Evening by Evening [Annotated, Updated]: Daily Devotional Readings

Charles H. Spurgeon’s devotionals
Morning by Morning and
Evening by Evening have inspired, encouraged, and challenged Christians for generations. Spurgeon, with his masterful hand, carefully selected his text from throughout the Bible and covered a broad range of topics, in order to present a well-balanced and fruitful daily devotional for readers both young and old.

Now updated into more-modern English for today’s readers, and again separated into two volumes as originally published, with morning devotionals in one volume and evening devotionals in the second. We chose a 11-point font for the sake of legibility, and formatted the devotionals so each fits on a single page.

January 1
(Sample Devotional)

We will rejoice in you and be glad. (Song of Solomon 1:4)

We will rejoice in you and be glad. We will not open the gates of the year with the notes of a mournful song, but with the sweet strains of the harp of joy and the high-sounding cymbals of gladness.
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1). We, the called and faithful and chosen, will drive away our griefs and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles, while we who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah’s bitter water (Exodus 15:23-25) will magnify the Lord with joy!

Eternal Spirit, our powerful Comforter – we who are the temples in which You dwell will never stop adoring and blessing the name of Jesus.

We will rejoice, for we are resolved to do so. Jesus must have the crown of our heart’s delight. We will not dishonor our Bridegroom by mourning in His presence. We are ordained to be the singers of the skies. Let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem.

We will be glad and rejoice.
Glad and
rejoice are two words with one sense: double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Does there need to be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? Do not men and women of grace find their Lord to be nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon even now (Song of Solomon 4:14)? And what better fragrance could they have in heaven itself?

We will be glad and rejoice in You. That last word – You, Jesus – is the delicacy in the dish, the kernel of the nut, and the soul of the text. What joys are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite delight have their source and every drop of their fullness in Him!

Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, You are the present portion of Your people, favor us this year with such a sense of Your preciousness that from its first day to its last we may be glad and rejoice in You.

Let your January open with joy in the Lord, and close your December with gladness in Jesus.

About the Author

Charles Haddon (C. H.) Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British Baptist preacher. He started preaching at age 16 and quickly became famous. He is still known as the “Prince of Preachers” and frequently had more than 10,000 people present to hear him preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. His sermons were printed in newspapers, translated into many languages, and published in many books.