“Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands.”

“Proxy religion involves too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave them in no man's hands.”

“Lastly, Spurgeon reminds us that piety and devotion to Christ are not preferable alternatives to controversy, but rather that they should - when circumstances demand it - lead to the latter. He was careful to maintain that order. The minister who makes controversy his starting point will soon have a blighted ministry and spirituality will wither away. But controversy which is entered into out of love for God and reverence for His Name, will wrap a man's spirit in peace and joy even when he is fighting in the thickest of battle. The piety which Spurgeon admired was not that of a cloistered pacifism but the spirit of men like William Tyndale and Samuel Rutherford who, while contending for Christ, could rise heavenwards, jeopardizing 'their lives unto the death in the high places of the field'. At the height of his controversies Spurgeon preached some of the most fragrant of all his sermons.”

“Give yourself to reading.’... You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works,especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible.”

“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart." -Charles Spurgeon”

“Spurgeon challenges us to go to the river of our experience, to pull up bulrushes, and to place them in the Ark of our memory, experiencing again the wonder that allowed our infant faith to flourish.”

“When you speak of heaven, let your face light up... When you speak of hell well then, your everyday face will do.”

“O prejudice, prejudice, prejudice, how many hast thou destroyed! Men who might have been wise have remained fools because they thought they were wise. Many judge what the gospel ought to be, but do not actually enquire as to what it is. They do not come to the Bible to obtain their views of religion, but they open that Book to find texts to suit the opinions which they bring to it. They are not open to the honest force of truth, and therefore are not saved by it.”

“I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.”

“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”

“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!”

“A sense of the divine presence and indwelling bears the soul towards heaven as upon the wings of eagles.”