|
 Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
was born on June 19, 1834 just ten days after the great
William Carey died in India. Because of economic conditions
the young Spurgeon was sent to live with his grandparents
at the age of 18 months. His grandfather, James Spurgeon,
ministered to the church at Stambourne for 54 years. Those
few years with his grandparents made a profound impact on
the young man’s life.
Spurgeon
was always a bit of an enigma intellectually. He could appear
to be unlearned when in reality he had a great intellect.
A incident from his early school days is a good example of
this. When he was around the age of ten, young Charles’ grades
unexplainably began to drop. It seemed the more winter deepened,
so did his scores. The teacher at first was baffled by this
plummet in performance until he realized that the upper grader
students seats were near a drafty door where cold wind seeped
in continually. When the teacher reversed the seating order
so the higher grade seats were away from the cold draft, Spurgeon’s
grades rose accordingly. 1
Like
many young people of his day, Charles struggled over his relationship
with God for a number of years. It was common in those days
for children to be encouraged to seek after God with their
whole heart. There was no such quickness to get people “to
make a decision” as we see in many of our churches today.
Just as John Bunyan struggled against God, Spurgeon remembered
how he fought against the idea of giving into Christ’s Lordship:
“I
must confess that I never would have been saved if I could
have helped it. As long as ever I could, I rebelled, and
revolted, and struggled against God. When He would have
me to pray, I would not pray … And when I heard, and the
tear rolled down my cheek, I wiped it away and defied Him
to melt my soul. But long before I began with Christ, He
began with me.” 2
After
some time of alternately searching and running, the God who
had already begun with a 16 year old boy led Charles to an
encounter which he never forgot. For some time the Holy Spirit
had been dealing with the young man’s soul. Spurgeon said
that “God was plowing his soul, ten black horses in his team
– the ten commandments – and cross plowing it with the message
of the Gospel, for when he heard it no comfort came to his
soul.” 3
With all of his Biblical upbringing and praying, Charles was
still lost in the darkness of his own heart.
The
incident that followed has been repeated so often in so many
sources that it needs no documenting. One Sunday morning the
snow was falling so hard that Charles could not get to his
own church so he wandered into a Primitive Methodist Chapel.
Doctrinally this little fellowship was world’s apart from
the Congregationalist heritage of the Spurgeons. Yet into
this little congregation of less than 15 people Spurgeon wandered
that cold winter morning. As he entered an unlearned and unnamed
itinerant preacher proclaimed the text, “Look unto Me, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” During that message,
the preacher looked directly at the young stranger in their
midst and said, “Young man, you look very miserable … You
always will be miserable in life and in death if you don’t
obey my text’ but if you obey now, this moment you will be
saved.” Spurgeon later wrote, “Between half past ten, when
I entered that chapel, and half past twelve, when I returned
home, what a change had taken place in me.!" 4
Charles Haddon Spurgeon had indeed become a child
of the Kingdom.
Neither
he nor the world would be the same as a result. Before long
Spurgeon was searching for a church which fit what he felt
God was doing in his life. He had never even heard of Baptists
until he was fourteen but Charles was drawn to the Baptist
congregation at Isleham. Our of respect to his parents the
young man wrote to tell them of his desire to be baptized
and join that fellowship. His mother wrote back she had often
prayed for him to be saved but that she had never asked that
he would become a Baptist. Charles replied to his mother by
writing that the “Lord had dealt with her in his usual bounty,
and had given her exceeding abundantly above what she had
asked.” 5
Spurgeon
would spend time in some ministerial training but he never
attended any formal theological school. He also served, preaching
to a small congregation near home for about two years at Waterbeach.
The country boy had not been called to stay in the country
however. God was about to unleash Charles Haddon Spurgeon
on the greatest city in the British Empire.
Away
from the quite life of Waterbeach, in London there was a congregation
known as New Park Street. It was one of the six largest Baptist
churches in London and held a heritage few churches could
claim. Among her former pastors were Benjamin
Keech, Dr. John Gill, and Dr. John
Rippon. These three great names in Baptist history had served
a combined 150 years at New Park Street. But times had changed.
New Park Street was now what we would call an inner-city church.
It was located in the midst of a filthy industrial district
which was hard to reach. What had once been a growing congregation
of 1200 had ebbed to a group of around 200 souls.
After
a series of events, young Spurgeon was asked to pastor this
once influential congregation in 1854. In spite of his own
doubts about his age a 20 year old Charles Spurgeon had become
pastor in the line of Keech, Gill and Rippon. So great was
the impact this novice preacher made on the people at New
Park Street and the city of London that by 1855 it was evident
a new church building was necessary to accommodate their growing
numbers. While the building was progressing the congregation
was forced to rent the Exeter Hall to meet in. This was considered
scandalous to many of the more high church types for churches
did not meet in public buildings in those days. Such growth
was not without its critics. Some pastors in London claimed
Spurgeon was a glory-hound while local newspapers issued caricatures
of Spurgeon as an egotistical and uneducated buffoon.
Not
only did Spurgeon gain a field of ministry at New Park Street
but he also gained a wife. In 1855 the pastor baptized a lovely
young woman by the name of Susannah Thompson. Almost exactly
one year later the Charles and Susannah were joined as soul-mates
for life. Words cannot describe the bond between these two.
Mrs. Spurgeon would be a semi-invalid and Rev. Spurgeon would
suffer from gout and depression through most of their marriage.
Yet they forged a wonderful marriage along with twin sons.
Susannah became her husband’s personal secretary. Once it
is reported that she took notes while he talked in his sleep.
When he awoke, Spurgeon found the sermon he had mumbled in
his sleep. He had slept but Susannah had not. Even after his
death, Mrs. Spurgeon kept the work alive, publishing Charles’
sermons and distributing thousands of books to young ministers
and others.
Regardless
of the obstacles the work went on. No sooner at the congregation
returned to their new building that they realized they had
not built large enough. So they began to worship at the Surey
Music Hall on Sunday nights. On October 19, 1856 ten thousand
people were crammed into the Hall to hear Spurgeon preach,
with another ten thousand outside. Not long after services
began, someone yelled, “Fire!” The panic that followed caused
the deaths of seven people. For several weeks pastor Spurgeon
secluded himself in depression over the event. As always,
however, God uses even the worst of events to bring about
His purposes. This event and those that followed over the
next few months led to the greatest chapter in Spurgeon’s
ministry.
In 1856, the congregation of New Park Street met to discuss
the building of a new sanctuary. In keeping with his vision
for London, Spurgeon and the congregation voted to change
the name of their church to Metropolitan Tabernacle. The years
of service at New Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle
would prove astounding. When Spurgeon came to New Park Street
in 1854 it had a membership of 232. By the end of 1891, 14,460
souls had been baptized and added to the church with a standing
membership of 5311.6
One
could read of all this work and assume that Spurgeon knew
nothing of enjoying himself. Such could be farther from the
truth. His sense of humor was renown. C.H.S. had a dislike
for instrumental music in the church, especially anthems.
After hearing a special performance Spurgeon was told that
it was music supposedly sung by David. His immediate reply
was, “Then I know why Saul threw his javelin at him.” In one
of his Friday lectures to his college students the pastor
told his students, “When you preach on heaven, have a face
that reflects the sweetness of God; when you preach on hell,
your normal face will do quite well.”
Rather
than focus on the things Spurgeon did at New Park Street and
Metropolitan Tabernacle, it is better to focus on what Spurgeon
was. William Gladstone called him “The Last Puritan.” Only
the end of time can prove whether that is completely true
but there is a ring of truth to that title. Spurgeon was no
high church Calvinist but he definitely felt more of an infinity
with men like Calvin and Bunyan than he did his contemporaries.
Speaking of his grandfather C.H.S. said, “I sometimes feel
the shadow of his broad (Puritan hat) come over my spirit.
I have been charged with being a mere echo of the Puritans,
but I had rather be an echo of truth than the voice of falsehood.”
7
Early
on it became apparent that Spurgeon had no fear of labeling
himself. He labeled himself by his preaching not by a systematic
theology. He was Calvinistic but not hyper- Calvinist. Spurgeon
never fled from the seeming incompatibility of the Sovereignty
of God and the responsibility of man to repentance. When challenged
to do so he replied, “I do not try to reconcile friends.”
Spurgeon was even once reported as praying before his sermon,
“Lord, call out your elect, and then elect some more.” 8
As
did Fuller and Carey,
Spurgeon proved that belief in the sovereignty of God does
not cool evangelism but rather inflames it. He always preached
to sinners, calling them to repentance and salvation. Though
he didn’t often have what we would call revival meetings,
he invited D.L. Moody to preach in his church and Ira Sankey
sang at his funeral. Because Spurgeon held to the tenants
of Calvinism while being warmly evangelistic it seemed he
was often shot at from all sides. Some Calvinists called him
an Arminian and many Arminians called him a hyper-Calvinist.
These attacks mattered little to Spurgeon. What he longed
for was what earlier Puritans had ardently prayed for. He
longed for God to pour out His Spirit on His people. He was
always calling the church to true revival.
Above
all, Spurgeon was a preacher of the Word. Not the shallow,
self-serving allusions to the Word we hear today. He was passionately
tied to the whole counsel of God. In The Greatest Fight in
the World, he said, “The Word is like its author, infinite,
immeasurable, without end. If you were to be ordained to be
a preacher throughout eternity, you would have before you
a theme equal to everlasting demands.” That undying allegiance
to God’s Word brought great triumph in Spurgeon’s life and
it sometimes brought great controversy.
Late
in Spurgeon’s life an incident began almost as a footnote
but which would become a headline in the body of Christ. In
March and April of 1887 two articles appeared in Spurgeon’s
magazine, The Sword and Trowel. The articles pointed out the
steady decline that seemed to be taking place among Evangelicals.
Following those articles were several more in which Spurgeon
warned of the influence of liberalism in general and Arminianism
in specific. In all of these articles Spurgeon spoke of the
downward grade evangelical churches were taking. This became
known as the Downgrade
Controversy. In the September issue C.H.S. wrote:
“The
time has come for Christians to stir: The house is being
robbed, its very walls are being digged down, but the good
people who are in the bed are too fond of the warmth, and
too much afraid of getting broken heads, to go downstairs
and meet the burglars …Inspiration and speculation cannot
long abide in peace. Compromise there can be none. We cannot
hold the inspiration of the Word, and yet reject it; we
cannot believe in the atonement and deny it; we cannot talk
of the doctrine of the fall and yet talk of the evolution
of spiritual life from human nature … One way or another
we must go. Decision is the virtue of the hour.” 9
Once
Spurgeon began to name the Baptist Union (which Metropolitan
Tabernacle belonged to) things degenerated rapidly. By October,
the pastor and church withdrew from The Baptist Union and
by December the Union was formally questioning Spurgeon about
his statements.
It
was Spurgeon’s faith and trust in the Word of God that led
him to warn the church of its downward slide toward liberalism
but it was actually his Christian charity that got him in
trouble. Spurgeon had been told in confidence the names of
some of the pastors in the Union who were embracing the “new
theology”. Because of this confidence, Spurgeon refused to
name the men he was speaking of. So, on January18, 1888, a
vote of censure was cast against the Union’s greatest preacher.
The die was cast. Spurgeon’s warnings would prove true as
the Baptist Union turned more and more to Higher Criticism
and gradually abandoned its adherence to God’s Word as the
sole authority of life and faith.
Charles
Spurgeon’s influence cannot be confined to degrees or titles
which were conferred upon him. Several university degrees
were awarded him but he always refused them. As his biographer,
W.Y. Fullerton noted, “The honors of the world … he held cheap;
intellect he valued and he always was a book lover, but he
ever reached after the eternal things rather than the temporal.”
10
If
there is any one remaining tangible evidence of the influence
Spurgeon had in his day it can be found in his sermons. In
particular, his printed sermons have had a monumental impact
for over 100 years. There are 63 volumes of Spurgeon’s sermons
in print to this day. Newspapers carried his sermons on a
weekly and sometimes daily basis for many years. Well over
100 million of those weekly sermons were sold. If one took
into account all of his publications they would fill 200 large
books. Even in by modern estimation these numbers are staggering.
People from California to New Zealand had one thing in common
they could discuss, if ever they met, the writing of C.H.
Spurgeon. Once could hardly recommend Spurgeon’s method of
sermon preparation unless you also have his spiritual and
intellectual gifts. He was a veracious reader and immersed
himself in the Puritans. Charles first discovered Bunyan’s
A Pilgrim’s Progress in his grandfather’s library and would
read it over 100 times before his death. He was well read
in Calvin, Baxter, Owens, Gill, Fuller
and many others. In his sermons Spurgeon quoted from the likes
of Justin Martyr, Augustine, John Bunyan,
George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards,
John Gill, Andrew
Fuller, and John Newton. 11
By the time of his death, Spurgeon held a personal library
of around 12,000 volumes. Much of that library now resides
at William
Jewel College in the USA.
Added
to that Spurgeon had a photographic memory. Nothing escaped
his mind and was catalogued away for later use at the proper
time. Because of all of these gifts, C.H.S. would not even
begin to write down his notes until Saturday night. His Sunday
night sermons were prepared on Sunday afternoons. Actually,
his sermons were always being prepared. His entire life was
a sermon preparation.
Another
great field of influence was The Pastor’s College which exists
to this day as Spurgeon’s College. In 1861 there were 21 students
and soon the school would average around 100 students at any
given time. This was not a typical seminary or Bible college.
“Wherever the men came from, it was clearly understood that
the college did not exist to make ministers but to train them.
Unless a man could show some evidence that he was called to
preach … there was no welcome for him, however great his gifts
in other directions.” 12
Preaching
wasn’t Spurgeon’s only passion. He was involved in extensive
social endeavors, especially in the orphanage work. Hundreds
of children who otherwise would have roamed the streets as
thieves and vagrants were housed, fed and trained in the Word
of God. Spurgeon once said, “We are a large church and we
must have a large heart for this city.”
As
mentioned earlier, C.H.S., suffered from severe gout. The
pain brought on times of severe depression. When those times
became too intense the Spurgeons often would vacation in Mentone,
France. While in Mentone in January of 1892. Like John Calvin,
Jonathan Edwards … George
Whitefield, and William Tyndale, the Prince of Preachers
left this earth at the age of 57. His funeral eulogy by Heber
Evans sums up the legacy of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:
“But
there is one Charles Haddon Spurgeon whom we cannot bury;
there is not earth enough in Norwood to bury him – the Spurgeon
of history.” 13
It would be easy to look on the last years of Spurgeon’s life
and assume as some of his time did that he grew contentious
in the pain of his years. Such could be farther from the truth.
Though he was an ardent Baptist, Spurgeon chose two men who
practiced infant baptism to head his orphanage. Though he
was a Calvinist, he was saved in a Primitive Methodist Church
and was supplied by a Presbyterian near the end of his life.
There was room for a larger circle of fellowship but not when
it came to the infallibility of the Bible and the centrality
of the Gospel. To Spurgeon the real mark of his ministry would
be long after he died:
“I sometimes
think if I were in heaven I should almost wish to visit
my work at the Tabernacle, to see whether it will abide
the test of time and prosper when I am gone. Will you keep
to the truth? Will you hold to the grand old doctrines of
the gospel? Or will this church, like so many others, go
away from the simplicity of its faith, and set up gaudy
services and false doctrine? Methinks I should turn over
in my grave if such a thing could be. God forbid it ! But
there will be no coming back …” 14
One week after Spurgeon’s home going, B.H.
Carroll preached an entire sermon on his larger influence
around the world. In typical Carroll style hear these final
words about Charles Haddon Spurgeon:
“Yes
Spurgeon is dead. The tallest and broadest oak in the forest
of time is fallen. The sweetest, most silvery and far-reaching
voice that published the glad tidings since apostolic times
is hushed. The hand whose sickle cut the widest swath in
the ripened grain fields of redemption lies folded and nerveless
on a pulseless breast, whose heart when beating kept time
with every human joy and woe. But he was ready to be offered.
He fought a good fight. He kept the faith, and while we
weep, he wears the triple crown of life and joy and glory,
which God the righteous Judge has conferred upon him … In
answer to the question: ‘How do you account for Spurgeon?’
the answer is … ‘God’”. 15
For
the man who lived his life All of Grace, that answer would
have been most satisfying indeed. “How do you account for
Spurgeon?” The answer is … “God”. 16
Return
to Portraits Page
1
W.Y. Fullerton, Charles H. Spurgeon: London’s Most Popular
Preacher, Moody Press: Chicago, 1966, pp. 19-20
2
Fullerton, p. 23
3
Fullerton, p. 32
4
C.H. Spurgeon, Autobiography, Volume 1, Chapters 9-11
5
Fullerton, p. 40
6
Fullerton, p. 121
7
Timothy George, Baptist Theologians, p. 272.
8
George, p. 274
9
Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 143
10
Fullerton, p.165
11
George, p. 283
Home
Distinctives
Reading
Quotes
Links
What's
New?
About Us
Baptist
Page Articles are offered as a service to the readers of The Baptist Page. You
are given permission to reprint this in any form available. We only ask that
this paragraph remain with the article.
©1997-2001
The Baptist Page - www.baptistpage.com
|
