Charles Spurgeon

"When a thing is spoken of as being exceedingly good, it is often connected with angels: "men did eat angels' food." It is supposed that everything with regard to them is of superior order and of refined quality. I suppose that a spirit that is not cumbered with flesh and blood, as we are, must be delivered from much that hampers and beclouds. Oftentimes a clear judgment is dimmed by a headache, or an attack of indigestion. Anything that affects the body drags down the mind; but these angelic beings are delivered from such weakness, and they are clothed with a glory of strength, and beauty, and power."

"However excellent the fallen angels may once have been, they have now become potent only for mischief; their wisdom has curdled into cunning, and their strength has soured into a vicious force; so that no man may say within himself, "I am a clear thinker, therefore I shall never become a blaspheming infidel;"

or, "I am gifted in prayer, therefore I shall never become a blasphemer." You know not what you may become. There is a great difference between gift in prayer and grace in prayer: gift will breed pride, and pride will ensure destruction; it is only grace that can preserve unto eternal glory."

"He that reckons that he is past temptation, is already entangled in its net. We must never presume."

"The powers of darkness make their direst onset upon the foremost soldiers of the cross, hoping to overthrow the standard-bearers, and create confusion throughout the camp."

"Apart from the perpetual miracle of God's grace, nothing can keep us from declension, apostacy, and spiritual death. "Oh, but I spend my time," one may say "I spend my time wholly in the service of God! I go from door to door seeking the lost souls of men, as a city missionary"; or "I conduct a large class in the school, and I have brought many to the Savior." All this is good; but if thou trustest in it for thy standing before God it will certainly fail thee."

"He that is the most sure is the most insecure; but he that cries, "Hold thou me up," shall be made to stand. Be this our confession, "O Lord, I know that I shall become utterly vile except thy sovereign grace prevent! "In humility let us cast ourselves upon the mighty grace of God, and we shall be kept."

"Let the flatterers of to-day preach what they may, the Lord will punish men who live and die in their sins."

"Angels must, surely, be more missed than men: their downfall made a great gap in heaven. We go there to fill the space, and to repair the breach which was made when they were cast down from glory."

"Let us do angels' work. Come, brothers and sisters, let us glow with such a fire of devotion as might have burned in an auger's heart."

"I know some very excellent brethren…would God there were more like them in zeal and love...who, in their zeal to preach up simple faith in Christ have felt a little difficulty about the matter of repentance; and I have known some of them who have tried to get over the difficulty by softening down the apparent hardness of the word repentance, by expounding it according to its more usual Greek equivalent, a word which occurs in the original of my text, and signifies "to change one's mind."

"Moreover, there is another word which is also used in the original Greek for repentance, not so often I admit, but still it is used, which signifies "an after-care," a word which has in it something more of sorrow and anxiety, than that which signifies changing one's mind. There must be sorrow for sin and hatred of it in true repentance, or else I have read my Bible to little purpose."

"An old saint, on his sick-bed, once used this remarkable expression; "Lord, sink me low as hell in repentance; but"..and here is the beauty of it.."lift me high as heaven in faith.""

"If I avoid sin to-day because I am afraid of being lost if I commit it, I have not the repentance of a child of God; but when I avoid it and seek to lead a holy life because Christ loved me and gave himself for me, and because I am not my own, but am bought with a price, this is the work of the Spirit of God."

"no repentance is true but that which consorts with faith; no faith is true but that which is linked with a hearty and sincere repentance on account of past sin. So then, dear friends, those people who have a faith which allows them to think lightly of past sin, have the faith of devils, and not the faith of God's elect."

"St. Anselm once cried out, "Oh! sinner that I have been, I will spend all the rest of my life in repenting of my whole life!""

""That dear friend," said he, "is repentance; repentance has been with me all my life, and I think I shall drop a tear," said the good man, "as I go through the gates, to think that I can repent no more." Repentance is the daily and hourly duty of a man who believes in Christ; and as we walk by faith from the wicket gate to the celestial city, so our right-hand companion all the journey through must be repentance. Why, dear friends, the Christian man, after he is saved, repents more than ever he did before, for now he repents not merely of overt deeds, but even of imaginations."

""How can I sin," says he, "that am loved so much and kept so surely? How can I be so villainous as to sin against everlasting mercy?""

"And all this is because he murdered Christ; because his sin nailed the Saviour to the tree; and therefore he weepeth and mourneth even to his life's end."
"God gave us sleep to remind us we are not him."

"and the child of God, however low he may sink, still keeps hold upon his God. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," is the resolution of his soul."

"Now, while a man can pray, he is never far from light; he is at the window, though, perhaps, as yet the curtains are not drawn aside."

"Its strong language suggests the remark that tried saints are very prone to overrate their afflictions. I believe we all err in that direction,"

"The gardener takes his knife and prunes the fruit trees to make them bring forth more fruit; his little child comes trudging at his heels and cries, "Father, I do not see that the fruit comes on the trees after you have cut them." "No, dear child, it is not likely you would; but come round in a few months when the season of fruit has come, and then you shall see the golden apples, which thank the knife." Graces, which are meant to endure, require time for their production."

"Experience unlocks truths which else were closed against us; many passages of Scripture will never be made clear by the commentator; they must be expounded by experience. Many a text is written in a secret ink which must be held to the fire of adversity to make it visible."

"Affliction conforms us to the Lord Jesus. We pray to be like Christ, but how can we be, if we are not men of sorrows at all, and never become acquainted with grief? Like Christ, and yet never traverse through the vale of tears! Like Christ, and yet have all that heart could wish, and never bear the contradiction of sinners against thyself, and never say, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death!""

"It must be a terrible thing for a man never to have suffered physical pain. You say, "I should like to be that man." Ah, unless you had extraordinary grace, you would grow hard and cold; you would get to be a sort of castiron man, breaking other people with your touch. No; let my heart be tender, even be soft, if it must be softened by pain, for I would fain know how to bind up my fellow's wound."

"And let us tell you, too, that if this day you happen to be in peace and prosperity, plenty and happiness-yet there is not one child of God, in the very depths of trouble that would change places with you under any consideration whatever."