In his book Encounter with Spurgeon, Helmut Thielicke, the great theologian and famous preacher, said that Charles H. Spurgeon was effective as a preacher and as an interpreter because “he gave out only what flowed into him in never ceasing supply from the channels of Holy Scripture.”

Those who are familiar with Spurgeon’s writings agree with Thielicke that Spurgeon was a great interpreter of Scripture.  His sermons reveal the careful, painstaking study of the Bible that is behind Spurgeon’s proclamation of God’s Word.

In his Morning and Evening: Daily Readings,  Spurgeon brings Scriptures to life.  Many Christians are not familiar with this classic devotional work which explores the riches of the Bible and apply the truths of God’s Word to daily life.  Below is one example of Spurgeon’s work.  It is based on Psalm 28:1.

“Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” — Psalm 28:1

“Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock.”  A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and His ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our Rock attends to our cries.

“Be not silent to me.” Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will — they must go further, and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but His silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close His ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, He will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers?

“Lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for He never can find it in His heart to permit His own elect to perish.

I just hope that this small sample of Spurgeon’s work will encourage you to become familiar with Morning and Evening.  I guarantee that you will be greatly blessed by this classical devotional work.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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