In The Lights and Shadows of Spiritual Life, Octavius Winslow expounds the life of God in the soul of man and addresses various means that God uses to grow his. The book concludes with reflections on the second coming of Christ, "the crown and consummation of spiritual life." Octavius Winslow stood out as one of the foremost evangelical preachers of the 19th Century. A Baptist minister and contemporary of Charles Spurgeon he seceded to the Anglican church in his last decade. His Christ centered works show devotion and practicality.