Spurgeon: What I love about the Baptist Tradition

I was pretty discouraged with all this theology and at times like that I sometimes go to this book I really enjoyed "Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching" by Iain H. Murray. I find Spurgeon normally kind of boring because he has gems of wisdom within long sermons, but this book takes all of those gems and puts them together so that you cut through the slag.

I love Spurgeon, that's why I still like the Baptist tradition, and I still think infant baptism has got to be one of the biggest malignings of the gospel as well (but Tradition/Augustine/Church Fathers are allowed to malign the gospel I guess in non-Baptist traditions - including my own). Anyway, here's some wonderful quotes:

"Man must not look to himself to find reasons for God's grace...Trust nothing of your own, not even your own sense of need...Sinners, let me address you with words of life; Jesus wants nothing from you, nothing whatsoever, nothing done, nothing felt; he gives both work and feeling. Ragged, penniless, just as you are, lost, forsaken, desolate, with no good feelings, and no good hopes, still Jesus comes to you, and in these words of pity he addresses you, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out"..."Him that cometh to me:"...the man may have been guilty of an atrocious sin, too black for mention; but if he comes to Christ he shall not be cast out. He may have made himself as black as night - as black as hell...I cannot tell what kind of persons may have come into this Hall to-night; but if burglars, murderers, and dynamite-men were here, I would still bid them come to Christ, for he will not cast them out. No limit is set to the extent of sin: any "him" in all the world - any blaspheming, devilish "him" that comes to Christ shall be welcomed. I use strong words that I may open the gate of mercy. Any "him" that comes to Christ - though he come from slum or taproom, betting ring or gambling-hell, prison or brothel - Jesus will in no wise cast out." - Charles H. Spurgeon in "Spurgeon v. Hypercalvinism" p. 78, 79

"Beloved, there is nothing that so delights Jesus Christ as to save sinners... You misjudge him if you think he wants to be argued with and persuaded to have mercy; he gives it as freely as the sun pours forth light...Paul had no stinted Saviour to present to a few, no narrow-hearted Christ to be the head of a clique, but he preached a great Saviour to great masses, a great Saviour to great sinners..." Spurgeon p. 93

"you cannot help it; if you are the people of God you must commune with all saints, baptized or not. You may deny them the outward and visible sign, but you cannot keep them from the inward spiritual grace...If a man be a child of God, I do not care what I may think about him - if he be a child of God I do commune with him and I must" - Spurgeon p. 110

"We give our hand to every man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, be he what he may or who he may. The doctrine of election, like the great act of election itself, is intended to divide, not between Israel and Israel, but between Israel and the Egyptians, - not between saint and saint, but between saints and the children of the world. A man may be evidently of God's chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any wilful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus." Spurgeon p. 112

"True peace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. I know there are some who think there is no grace beyond their own church...not unlike those ancient wranglers in the land of Uz, they say, "We are the men and wisdom will die with us." ...You may have sound doctrine and yet do nothing unless you have Christ in your spirit. I have known all the doctrines of grace to be unmistakably preached, and yet there have been no conversions" p. 113

Spurgeon mocked hyper-calvinists saying they believed "they cannot be saved till they are thorough theologians" p. 115. Well I love Spurgeon, I have even more quotes, as I read him even though as a Catholic he would've either beat me to death with his KJV bible or just screamed and pointed "reprobate" at least within Protestantism he advocated this kind of a view. I hope that maybe someday someone will come to advocate a view this open and grace-filled, if they ever did I don't care what denomination they were in, I'd join that church...