One devotional resource that I have come to enjoy is Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden: Illustrations and Meditations, by Charles Spurgeon. He loved reading the Puritans and was frequently struck by how well Puritan Thomas Manton communicated biblical truths with simple illustrations.
To Manton’s thoughts Spurgeon added his own. Or, as Spurgeon put it: He cleared Manton’s house of all his pictures and then hung them in frames of his own. Each devotional in this book begins with an original statement by Manton that is then followed by thoughts from Spurgeon.
For example, here’s the devotional I read this morning:
THE KING AND HIS ATTENDANTS
Those who entertain a king, reckon upon receiving his train.
It is not fit that he should come alone. So those who receive Jesus by faith into their hearts, receive also his church, his ministers, his word, and his cause. They take the Saviour and all his belongings. As the old proverb hath it, “Love me, love my dog,” so they love all who belong to Jesus for their Lord’s sake. Where Jesus comes with pardon, he brings all the graces with him, and we are right glad to entertain them all: not only faith, but love, hope, patience, courage, zeal, and the whole band of virtues. It would be idle to say, “Christ is in me,” if none of the graces of his Spirit lodged within our souls.
Come in, great Lord, and dwell in my heart, and bring all thy disciples with thee, and all thy belongings, yea, and thy cross itself.
