Spurgeon Pithy Gems, Volume One
The Word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.
A man says to me, "Can you explain the seven trumpets of the book of Revelation?"
No, but I can blow one in your ear, and warn you to escape from the wrath to come!
Is it not a sad thing, that after all Christ's love to us—we should repay it with lukewarm love to Him?
Most people have no concern about eternal things. They care more about their cats and dogs than about their souls!
A little sin, like a little pebble in the shoe, will make a traveler to Heaven walk very wearily.
The most wicked book you will ever read is your own heart!
Soon I shall see an open door in Heaven; the pearl gate will be my way of entrance—and then I shall go in unto my Lord and King and be eternally shut in with Him!
When your will is God's will—then you will have your will.
Scripture meditation is the strong meat on which holy men are nourished. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up into your very soul, until it saturates your heart!
Nobody ever outgrows Scripture—the book widens and deepens with our years.
It is not your hold of Christ that saves—but His hold of you.
Time is short—and eternity is near!
The Word must be like a strong wind sweeping through the whole heart, and swaying the whole man, even as a field of ripening corn waves in the summer breeze.
Hold everything earthly with a loose hand—but grasp eternal things with a death-like grip!
There they go, streams of them, hurrying impatiently, rushing down to death and Hell—yes, eagerly panting, hurrying, dashing against one another to descend to that awful gulf from which there is no return!
Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity!
The affairs of this world are not under the control of men—however much they may imagine that they are. There is a Supreme Authority who rules, overrules and works all things according to His own beneficent will—whatever men may desire or determine to do.
Visit many good books—but live in the Bible.
I feel that, if I could live a thousand lives, I would like to live them all for Christ; and I should even then feel that they were all too little a return for His great love to me!
It is better to preach five words of God's Word—than five million words of man's wisdom!
Anything that makes us pray is a blessing!
He who counts the stars and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own children! He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved!
Let us never think that we have learned a doctrine, until we have seen its fruit in our lives.
The world does not read the Bible—the world reads Christians!
The marvel of Heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation!
Amusement should be used to do us good 'like a medicine." It must never be used as the food of the man. Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure, so called, is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement—everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle!
The devil does not care how many churches you build—if only you have lukewarm preachers and people in them.
As well might a gnat seek to drink the ocean—as a finite creature to comprehend the Eternal God. A God whom we could fully understand—would be no God.
If we could grasp Him—He could not be infinite.
If we could fully understand Him—He could not be divine.
There is no wolf or lion or serpent which is so brutish—as that beast, man!
Christian! You have . . .
God's infallible wisdom to direct you,
His immutable love to comfort you,
and His eternal power to defend you!
What a sad world man has made this earth!
Never did water leap from the crystal fountain with half such freeness and generous liberality—as grace flows from the heart of God! He gives forth love, joy, peace and pardon—and He gives them as a king gives to a king! You cannot empty His treasury—for it is inexhaustible. He is not enriched by withholding—nor is He impoverished by bestowing!
Alas! Much has been done of late to promote the production of dwarfish Christians. Poor, sickly believers turn the church into a hospital—rather than an army. Oh, to have a church built up with the deep godliness of people who know the Lord in their very hearts, and will seek to follow the Lamb wherever He goes!
O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone!
Fiery trials make golden Christians!
There is a clean path to Hell as well as a dirty one. You will be lost if you trust your good works—as surely if you trusted your sins!
Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the gardener, and the Holy Spirit the dew from Heaven.
Let us not be astonished when we are called to tread the road which is marked by his pierced feet!
There are some people who would be excellent Christians, if Christianity consisted in having their own way.
I am afraid that we are too much like the world for the world to hate us.
Men are in restless pursuit after satisfaction and earthly things. They have no thought for their eternal state—as the present hour absorbs them. They turn to another and another of earth's broken cisterns—hoping to find water, where not a drop was ever discovered yet.
Heart-ravishing dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ's sweet love—spoils a man for the sinful pleasures of this world!
Meditation puts the telescope to the eye, and enables us to see Jesus more clearly and fully than we could have seen Him if we had lived in the days of His flesh. Would that our hearts were more in Heaven, and that we were more taken up with the person, the work, the beauty of our adorable Redeemer!
What sin is worth being damned for?
There are infidels on earth—but there are none in Heaven, and none in Hell.
An ounce of heart knowledge—is worth more than a ton of head learning!
If knowledge were bliss, the devil would be in Heaven.
"I pray for them. I am not praying for the world—but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours!" John 17:9. The Lord Jesus cherishes a special affection for the church, which is set upon her above the rest of mankind. The elect church is . . .
the favorite of Heaven,
the treasure of Christ,
the crown of His head,
the bracelet of His arm,
the breastplate of His heart,
the very center and core of His love!
Morality may keep you out of jail—but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of Hell.
In Christ's love, you have begun a banquet that will never end! The richest, the most celestial, the most transporting joy that mortal mind can know—is a full assurance of the love of God!
Let me revel in this one thought—before God made the heavens and the earth, He set His love upon me.
Every truth of God's Word is a diamond of untold value!
We are sadly unmindful of our God—but He is graciously mindful of us.
Where Scripture is silent—you be silent!
When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry—you coin diamonds with both eyes. The sweetest prayers which God ever hears, are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but His love!
Every page of Scripture is a sheet of gold! No, rather let me say that Heaven's banknotes are here, to be cashed by those who have faith enough to bring them to the God who issued them—that He may make their souls rich to all the intents of bliss!
Although the Lord may not appear for us in the way we expect, or desire, or suppose—yet He will in some way or other provide for us.
Nothing brings such leanness into a man's soul—as lack of prayer.
All things are ordained of God and are settled by Him, according to His wise and holy predestination. Whatever happens here on earth—happens not by chance, but according to the counsel of the Most High God!
Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Lord Jesus—as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.
The groans of earth, shall be surpassed by the songs of Heaven! The woes of time, shall be swallowed up in the hallelujahs of eternity!
A Jesus who never wept—could never wipe away my tears.
The greatest joy of a Christian, is to give joy to Christ.
It is not great talents God blesses, so much as likeness to Jesus.
We cannot help the birds flying over our heads—but we may keep them from building their nests in our hair! Just so with temptations!
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 stop. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
I have a great need for Christ.
I have a great Christ for my need.
Conversion is a turning onto the right road.
The next thing to do is to walk on it.
Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their prayer 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.
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.
When you feel disinclined to pray—let it be a sign to you that prayer is doubly necessary! Pray for prayer!
I would rather teach one man to pray—than ten men to preach.
A Bible that is falling apart—usually belongs to someone who isn't.
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 poetic 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.
Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible!
Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request: 'Lord, do as You have said.' The Heavenly Father will not break His Word to His own child.
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 Heaven!
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.
You cannot slander human nature—it is worse than words can paint it!
There is as much love in the blows of God's hand, as in the kisses of His mouth!
Whatever the secondary agent may be, the direct hand of the Lord is in every national calamity.
Those who fear God, need not fear anything else!
If you give your soul up to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth, or the honors, or the pleasures of this world—then 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.
That very church which the world likes best—is sure to be the church which God abhors most!
The Lord gets His best soldiers, out of the highlands of affliction.
Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows—but only empties today of its strengths.
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! When Jesus is with you in the vessel—the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.
Affliction hardens those whom it does not soften.
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.
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy—which makes happiness.
You say, 'If I had a little more, I would be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have—then you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.
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.
The Christian's position is unique—he is in two worlds at once.
Man was made in the image of God. Nothing will satisfy man but God, in whose image he was made.
The more objects you set your heart upon—the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds.
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.
He who does not serve God where he is—would not serve God anywhere else!
Nearness to God—brings likeness to God.
The more you see God—the more of God will be seen in you.
If left to ourselves, the road to Hell would be as naturally our choice as for round rock to roll downwards, instead of upwards.
God promises His people enough—and even that enough may not come to us in the way we would choose.
All the works that we can ever do, be they what they may—can never bring such glory to God as a single act of trust in Him!
Time is flying! Men are dying! Hell is filling!
If you are idle in Christ's work—then you are active in the devil's work.
All of our infirmities, whatever they are—are just opportunities for God to display His gracious work in us.
We may be called upon to traverse strange ways—but we shall always have our Lord's company, assistance, and provision.
We ought surely to be content with such things as we have—for he who has God, has more than all the world.
We go through the dark valley of death—and emerge into the light of eternity. We do not die—but only sleep, to wake in eternity!
We are as weak and foolish and as full of needs as sheep can be—but we have a Shepherd who perfectly understands us, who so loves us that He will preserve to the end, even the very least among us!
He who is his own guide—is guided by a fool!
To contend against Divine Omnipotence is insanity!
This is how we live spiritually—we breathe in the air by prayer, and we breathe it out by praise!
Thank God for the comforts and blessings of this life—but do not let them become your idols.
What a mercy it is that it is not your hold of Christ that saves you—but His hold of you! What a sweet fact that it is not how you grasp His hand—but His grasp of yours that saves you!
I shall never understand, even in Heaven—why the Lord Jesus should ever have loved me.
All the adulteries, murders, unnatural vices and accursed blasphemies that had ever defiled the race of mankind, have not so certainly proved it to be a desperately fallen thing—as the murder of the Son of God, the Savior and the friend of men! This appalling crime of Deicide stands out without a parallel in the history of the universe! There was no guilt in the Lord Jesus for which He deserved to die—yet, with wicked hands, they crucified and slew Him!
The Word of God is a lamp by night, a light by day, and a delight at all times!
Jesus! Infinite—and yet an infant.
Eternal—and yet born of a woman.
Almighty—and yet hanging on a woman's breast.
Supporting a universe—and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms.
King of angels—and yet the reputed son of Joseph.
Heir of all things—and yet the carpenter's despised son.
Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His Throne!
There are a thousand paths that lead to Hell—but only one that leads to Heaven!
The tears of affliction, are often needed to keep the eye of faith bright.
The knowledge of Christ Crucified, is the most excellent of all the sciences!
Nothing binds me to my Lord, like a strong belief in His changeless love to me.
Take this Book and distill it into one word—and that one word will be Jesus!
To be one of the Lord's saved ones—is joy enough to bear up the heart under every affliction!
Oh, it is the happiest and most blessed condition—to lie passive in God's hands and know no will but His! "Father, may Your will be done."
Brethren, we are never so weak, as when we feel strongest—and never so foolish, as when we dream that we are wise.
Whatever is your greatest joy and treasure—that is your God.
The one person that troubles me most, is the one from whom I cannot get away!
Let your thoughts be psalms, your prayers be incense, and your breath be praise!
The power and love of God are manifested, when, like a sheep surrounded by wolves, or a spark in the midst of the sea—a believer is enabled to live on in the teeth of an ungodly world and maintain his integrity to the end! "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand!" John 10:28
They are the greatest slaves, who are slaves to their own soul-destroying lusts!
We cannot too often turn our thoughts heavenward, for this is one of the great cures for worldliness. The way to liberate our souls from the bonds that tie us to earth, is to strengthen the cords that bind us to Heaven. You will think less of this poor little globe, when you think more of the world to come! "Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things!" Colossians 3:1-2
Study is good, no doubt, for the acquisition of knowledge.
But praying is the best way to obtain true wisdom!
It ill befits a man who is on the brink of Hell—to be laughing and jesting!
A very beautiful motto is hung up in our classroom at the Stockwell Orphanage, "What would Jesus do?" Not only may children take it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age. If you desire to know what you ought to do under any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position and then think, "What would Jesus do? For what Jesus would do—that ought I to do." This principle unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way, and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed. "Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6
Sweet above all other things is love—a mother's love, a father's love, a husband's love, a wife's love—but all these are only faint images of the love of God!
I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam, does not move an atom more or less that God wishes. I believe that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its ordained orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens. I believe that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is as much steered by God, as the stars in their course. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebush, is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence. The fall of leaves from a poplar tree, is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche!
Never fear dying, beloved. Dying is the last, but the least matter that a Christian has to be anxious about. Fear living—that is . . .
a hard battle to fight,
a stern discipline to endure,
a rough voyage to undergo.
To a true believer in Jesus, the thought of departing from this world and going to be "forever with the Lord," has nothing of gloom associated with it! This earth is the place of our banishment and exile—Heaven is our home!
We are too insignificant to be of any importance in God's vast universe. He can do either with us or without us. Our presence or absence will not disarrange His plans.
Among the wonders in Heaven, shall be these three:
The first wonder is that we shall see so many there, whom we did not expect to see.
The second is that we shall miss so many there, whom we did expect to see there.
But the third wonder would be the greatest wonder of all—to see ourselves there!
If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him—for you are worse than he thinks you to be!
The worst evils of life, are those which do not exist except in our imagination. If we had no troubles but real troubles—we would not have a tenth part of our present sorrows. We feel a thousand deaths, in fearing one!
I am afraid we would have to present a very poor record, if we gave a true account of the time we spend in prayer. Yet we have no excuse to offer for being lax in this holy duty. It is not a bondage, a slavery—it is the highest privilege of the believer's soul to be engaged in prayer to our Heavenly Father! Yet we often prefer the disastrous ease of wasting our time, instead of drawing near to God in prayer!
All your needs His love has supplied. There are . . .
shoes for your pilgrimage,
armor for your warfare,
strength for your labor,
rest for your weariness,
comfort for your sorrow!
May we live here on earth like strangers, and make the world not a house—but an inn, in which we sup and lodge, expecting to be on our journey tomorrow.
I can perfectly understand God's pitying me. I can perfectly understand God's having compassion on me. But I cannot comprehend God's loving me—nor can you.
As the volcano is but the evidence of a mighty seething ocean of devouring flame within the heart of the earth—so any one sin is an indicator of the seething ocean of sinfulness which boils within the cauldron of our nature!
Ask the gardener which is the best apple tree in the garden—and he will tell you that it is not the one which has the best shape, but the one which yields the most fruit! In the same way, he is not the best Christian who occupies the highest position, or who talks the most about divine things—but it is he whose life is most fruitful in good works to the glory of God!
It is very difficult for man to have much money running through his hands, without some of it sticking. Money is very sticky stuff—and when it once sticks to the hands, they are not clean in the sight off the Lord! Unless a man is able to use money without abusing it, accepting it as a talent lent to him, and not as a treasure given to him—it will very soon happen that the more money he has, the more troubles he will have!
I have braved the sneer of men, because I feared the frown of my Lord!
Nine times out of ten, spiritual declension from God begins in the neglect of private prayer.
God has never meant this world to be a comfortable nest for us. If we try to make it such for ourselves—He will plant thorns in it so that we may be compelled to mount and find our soul's true home somewhere else, in a higher and nobler sphere than this poor world can give! "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted!" Micah 2:10
Some of you will not like it to be said—but I believe that it is anti-Christian to live with the objective of accumulating wealth!
I have seen some people very proudly humble—very boastful of their humility.
The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness—is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus.
To enter into debate is never as profitable as to enter into devotion.
I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world—is because the world has so much influence over the church!
Time, how short!
Eternity, how long!
Death, how brief!
Immortality, how endless!
If your preaching is to go to the heart—it must come from the heart. It must first have moved our souls—before we can ever hope to move the souls of others!
The happiest condition of a Christian, is to live in the conscious enjoyment of the presence of the Lord Jesus. When the love of Christ is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, the believer need not envy an angel his harp of gold!
Cling to Scripture. Scripture is not Christ, but it is the silken clue which will lead you to Him.
If you could have chosen your own circumstances and condition in life—you could not have made so wise a choice as God has made for you!
A day is surely coming when the Lord Jesus, who came once to save—will descend a second time to judge! Despised mercy has always been followed by deserved wrath—and so must it be in the end of all things.
We must dig into the mines of Scripture, to turn up those masses of gold which surface readers never discover!
The meek are of a quiet and gentle spirit, and are satisfied with their lot. They are truly thankful for the little they have. They are of the mind of the godly woman who ate the crust of bread and drank a little water and said, "What? All this, and Jesus Christ, too!" There is a great charm about contentment—while envy and greed are ugly things in the eyes of those who have anything like spiritual perception. So meekness, through bringing contentment, beautifies us.
Holiness excludes immorality—but morality does not amount to holiness. For morality may be but the cleaning of the outside of the cup and the platter, while the heart may be full of wickedness. Holiness deals with the thoughts and intents, the purposes, the aims, the objectives, the motives of men. Morality does but skim the surface—holiness goes into the very caverns of the great deep. Holiness requires that the heart shall be set on God and that it shall beat with love to Him.
The Word of God is the anvil upon which the opinions of men are smashed!
By perseverance, the snail reached the ark!
When Satan cannot get a great sin in he will let a little one in. Like the thief who goes and finds shutters all coated with iron and bolted inside. At last he sees a little window in a chamber. He cannot get in, so he puts a little boy in, that he may go around and open the back door.
Just so, the devil always has his little sins to carry about with him to go and open back doors for him—and we let one in and say, 'O, it is only a little one.' Yes, but how that little one becomes the ruin of the entire man!
To get the essence out of the Scriptures, you must meditate upon them and so digest them—just as you have seen the cattle lie down to chew the cud after eating. To get the nourishment out of a text, turn it over and over in your mind, ruminate upon it, pull it to pieces word by word!
Jesus! it is the name which moves the harps of Heaven to melody. Jesus! the life of all our joys. If there is one name more charming, more precious than another, it is this name. It is the sum total of all delights. It is the music with which the bells of Heaven ring. It is a song in a word; an ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity. It is a matchless oratorio in two syllables; a gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters!
"In Your presence is fullness of joy! At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore!" Psalm 16:11
A million million—what must that be? The human mind cannot grasp the meaning of such vast numbers—yet, when millions of millions of millions of millions of years have passed over the heads of Christ's saints in glory, this text will not be exhausted! No, more—not one jot or tittle of it will be exhausted—and throughout eternity it will still be, "pleasures forevermore!"
Ah, my brethren, this prize is worth winning! Eternal life is worth having! And it shall be the portion of every true believer!