100+ Top Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Religion

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a famous Baptist minister during the Victorian era in England. Enjoy some of the best Charles Spurgeon quotes here!

By Katee Fletcher

Updated 4 years ago, January 21, 2021

low-angled photo of lightened candles — Mike Labrum

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a famous Baptist minister during the Victorian era in England. He was a preacher and an inspiration to those in the church. Here are some of the best Charles Spurgeon quotes on religion, the kingdom of God, faith, and holiness.

Charles H Spurgeon Biography

On June 19th, 1834, Victorian England’s famous Baptist minister and Calvinist, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England. From a young age, Charles H Spurgeon knew that he had a call to preach the word of God, so, at 15, he began his preaching career at Teversham. In 1951 marked the year he accepted his first pastorate at the Baptist Chapel in Waterbeach. His sermons were wildly popular, causing the congregation to grow from a dozen members to over 400. Rumors of Spurgeon’s success traveled throughout England, getting him noticed by London’s largest Baptist Church, New Park Street. In 1853, New Park Street made him an offer to preach there, and soon after, C H Spurgeon was packing his bags and moving to London.

While preaching at New Park Street, Spurgeon’s sermons impacted the lives of many, inspiring the congregation to grow so large that the church needed to expand. After years of construction, on March 18th, 1861, the Metropolitan Tabernacle was finally finished, offering 5,000 seats to Spurgeon and his assembly. During the years of construction, Spurgeon met and married his wife Susannah Thompson with whom he bore two children, twins, Thomas and Charles.

Outside of preaching, Charles Spurgeon pursued writing and undertook many initiatives to better his community. In 1855, he created the “Penny Pulpit,” a magazine that published one sermon a week until 1917. Furthermore, in 1857 he became the founder and president of Pastor’s College, and ten years later, he established Stockwell Orphanage.

Later in life, he grew very ill, leading to his death on January 31st, 1892. Before his burial in February of that year, over 60,000 people flocked to his casket. With over 3,600 powerful sermons preached and over 49 volumes of writings, sayings, illustrations, and devotions published by the time of his death, he left behind a long-standing legacy that continues to enlighten those looking for guidance in their worship. Enjoy some of the best C.H. Spurgeon quotes below that shed light on the power of prayer, love, and religion.

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Prayer and Faith

“I view the difficulties of Holy Scripture as so many prayer stools upon which I kneel and worship the glorious Lord. What we cannot comprehend by our understandings we apprehend by our affections.”-Charles Spurgeon

“My own soul’s conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe, that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation, or any other of those other secret forces which men have called by name, but which they do not understand.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say it is in that one word—prayer.”-Charles Spurgeon

“All our perils are nothing, so long as we have prayer.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If there be anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The more we pray, the more we shall want to pray. The more we pray, the more we can pray. The more we pray, the more we shall pray.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If you could pray the best prayer in the world without the Holy Spirit, God would have nothing to do with it. But if your prayer be broken and lame and limping, if the Spirit made it, God will look upon it and say, as he did upon the works of creation, “It is very good.””-Charles Spurgeon

“Faith is a greater and grander thing than all experience; less fickle, more stable. It is the root of grace, and feelings are but the flowers, the germs, the buds.”

“The pith, the essence of faith, lies in this—a casting oneself on the promise.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Faith is the surest of all sin-killers.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I was like a man in a bog. The more he struggles, the more he sinks. Or like a prisoner upon the treadmill, who rises no higher, but only wearies himself by his climbing. No good can result from efforts made apart from faith in Jesus.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Get to Christ somehow, anyhow, for if you get to him, you shall live. It is not the greatness nor the perfection of your faith; it is his greatness and his perfection, which is to be depended on.”-Charles 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 Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Christianity, Calvinism, and the Church

“If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all. And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect Church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The cardinal error against which the gospel of Christ has to contend is the effect of the tendency of the human heart to rely on salvation by works.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Calvinism did not spring from Calvin. We believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian. This is the strong meat on which holy men are nourished.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The true Christian life, when we live near to God, is the rough draft of the life of full communion above.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There is nothing which my heart desires more than to see you, the members of this church, distinguished for holiness. It is the Christian’s crown and glory. An unholy church! It is of no use to the world and of no esteem among men.”-Charles Spurgeon

“A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If your creed and Scripture do not agree, cut your creed to pieces, but make it agree with this book. If there be anything in the church to which you belong, which is contrary to the inspired Word, leave that church.”-Charles Spurgeon

“In proportion, as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be powerful.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If Christ cannot take care of his church without you, you cannot do it. Be still, and know that he is God.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I know there are some who say, “Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to any church. Now, why not? “Because I can be a Christian without it.” Are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient?”-Charles Spurgeon

“Calvary preaching, Calvary theology, Calvary books, Calvary sermons! These are the things we want. And in proportion, as we have Calvary exalted and Christ magnified, the gospel is preached.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Atonement is the brain and spinal cord of Christianity. Take away the cleansing blood, and what is left to the guilty?”-Charles Spurgeon

“No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I wish that our ministry—that mine especially—might be tied and tethered to the cross. I would have no other subject to set before you but Jesus only.”-Charles Spurgeon

woman in purple long sleeve shirt raising her hands

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Preaching and the Gospel

“I would rather speak five words out of this book than 50,000 words of the philosophers. If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more of God’s Word into our sermons.”-Charles Spurgeon

“…the best “apology” for the gospel is to let the gospel out. Never mind defending Deuteronomy or the whole of the Pentateuch. Preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will soon drive away all his adversaries.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching—where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If my sermons kept people from reading the Bible for themselves, I would like to see the whole stock in a blaze and burned to ashes.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The man who cannot weep cannot preach. At least, if he never feels tears within, even if they do not show themselves without, he can scarcely be the man to handle such themes as those which God has committed to his people’s charge.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The words of Scripture thrill my soul as nothing else ever can. They bear me aloft or dash me down. They tear me in pieces or build me up. The words of God have more power over me than ever; David’s fingers had over his harp strings. Is it not so with you?”-Charles Spurgeon

“There are some preachers who cannot or do not preach about the blood of Jesus Christ, and I have one thing to say to you concerning them: Never go to hear them! Never listen to them!”-Charles Spurgeon

“I believe that if I should preach to you the atonement of our Lord Jesus, and nothing else, twice every Sabbath day, my ministry would not be unprofitable.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Many preachers have had to confess the uselessness of mere moral preaching. There is no instance, I believe, on record, where the mere preaching of the law made a man love God, or where the heart ever was, or ever could be, renewed by inculcating good works.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive his power, you must see how he works by his Word. If you wish to know his purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by his Word.”-Charles Spurgeon

woman sitting on black surface inside room

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Sins, Anxiety, and Suffering

“If our Lord’s bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, I have no gospel to preach. Brethren, I have befooled you these thirty-five years if this is not the gospel. I am a lost man, if this is not the gospel, for I have no hope beneath the canopy of heaven, neither in time nor in eternity, save only in this belief—that Jesus Christ, in my place, bore both my punishment and sin.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There may be some sins of which a man cannot speak, but there is no sin which the blood of Christ cannot wash away.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If God requires of the sinner, dead in sin, that he should take the first step, then he requires just that which renders salvation as impossible under the gospel as it was under the law since man is as unable to believe as he is to obey.”-Charles Spurgeon

“You cannot sin so much as God can forgive. If it comes to a pitched battle between sin and grace, you shall not be so bad as God shall be good.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The heart of Christ became like a reservoir in the midst of the mountains. All the tributary streams of iniquity, and every drop of the sins of his people, ran down and gathered into one vast lake, deep as hell and shoreless as eternity. All these met, as it were, in Christ’s heart, and he endured them all.”-Charles Spurgeon

“A little thorn may cause much suffering. A little cloud may hide the sun. Little foxes spoil the vines, and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These little sins burrow in the soul and make it so full of that which is hateful to Christ that he will hold no comfortable fellowship and communion with us. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There is no learning sympathy except by suffering. It cannot be studied from a book; it must be written on the heart.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”-Charles Spurgeon

“It is well to praise the Lord for his mercy when you are in health, but make sure that you do it when you are sick, for then your praise is more likely to be genuine.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The poor sinner trying to be saved by law is like a blind horse going round and round a mill, and never getting a step further, but only being whipped continually. The faster he goes, the more work he does, the more he is tired.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Men will never become great in theology until they become great in suffering.”-Charles Spurgeon

“How is it that some of us are converted, while our companions in sin are left to persevere in their godless career? Was there anything good in us that moved the heart of God to save us? God forbid that we should indulge the blasphemous thought!”-Charles Spurgeon

“Remember, he that believes shall be saved, be his sins ever so many.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There is no sin that shall damn the man who believes, and nothing can save the man who will not believe.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal… They come but blessed be God, they also go. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Your sorrow itself shall be turned into joy. Not the sorrow to be taken away, and joy to be put in its place, but the very sorrow which now grieves you shall be turned into joy. God not only takes away the bitterness and gives sweetness in its place but turns the bitterness into sweetness itself.”-Charles Spurgeon

“So honesty, sobriety, and such things may be very good among men. But all these things put together, without faith, do not please God. Virtues without faith are whitewashed sins.”-Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on God’s Love and Holiness

“Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly.”-Charles Spurgeon

“In holiness, God is more clearly seen than in anything else, save in the person of Christ Jesus the Lord, of whose life such holiness is but a repetition.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.”

“Holiness is better than morality. It goes beyond it. Holiness affects the heart. Holiness respects the motive. Holiness regards the whole nature of man.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There can be no such thing as perfect happiness till there is perfect holiness.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Unless our faith makes us pine after holiness, it is no better than the faith of devils, and perhaps it is not even so good as that.”-Charles Spurgeon

“To me, the greatest privilege in all the world would be perfect holiness. If I had my choice of all the blessings I can conceive of, I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or, in one word, holiness.”-Charles Spurgeon

“You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ.” -Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Heaven and Hell

“I believe there will be more in heaven than in hell. If you ask me why I think so, I answer, because Christ in everything is to have the preeminence (Col. 1:18), and I cannot conceive how he could have the preeminence if there are to be more in the dominions of Satan than in paradise.”-Charles 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.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I suspect that every saved soul in heaven is a great wonder and that heaven is a vast museum of wonders of grace and mercy, a palace of miracles, in which everything will surprise everyone who gets there.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If left to ourselves, the road to hell would be as naturally our choice as for a piece of inanimate matter to roll downwards, instead of assisting itself upwards.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Oh, to think of heaven without Christ! It is the same thing as thinking of hell. Heaven without Christ! It is day without the sun, existing without life, feasting without food, seeing without light.”

“You remember the story of the three wonders in heaven. The first wonder was that we should see so many there we did not expect to see. The second was that we should miss so many we did expect to see there. But the third wonder would be the greatest wonder of all—to see ourselves there.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I must frankly confess that of all my expectations of heaven, I will cheerfully renounce ten thousand things if I can but know that I shall have perfect holiness. If I may become like Jesus Christ—pure and perfect—I cannot understand how any other joy can be denied me. If we shall have that, surely we shall have everything.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I feel like that good old saint, who said that if she got to heaven, Jesus Christ should never hear the last of it. Truly he never shall!”-Charles Spurgeon

“There should be as much difference between the worldling and the Christian, as between hell and heaven, between destruction and eternal life.”-Charles Spurgeon

four people standing on edge of mountain

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on Love, Gratitude, and Humanity

“No man ever need fear offering a reward of a thousand pounds to a contented man, for if anyone came to claim the reward, he would prove his discontent.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water. Lifting her hands, she said as a blessing, ‘What! All this, and Christ too?’”-Charles 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 Spurgeon

“A man’s contentment is in his mind, not in the extent of his possessions. Alexander the Great, with all the world at his feet, cries for another world to conquer.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If you want the truth to go round the world, you must hire an express train to pull it, but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb: ‘a lie will go round the world while truth is putting its boots on.’”-Charles 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 Spurgeon

“There is a crown there which nobody’s head but yours can ever wear. There is a seat in which none but yourself can sit. There is a harp that will be silent till your fingers strike its strings.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Faith of itself could not contribute a penny to salvation, but it is the purse which holds a precious Christ within itself. It holds all the treasures of divine love.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened; let love be quickened. May gratitude to God permeate my entire life. The greater our present trials, the louder will our future songs be, and the more intense our joyful gratitude.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Love your fellowmen, and cry about them if you cannot bring them to Christ. If you cannot save them, you can weep over them. If you cannot give them a drop of cold water in hell, you can give them your heart’s tears while they are still in this body.”-Charles Spurgeon

silhouette of large cross during daytime

Charles Spurgeon Quotes on God

“Christ’s five wounds kill my suspicions and fears. A crucified Savior is the life of faith and the death of unbelief. Can you view the flowing of the Savior’s precious blood upon the tree of doom and not trust him?”-Charles Spurgeon

“Trusting in Jesus Christ my Savior, there is still a blessed quietness in the deep caverns of my soul, though upon the surface, a rough tempest may be raging, and there may be little apparent calm.”-Charles Spurgeon

“You believe in God for your soul. Believe in him about your property. Believe in God about your sick wife or your dying child. Believe in God about your losses and bad debts and declining business.”-Charles Spurgeon

“If I did not praise and bless Christ, my Lord, I should deserve to have my tongue torn out by its roots from my mouth. If I did not bless and magnify his name, I should deserve that every stone I tread on in the streets should rise up to curse my ingratitude, for I am a drowned debtor to the mercy of God—over head and ears—to infinite love and boundless compassion I am a debtor.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By grace, we learn to sing, and in glory, we continue to sing.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it.”-Charles Spurgeon

Other Powerful Quotes by Charles Spurgeon on Religion and Christ

“But the best argument of all [for evangelism] is to be found in the wounds of Jesus. You want to honor Him, you desire to put many crowns upon His head, and this you can best do by winning souls for Him. These are the spoils that He covets; these are the trophies for which He fights, these are the jewels that shall be His best adornment.”-Charles Spurgeon

“God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow than diminish the great mercy of God.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The chief aim of the enemy’s assaults is to get rid of Christ, to get rid of the atonement, to get rid of his suffering in the place of men.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior.”-Charles Spurgeon

“I believe that as often as I transgress, God is more ready to forgive me than I am ready to offend.”-Charles Spurgeon

“The man who can fully understand the word covenant is a theologian. That is the key of all theology—the covenant of works by which we fell, and the covenant of grace by which we stand, Christ fulfilling the covenant for us as our surety and representative, fulfilling it by the shedding of his blood, so leaving for us a covenant wholly fulfilled on our side, which is Christ’s side, and only to be fulfilled now by God.”-Charles Spurgeon

“It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose his own bride?”-Charles Spurgeon

“From the Word of God, I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation is all of grace, from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish, but he that is saved because God has chosen to save him.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There is nothing so deluding as feelings. Christians cannot live by feelings. Let me further tell you that these feelings are the work of Satan, for they are not right feelings. What right have you to set up your feelings against the word of Christ?”-Charles Spurgeon

“The attempt to perform good works apart from God is like the effort of a thief to set his stolen goods in order. His sole duty is to return them at once.”-Charles Spurgeon

“Perhaps your chosen hope is that you will be saved by doing your best. Alas, no man does his best! And the best acts of a rebel must be unacceptable to his king.”-Charles Spurgeon

“There is no secret of my heart which I would not pour into [the Lord’s] ear. There is no wish that might be deemed foolish or ambitious by others, which I would not communicate to him.”-Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon Works for Further Reading

If these Charles Spurgeon quotes were inspiring, look into his most famous works for further reading.

To discover all of the works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, visit this source.

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