Over the years, I’ve collected many Charles Spurgeon quotes on evangelism — words that still stir the heart and remind us of the eternal weight of sharing the gospel.
Spurgeon’s preaching was filled with passion for soul winning and missionary zeal. His words challenge us to live with the same fire for those who don’t yet know Christ.
These Spurgeon evangelism quotes come from sermons, tracts, and various collections found online. While I haven’t verified every source, each one captures the tone and urgency that made Spurgeon’s ministry so powerful. He reminds us that evangelism is not a task for a few professionals but a call for every believer to take seriously.
Spurgeon Quotes On Evangelism
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
“I well remember distributing them in a town in England where tracts had never been distributed before, and going from house to house, and telling in humble language the things of the kingdom of God. I might have done nothing, if I had not been encouraged by finding myself able to do something … [Tracts are] adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They have not the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers … They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute broadcast.”
Let each one of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. The distribution of tracts is the first thing
Do you want arguments for soul winning? Look up to Heaven, and ask yourself how sinners can ever reach those harps of gold and learn their everlasting song, unless they have someone to tell them of Jesus, who is mighty to save. But the best argument of all 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.
I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for.
“Lost! Lost! Lost! Better a whole world on fire than a soul lost! Better every star quenched and the skies a wreck than a single soul to be lost!”
“If there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning missions. If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness,it is the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world.”
“When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready….Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”
“To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth.”
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
“If there existed only one man or woman who did not love the Saviour, and if that person lived among the wilds of Siberia, and if it were necessary that all the millions of believers on the face of the earth should journey there, and every one of them plead with him to come to Jesus before he could be converted, it would be well worth all the zeal, labour, and expense. If we had to preach to thousands year after year, and never rescued but one soul, that one soul would be full reward for all our labour, for a soul is of countless price.”
“There is no joy in this world like union with Christ. The more we can feel it, the happier we are.”
Coach’s Reflection:
Spurgeon’s words challenge us to keep evangelism personal, prayerful, and urgent. When your hospitality or greeter team catches this heart, evangelism stops being a program—it becomes a way of life.
“We are not called to proclaim philosophy and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. Man’s fall, his need of a new birth, forgiveness through atonement, and salvation as the result of faith, these are our battle-ax and weapons of war.”
“God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell!”
“Reckon then that to acquire soul-winning power, you will have to go through mental torment and soul distress. You must go into the fire if you are going to pull others out of it, and you will have to dive into the floods if you are going to draw others out of the water. You cannot work a fire escape without feeling the scorch of the conflagration, nor man a lifeboat without being covered with the waves.”
“It is of no use for any of you to try to be soul-winners if you are not bearing fruit in your own lives. How can you serve the Lord with your lips if you do not serve Him with your lives.? How can you preach His gospel with your tongues, when with hands, feet, and heart you are preaching the devil’s gospel, and setting up an antichrist by your practical unholiness?”
“We must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task until it becomes easy.”
“I have no confidence at all in polished speech or brilliant literary effort to bring about a revival, but I have all the confidence in the world in the poor saint who would weep her eyes out because people are living in sin. I would choose, if I might, under God, to be a soulwinner.”
God be thanked when the Law so works as to take off the sinner from all confidence in himself! To make the leper confess that he is incurable is going a great way toward compelling him to go to that divine Savior, who alone is able to heal him. This is the whole end of the Law toward men whom God will save.
On Acts 18:10 – This should be a great encouragement in proclaiming the Gospel, since among the people in our communities—the disinterested, the rebellious, the careless—God has an elect people who must be saved. When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ’s property, and yet perhaps they are lovers of selfish pleasures and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them, He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price that His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go to them with the quickening Word of God.
I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls.
Let Me Ask You This
When you read these Spurgeon quotes on soul winning, what stirs in your heart?
Spurgeon never treated evangelism as optional. He saw it as the natural overflow of a heart transformed by grace. His challenge to every Christian is clear — don’t grow comfortable while people around you remain far from God.
If your passion for evangelism has cooled, take time to pray through these quotes.
Ask the Lord to renew your desire to see people come to faith, and to give you opportunities this week to speak about Jesus with someone who needs hope. Perhaps that would be a person on your prayer list of friends?
Spurgeon loved to talk about personal evangelism. When I need a recharge, these quotes fill my tank.
Do you want help in Personal Evangelism?
Start here with this MP3 Download on Evangelism Training from the store to help you see where you need to grow.
In this 70-minute MP3 AUDIO recording on personal evangelism you will learn:
- How church invitations are part of evangelism
- How to discover and share your own journey to faith
- What you can say about the gospel message.
- How to personally lead someone to faith in Christ.
It’s a 70-minute audio file that takes just a few minutes to download, but it may help you answer the question:
What can you do in the next 90 days to grow in your evangelism skills?
Editor’s Note:
This collection of Charles Spurgeon quotes on evangelism was first compiled in 2007 and updated in 2013. It has now been refreshed in 2025 with new reflections and a personal evangelism resource to help you apply these timeless truths in your ministry today.
What is Evangelism? A Definition
Thank you so much for this
It is a bigger blessing then you will ever know… on this side of the kingdom.
I turn to these every now and then to remind myself of the power of the Gospel
God Bless your heart, Chris!
I am proud of you, Chris!
I know that Jesus is real
hello Chris I can’t but say that you are doing a great job. May the Lord continue to strengthen you.I pray for you that the unction to finish well the Lord will release on you in Jesus name (AMEN)