You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.
Interpretation
True transformation comes from within, not through violence or death.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes that one cannot force a moral or spiritual change in a person through extreme measures such as violence. It asserts that genuine change must come from the individual's own will and actions, and if someone fails to live righteously in life, they will not attain righteousness in the afterlife either.
In practice
This quote could be used in a sermon discussing the nature of repentance and transformation.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
That man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.
After every war someone has to tidy up.
As long as there are those who are willing to shed blood and take innocent life in the name of religion, the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace.
The Church is designed to nourish the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted.
People who have a sense of peace that their priorities are in the right place also have a sense of humility and a realistic view on life.
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