Best Christian Biographies: 15 Classic Lives to Read Free
If you want one Christian biography to start with, read Augustine's Confessions. It is the first great spiritual autobiography, and people still find themselves in it sixteen hundred years later. If you want something shorter and closer to home, read John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, about five hours, written in jail. If you want a life that will change the way you pray, read the Autobiography of George Müller.
Why read old Christian lives at all? Because doctrine is easier to believe when you watch it work. These men and women were sinners who came to Christ, often after long struggles. Then they trusted God with their money, their health, their children and their ministry, and they wrote down what happened. They were honest about their doubts and failures. Reading them, you see that the Christian life is not new, that your fights are not new, and that God is still the same.
Here are fifteen of the best in TheWay Library, all free to read. For lives of missionaries, such as Hudson Taylor, John G. Paton and David Brainerd, see our separate guide to the best missionary biographies.
Start here
1. The Confessions of St. Augustine
Augustine wrote his life as one long prayer to God. The first nine books tell of a gifted, restless young man: the stolen pears, student life in Carthage, nine years among the Manichees, his mother Monica's tears, and the garden in Milan where a child's voice sang "Take up and read." The later books turn to memory, time and God.
Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.
The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book I
See Who Was Augustine of Hippo?, the story of his conversion and our summary of the Confessions. Read the Confessions.
2. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, by John Bunyan
Bunyan's own story, told in numbered paragraphs from Bedford jail. He was a swearing young tinker when a voice stopped him in the middle of a game. Years of terror over his sins followed, with one Bible verse seeming to fight another, until Christ's righteousness broke through. No book shows more honestly what it feels like to fear you are lost.
Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
If you love The Pilgrim's Progress, this is the life behind it. See Who Was John Bunyan? Read Grace Abounding.
3. Autobiography of George Müller
Müller was a thief and a liar as a divinity student in Prussia. After his conversion he went to England, and in Bristol he cared for thousands of orphans without ever asking anyone for money. He told only God. His journal records the needs, the prayers and the exact gifts that came, often at the last hour.
How the Lord will help us through this day I know not; but I have faith in God.
Autobiography of George Müller, chapter 6
For a single well-told life, try Arthur T. Pierson's George Müller of Bristol, written soon after Müller died. See also Who Was George Müller? and our guide to George Müller's books. Read the Autobiography.
4. Fanny Crosby's Life-Story
The blind hymn writer tells her own life in short, cheerful chapters: losing her sight as a baby, a grandmother who filled her memory with Scripture, school at the New York Institution for the Blind, and how her hymns were written. It is about three hours long and good for the whole family.
How much better it is to pray, hopefully and with faith, for those things we need, than to fret and complain because we do not already possess them!
Fanny Crosby's Life-Story, chapter 3
Her later autobiography, Memories of Eighty Years, adds the stories behind many of her hymns. Read Fanny Crosby's Life-Story.
Pastors and preachers
5. The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, by Andrew A. Bonar
M'Cheyne was the young minister of St. Peter's, Dundee, who died at twenty-nine. His friend Andrew Bonar tells of his conversion after his brother's death, his habits of prayer and holiness, his mission trip to Palestine, and the revival that broke out in his church while he was away. Pastors have kept this book close for nearly two centuries.
He felt meditation and prayer to be the very sinews of his work.
The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, chapter 3
6. The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter
A short life of the Puritan pastor, told largely in his own words. It follows his conversion, his years at Kidderminster, where his preaching and catechizing changed a whole town, the writing of The Saints' Everlasting Rest in sickness, and his persecution after 1662.
And I found that the transcript of the heart has the greatest force on the hearts of others.
The Life of Rev. Richard Baxter, chapter 3
See Who Was Richard Baxter? Read The Life of Richard Baxter.
7. Memoirs of Thomas Boston of Ettrick
Boston wrote these memoirs for his children, so they would know their father's inner life. They follow a Scottish country minister through his ordination, his marriage, the hard parish of Ettrick, his discovery of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, family griefs and long illness. It is long and quiet, a record of a real heart before God. Read Boston's Memoirs.
8. The Life and Labors of Charles H. Spurgeon, by George C. Needham
Written with Spurgeon's permission, this large book covers his conversion and first preaching, his call to London, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the Pastors' College and the Stockwell orphanage, and then fills out the picture with Spurgeon's own writing. For Spurgeon in his own words, read his Autobiography, volume 3. See also Who Was Charles Spurgeon? Read The Life and Labors of Spurgeon.
Evangelists and revival
9. The Life and Work of Dwight Lyman Moody, by J. Wilbur Chapman
A friend's memorial biography, published soon after Moody died. It tells of the Northfield boyhood, his devoted mother, his conversion as a shoe clerk, the Chicago Sunday school, the partnership with Ira Sankey, the great campaigns in Britain and America, and the schools he founded.
Devotion to his mother was a duty and a privilege second only to devotion to his God, in the mind of Mr. Moody.
The Life and Work of Dwight Lyman Moody, chapter 4
Sankey's own My Life and Sacred Songs tells the same story from the singer's side, with the history of the hymns they used. See Who Was D. L. Moody? Read Chapman's life of Moody.
10. Gipsy Smith: His Life and Work
Rodney Smith grew up in a gipsy tent. His mother died when he was small, his father and uncles found Christ, and the boy who could not read became one of the best-loved evangelists in the world. His story is warm, funny and moving. Read Gipsy Smith.
11. Wesley and His Century, by W. H. Fitchett
The fullest life of John Wesley in the library: the Epworth rectory and Susanna Wesley's training of her children, the Holy Club at Oxford, the failed mission to Georgia, the night at Aldersgate, and fifty years in the saddle preaching to England.
I felt my heart strangely warmed.
Wesley and His Century, Reaching the Goal
See Who Was John Wesley? For a shorter companion, J. C. Ryle's one-hour Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield tells of Wesley's great friend. Read Wesley and His Century.
Lives changed by grace
12. The Life of Col. James Gardiner, by Philip Doddridge
Gardiner was a dragoon officer known for his vices. One night in 1719, waiting for a meeting with a woman, he saw what seemed to be Christ on the cross and heard words he never forgot. He lived the rest of his life as a devoted Christian and died in battle at Prestonpans.
Oh, sinner! did I suffer this for thee, and are these the returns?
The Life of Col. James Gardiner, chapter 5
Read The Life of Col. James Gardiner.
13. Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, by Maria V. G. Havergal
The life of the hymn writer, drawn mostly from her own words. She was a child afraid of God, came slowly to trust Jesus, and later gave everything to Him. Here is the story of how "Take my life, and let it be" was written during a five-day visit, and of her last week. Read the Memorials.
Martyrs and reformers
14. Fox's Book of Martyrs
The classic record of Christians who died for Christ, from the Roman persecutions through the Inquisition to the burnings under Queen Mary in England. This popular edition adds later history too. Read it slowly. It will make you grateful for the faith you were handed.
Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as, I trust, will never be put out.
Fox's Book of Martyrs, chapter 12
15. Light from Old Times, by J. C. Ryle
Bishop Ryle's sketches of Wycliffe, the Marian martyrs, and Puritans such as Richard Baxter, with his answer to why the Reformers were burned. Ryle writes biography the way he preaches, plainly and with an eye on your soul. His shorter The Priest, the Puritan, and the Preacher covers Latimer, Baxter and Whitefield in three lectures.
Can death deprive us of Christ, which is all our comfort, our joy, and our life?
Light from Old Times, Nicholas Ridley
See Who Was J. C. Ryle? Read Light from Old Times.
A sampler of many lives
If you want short portraits rather than one long book, try J. Gilchrist Lawson's Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians. It gathers the turning points of dozens of believers, among them Fénelon, Bunyan, Wesley, Whitefield, Christmas Evans, Finney, Billy Bray and Moody, told as far as possible in their own words. It is a good way to find out whose full life you want to read next.
How to choose
Start with a short book. Grace Abounding, Fanny Crosby and Colonel Gardiner can each be read in an evening or two. Then take one long life slowly, a chapter a day: Müller, M'Cheyne or Wesley. Read with a pencil. These people prayed, gave and suffered in ways that will make you want to do the same.
More lives are on the Biography topic page, and you'll find the authors' other books on their pages, such as George Müller, John Bunyan and J. C. Ryle.