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Morning and Evening is one of the most enduring daily devotionals in the English language. More than 150 years after Charles Spurgeon wrote it, people still read a page each morning and another each night.
If you’ve heard the title and wondered whether it’s worth your time, or you own a copy and aren’t sure how to get the most from its older language, this guide is for you. Here’s what the book is, who wrote it, why it has lasted, and how to actually read it today.
What Morning and Evening is
Morning and Evening is a daily devotional with two short readings for every day of the year: one for the morning and one for the evening. That structure is the whole idea. It bookends your day with scripture, meeting you when you wake and again before you sleep.
Each entry takes a single Bible verse, or a short phrase from one, and expands on it in a few rich paragraphs. Spurgeon draws out the comfort, the challenge, and the practical meaning of the words, then leaves you with something to carry into the next several hours.
It began as two separate books in the 1860s, Morning by Morning and Evening by Evening, later combined into the single volume most people know today. Because it’s long out of copyright, the text is in the public domain, which is part of why it shows up everywhere from leather-bound gift editions to free apps.
Who Charles Spurgeon was
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 to 1892) was a British Baptist pastor so widely admired that he’s still called “the Prince of Preachers.” For decades he led the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, where he preached to thousands every week, long before microphones or recordings.
He was extraordinarily prolific. Alongside his sermons, he wrote commentaries, letters, and devotional books, of which Morning and Evening is the best loved. His voice on the page is warm, vivid, and direct. He reaches for everyday images, and he isn’t afraid to be tender one moment and bracing the next.
He also wrote from real hardship. Spurgeon battled illness and long stretches of depression through much of his ministry, and that honesty seeps into the devotions. He isn’t writing from a mountaintop — he’s writing as someone who knew dark seasons and kept turning to God through them, which is a large part of why the readings still land.
Why it has lasted 150 years
Plenty of devotionals from Spurgeon’s era have been forgotten. A few things keep this one in print.
The first is the two-a-day structure. Most devotionals give you a single reading. Spurgeon gives you a rhythm — a way to begin and end the day in scripture, which fits neatly into the kind of daily habit that actually changes a person over time.
The second is the depth. These aren’t light, feel-good paragraphs. Spurgeon takes a verse seriously and mines it, so a single page can give you something to think about all day. Readers who’ve found gentler modern devotionals a little thin often come to Spurgeon for the substance.
And the third is his honesty about suffering. Because he wrote through his own pain, the book meets you in yours. In a hard season it reads less like a lecture and more like company from someone who understood.
How to read Morning and Evening today
The one hurdle is the language. Spurgeon wrote in ornate Victorian English, and a 21st-century reader can find the long sentences and older vocabulary slow going. A few things make it easier.
- Read it slowly, and out loud if you can. Spurgeon’s prose was written to be heard. Reading a dense paragraph aloud, at an unhurried pace, unlocks it in a way that skimming never will.
- Read one entry, not the whole page in a rush. A single morning reading is enough. Sit with one idea rather than racing to the bottom.
- Keep a Bible nearby. Look up the verse each entry is built on. Spurgeon is unpacking scripture, so seeing the verse in context makes his reflection richer.
- Consider an updated-language edition. Modern publishers have released revised versions that gently update Spurgeon’s vocabulary and sentence length while keeping his meaning. If the original feels like wading, a revised edition is a legitimate way in — not cheating.
- Turn it into a prayer. End each reading by praying the verse and Spurgeon’s thought back to God in your own words. That’s the move that turns a reading into a devotion.
Used this way, the morning entry sets a tone for your day and the evening entry helps you set the day down. If pairing scripture with the end of the day appeals to you, our bedtime devotions for adults and evening prayers to end your day work in the same spirit.
Where to find it
Because Morning and Evening is in the public domain, you have a lot of free and paid options.
The full text is available free online through archives like the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. You’ll also find it in most Bible apps as a built-in devotional. If you’d rather hold a copy, printed editions range from inexpensive paperbacks to nicer gift and updated-language versions. For where it sits among other classics, see our roundup of the best Christian devotional books.
A modern way to keep the rhythm
The genius of Spurgeon’s format, a reading to open the day and one to close it, doesn’t depend on his 1860s prose. You can keep the rhythm with plainer, modern words, and you can listen instead of read on the days that don’t allow for sitting down with a book.
That’s the daily shape the Still app is built around: a short devotion in the morning and an evening prayer at night, scripture and reflection spoken over calm narration, so you can close your eyes and receive it. It won’t replace the pleasure of Spurgeon on the page, but on a tired night it carries the same morning-and-evening idea when reading isn’t going to happen. Download Still on the App Store.
Frequently asked questions
What is Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening? It’s a classic daily devotional by the 19th-century British preacher Charles Spurgeon, with two short readings for each day of the year, one for the morning and one for the evening. Each takes a Bible verse and expands on it in a few reflective paragraphs.
When was Morning and Evening written? It grew out of two books Spurgeon published in the 1860s, Morning by Morning and Evening by Evening, later combined into a single volume. It has stayed in print ever since and is now in the public domain.
Is Morning and Evening available for free? Yes. Because it’s out of copyright, the full text is free through online archives and is built into many Bible apps. Paid print editions exist too, including updated-language versions.
Is the old language hard to read? It can be. Spurgeon wrote in ornate Victorian English, so the sentences run long. Reading slowly and out loud helps, and updated-language editions modernize the vocabulary while keeping his meaning if you’d prefer an easier way in.
Conclusion: an old book that still keeps you company
Morning and Evening has outlasted a century and a half of newer devotionals for a simple reason: it takes scripture seriously, it meets you at both ends of the day, and it was written by a man who knew suffering and kept trusting God anyway.
Read it slowly, one entry at a time, and let each page be a doorway into a minute of prayer. Whether you read the original, an updated edition, or keep the same morning-and-evening rhythm another way, the habit is what matters.
If you’re building that habit from scratch, our guide to starting a daily devotional walks through it step by step, and our roundup of the best daily devotional apps covers the modern options.
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