C.H. Spurgeon Quotes

Of all dust the worst for the eyes is gold dust. PP61 Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, but covetousness wants all things. PP67 Misers never rest till they are put to bed with a shovel: they often get so wretched that they would hang themselves only they grudge themselves the expense of a rope. PP154 A great American preacher has said, “Covetousness breeds misery. The sight of houses better than our own, of dress beyond our means, of jewels costlier than we may wear, of stately equipage, and rare curiosities beyond our reach, these hatch the viper brood of covetous thoughts; vexing the poor who would be rich; tormenting the rich who would be richer.” WWi40 Avarice is a raving madness, which seeks to grasp the world in its arms, and yet despises the plenty it has already. WWi41 Baxter, and those terrible old preachers, used to picture the miser, and the man who lived only to make gold, in the middle of hell; and they imagined Mammon pouring melted gold down their throat. WWi41 You say, “That is strange: if I had a little more I should be very well satisfied.” You make a mistake: if you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. WWi123 Brethren, I do solemnly believe, that of all hypocrites, those are the persons of whom there is the least hope whose God is their money. You may reclaim a drunkard; thank God, we have seen many instances of that; and even a fallen Christian, who has given way to vice, may loath his lust, and return from it; but I fear me that the cases in which a man who is cankered with covetousness has ever been saved, are so few, that they might be written on your fingernail. This is a sin which the world does not rebuke; the most faithful minister can scarce smite its forehead. God knoweth what thunders I have launched out against men who are all for this world, and yet pretend to be Christ’s followers; but yet they always say, “It is not for me.” What I should call stark naked covetousness, they call prudence, discretion, economy, and so on; and actions which I would scorn to spit upon, they will do, and think their hands quite clean after they have done them, and still sit as God’s people sit, and hear as God’s people hear, and think that after they have sold Christ for paltry gain, they will go to heaven. O souls, souls, souls, beware, beware, beware, most of all of greed! It is not money, nor the lack of money, but the love of money which is the root of all evil. 494.92 St. Francis Sales, who had a great many people come to him to confession, makes this note, that he had many men and women come to him who confessed all sorts of most outrageous crimes, but he never had one who confessed covetousness. 499.154 A man cannot wear more than one suit of clothes at a time, after all; and let him do what he likes, he cannot eat seven dinners in a day, and he cannot enjoy ten times more than anyone else. 2306.208 Is not the desire for wealth a thing which grows with that it feeds upon, so that, the more a man has, the more he still wants? 2987.231 You will usually find that the covetous man sees no charm in generosity. He thinks that the liberal man, if he is not actually a fool, is so near akin to one that he might very easily be mistaken for one. 3159.410 God has said he will never leave us, and if we have him we possess all things. Who has need to be covetous when all things are his, and God is his? 3387.8