Giants of the Faith Bios

Charles Spurgeon – Prince of Preachers

{1834-1892}

God’s Hand

When Jesus Christ called Peter and Andrew he said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”.  Even a cursory glance at their lives proves He did just that.  So it is with Charles Spurgeon.  Even with a brief glance at his life, one is left with the distinct impression that it was the presence of Christ in Spurgeon that made him one of the greatest Christians and preachers that the church has ever known.

God’s Way

Spurgeon is one of those classic men of God who, despite his lack of formal theological education, rose to prominence due to the fact that the hand of the Lord rested gloriously upon his life.  As a little boy, he learned to read using the Bible.  Instead of looking at children’s picture books, he read the deep, rich writings of the Puritans.  It is an understatement to say that his mind was huge.  His life was marked by an extraordinary aptitude for devouring difficult reading material and for his ability to sustain strenuous thought.  By the age of 13, he would sit comfortably with his Grandfather‘s group of pastoral friends, reasoning and dialoguing extensively on any given theological issue.  As a growing boy, he loved to read and as an adult, he loved to write.  Ultimately, the English Baptist preacher with his graphic and emotionally charged sermons changed the face of evangelical Christianity.  Today, over one hundred years after his death, there is more material in print by Charles Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, alive or dead.

Spurgeon was born in 1834 in the area of Essex, England where there was a long-standing heritage of Protestant resistance.  Spurgeon’s heroes were dauntless Protestants who were burned to death for their faith and daring Puritans, such as John Bunyan, who were jailed for their beliefs.  During the years of his evangelistic ministry, he made it clear that George Whitefield was his chief example.

God’s Salvation

His conversion came in 1850 at age fifteen.  Even with a head full of theology and the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, he was up to this time, still unconverted.  Nevertheless, he was going through intense soul-searching and conviction from the Holy Spirit.  On his way to a scheduled appointment, he was forced by a snowstorm to take shelter in a small country church where God opened his heart to the salvation message.

Spurgeon explains what happened in his own words:  “The preacher was reading from Isaiah 45:22. ‘Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.’  There was nothing needed, by me at any rate, except this text.  Then stopping, he pointed to where I was sitting under the gallery, and he said, ‘That young man there looks very miserable’…and he shouted, ‘Look!  Look, young man!  Look now!’  I can never tell you how it was, but I no sooner saw whom I was to believe than I also understood what it was to believe…As the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God.”

God’s Work

Spurgeon preached his first sermon in 1851.  From the beginning of his ministry, his style and ability were noted far above average.  His flamboyance in the pulpit earned him titles such as, “The Preaching Boy Wonder”, and “The Prince of Preachers”.  At the age of 17, he assumed his first pastorate lasting from 1852-1854 near Cambridge at Waterbeach.  His gifts were quickly and widely evident and he was called to the pastorate of the Baptist church in New Park Street, Southwark, London.

The congregation was small when he arrived, but within a few weeks he was attracting large crowds, even though he was only twenty years of age.  The chapel proved too small, and it was decided to extend it.  While this was proceeding, he preached at the Exeter Hall, but again the crowds could not be accommodated.  When he returned to the extended chapel in New Park Street, this quickly proved too small, so a great tabernacle was planned.  While this was being built, he preached to great crowds at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall.

The Metropolitan Tabernacle cost thirty one thousand pounds to build and could hold six thousand people.  Spurgeon preached here from 1861 until just before his death.  His preaching was powerful and humorous.  His messages appealed to the intellect as well as the heart and he was a careful expositor of the Scriptures as well as a dedicated evangelist.  The excellent quality of his sermons is proven by the fact that in their printed form, they are still popular and eminently readable today, over a century after they were written.

Spurgeon was a prolific writer.  From 1855, a sermon written by him was printed each week.  These have been collected in many volumes.  In 1865, he started a monthly magazine called The Sword and the Trowel.  His insightful comments on the Psalms are found in The Treasury of David (1870-1885).  The advice he gave to young preachers is found in his Lectures to My Students (1875, 1877) and Commenting and Commentaries (1876).  His autobiography, edited by his wife and two friends (taken from his letters, diaries, and writings) was published in four volumes between 1897 and 1900.

As a compelling preacher, Spurgeon said he had but one solitary purpose:  “I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross”.  A single burning desire filled his heart-to see people come to Jesus Christ by faith.

“Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God’s grace”, Spurgeon explained.  Devoted to the Scriptures, to disciplined prayer, and to godly living, Spurgeon exemplified Christian commitment when he stood in the pulpit.  This alone gave power to his preaching.

God’s Servant

However, there was a weaker side to Spurgeon-his health.  One scholar wrote; “Perhaps it is correct to say that as a preacher, Spurgeon had everything, except good health.  He suffered constantly from various ailments and fell into serious depression at times.  Yet through all of his sufferings, he was ever learning the deeper meaning of the Christian life.  Spurgeon said, ‘I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit.  It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.’”

Toward the end of his life, he took a firm stand in the famous “Downgrade Controversy” of 1887-1889.  This was a time when many preachers turned from the Word of God in their pulpits, becoming more liberal in an effort to get more and more people into their churches.  This, combined with his fragile health condition from rheumatoid gout, wore him down physically until his death at the age of fifty-seven in 1892.

In extreme pain at what turned out to be his last sermon on June 7, 1891, Charles Spurgeon told those gathered, “He [Jesus Christ] is the most magnanimous of captains.  There never was His like among the choicest of princes.  He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle.  When the wind blows cold, He always takes the bleak side of the hill.  The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoulders.  If He bids us carry a burden, He carries it also.  If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in Him.”

“These forty years and more have I served Him, blessed be His name!  I have had nothing but love from Him.  I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if so it pleased Him.  His service is life, peace, joy.  Oh that you would enter on it at once!  God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day!  Amen.”