to do so, lest your conscience should be too much startled: but God knows it all. He sees the hollowness, the folly, and the wickedness of your excuses. He is not deceived by your vain words, but makes short work with your apologies for delay. Remember the parables of our Lord, and note that when the man of one talent professed to think his master a hard man, he took him at his word, and out of his own mouth condemned him; and in the case of the invited guests who pleaded their farms and their merchandise as excuses, no weight was attached to what they said, but the sentence went forth, “None of these men that are bidden shall taste of my supper.” God knows the frivolity of your plea for delay, he knows that you yourself are doubtful about it, and dare not stand to it so as to give it anything like a solemn consideration. Very hard do you try to deceive yourself into an easy state of conscience concerning it, but in your inmost soul you are ashamed of your own falsehoods.

My business at this time is, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to deal with your consciences, and to convince you yet more thoroughly that delay is unjustifiable, for the gospel has present demands upon you, and you must not say, “The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Now, A Sermon For Young Men And Young Women," delivered March 19, 1874. Image by Andreas Levers on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The best news man ever heard

"Ye are brought with a price."

To every man of whom this may be said, it is the best news he ever heard. An angel sent from heaven could not bring to any man or woman here a more delightful message than this, “Thou art bought with a price, even with the precious blood of Christ.” “Ye are Christ’s,” says the apostle in the chapter we read to you (1 Corinthians 3.), and he seemed as if his heart glowed as he said it. He even made it the climax of a remarkable burst of eloquence. “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”

To be bought with a price is the grandest distinction of our manhood, and lifts us above angels themselves. It puts great honor upon the saints, even as the Lord has said, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable and I have loved thee."

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Redemption And Its Claims," delivered March 8, 1874. Image by Kevin Dooley on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He takes away the hunger of the heart

Faith saves us just as the mouth saves from hunger. If we be hungry, bread is the real cure for hunger, but still it would be right to say that eating removes hunger, seeing that the bread itself could not benefit us, unless the mouth should eat it. Faith is the soul’s mouth, whereby the hunger of the heart is removed. Christ also is the brazen serpent lifted up; all the healing virtue is in him; yet no healing virtue comes out of the brazen serpent to any who will not look; so that the looking is rightly considered to be the act which saves. True, in the deepest sense it is Christ uplifted who saves, to him be all the glory; but without looking to him ye cannot be saved, so that “There is life in a look,” as well as life in the Savior to whom you look. Nothing is yours until you appropriate it.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Saving Faith," delivered March 15, 1874. Image by Kevin Dooley on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

An offensive salvation

Pride is woven into man’s nature. The prodigal became a prodigal through his love of independence, he desired his own portion of goods to do as he liked with. After he became a prodigal his time was occupied with spending — he spent his money riotously; he loved to play the fine gentleman and spend. Even when the prodigal came to himself the old idea of paying was still to him, and he desired to be a hired servant, so that if he could not pay in money he would pay in labor.

We do not like to be saved by charity, and so to have no corner in which to sit and boast. We long to make provision for a little self-congratulation. You insult a moral man if you tell him that he must be saved in the same way as a thief or a murderer, yet this is no more than the truth. For a woman of purity to be told that the same grace which saved a Magdalene is necessary for her salvation is so humbling, that her indignation is roused, and yet it is the fact, for in every case salvation is “without money and without price.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Without Money And Without Price," delivered March 8, 1871. Image by paul bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Voice of the Spirit Himself

The law of God is not given to us to be laid by upon the shelf to be obeyed at some future period of life, and the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not so intended for the eleventh hour as to be lightly trifled with during the first ten. Wherever the Holy Ghost exhorts, he speaks in the present tense, and bids us now repent, or now believe, or now seek the Lord.

I pray you ever remember whenever you read the Bible, that it is the Spirit of the living God who there admonishes you to immediate obedience. The calls of the inspired word are not those of Moses, or David, or Paul, or Peter, but the solemn utterances of the Holy Ghost speaking through them. With what a dignity does this truth invest Holy Scripture, and with what solemnity does it surround our reading of it! Cavilling at Scripture, trifling with it, disputing its doctrines, or neglecting its admonitions, we grieve the Spirit of God; and this is very dangerous ground to trespass on, for although he is longsuffering and pitiful, yet remember it is of the sin against the Holy Ghost that it is said, “It shall never be forgiven.” Not every sin against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable; God be thanked for that; but still there is a sin against the Holy Spirit: which shall never be forgiven: therefore do we tread, I say, on very delicate ground when we vex him, as we do if at any time in reading his word we count his teachings to be light matters.

Beware, I say, ye men of England, who have your Bibles in your houses among whom the word of the Lord is common as wheaten bread, beware how ye treat it; for in rejecting it ye reject not alone the voice of apostles and prophets, but the voice of the Holy Spirit himself.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Entreaty of the Holy Ghost," delivered March 1, 1874. Image by nosha on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Our fondest connection

What if I have to rend some fond connection? Jesus, thou art better to me than husband, wife, or child. If it must be so that she who lies in my bosom shall count me for her enemy thou shalt be in my heart, my Savior, better than a Rachel, or a Rebekah. Yes, if it must be so that the father shall say, “You shall never darken my doors again if you follow Christ,” he must say it, for when father and mother forsake me the Lord will take me up. The immediate joy will recompense for the immediate loss, yea, doubtless you may count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord, and yet remain a gainer.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Counting The Cost," delivered February 22, 1874. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

My Lord and my God

And first, dear friends, we ought to say to Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” in reference to his divinity. How can we be saved if we do not? Jesus Christ of Nazareth is to us Lord and God. We do not hesitate to use the language of Thomas when he put his finger into the print of the nails, and to say to him, “My Lord and my God.” Let others say of him what they will, and make him to be a mere man, or a prophet, or a delegated God, such talk is nothing to the point with us; we believe him to be very God of very God, and worship him this day as he is enthroned in the highest heavens, believing him to be worthy of the adoration which is due to God alone....

Compromise must always be impossible where the truth is essential and fundamental. There are some points in which we may agree to differ, but these are points in which there can be no mutual concessions or tonings down of statement. Christ Jesus is either God or he is not, and if he be God, as we believe he is, then those who reject his deity cannot be true believers in him, and, therefore, must miss the benefits which he promises to those who receive him. I cannot conceive any man to be right in religion if he be not right in reference to the person of the Redeemer. “You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of him.” If you will not have him to be your God, neither will he save you. Let his abundant miracles, his divine teaching, his unique character, and his resurrection convince you that “the Word was God,” and is in all respects equally divine with the Father and the Spirit.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Sieve." Image by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Scepter Belongs To Christ

The scepter belongs to Christ. All sceptres belong to him. He will come by-and-by and verify his title to them. Have you not seen the picture that represents Nelson on board a French man-of-war, receiving the swords of the various captains he has conquered, while there stands an old tar at his side putting all these swords underneath his arm as they are brought up. I have often pictured to myself our great Commander, the only King by divine right, coming back to this our earth, and gathering up the sceptres of the kings in sheaves, and putting them on one side, and collecting their crowns; for he alone shall reign King of kings and Lord of lords.

When the last and greatest of all monarchs shall come a second time, “without a sin-offering unto salvation” — oh, the glory of his triumph! He has a right to reign. If ever there was a king by nature, and by birth, it is the Son of David; if ever there was one who would be elected to the monarchy by the suffrages* of all his subjects, it is Jesus.


* - i.e., the votes


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Shiloh." Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He neither slumbers nor sleeps

“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” 

....What a glorious title is in the Hebrew - “The keeper of Israel,” and how delightful to think that no form of unconsciousness ever steals over him, neither the deep slumber nor the lighter sleep. He will never suffer the house to be broken up by the silent thief; he is ever on the watch, and speedily perceives every intruder. This is a subject of wonder, a theme for attentive consideration, therefore the word “Behold” is set up as a waymark. Israel fell asleep, but his God was awake. Jacob had neither walls, nor curtains, nor body - guard around him; but the Lord was in that place though Jacob knew it not, and therefore the defenceless man was safe as in a castle.

From The Treasury of David, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 121:4. Image by Bert Kaufmann on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Not yet attained!

Any notion of our own attainments which could lead us for a moment to speak of what we are with any degree of complacency is only rubbish. For my own part, I desire constantly to stand at the foot of the cross, with no other testimony concerning myself than this-

“I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me.” 

Personal holiness is to be sought for with all our hearts, and it can only be obtained by faith in Jesus Christ — by simple faith in him. He gives us power to overcome sin through his precious blood; but, depend upon it, the moment we conclude that we have overcome, and can say what Paul could not say — that he had attained and was already perfect — we are in an evil case. Our pride has overpowered our judgment, and we are fools. 

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Rubbish." Image by Bert Kaufmann on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The artistry of simple prayers

The great painter will tell you that he mixes his brains with his colors; and when he takes his brush and dips it into the paint, he lays it on with his soul. In a great picture, such as sometimes we have seen by a Titiens, or a Raphael, it is not the color but the man’s heart that has got out on to the canvas. Somehow he has managed to drop his brush into his soul. That is real painting.

And so it is with prayer. The humblest man that prays to God with his soul understands the fine art of prayer; but the man who chants a pompous liturgy, or repeats an extemporaneous effusion, has not prayed. He has dashed off what he thinks to be a picture, but it is not a picture, it is not a prayer. Had it been a prayer it would have had a palpable inspiration in its light and shade. A painting may consist of few lines, but you will see the painter’s hand in it; and a prayer may consist of only half a dozen words, but you can see the hand of God in it.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Chariots of Ammi-Nadib." Image by willgame on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The best policy in the long run

Act on the outset as a Christian should. What if employers should frown, or customers be vexed, or friends fail? Bear it! It will be the best policy in the long run. That is not, however, for you to consider. Do the right thing, whatever happens. Let us be as Daniel. Oh that the young among you would emulate the purpose of heart with which Daniel began life! Oh that the active and vigorous among you would seek with Daniel’s constant prayerfulness for that high gift of wisdom equal to all emergencies with which God so richly endowed him!

And, oh, that the harassed, tempted, and persecuted among you would learn to keep a clean conscience in the midst of impurities, as Daniel did; to preserve, like him, faith and fellowship with the faithful and true God, though living among strangers and foreigners, profane in all their thoughts and habits; and to hold the statutes and commandments of the Lord as more to be desired than wealth or honor — yea, dearer to you, as Daniel accounted them, than even life itself! So shall you honor God, and glorify Christ, and bless and praise his precious name in a way in which nothing else but decision of character can possibly lead you to do. God grant us all to have Christ for a Savior, and to live to his praise. Amen.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Daniel Facing the Lions' Den." Image by Geof Wilson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A man like me

On him the shower pelted down, and wetted his garments; and on him the burning sun poured forth its undiminished heat. Upon his sacred person on the lone mountain-side, the dews descended till his head was wet with them, and his locks with the drops of the night. For him there were poverty, and hunger, and thirst, reproach, slanders and treachery. For him the sea tossed the barque as it will for you; and for him the land yielded thorn and thistle, as it does to you. He suffered, he ate, he toiled, he rested, he wept, and he rejoiced, even as you do, sin alone excepted. A real kinsman was he, not in fiction, but in substantial reality.

Are you man? Jesus was a man. Do not doubt it. Do not look at your Lord as standing up there on a pinnacle of superior nature, where you cannot come near him, but view him as your own flesh and blood, “a brother born for adversity.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Matchless Mystery," delivered. Image by Geof Wilson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Only one perfect vessel

I find that the holiest of men in Scripture had their imperfections, with the sole exception of our Master, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, in whom was no sin. His garments were whiter than any fuller could make them, but all his servants had their spots. He is light, and in him is no darkness at all, but we, with all the brightness his grace has given us, are poor dim lamps at best. I make no exception even of those who claim perfection, for I have no more faith in their perfection than in the Pope’s infallibility. There is enough of the earthen vessel left about the best of the Lord’s servants to show that they are earthen, and that the excellency of the heavenly treasure of divine grace which is put within them may be clearly seen to be of God and not of them.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Lesson From the Life of King Asa." Image by  Geof Wilson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The heralds of blessing

In the Christian church at this moment there is a very general desire for a revival of religion. You may go where you may among Christian people, and you will find that they are mourning over the present, state of things, and saying the one to the other, “When will a greater blessing come? How can we obtain it? When shall we make some impression upon the masses of the ungodly? When shall our houses of prayer be filled with attentive hearers? When will the Lord’s kingdom come, and his right arm be made bare in the eyes of all the people?“

I am delighted to hear the inquiry; my soul magnifies the Lord as I discern tokens of growing anxiety about the cause and kingdom of Jesus and the perishing sons of men. This is an omen of better times. "As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Searchings of heart, anguish, groanings which cannot be uttered, and abounding intercession, are the heralds of blessing; they are that sound in the tops of the mulberry trees which calls upon believers to bestir themselves in hope of victory.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Revival Promise," delivered January 11, 1874. Image by John on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The princes of the earth shall serve Him

The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted. (Psalm 47:9)

“The princes of the people are gathered together.” 

The prophetic eye of the Psalmist sees the willing subjects of the great King assembled to celebrate his glory. Not only the poor and the men of low estate are there, but nobles bow their willing necks to his sway.

“All kings shall bow down before him.” 

No people shall be unrepresented; their great men shall be good men, their royal ones regenerate ones. How august will be the parliament where the Lord Jesus shall open the court, and princes shall rise up to do him honour!

“Even the people of the God of Abraham.” 

That same God, who was known only to here and there a patriarch like the father of the faithful, shall be adored by a seed as many as the stars of heaven. The covenant promise shall be fulfilled, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Shiloh shall come, and “to him shall the gathering of the people be.” Babel's dispersion shall be obliterated by the gathering arm of the Great Shepherd King.


From The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 47. Image by Christopher Harriot  on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

When churches are revived

When churches are revived, what life there is in them, and then what singing! Never comes a revival of religion without a revival of singing. As soon as Luther’s Reformation comes, the Psalms are translated and sung in all languages; and when Whitfield and Wesley are preaching, then Charles Wesley and Toplady must be making hymns for the people to sing, for they must show their joy, a joy born of life.

When the Lord gives you, dear friend, more life, you also will have more joy. You will no more go moping about the house, or be thought melancholy and dull when the Lord gives you life more abundantly. I should not wonder but what you will get into the habit of singing at your work, and humming over tunes in your walks. I should not wonder if persons ask, “What makes So-and-so so happy? what makes his eyes twinkle as with some strange delight? He is poor, he is sick, but how blissful he appears to be!” This will be seen, brother, when you not only have life, but when you have it more abundantly.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Life More Abundant," delivered January 4, 1874. Image by SF Brit on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Sprinkled afresh

When Christ is with us we are safe, for what wolf can rend a sheep when it is close to the shepherd’s hand? When we are away from Jesus, we are not only in peril, but are already despoiled; to lose fellowship with Jesus is loss enough in itself, even if no further calamity occur. Ships without a pilot, cities without watchmen, babes without a nurse, are we without Jesus. We cannot do without him, the less we attempt it the better. Samson without his locks is the sad type of a believer out of fellowship.

How dare we go forth to business on any one day without the presence of the Lord? As well might the warrior go to battle without shield and buckler. Should we not daily pray, “If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence”? How can we go to our beds till he has kissed us with the kisses of his mouth? May not even the dreams and visions of the night prove our bane if our souls be not committed to his keeping? For my part, I love to murmur to myself, as I place my head on my pillow, those charming lines —

“Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood,
I lay me down to rest,
As in th’ embraces of my God,
Or on my Savior’s breast.”


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "My Restorer," delivered December 28, 1873. Image by Lali Masriera on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

We need fellowship with Jesus

The fittest condition of a believer is in communion with Christ. It ought not to be a privilege occasionally enjoyed, it should be the everyday life of the soul. We are to abide in Jesus, walk with him, and live in him. Paul did not say, “For me to specially rejoice is Christ, or for me to feast on holydays is Christ;” but, “For me to live is Christ.” Christ is the ordinary bread of the common meal as well as the fat things full of marrow for the banquet; he is water from the rock as well as wine on the lees well refined. To us his name is the watchword of earth as we expect it to be our passport into heaven. We need fellowship with Jesus not as a luxury for redletter days and Sabbaths, but as the necessary provision of every work day of our lives. “Abide in me” is his word to us for all seasons, and we ought to strive to realize it: so that always, by night and by day, on the Sabbath and equally on the week days, in our joys and in our cares, we should abide in him.

Christ is not merely a harbour of refuge, but a port for all weathers. Do not think, beloved, that I am setting up too high a standard when I say this. I am so sure I am not that I will repeat what I have said — the proper condition of a child of God at all times is that he should sit with Mary at the Master’s feet, or with John should lean his head upon the beloved Redeemer’s bosom.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "My Restorer," delivered December 28, 1873. Image by Nic McPhee on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Before the Night Watches

"Mine eyes prevent the night watches.”

Or rather, the watches. Before the watchman cried the hour, he was crying to God. He did not need to be informed as to how the hours were flying, for every hour his heart was flying towards heaven. He began the day with prayer, and he continued in prayer through the watches of the day, and the watches of the night. The soldiers changed guard, but David did not change his holy occupation. Specially, however, at night did he keep his eyes open, and drive away sleep, that he might maintain communion with his God. He worshipped on from watch to watch as travellers journey from stage to stage.

“That I might meditate in thy word.”

This had become meat and drink to him. Meditation was the food of his hope, and the solace of his sorrow: the one theme upon which his thoughts ran was that blessed “word” which he continually mentions, and in which his heart rejoices. He preferred study to slumber; and he learned to forego his necessary sleep for much more necessary devotion. It is instructive to find meditation so constantly connected with fervent prayer, it is the fuel which sustains the flame. How rare an article is it in these days.

From The Treasury of David, exposition of Psalm 119:148 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The great means of spreading the Gospel

The holiness of Christians is the great means of spreading the gospel. Beyond all other missions I commend the mission of holiness. They preach best for Christ who preach at the fireside, who preach in the shop, whose lives are sermons, who are themselves priests unto God, whose garments are vestments, and whose ordinary meals are sacraments. Give us a holy, consecrated people, and we will win, for these are the omnipotent legions with which the world shall be conquered to Christ. We joy in a holy people because they bring glory to God. Mere professors* do not so; inconsistent professors dishonor God, of whom I tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. A people walking in truth crown the head of Jesus. They compel even blasphemers to hold their tongues, for when they see these holy men and women, they cannot say anything against the gospel which has produced such characters.

Beloved, if you love your pastor, if you love the Bible, if you love the gospel, if you love Christ, if you love God, be a holy people. You who profess to be saved, be true, be watchful. If you would not grieve us, if you would not dishonor the gospel, if you would not crucify Christ afresh, and put him to an open shame, walk as Christ would have you walk; abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be in your speech and in your temper, in your business transactions with your fellow-men, and in your communications in the family circle, men approved of God, such as you will wish to have been when your Lord shall come, for he is at the door, and blessed are those servants who are ready for his coming.

* - in the sense of those who profess Christ 

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Parent's and Pastor's Joy," delivered December 21, 1873. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

If our children lose the crown

Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art. Many who ought to know better think themselves superlatively blessed in their children if they become rich, if they marry well, if they strike out into profitable enterprises in trade, or if they attain eminence in the profession which they have espoused. Their parents will go to their beds rejoicing, and awake perfectly satisfied, though their boys are hastening down to hell, if they are also making money by the bushel. They have no greater joy than that their children are having their portion in this life, and laying up treasure where rust corrupts it. Though neither their sons nor daughters show my signs of the new birth, give no evidence of being rich towards God, manifest no traces of electing love or redeeming grace, or the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, yet there are parents who are content with their condition.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Parent's and Pastor's Joy," delivered December 21, 1873. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The power of His gentle goodness

As he shunned popularity, so he made no use of the carnal force which lay ready to his hand. No doubt the priests and scribes were sometimes afraid to oppose him, for fear of the people; but they had no need to fear that he would shelter behind the populace. He asked neither the rich nor the strong nor the many to protect him, but felt quite secure till his hour was come. He spake openly before them, unguarded by his friends, and with neither weapon nor armor of defense. He never appealed to human passions, or egged on the people against the tyrants of the hour. No sentence of his can be construed into a desire to meet force by force. One of his followers, who loved him much, said, “Let us call fire from heaven upon these Samaritans;” but he said, “Ye know not what spirit ye are of.”

In the garden of Gethsemane he might have summoned legions of angels to the rescue, but he agonized alone. Not a single seraph came from the throne to drive away the son of perdition, or the bloodthirsty priests. No destroying angel smote the men who spat in his face, no devouring flame burned up those who scourged him. The force of his life was the omnipotence of gentle goodness. He did not lay the weight of his little finger upon the minds of men to compel them to involuntary subjection; his conquests were such as led men in willing captivity.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Gentleness of Jesus," delivered December 14, 1873. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He did not strive or cry

Jesus never became a party leader; he was no place-hunter or demagogue. There arose many in his day who claimed to be great ones, and drew much people after them by the pretence that they were the promised deliverers; and by-and-by their clamours created strife, for the troops of the Romans were after them, and tumult and bloodshed were the lamentable sequel. Never did our Lord bid his servants fight, for his kingdom was of another order. When, for once in his life, he rode in state as a king through the streets of Jerusalem, the shouting has only that of children, who said “Hosanna” in the temple, and of a willing, peaceful company of disciples, whose only weapons were palm branches and boughs of the trees. No war horse did he ride, he chose the lowly ass. As compared with those who clamoured for place and power, he was like a dumb man all his days, though able to have awed or charmed the multitude to do his bidding. He loved the lone mountain’s side better than the throng of the crowd. He could not help being popular; such a speaker as he was must needs attract his thousands, for “Never man spake like this man.”

And such a miracle-worker as he was, how could it be but that the people would follow to witness his wonders and eat of his loaves and fishes? And such a generous spirit, so noble, and so free-hearted, it was little marvel that the people would have made him a king; but he tore himself away: they sought him and found him not. He came to endure, not to enjoy; to be despised, and not to be crowned. How often did he escape the congratulating crowds! He took ship and passed over to the other side; rough waters were more to his mind than hot-brained mobs of transient admirers, who could be bought by bread and fish. His design was not to be the idol of the populace, but to break their idols and lead back their hearts to God. Hence he did not strive nor cry, nor run in the world’s race, nor battle in her wars.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Gentleness Of Jesus," delivered December 14, 1873. Image by Torsten on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Cry to the Lord

Men, and women, and children, when in trouble, cry without a book; and so when a man really wants the Savior, he does not require book-prayers. Never say, “Oh, I cannot pray!” My dear friend, can you cry? You want to be saved; tell the Lord that. If you cannot say it in words, tell it with your tears, your groans, your sighs, your sobs. Prayer, like crying, is a natural utterance, and an utterance available on all occasions. As sure as a child is in trouble, it can cry without putting on its best frock; and so can we without gowns and copes and surplices. No child needs to be educated in Greek and Latin in order to know how to cry, neither is learning needed in order to effectual prayer. God teaches all his little ones to pray as soon as they are born; they have but to confess their sins, and plead their necessities, and they do really pray. Never is a child in such a bad plight that it cannot cry. It never says, “Mother, it is so dark I cannot see to cry;” no, no, the child cries in the dark. And are you in the dark, and in terrible doubt and trouble? Then cry away, my dear friend, cry away, cry away; your Father will hear and deliver you.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Consolation For The Despairing," delivered December 7, 1873. Image by visualpanic on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Sure method of salvation

Now, the greatest matter of concern for any one of us is the eternal salvation of our soul. We need to be saved, and, according to the Scriptures of truth, there is but one way of salvation; but that way does not happen to be in favor among the sons of men. The great popular principle, popular all over the world, no matter whether the people happen to be Protestant or Catholic, Parsee or Mahomedan, Brahminist or Buddhist, is self-salvation — they would reach eternal life by merit. There are differences about what is to be done, but the great universal principle of unregenerate man is that he is, somehow or other, to save himself. This is his principle, and the further he goes in it the less likely is he to be saved.

My object this morning is to bring before you the much despised principle which God has revealed as the only true one, namely, salvation by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, by simple faith in him. We preach, at God’s command, the way of salvation by mercy, not by merit; by faith, not by works; by grace, not by the efforts of men. May God help us so to set forth that principle, that many may accept it. I do not care one snap of my finger about preaching so that the style shall please the ear, but I long to reach your hearts. I want you to receive the only sure method of salvation, and I pray the Holy Ghost to baptise my words in his own mighty fire, and make them to burn their way into your hearts, and subdue you to the obedience of faith.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Great Jail And How To Get Out Of It," delivered November 30, 1873. Image by visualpanic on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

You have been my help!

...I beg you, do not, for the glory of God and for the comfort of tried saints, keep back your testimony, but say, “I was brought low, and he helped me, and, therefore, blessed be his name.” We do not talk enough about our deliverances. When you get home this afternoon, after dinner, if a friend or two should call in, you will go over your bad times and your troubles, but you will not recapitulate your mercies. Have we not had enough of complaining? let us touch another string, and bless the Lord for all his lovingkindness.

 What a tale some of us could tell of his mercies! No novel that was ever composed could possibly equal in interest my own experience of God’s goodness, and I think there are many here of whose lives the same could be said. Rich with incident, crowded with wonders, crammed full of miracles have our lives been, for God has dealt so well with us that we often stand astonished at what he has done. “Thou hast been my help.” Oh, yes, I will sum up the whole of my life in the one sentence, and, as we have seen a portrait sketched in a few lines, so will I give you my whole career in miniature: “Thou hast been my help.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Mighty Plea," delivered November 23, 1873. Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Not merely like a man, but man indeed

Less than God could not have borne your sin so as to put it away; but the infinitely glorious Son of God did actually stoop to become a sin-bearer. I wonder how I can talk of it as I do.

 It is a truth scarcely to be declared in words. It wants flame and blood and tears with which to tell this story of an offended God, the Heaven-Maker and the Earth-Creator, stooping from his glory that he might save the reptiles which had dared to insult his honor and to rebel against his glory; and, becoming one of them, to suffer for them, that without violation of his law he might have pity upon the offending things — things so inconsiderable that if he had stamped them all out, as men burn a nest of wasps, there had been no loss to the universe. But he had pity on them, and became one of them, and bare their sins. Oh, love ye him; adore ye him; let your souls climb up to the right hand of the majesty above, this morning, and there bow down in lowliest reverence and adoring affection, that he, the God over all, whom you had offended, should his own self bear our sins.

Though thus God over all, he became a man like unto ourselves; a body was prepared for him, and that body, mark you, not prepared alone, and made like to man but not of man. No, he was not otherwise fashioned than ourselves, he came into the world as we also come, born of a woman, a child of a mother, to hang upon a woman’s breast; not merely like to man, but man, born in the pedigree of manhood, and so bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, yet without a taint of sin. And he, in that double nature but united person, was Jesus, Son of God and Son of the Virgin; he it was who “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Death For Sin, And Death To Sin," delivered November 16, 1873. Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Let us talk about the best things

There is no preaching the gospel if the atonement be left out. No matter how well we speak of Jesus as a pattern, we have done nothing unless we point him out as the substitute and sinbearer. We must, in fact, continually imitate the apostle, and speak plainly of him “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” It is to Christ, then, this morning as the sin-bearer that I am about to direct your attention. It may not be many times longer that I may have the opportunity to preach the gospel, for bodily pain reminds me of my mortality. How soon are the hale and the strong, as well as the sickly, carried off! and so many during the last few days whom we knew have been borne from among us to the silent tomb, that we are reminded how feeble our life is, how short our time for service.

 Let us, then, brethren, deal always with the best things, and attend to the most necessary works while yet our little oil suffices to feed the lamp of life. Rising newly from a sick bed, I have felt that if any theme in the Scriptures has an importance far above all the rest, it is the subject of the atoning blood, and I have resolved to repeat that old, old story again and again.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Death For Sin And Death To Sin," delivered November 16, 1873. Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He came on another errand

...men know and prize divine mercy most when they most feel the weight of their sins. Until a man is consciously condemned and pleads guilty, he will not ask for mercy, and if mercy were to come to him, he would treat it with disdain. He would look upon the offer of forgiveness as an insult, for what better would it be than an insult to pardon an innocent man? As well send medicine to a man who was never sick, or alms to a millionaire. We must be proven guilty, and confess it, before we can be forgiven. We must know that we are sick, and we must distinctly recognize that our sickness is a mortal disease, or else we shall never value the divine medicine which Jesus came to bring.

A sense of sin, although it be exceedingly painful, is a most-blessed thing, and I pray God, if you have never felt how guilty you are, that you may be made to feel it at once. If you have never been broken down before the awful majesty of divine justice, may the Holy Spirit break you down now; for Jesus will never clothe those who are not stripped, he will never wash those who are not foul, nor will he attempt to heal those who are not wounded. Others may spend their strength in flattering human goodness, the Lord Jesus has come on another errand, and deals only with our sin and misery. If you are not poverty-stricken, you will have no dealings with the blessed soul-enriching Savior.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Free Pardon." Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Gulf is Bridged

Beloved, many are a long while in distress of soul, because they do not remember that there is a Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. God is thus glorious, but he is not far from any of us; for there is one who is God, and at the same time a man like ourselves, even Jesus, who has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way. Cease ye then to fear, for the gulf is bridged. You may approach the Lord, for Jesus has paved the way.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Good News For The Destitute," delivered November 9, 1873. Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

After your present career ends...

You will live somewhere or other after your present career is closed. Does it not stand to reason that if you have lived entirely for self there must be a reckoning with you? Somebody made you! God made you! If you keep a horse or a cow you expect some service of it, and, if God made you, he must expect you to render him some service. But you have rendered him none. Though he has winked at your disobedience in this life, do you think he will always wink at it? Well, if you do think so, you are grossly mistaken: for, as the Lord liveth, there is a day of judgment coming, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout, and all the dead shall rise out of their graves, and all the living shall appear before his great white throne.

You will as certainly be there as you are here. And when you are there, you will discover that every secret thought of yours has been written down against you, and will be read out and published before mankind, and there and then for every idle word you have spoken you will be brought into judgment. Can you think of this as possible, even though you may not admit that it is certain, and can you yet remain callous, indifferent, unconcerned? Is there not a something in your heart that says, “If this be so, it is terrible — it is terrible for me! What must I do to be saved? “I am bound to answer you (and cheerfully do I answer you), “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Let Him Alone." Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The minister needs the prayers of the flock

The members of the body of Christ should have a care for one another, but especially should the minister receive the prayers of his flock. I have sometimes heard his duties called arduous, but that word is not expressive enough. The works in which he is occupied lie quite out of the region of human power. The minister is sent to be God’s messenger for the quickening of the dead. What can he do in it? He can do nothing whatever unless the Spirit of God be with him through the prayer of his brethren.

He is sent to bring spiritual food to the multitude, that is to say, he is to take the loaves and fishes, and with them, few as they are, he is to feed the thousands. An impossible commission! He cannot perform it. Apart from divine help, the enterprise of a Christian minister is only worthy of ridicule. Apart from the power of the Eternal Spirit, the things which the preacher has to do are as much beyond him as though he had to weld the sun and moon into one, light up new stars, or turn the Sahara into a garden of flowers. We have a work to do concerning which we often cry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” and if we be put to this work but have not your prayers, and in consequence have not the supply of the Spirit, we are of all men the most miserable.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Minister's Plea," delivered November 2, 1873. Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Giving God the morning

Let us give the Lord the bud of the day, its virgin beauty, its unsullied purity. Say what you will about the evening, and there are many points about it which make it an admirable season for devotion, yet the morning is the choice time. Is it not a queenly hour? See how it is adorned with diamonds more pure than those which flash in the crowns of eastern potentates. The old proverb declares that they who would be rich must rise early; surely those who would be rich towards God must do so. No dews fall in the middle of the day, and it is hard to keep up the dew and freshness of one’s spirit in the worry, and care, and turmoil of midday; but in the morning the dew should fail upon our fleece till it is filled therewith; and it is well to wring it out before the Lord, and give him our morning’s vigor, our morning’s freshness and unction.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Morning And Evening Songs." Image by Ernst Vikne on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Trifling with Divine Truth

There are some truths which must be believed, they are essential to salvation, and if not heartily accepted the soul will be ruined.... Now, in those days the saints did not say, as the sham saints do now, “We must be largely charitable, and leave this brother to his own opinion; he sees truth from a different standpoint, and has a rather different way of putting it, but his opinions are as good as our own, and we must not say that he is in error.” That is at present the fashionable way of trifling with divine truth, and making things pleasant all round. Thus the gospel is debased and another gospel propagated....

It was not in this way that the apostles regarded error. They did not prescribe large-hearted charity towards falsehood, or hold up the errorist as a man of deep thought, whose views were “refreshingly original;” far less did they utter some wicked nonsense about the probability of there being more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds. They did not believe in justification by doubting, as our neologians do; they set about the conversion of the erring brother; they treated him as a person who needed conversion, and viewed him as a man who, if he were not converted, would suffer the death of his soul, and be covered with a multitude of sins. They were not such easy-going people as our cultured friends of the school of “modern thought,” who have learned at last that the deity of Christ may be denied, the work of the Holy Spirit ignored, the inspiration of Scripture rejected, the atonement disbelieved, and regeneration dispensed with, and yet the man who does all this may be as good a Christian as the most devout believer!

O God, deliver us from this deceitful infidelity, which while it does damage to the erring man, and often prevents his being reclaimed, does yet more mischief to our own hearts by teaching us that truth is unimportant, and falsehood a trifle, and so destroys our allegiance to the God of truth, and makes us traitors instead of loyal subjects to the King of kings.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "To Sabbath-School Teachers And Other Soulwinners," delivered October 19, 1873. Image by Greg on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A future state for believers

...Paul... was convinced that there is a future state for believers, he was quite sure about it, and he believed it to be a future conscious state, which commenced the moment they died, and was beyond measure full of blessedness.

He did not believe in purgatorial fires through which believers’ souls must pass; much less did he believe the modern and detestable heresy which some have broached, that like the body the soul of the saint dies until the resurrection; but he was wont to speak of being “absent from the body and present with the Lord,” and here he speaks about departing not to sleep or to lie in the cold shade of oblivion till the trumpet should arouse him, but to depart and immediately to be with Christ, which is far better.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "For Ever With The Lord," delivered October 12, 1873. Image by mike138 on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The plain preaching of Christ crucified

I once heard a sermon, most philosophic and metaphysical, which was prefaced by a prayer that God would convert sinners by it, a prayer which seemed a sarcasm upon the discourse.

We have had enough of intellectualism and oratorical polish, let them both be thrown out of window, as Jezebel was, with her painted cheeks, and let something better take their place — even the plain preaching of Christ crucified.

Since there is such infidelity abroad, is it not time for Christians to rise above the atmosphere of doubt, and walk in the light of God?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Signs of the Times," delivered October 5, 1873. Image by mike138 on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Wherever the Gospel is preached

Wherever the true gospel is preached it promotes holiness, and in so doing acts according to its nature, creating its like. There is not a doctrine of the gospel which is not according to godliness, none of its blessings make provision for the flesh, none of its precepts encourage sin, none of its promises wink at iniquity. The spirit of the gospel is the spirit of holiness always; it wages determined war against the lustings of the flesh, and consequently the gospel is abhorred by the unclean. It lays the axe at the root of sin, and like a fire devours all evil.

As for the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is he not immaculate holiness? If you would see holiness embodied, where can you look but to the person of our well-beloved Master? Where are his imperfections? Can you find a flaw either in his language or in his actions, in himself or in the spirit that moved him? Is he not altogether perfect?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Paved With Love," delivered September 28, 1873. Image by on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

In the flesh or in the Spirit

We are either in the flesh or in the Spirit. Every man is born in the flesh, and if let alone he will follow the desires and devices of his fleshly nature, as every unregenerate man does. Some follow their fleshly nature coarsely, and run into vice; others follow it in a more refined manner, and live to gain wealth, to gratify taste, or to gain the approbation of their fellow men, all which is of the flesh. Now, there is another state, and that is called being in the Spirit; into this condition we are admitted by the new birth.

When a man walks in the Spirit he recognizes something higher than that which can be touched by the hand, and seen with the eye, and heard with the ear. He has entered into a new world, and is a citizen of a spiritual realm. He has come where God is real to him, where Christ is real to him, where truth is real, where sin is hateful, where holiness is lovely to him. Judge you, my brethren, whether you know anything concerning this.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Fatal Deficiency," delivered September 21, 1873. Image by mike138 on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Let not beginners be discouraged

The gospel seed, according to the parable, falls upon all kinds of soil. Some of its precious grains drop upon the hard pathway, some upon the rock, some amongst the thorns, and only a portion, perhaps a smaller proportion than one in four, falls upon good ground, in which it finds a congenial abiding-place. The preacher, therefore, will not meet with unmixed success in all directions. He may look for a full recompense from his work as a whole, but he must not fondly suppose that everywhere the good word will become effectual; for in many it will be a savor of death unto death, and not of life unto life.

Even when Jesus preached but few received him, and of Paul’s ministry it is recorded that “some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.” It is for the beginner in holy service to go forward with reasonable expectations, lest he should ere long weary of the work and leave it because of his bitter disappointments.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Seed Upon Stony Ground," delivered September 14, 1873. Image by Digital Wallpapers on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Does sin trouble you?

Does sin trouble you? Then remember that it is written, “All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” Remember this again, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” And hear yet again this word, “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Do you know, I feel right happy to have to talk to you about this, and yet I feel a dart going through me lest I should not speak of it as I ought to do; for, Oh, I would that poor troubled sinners would see that sin need not deter them from coming to a reconciled God. The blood of Jesus Christ has already removed from before the throne of justice all the transgressions of all those who come and rest in Jesus. If you believe in the Savior sent of God, your sin is already gone, and you are accepted in the Beloved.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Clearing The Road To Heaven." Image by Leo-setä on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A Revival In Your Own Souls

The Spirit of God in the church is the standing miracle which proves that she is of God. Were the Spirit of God gone from her it would be impossible for the church to hold her ground, but the Holy Ghost abiding in the church, is the testimony of God to his church and the strength of her testimony for her God.

Beloved, if the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and rest on you continually, you will sweetly tell of your Lord’s grace, and of his dying love. The right words will come, for it shall be often given you in the same hour what you shall speak. The right emotions will attend the words, for the Spirit of God creates tenderness and pity. The ice will melt in your spirit, the hard frosts of your long backsliding winter will yield to the returning sun of righteousness, the season of cold and death shall be over and gone, and the time of the singing of birds shall have come to your soul. Then will you be able to teach transgressors God’s ways. O brethren, pray for a revival in your own souls. Beseech the Holy Spirit to come upon you; entreat the Lord to send the breath from the four winds, not only upon the dry bones, but also upon the men who have to prophesy in the valley of the dead.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Christian's Great Business," delivered September 7, 1873. Image by L Lemos on Flickr under Creative Commons License.