Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) is one of the most influential preachers of the last several centuries and served at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London preaching lively and compelling sermons.
He began preaching at the age of sixteen and became pastor two years later at eighteen, preaching well over 600 sermons before the age of twenty. His sermons and writing are known for pithy and powerful explanations of biblical truth. It is estimated that before his death, Spurgeon preached to over 10,000,000 people. His words are preserved in his thousands of sermons, many biblical commentaries, and books including:
Below are some of the best C.H. Spurgeon quotes separated by topic and focusing on God, the person and work of Jesus Christ, grace, the gospel and evangelism, and more.
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Have your heart right with Christ, and he will visit you often, and so turn weekdays into Sundays, meals into sacraments, homes into temples, and earth into heaven.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“God helps those who cannot help themselves.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“When your will is God’s will, you will have your will.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“O child of God, be more careful to keep the way of the Lord, more concentrated in the heart in seeking His glory, and you will see the loving-kindness and the tender mercy of the Lord in your life.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I bear my testimony that there is no joy to be found in all this world like that of sweet communion with Christ. I would barter all else there is of heaven for that. Indeed, that is heaven. As for the harps of gold and the streets like clear glass and the songs of seraphs and the shouts of the redeemed, one could very well give all these up, counting them as a drop in a bucket, if we might forever live in fellowship and communion with Jesus.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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!” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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 is something He must be everything, and if He is not everything He is nothing to you.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Remember that the Lord Jesus came to take away sin in three ways; He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and, at last, the presence of sin.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“It was the mighty power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him by which Jesus overcame the world–and that same quiet power, if it dwells in us, will make us win the same victory by faith.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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. ” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Jesus! it is the name that moves the harps of heaven to melody. Jesus! the life of all our joys. If there be one name more charming, more precious than another, it is this name. It is woven into the very warp and woof of our psalmody. Many of our hymns begin with it, and scarcely any, that are good for anything, end without it. It is the sum total of all delights. It is the music with which the bells of heaven ring; a song in a word; an ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity; a matchless oratorio in two syllables; a gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I must take care above all that I cultivate communion with Christ, for though that can never be the basis of my peace – a mark that – yet it will be the channel of it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“God is so boundlessly pleased with Jesus that in him he is altogether well pleased with us.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes about the Gospel and Evangelism
“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you’re not saved yourself, be sure of that!” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If sinners are 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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Conversion is a turning onto the right road. The next thing to do is to walk on it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“We are not responsible to God for the soul that is saved, but we are responsible for the Gospel that is preached, and for the way in which we preach it” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Jesus has borne the death penalty on our behalf. Behold the wonder! There He hangs upon the cross! This is the greatest sight you will ever see. Son of God and Son of Man, there He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Oh, the glory of that sight! The innocent punished! The Holy One condemned! The Ever-blessed made a curse! The infinitely glorious put to a shameful death! The more I look at the sufferings of the Son of God, the more sure I am that they must meet my case. Why did He suffer, if not to turn aside the penalty from us? If then, He turned it aside by His death, it is turned aside, and those who believe in Him need not fear it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Prayer
“Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If God is near a church, it must pray. And if he is not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer. If every fret makes you lean more on the Beloved, it will be a benefit.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Prayer bends the omnipotence of heaven to your desire. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Ghost upon the renewed heart.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“When you feel disinclined to pray, let it be a sign to you that prayer is doubly necessary! Pray for prayer!” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. 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. He will never allow you to think better of Him than He is; He will come up to the mark of your thoughts, and according to your faith so shall it be done unto you.
“If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word – prayer.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon Quotes about Preaching and Preachers
“The gospel is preached in the ears of all men; it only comes with the power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consist of the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there was mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O, Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it the power to convert the soul.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If you think you can never honor Christ till you enter a pulpit, it may be just possible that you will afterward honor him best by getting out of it as quickly as you can.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes about the Bible and Truth
“A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I would not give a penny for your love to the truth if it is not accompanied with a hearty hatred of error.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The doctrine of the atonement is to my mind one of the surest proofs of the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Who would or could have thought of the just Ruler dying for the unjust rebel? This is no teaching of human mythology or dream of poetical imagination. This method of expiation is only known among men because it is a fact; fiction could not have devised it. God himself ordained it; it is not a matter which could have been imagined.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The word of God is always most precious to the man who most lives upon it.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. 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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The greatest argument against the Bible is an unholy life; and when a man will give that up, he will convince himself.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Within the Scripture, there is a balm for every wound, a salve for every sore.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The Bible is not the light of the world, it is the light of the Church. But the world does not read the Bible, the world reads Christians! “You are the light of the world.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“When the Spirit of God goes with the Word, then the Word becomes the instrument of the conversion of the souls of men.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If you hear a man rail at the Bible, you can usually conclude that he never reads it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The best interpreter of a book is generally the man who wrote it. The Holy Ghost wrote the Scriptures. Go to him to get their meaning, and you will not be misleading.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“It was God’s word that made us; is it any wonder that his word should sustain us?” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Study the Word, that your faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God!” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes about Holiness and Repentance
“O Christian people, be holy, for Christ is holy. Do not pollute that holy Name wherewith you are named. Let your family life, your personal life, your business life, be as holy as Christ your Lord would have it to be. Shall saints be shams when sinners are so real?” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Repentance and desires after holiness never can be separated.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Stale godliness is ungodliness. Let our religion be as warm, constant, and natural as the flow of the blood in our veins. A living God must be served in a living way.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Love for God is obedience; love for God is holiness. To love God and to love man is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and this is salvation.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“There is no repentance where a man can talk lightly of sin, much less where he can speak tenderly and lovingly of it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he, therefore, does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more; he overlooks ten thousand of their faults because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes about 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. ” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Is there nothing to sing about today? Then borrow a song from tomorrow; sing of what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes About Sin, Human Nature, and Worldliness
“You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The day we find the perfect church, it becomes imperfect the moment we join it.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If you give your soul up to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth, or the honors, 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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Remember Martin Luther’s way of cutting the devil’s head off with his own sword. “Oh,” said the devil to Martin Luther, “you are a sinner.” “Yes,” said Luther, Christ died to save sinners.” Thus he smote him with his own sword. Hide in this refuge and stay there: “In due time Christ died for the ungodly.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armor, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in wartime, 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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is the enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Quotes about Anxiety, Afflictions, Pain, and Suffering
“The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The Lord’s mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I bear my witness that the worst days I have ever had have turned out to be my best days. And when God has seemed most cruel to me he has then been most kind. If there is anything in this world for which I would bless him more than for anything else it is for pain and affliction. I am sure that in these things the richest tenderest love has been manifested to me. Our Father’s wagons rumble most heavily when they are bringing us the richest freight of the bullion of his grace. Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes. The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy. Fear, not the storm. It brings healing in its wings and when Jesus is with you in the vessel the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Affliction hardens those whom it does not soften.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“No stars gleam as brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky. No water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs through adversity. Tested faith brings experience. You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God’s strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Conflicts bring experience, and experience brings that growth in grace which is not to be attained by any other means.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
Bonus Inspirational and Encouraging Quotes from Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” ― Charles H. 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 H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“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.” ― Charles H. 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 H. Spurgeon
“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Man was made in the image of God, and nothing will satisfy man but God, in whose image he was made.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“That religion which costs a man nothing is usually worth nothing.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Here is the history of the grass–sown, grown, blown, mown, gone; and the history of man is not much more.” (On Psalm 90:6) ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“You cannot be Christ’s servant if you are not willing to follow him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“There are no crown-bearers in heaven that were not cross-bearers here below.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“The more objects you set your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“Christians, you are to love one another, not because of the gain which you get from one another, but rather because of the good you can do one another.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
“He who does not serve God where he is would not serve God anywhere else.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
The very act of prayer is a blessing.
To pray is to enter the treasure-house of God and to gather riches out of an inexhaustible storehouse.
You are before the Lord; let your words be few, but let your heart be fervent.
As well could you expect a plant to grow without air and water as to expect your heart to grow without prayer and faith?
You will observe that the desire to commune with God is intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation.
Prayer is the best response to hatred.
It is well said that neglected prayer is the birthplace of all evil.
Prayer is an art that only the Spirit can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer.
No man can progress in grace if he forsakes prayer.
He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal.
Prayer itself is an art that only the Holy Ghost can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. Pray for prayer- pray till you can pray.
If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
A mighty piece of weaponry in the battle of prayer is God’s promise.
Cold prayers ask for a denial!
Groanings that cannot be uttered are often prayers that cannot be refused.
True prayer is the trading of the heart with God.
Sometimes when we do not receive comfort in our prayers, when we are broken and cast down, that is when we are really wrestling and prevailing in prayer.
Prayer plumes the wings of God’s young eaglets so that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer brings inner strength to God’s warriors and sends them forth to spiritual battle with their muscles firm and their armor in place.
We know not what prayer cannot do!
Nothing brings such leanness into a man’s soul as a lack of prayer.
Prayer is doubts destroyer, ruin’s remedy, the antidote to all anxieties.
All good is born in prayer and all good springs from it.
Continue in prayer, and though the blessing tarry, it must come; in God’s own time it must appear to you.
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.
Anything is a blessing that makes us pray.
I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.
But if one neglects his closet, then all evil comes of it.
I believe that God hears your prayers because there is a secret work of the Spirit going on within you teaching you to pray.
A true prayer is an approach of the soul by the Spirit of God to the throne of God.
Pray until you can pray; pray to be helped to pray and do not give up praying because you cannot pray. For it is when you think you cannot pray that is when you are praying.
Prayer can never be in excess.
Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do.
Prayer is a creature’s strength, his every breath and being.
Prayer is not a hard requirement-it is the natural duty of a creature to its creator, the simplest homage that human need can pay to divine liberality.
Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscle of Omnipotence.
The man who has his mouth full of arguments in prayer shall soon have his mouth full of benedictions in answer to prayer.
The man who, despite the teaching of Scripture, tries to pray without a Savior, insults the deity.
The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts, and fears, straight up to the throne of God.
Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.
I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.
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