What enables a woman to be a completer to a “contender for the faith”? For one, she must have a deep love and devotion to Christ. Susannah Spurgeon, wife of the “prince of preachers,” Charles Spurgeon, was a beautiful example of such a woman. Originally published in 1901, Susannah Spurgeon’s "A Basket of Summer Fruit" is a collection of sweet vignettes bearing the fruit of her love for Christ. Written in widowhood, but revealing the heart of a true helpmate, Susannah’s devotions are not only for the wives of preachers, but for all daughters of the faith. Doctrinally sound, theologically rich, and devotionally deep, these essays cover topics such as: cultivating a heart of praise to God, love and devotion to Christ, the gospel of Christ, the grace of God in suffering, the sovereignty and providence of God, submission and surrender, cross-bearing, personal holiness, consecrated living, spiritual warfare, and the knowledge of God both as Father and Heavenly Bridegroom. These are subjects which are sure to hearten every woman in her call to deny herself and follow Christ—yet they are also ones specifically tailored to strengthen and fortify the wives of those called to the ministry. It is the prayer of the publisher that this book will go forth not only to bless and to encourage but also to spur Christians on to pursue the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of God in Christ and to live lives worthy of His name. As a result, may God raise up many more daughters to be completers to “contenders for the faith,” just as Susannah was to Charles.

A Basket of Summer Fruit

Religion & Spirituality

Spurgeon, Susannah

Christian Books & Bibles

Corner Pillar Press

Sarah Edwards was the wife of America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Her narrative took place in the year 1742. In it, she chronicled the grace of God in giving her an uncommonly clear sight of His love made manifest in Christ crucified. As she beheld Him in His beauty, she was melted into His image and transformed into His likeness. To use the words of King Solomon, she was “lovesick.” Her heart was lifted up to partake of the sweetest, most intimate communion with God. She experienced a holy intercourse with God which she described as a constant flowing back and forth of love. Everything on earth seemed inconsequential so long as she had Christ. The more she saw Him by faith, the more she saw her own sinfulness. She was grieved, humbled, and broken. Yet at the same time, she abounded in joy, for the more she saw her unworthiness in contrast to His great worth, the more she could comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of His love in giving of Himself for her. O the praise that involuntarily springs up at such sights! These sights were what God used to free her from sin, wean her from the world, and grace her to surrender to His providence. Moreover, they enabled her to overflow with love for the brethren, be concerned for the lost, and be committed to His glory above all things.

In Love with Christ: The Narrative of Sarah Edwards: Edited and Annotated by Jennifer Adams

Edwards, Sarah

In the early nineteenth century, the idea of a man leaving his home to take the gospel to the “heathen” was radical, but the idea of a woman accompanying him in the call—absurd! Most people at the time were opposed to the idea altogether—they deemed it “wild and romantic in the extreme, and altogether inconsistent with prudence and delicacy.” Yet Ann believed that nothing could be more wise or “prudent” than to invest her life in eternity for the sake of Christ. After knowing Him in His redeeming love, it was unthinkable to Ann not to give her all for Him. Her life was not her own—she was bought with a price—therefore, she wanted to glorify God in her body. Ann displayed a feminine strength that was not absurd but precious in the sight of God. She wrote: “He has my heart in His hands, and when I am called to face danger, to pass through scenes of terror and distress, He can inspire me with fortitude and enable me to trust Him. Jesus is faithful; His promises are precious. Were it not for these considerations, I should, with my present prospects, sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen . . . God is my witness that I have not dared to decline the offer that has been made me, though so many are ready to call it a ‘wild romantic undertaking’ . . . O Jesus, make me live to Thee and I desire no more.” Ann left for the mission field confident and enthusiastic, but she finished meek and lamb-like. Her sufferings for Christ transformed her into the image of the Lamb and fitted her to join the ranks of “those of whom the world was not worthy.” For His sake she was put to death all day long. Following in His steps, she left for the mission field like a lamb to the slaughter. Yet she deemed Him worthy and did not shrink back. For His name’s sake she bore up, alone, under horrific torments of body and soul that no human could undergo apart from the sustaining grace of God. Her devotion to the Lamb and willingness to follow Him wherever He led made her radiate His beauty and display His worth.

Ann Judson: Missionary Wife: VOLUME I of The Lives of The Three Mrs. Judsons

Stuart, Arabella

(*Please note: This Corner Pillar Press book is available only in paperback. The Kindle edition that has been linked to this book is not the updated edition by Corner Pillar Press.) Humiliation for our own sins and the due preparation to take up our own cross and follow Christ in a suffering path is the only mark and aim of this tract. The expectation of and preparation for suffering abates much of the dread and terror by accustoming our thoughts beforehand to it, that we may find it not so grievous, shocking, and intolerable when it comes. Reader, the cup of suffering is a very bitter cup, and it is but needful that we provide something to sweeten it so that we may be able to receive it with thanksgiving. What those sweetening ingredients are, and how to prepare them, you will have some direction and help in the following discourse. It is a blessed and excellent thing for the people of God to be prepared and ready for the hardest services and worst of suffering to which the Lord may call them. Beloved, suffering is one of the choicest discoveries of your love to your master Christ—yea, it is such a testimony of love to Him as angels are not capable of. They show their love by their readiness to do His will in the execution of which they fly as with wings (Ezekiel 1:24) but you only have the happiness of testifying your love for Him by your readiness to suffer for Him. Is not this excellent? The shoe of preparation to follow Him through thorns and briers, and over rocks and mountains of difficulties and troubles, loves Him indeed.

Preparation for Suffering

FLAVEL, John

When missionary Samuel Newell asked for Harriet Atwood's hand in marriage, Harriet wrote, “Providence now gives me an opportunity to go myself to the heathen. Shall I refuse the offer? Shall I love the glittering toys of this dying world so well that I cannot relinquish them for God? Forbid it heaven! Yes, I will go. However weak and unqualified I am, there is an all-sufficient Savior ready to support me. In God alone is my hope. I will trust His promises and consider it one of the highest privileges that could be conferred upon me to be permitted to engage in His glorious service among the wretched inhabitants of India. . . . I go . . . to assist one of Christ's dear ministers in carrying the glad tidings of salvation to the perishing heathen of Asia.” Harriet left the shores of America with the certain expectation of death. Yet for Harriet, death was not loss, but gain. What makes death “gain” to a Christian teenager? The same thing that makes it gain to every believer—the full, unveiled presence of Christ. Harriet recognized death as the passageway to receiving the fullness of what she had longed for all her life—Christ. It was a price to pay that truly cost her nothing—it was gain! When Christ called, she was enabled to look death in the face with joy, and like a radiant bride, she hastened it, eager to be embraced by her Heavenly Bridegroom to “behold the light of His countenance.” Some of her dying words were: “Tell my dear brothers and sisters how much I love them. Tell them from the dying lips of their affectionate sister that the world is vain and worthless, and that there is nothing but religion worth living for. The eldest of them will be anxious to know my views of missions at this time. Tell them—assure them, that I approve on my dying bed the course I have taken. I have never repented leaving all for Christ.”

Delighting in Her Heavenly Bridegroom: The Memoirs of Harriet Newell, Teenage Missionary Wife

Newell, Harriet

The memoirs of Henrietta Shuck give the reader a glimpse into the life of a young lady who forsook all to accompany her husband in taking the gospel to China. Henrietta was a devoted daughter who loved her parents dearly. Few daughters could more beautifully illustrate what it means to “honor your father and mother.” However, while she loved her family, she loved Christ more. When missionary Lewis Shuck proposed to Henrietta, she wrote, “The life of a missionary is by no means an easy one—to the comfort and ease of this world she is a stranger—but she enjoys what in my estimation is far better—the presence of the Most High.” Her primary reason for accepting the call was to enjoy the manifest presence of Christ. She accompanied her husband to China not only to proclaim the gospel but to partake of it. She was America's first female missionary to China. As a pioneer missionary wife and mother, her primary ministry was in and through the home. She wrote, “I desire to be a comfort to him who shares my best affections, to train up little ones that God has given us for heaven, and to be the means of bringing into the fold of Christ many Chinese.” She maintained a sweet, submissive spirit during sickness and was marked by perseverance. During dark and perplexing providences, she continued to draw life and love from Christ crucified. She wrote, “What would this world be without an interest in Christ? What but Christ can bear us up under the trials of life? What else can cause us to tread, with joyful steps, the sometimes dark and unknown paths of life? Let us then ever rely on Christ.” After ten years of sowing, she and her husband witnessed the Lord raise up the first Baptist church in China! After her death, her husband said of her, “She was a most faithful, devoted, affectionate wife and mother, a laborious missionary, and a warm-hearted friend of all. Her prayers and anxious labors for her children and the Chinese will not be in vain. I never knew of one whose faith was stronger. She was a believer in minute providence—her devotions were punctual—her confidence in God unwavering. She was a being of love and a lovely being.” Henrietta labored with her husband and children in China for the sake of the gospel that she might manifest Christ's beauty and display His worth.

Following Her Beloved: The Memoirs of Henrietta Shuck, Missionary Wife and Mother

Shuck, Henrietta

Jeter, Jeremiah Bell

(*Please note: This Corner Pillar Press book is available only in paperback. We are in the process of making it available for Kindle, but as of now, the Kindle edition that has been linked to this book is not the updated edition that is part of the "Completer to a Contender for the Faith" series.) Elizabeth Dwight, and her husband Harrison, were among America’s first missionaries to Turkey. She accomplished what few women in her generation were able to do—model on the mission field how to be a godly wife and mother. She sought to raise her children for Christ in the midst of the same crooked and perverse generation that she and her husband were trying to reach. Her children’s conversion was her constant theme. She said, “ ‘My children must be converted early in life’ is a sentiment which ought to be adopted by every Christian mother and deserves to be written in letters of gold daily before her eyes; or rather, so indelibly printed upon the heart as never, for one hour, to be forgotten. . . . True, it must be accomplished through the grace of God!” Shortly after arriving on the mission field, she suffered physical complications that often left her bedridden. She attempted to instruct her children from her bed but struggled with feelings of failure and fear. She learned to rebuke her feelings and replace them with faith in God’s promises, trusting that as she employed the means of grace in her mothering, the Lord would make those means effectual unto their salvation. Her prayer was that as she raised her children for Christ, He would raise them up as missionaries. She encouraged others to do the same. She wrote, “Your daughter may hereafter be a solitary example of true female piety to multitudes in an unchristian or a heathen country. Educate her as much as possible to be everything that is amiable, worthy, and desirable as a wife. She may, at some future period, be the sole companion and helpmeet of a man of God under labors most weighty and trials most severe. Life, under God, in some solemn hour, may hang on her skill and tenderness to sooth . . . . Will you then train [your children] wholly for God and give them up expressly to bear the glad tidings of salvation to those who sit in darkness if He shall see fit to use them?” Her perseverance in raising her children for Christ, in spite of her scars, manifests Christ’s beauty and displays His worth.

With Cords of Love: The Memoirs of Elizabeth Dwight, Missionary Wife and Mother

Dwight, Harrison

*EASY TO READ MODERN FONT* There is no doctrine more excellent in itself or more necessary to be preached and studied than the doctrine of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All other knowledge, how much so ever it be magnified in the world, is to be esteemed but dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the very marrow and kernel of all the Scriptures, and the scope and center of all divine revelations. The right knowledge of Jesus Christ, like a clue, leads you through the whole labyrinth of the Scriptures. The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon. Those that rack and torture their brains upon other studies, like children, weary themselves at a low game. The angels study this doctrine, and stoop down to look into this deep abyss. What are the truths discovered in Christ, but the very secrets that from eternity lay hid in the bosom of God? (Eph. 3:8-9). God's heart is opened to men in Christ (John 1:18). This makes the gospel such a glorious dispensation, because Christ is so gloriously revealed therein (2 Cor. 3:9) and the studying of Christ in the gospel stamps such a heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul. It is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge to be studying Jesus Christ. What is it but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort? And the deeper you dig, the more do these springs flow upon you. How are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the gospel! What ecstasies, meltings, transports, do gracious souls meet there! A believer could sit from morning to night to hear discourses of Christ, for "His mouth is most sweet" (Song of Solomon 5:16). Let all that mind the honor of religion or the peace and comfort of their own souls, wholly sequester and apply themselves to the study of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The things which singly ravish and delight the souls of men are all found conjunctly in Christ. From the knowledge of Jesus Christ do bud forth all the fruits of comfort, and that for all seasons and conditions. Study to know Christ more intensively, to get the experimental taste and lively power of his knowledge upon your hearts and affections. This is the knowledge that carries all the sweetness and comfort in it. O then separate, devote, and wholly give yourself, your time, your strength to this most sweet transcendent study.

The Fountain of Life--A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory: Volume I of the Works of John Flavel

To be the chief instruments of our own greatest happiness—through prayer—is a privilege of which there could not be a more transcendent royalty. When the greatest love which we can possibly bear has opened its mouth wide and stretched our desires in prayer to the utmost compass, then God’s infinite vast love will not only fill them, but do for us above all that we are able to ask, yea, to think; exceeding abundantly above all; as far above as his thoughts are above our thoughts, which is far more than the heavens are higher than the earth.All which, if well considered, would provoke us to gather all the precious stock of our time, thoughts, and intentions (which we cast away on trifles) and lay out the choicest portion of them in this thriving trade of intercourse with God through prayer; the returns (or answers) of prayer being better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. It is the praying Christian alone that employs the riches of the promises which we usually let lie by, like dead stock, unimproved. While he, like a wise and diligent merchant, looks abroad upon all the affairs of Jesus Christ that are afloat here in this world and ventures in them all. He is watchful to spy out all advantages and involves himself with a holy intermeddling in everything that glorifies God, does good to the church, and comforts his own soul. How infinitely rich must that man be that puts God’s riches out to use with the increase of ten talents for one, yea, a hundred-fold, through prayer!

The Return of Prayers: Sowing Seeds of Prayer and Waiting on God for a Harvest of Answers (The Puritan Prayer Trilogy)

Goodwin, Thomas

The word “importunity” in the original signifies impudence or want of shame. It is a metaphor taken from beggars who are impudently importunate and take no denial. If you deny them once, they will ask you again, and again, and never leave till they get what they desire. Importunity is a gathering together of all the affections of the soul, a stirring them all up in prayer, whereby the soul is so earnestly desirous of the good it wants that it will not rest nor leave off the duty until it finds some return or answer to prayer. This is meant in Rom. 12:12, “continuing instant in prayer.” The original word is very emphatic—it notes not only to persevere, but to persevere and continue with utmost strength; to engage all of a man’s possibility in the work. It notes urgency and fervency. It is a phrase borrowed from dogs who are on a hunt and will not cease following the game till they get it…. So you are to hunger after God, and after mercy, and not rest satisfied till God grants the mercy you stand in need of. The foundation of importunity proceeds from the largeness and greatness of God’s power, and the riches and freeness of His grace towards us. A man may ask of another man, and it may be received, but then he must not ask again. But herein appears the power, the ability, the goodness, and the bounty of God: If we ask Him once or twice, He is a God that is able to give, not according to our asking only, but above what we ask; and not only above what we can ask, but above what we can ask or think. The words are so full that they cannot well be expressed, “God does more than excessively.” God has not only a fullness of abundance, but of redundancy; not only of plenty, but bounty. He is better than our prayers.

Importunity: Refusing to Give Up in Prayer (The Puritan Prayer Trilogy)

Love, Christopher

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