Morning by Morning by Spurgeon: What It Is and How to Use It
Morning by Morning is a book of daily devotional readings by C. H. Spurgeon, first published in 1865. It gives one short reading for every morning of the year, from January 1 to December 31, and each one opens with a verse of Scripture from the King James Version. Spurgeon wrote it to be read before the day's work begins, alone or with the family. It's still one of the most loved devotionals in English, and you can read Morning by Morning free in TheWay Library, with every day of the year as its own page.
This guide covers how the book is put together, a simple way to use it, and a handful of sample readings quoted word for word with their dates. For the best single lines, see Morning by Morning quotes. For the man himself, read Who was Charles Spurgeon?
What the book is
Spurgeon was the pastor of a large London congregation and one of the busiest preachers of his century. He knew that most of his readers were busy too: shopkeepers, servants, mothers, clerks. So he wrote readings that take a few minutes. Each one takes a single verse and presses it home with warmth and plain application. He talks straight to the reader, often as "beloved," "believer" or "dear reader," and he writes the way he preached.
A few years later he wrote a companion volume for the evening, Evening by Evening. The two are often printed together today as Morning and Evening. The book in TheWay Library is the morning volume on its own, from the 1865 edition.
How it is arranged
The plan is simple. There are 366 readings, one for each date, including February 29. Every reading has three parts:
- A verse at the top. Most days begin with a single text, such as "Continue in prayer" (Colossians 4:2) on January 2.
- A page of comment. Spurgeon draws out the meaning of the verse and turns it into counsel, comfort or warning for the day.
- Often a few lines of a hymn. Many readings close with a verse from a hymn, as a way of carrying the thought into praise.
The year has a shape. The first days of January look ahead to the new year. From late March into April the readings walk with Christ through Gethsemane, the trials, the scourging and the cross. The last reading, on December 31, closes the year with Christ's cry on the last day of the feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37).
The first edition also carried a short selection of hymns for family morning worship. Spurgeon's note introducing it shows how he pictured the book being used:
Happy is that household where the day begins with God, all hearts and tongues praising him.
Morning by Morning, hymns for morning worship
How to use Morning by Morning
You don't need a method to profit from this book, but a little order helps.
- Read it on its date. Open to today. In TheWay Library each date links straight to its page, so January 1 is one tap away.
- Read the verse first, and slowly. Then look it up in your Bible and read the verses around it. Spurgeon assumes you know where the text comes from.
- Read the comment once straight through. Then go back to the one sentence that caught you and think about it through the day.
- Pray it back. Many readings end with a plea or a resolve. Turn it into your own prayer.
- Use it with others. It works well at the breakfast table. One person reads, and everyone says what struck them.
If you miss a day, just read today's. The book is meant to help, not to keep score.
Sample readings
Here are six readings from across the year, each quoted from the 1865 text.
January 1: the rest that remains
The year opens with Joshua 5:12, the day Israel "did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year." Spurgeon asks the reader to think that this year might be the year of going home to heaven, and if not, to taste heaven's rest now.
Perhaps this year, beloved Christian reader, this may be thy case or mine.
Morning by Morning, January 1
Let us banish every fearful thought, and rejoice with exceeding great joy, in the prospect that this year we shall begin to be "forever with the Lord."
Morning by Morning, January 1
January 2: a motto for the year
The second reading gives the whole year its watchword. Spurgeon notices how much of the Bible is taken up with prayer and draws the lesson:
We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives.
Morning by Morning, January 2
It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian.
Morning by Morning, January 2
He ends with a line many readers have written in the front of their Bibles: "The motto for this year must be, 'Continue in prayer.'" You can read January 2 in full.
February 18: why trials come
On Job's question, "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me" (Job 10:2), Spurgeon says trials bring out graces we did not know we had.
Hope itself is like a star — not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.
Morning by Morning, February 18
Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the jewels of His children's graces, to make them shine the better.
Morning by Morning, February 18
April 17: coming to the blood every day
In the readings on the cross, Spurgeon takes Hebrews 12:24, "the blood of sprinkling." His point is that faith in Christ is not one visit in the past but a daily coming.
If thou hast ever come to the blood of sprinkling, thou wilt feel thy need of coming to it every day. He who does not desire to wash in that every day has never washed in it at all.
Morning by Morning, April 17
August 15: time alone with God
Isaac "went out to meditate in the field at the eventide" (Genesis 24:63). Spurgeon praises his occupation, his place and his hour, and gives a plain charge to busy readers.
We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere.
Morning by Morning, August 15
And for those who can't get out to a field, he adds that "the Lord is in the town, too, and will meet with thee in thy chamber or in the crowded street."
December 29: hitherto
Near the year's end Spurgeon takes Samuel's stone of help, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12), and looks both back and ahead.
THE word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past.
Morning by Morning, December 29
Then he turns it forward, to more trials and more strength, and at last to heaven. It's a good page to read with a family on the last Sunday of the year. Read December 29.
A note on the text
The edition in TheWay Library is restored from a scan of the 1865 printing and is still being proofread, so you may meet the odd misread letter. The quotations on this page have been checked against the text.
Where to go next
Start with today's date on the Morning by Morning book page. Then browse the best quotes from Morning by Morning, or try Spurgeon's short gospel book, with our All of Grace summary. More of his books are on his author page, and other daily readings are under Devotional.