Do you ever underline helpful passages in books you are reading? This is exactly what C. H. Spurgeon used to do when reading the Puritans. Whilst reading Thomas Manton, he was struck time and time again by the ‘solid, sensible instruction, forcibly delivered’ that he found there.
To Manton’s thoughts, Spurgeon added his own; the result being, as Spurgeon put it, that he cleared Manton’s house of all his pictures, and then hung them up in frames of his own. These newly framed pictures are exhibited in Flowers From a Puritan’s Garden, which Spurgeon intended to be used as an aid to meditation and prayer. Preachers will also find inspiration in these Manton-Spurgeon combinations for sensible and clear sermon illustrations.