C. H. Spurgeon

“ There is a clear shining coming to thy soul when all this rain is past. When thy time of rebuke is over and gone, it shall be to thee as the earth when the tempest has sobbed itself to sleep, when the clouds have rent themselves to rags, and the sun peereth forth once more as a bridegroom in his glorious array. To this end, sorrow coöperates with the bliss that follows it, like rain and sunshine, to bring forth the tender blade. The tribulation and the consolation work together for our good. "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." ”

“ The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible creatures are the baskets of silver. The very seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of man within. We have our winter—dreary, howling winter—when the north wind of the law rusheth forth against us; when [105] every hope is nipped; when all the seeds of joy lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair; when our soul is fast fettered like a river bound with ice, without waves of joy, or flowings of thanksgiving. ”

“ Virtues, without faith, are whitewashed sins. Unbelief nullifies everything. It is the fly in the ointment; it is the poison in the pot. Without faith—with all the virtues of purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the kindness of disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of genius, with all the bravery of patriotism, and with all the decision of principle—you have no title to divine acceptance, for "without faith it is impossible to please God." ”

“ He who is a happy Creator will be a happy Redeemer; and those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, can bear witness that the ways of religion "are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." And if this life were all, if death were the burial of all our life, and if the shroud were the winding-sheet of eternity, still to be a Christian would be a bright and happy thing, for it lights up this valley of tears, and fills the wells in the valley of Baca to the brim with streams of love and joy. ”

“ Sing aloud of that divine wisdom which contrived, of that love which planned, and of that grace which carried out the scheme of thy redemption. "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" For doth not all nature around me praise Him? If I were silent I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of Armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Does not the lightning write His name in letters of fire upon the midnight darkness? ”

“ The love of Christ casts not out the love of relatives, but it sanctifies our creature love, and makes it sweeter far. Earthly love is sweet, but it must pass away; and what will you do if you have no wealth but the wealth which fadeth, and no love but the love which dies, when death shall come? Oh, to have the love of Christ! You can take that across the river of death with you; you can wear it as your jewel in heaven, and set it as a seal upon your hand; for His love is "strong as death, and mightier than the grave." ”

“ But if you have not this bright hope, how is it that you can live content? You are going through a dark world to a darker eternity. I beseech you stop and pause. Consider for a moment whether it is worth while to lose heaven for this poor earth. What! pawn eternal glories for the pitiful pence of a few moments of the world's enjoyments? No, stop, I beseech you; weigh the bargain ere you accept it. What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul? What wailing and gnashing of teeth shall there be over the carelessness or misadventure by which men lose such a heaven as this? ”

“ And, alas! there are not a few who, if they be Christians at all, certainly know but very little of that daily warfare to which the Captain of our salvation calleth His disciples. They have a soft religion; a religion which shuns opposition; a reed-like religion, which bows before every blast, unlike that cedar of godliness which standeth aloft in the midst of the storm, and claps its boughs in the hurricane for very joy of triumph, though the earth be all in arms abroad. Such men lack the faith which shares the glory. ”

“ The Christian's sympathy should ever be of the widest character, because he serves a God of infinite love. When the precious stone of love is thrown by grace into the crystal pool of a renewed heart, it stirs the transparent life-floods into ever-widening circles of sympathy: the first ring has no very wide circumference—we love our household; for he who careth not for his own household is worse than a heathen man. ”

“ If a man has no capital to begin with, he may make a fine show for a little time, but it shall be as the crackling of thorns under a pot,—a great deal of noise and much light for a little while, but it shall die out in darkness. How many there are who never think it necessary that there should be heart work within! Let us remember, however, that there never was a man who had a changed heart without his first having a miserable heart. We must pass through that black tunnel of conviction before we can come out upon the high embankment of holy joy ”

“ What were all that we see about us, but a great sand-storm in the midst of a desert, blinding our eyes, preventing us from ever hoping to see the end through the darkness of the beginning? We should be pilgrims in a pathless waste, where there were no roads to direct us—travellers who might be overturned and overwhelmed at any moment, and our bleached bones left the victims of the tempest, unknown, or forgotten of all. Thank God, it is not so with us. We believe that everything which happens to us is ordered by the wise and tender will of Him who is our Father and our Friend ”

“ But poor Little-faith can scarcely look at the sun; he very seldom sees the light; he gropes in the valley, and while all is safe, he always thinks himself unsafe.
"To be with Christ."
"To be with Christ." Who can comprehend this but the Christian? It is a heaven which worldlings care not for. They know not what a mass of glory is crowded into that one sentence: "To be with Christ." But to the believer the words are a concentration of bliss. Take only one of the many precious thoughts the words suggest—the sight of Christ. "Thine eye shall see the King in His beauty." ”

“ There is a thing called beauty, which wins upon the hearts of men. Mighty men, not a few, have bowed before it, and paid it homage; but if you want true beauty, look into the face of Jesus, for there you have the concentration of all loveliness. There is no beauty anywhere but in Christ. O sun, thou art not fair, when once compared with Him. O, fair world, and grand creation of a glorious God, thou art but a dim and dusky blot compared with the splendors of His face. ”

“ You are soon to be perfect, soon to be free from sin, without one wrong inclination, one evil desire. You are soon to be as pure as the angels in light; nay, more, with your Master's garments on, you are to be "holy as the holy One." Can you think of that? Is it not the very sum of heaven, the rapture of bliss, the sonnet of the hill-tops of glory—that you are to be perfect? No temptation can reach you, nor if the temptation could reach you would you be hurt by it; for there will be nothing in you which could in any way foster sin. ”

“ A proud and scornful nation might reject their King because of His manger-cradle and peasant-garb, but to her eye the Prince is glorious in this poor apparel. He is never without beauty to her; never is His visage marred, or his glory stained. She presses His pierced feet to her bosom, and looks upon their wounds as jewels. Fools stand by His cross and find full many a theme for jest and scorn: she discovers nothing but solemn reason for reverent adoration and unbounded love. Viewing Him in every office, position, and relationship, she cannot discover a flaw ”

“ Our first wonder is displaced, and another wonder fills the sphere of thought. Did we marvel that all men do not love?—it is a greater marvel still that any man does love Jesus. In the first case we saw the terrible blindness which failed to discover the brightness of the sun—with a shudder we saw it, and were greatly amazed; but in this second instance we behold Jesus of Nazareth opening the fast-closed eye, and scattering the Egyptian darkness with the Divine radiance of His marvellous light. ”

“ The mighty Husbandman, when we have fulfilled our day, shall bid His servants rest upon the best of beds, for the clods of the valley shall be sweet to them. Their repose shall never be broken until He shall rouse them up to give them their full reward. Guarded by angel-watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, resting on the lap of mother earth, ye shall sleep on, ye heritors of glory, till the fulness of time shall bring you the fulness of redemption. ”

“ Live near your Master, and you shall not be thus changeful and uncertain. Beware of being like a weathercock. Seek of God, that His law may be written on your heart as if it were written in stone, and not as if it were written in sand. Seek that His grace may come to you like a river, and not like a brook which fails. Seek that you may keep your conversation always holy; that your course may [176] be like the shining light which tarries not, but burns brighter and brighter until the fulness of the day. Seek that the "God of all grace may establish, strengthen, settle you." ”

“ What better can be afforded you than what is presented to you in the fact that Jesus Christ is one with you in your nature—that He has suffered all that you are now suffering—that your pathway has been aforetime trodden by His sacred foot—that the cup of which you drink is a cup which He has drained to the very bottom—that the river through which you pass is one through which He swam, and every wave and billow which rolls over your head did in old time roll over Him. ”

“ He who lives without prayer—he who lives with little prayer—he who seldom reads the Word—he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high—he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren; but he who calls in secret on his God—who spends much time in holy retirement—who delights to meditate on the words of the Most High—whose soul is given up to Christ—who delights in His fulness, rejoices in his all-sufficiency, prays for his second coming, and delights in the thought of his glorious advent—such a man must have an overflowing heart ”

“ We have heard of Him, and can say, "Whom having not seen we love." But then we "shall see Him." Yes, we shall actually gaze [222] upon the exalted Redeemer. Realize the thought. Is there not a heaven within it? Thou shalt see the hands which were nailed to the cross for thee; thou shalt see the thorn-crowned head, and with all the blood-washed throng, shalt thou bow with lowly reverence before Him, who bowed in lowly abasement for thee. Faith is precious, but what must sight be? To view Jesus as the Lamb of God through the glass of faith, makes the soul rejoice with joy unspeakable ”

“ Only let thy heart be full of sweet, generous love, and the stream that flows from thy lips will be sweet and generous. Above all, get Jesus to live in thine heart, and then out of thee shall flow rivers of living water, more exhilarating, purer, and more satiating than the water of the well of Sychar, of which Jacob drank. Go forth, with Christian, to the great mine of unsearchable riches, and cry unto the Holy Spirit to make thy heart rich unto salvation. ”

“ Our joy is like the wave as it dashes upon the shore—it throws us on the earth. But our sorrows are like that receding wave which sucks us back again into the great depth of Godhead. We should have been stranded and left high and dry upon the shore, if it had not been for that receding wave, that ebbing of our prosperity, which carried us back to our Father and to our God again. ”

“ The weary are at rest: the servant is as much at ease as his lord. No more the worker leans on his spade, no more the thinker props his pensive head. The wheel stands still; the shuttle is not in motion; the hand which turned the one and the fingers which threw the other are quiet also. The grave shuts out all disturbance, labor, or effort. The toilworn believer quietly sleeps, as does the child weary with its play, when it shuts its eyes and slumbers on its mother's breast. O! happy they who die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. ”

“ It is the boast of the gospel that it lifts the heart above trouble; it is one of the glories of our religion that it makes us say, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." ”

“ In this world we must have tribulation, and we must have much of it too, for it is through much tribulation we inherit the kingdom. What God does for His people is this: He keeps them in tribulation, preserves them in temptation, and brings them joyfully out of all their trials. So, Christian, you may rejoice in your security; but you must not think that you are not to be attacked; you are like a stream from Lebanon, to be dashed down many a cascade, to be broken over many a rough rock, to be stopped up with many a huge stone, to be impeded by many a fallen tree ”

“ A view of Christ is always beneficial to a Christian—too much of Christ we cannot have—there can be no tautology where His name is mentioned. Give us Christ always, Christ ever. The monotony of Christ is sweet variety; and even the unity of Christ hath in it all the elements of harmony. Christ on His cross and on His throne, in the manger and in the tomb—Christ everywhere is sweet to us. We love His name, we adore His person, we delight to hear of His works—the theme is ever new.
There are some who complain that their love to the Saviour is faint and cold. ”

“ When you and I ought [174] to believe in God; when we ought to look at the heaven which awaiteth us, and the glory for which these light afflictions are preparing us; when we ought to be looking through the cloud to the eternal sun which never knows an eclipse; when we should be resting on the invisible arm of the immortal God, and triumphing in His love, we are mourning and distrusting. God forgive us for this, and enable us henceforth to look not at our troubles, but above them, even to Him who, with infinite wisdom and love, is guiding us, and has promised to bring us safely through. ”

“ Faith is the tree, the essential tree: our feelings are like the appearance of that tree during the different seasons of the year. Sometimes our soul is full of bloom and blossom, and the bees hum pleasantly, and gather honey within our hearts. It is then that our feelings bear witness to the life of our faith, just as the buds of spring bear witness to the life of the tree. ”

“ He who delights in the possession of the Lord Jesus hath all that heart can wish. As for created things, they are like shallow and deceitful brooks; they fail to supply our wants, much less our wishes. "The bed" of earthly enjoyment "is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it;" but in Jesus there is room for imagination's utmost stretch and widest range. When Jesus is enjoyed, He puts a fulness into all other mercies; His house is full when He is there; His throne of grace is full when He sits on it ”

“ Thou hast put thine own soul there, put their souls and bodies likewise into His custody. Thou canst trust Him for temporals for thyself, trust thy jewels with Him. Feel that they are not thine own, but that they are God's loans to thee—loans which may be recalled at any moment—precious denizens of heaven, not entailed upon thee, but of which thou art only a tenant at will. Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of the Lord. ”

“ The Christian is a "king:" it becometh not a king to be meanly caring for himself. Was Alexander ever more royal than when, while his troops were suffering from thirst, he put aside a bowl full of the precious liquid, which a soldier offered him, and said it was not fitting for a king to drink while his subjects were thirsty; he had rather share their sorrow with them? O ye, whom God has made kings and princes, reign royally over your own selfishness, and act with the honorable liberality which becomes the seed royal of the universe. ”