20. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)
20
Charles H. Spurgeon
1834–1892
Perhaps one of the highest compliments anyone could pay a preacher would be to say that he preaches like Spurgeon. It would be nigh impossible to locate many people today who actually heard Charles H. Spurgeon preach (he died on January 31, 1892), but the compliment is valid just the same.
Spurgeon was a wonder in his own day, and he is still a wonder today. When the sermons of other men are covered with dust, Spurgeon’s will still be read—and preached! But Spurgeon the man also needs to be discovered by each new generation of preachers, and perhaps rediscovered by some of us who first met him years ago. “Sell all that you have . . . and buy Spurgeon!” wrote Helmut Thielicke in his Encounter with Spurgeon, and with this counsel we heartily agree.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a many-sided individual. You find his name appearing in almost every book that touches upon the religious scene in Victorian England. Just think of the years spanned by his ministry. In the year he was called to New Park Street Chapel, the Crimean War began. The year he opened the great Metropolitan Tabernacle, the United States Civil War began. While he was ministering, Karl Marx wrote his The Communist Manifesto and Charles Darwin his Origin of Species. He was contemporary with Phillips Brooks, Alexander Whyte, D. L. Moody, F. B. Meyer, Alexander Maclaren, R. W. Dale (whose theology he criticized), and Joseph Parker. To get acquainted with Spurgeon is to become familiar with one of the greatest eras of preaching in the history of the church.
I suggest you begin with C. H. Spurgeon by W. Y. Fullerton. Published in 1920, this book has the value of having been written by one who was close to the great preacher. In fact, from 1879 to 1893 Fullerton served as one of Spurgeon’s assistants at the tabernacle, and often preached when he was away. For several years Fullerton edited Spurgeon’s sermons for publication each week and became so imbued with the great preacher’s style that it is almost impossible to detect where Spurgeon leaves off and his assistant begins! While Fullerton naturally wrote with great admiration for Spurgeon, this did not prevent Fullerton from gently disagreeing with his hero. It is a delightful, informative, and even an inspiring book; it bears reading and rereading. His final paragraph is a masterpiece: “To me he is master and friend. I have neither known nor heard of any other, in my time, so many-sided, so commanding, so simple, so humble, so selfless, so entirely Christ’s man. Proudly I stand at the salute!”
Now that you have the broad landscape of Spurgeon before you, you can obtain his autobiography, published by Banner of Truth in two volumes entitled Spurgeon. The original autobiography was published serially between 1897 and 1900 and was compiled from his letters and records by his wife and private secretary. These four volumes are not easy to secure, so we are grateful for this new two-volume edition. It is not identical to the original autobiography in that some extraneous material has been omitted—primarily sermon outhnes, newspaper quotations, and unimportant letters. But in two respects the new edition is superior: the editors have rearranged some sections to give greater continuity, and have added helpful footnotes. The beautiful thing about these two large volumes of more than one thousand pages is this: you can read a chapter at a sitting and, before you know it, complete the book! They are perfect to keep on your bedside table or near your favorite easy chair. Spurgeon wrote just as he preached—in clear Anglo-Saxon English—and his latest editors have not tried to improve upon his style.
It may shock you to discover that Spurgeon was not only a preacher; he was a fighter! He boldly preached the truth as he saw it in Scripture, and if his sermons hurt some individual or groups, he did not apologize. “Some things are true and some things are false—I regard that as an axiom,” he said in one of his famous lectures to his students. “But there are many persons who evidently do not believe it. . . . We have a fixed faith to preach, my brethren, and we are sent forth with a definite message from God.” However, he warned his young students, “Don’t go about the world with your fist doubled up for fighting, carrying a theological revolver in the leg of your trousers.” He practiced what he preached, but when his preaching did lead to controversy, he was not one to retreat. The best study of this aspect of Spurgeon’s ministry is The Forgotten Spurgeon, written by Iain Murray. In nine carefully documented chapters, the author takes us through Spurgeon’s battles over baptismal regeneration, Arminianism, and liberalism in the Baptist Union.
Spurgeon preached no diluted gospel, and when he heard other men preach that way, he heard a call to arms. His first declaration of war came shortly after he began publishing his weekly sermons in 1855. His Calvinistic theology upset some of the brethren: he was not Calvinistic enough for one group and he was too Calvinistic for another. The controversy raged in the pages of religious publications, with some writers even questioning Spurgeon’s conversion! “I am not very easily put down,” Spurgeon wrote to a friend. “I go right on and care for no man on God’s earth.”
The second controversy grew out of the sermon against baptismal regeneration, which was preached at the tabernacle on June 5, 1864.1 His text was Mark 16:15–16. Spurgeon was sure that the message would completely destroy the ministry of his printed sermons, but just the opposite occurred. His publishers sold over a quarter of a million copies! Fullerton stated that a “blizzard of pamphlets and sermons” swept down upon the churches as a result of this one message and that Spurgeon seemed to enjoy it!
“I hear you are in hot water,” a friend said to him.
“Oh, no,” Spurgeon replied. “It is the other fellows who are in hot water. I am the stoker, the man who makes the water boil.”
Of course Spurgeon was aiming at something much larger than the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. He was concerned about the growing influence of Romanism in England, and he was bold to say so. This was the Puritan in Spurgeon, fighting for biblical truth and making any sacrifice necessary to defend the doctrines of God’s grace.
Spurgeon’s third controversy was perhaps the most painful for him because it touched the fellowship of the brethren in the Baptist Union. In 1887 he published, in his Sword and Trowel magazine, several articles dealing with the growing heresy in Baptist churches. The first two articles were called “The Down-Grade,” and this led to the popular identification of the battle as the “down-grade controversy.” “It now becomes a serious question,” Spurgeon wrote, “how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternize with those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous evils; but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are departing from the truth?” On October 28, 1887 (Fullerton said October 8, but this is an error), Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union.2 “Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin,” he wrote in the November Sword and Trowel. His decision was final and it was public; now the Baptist Union had to act. What they did and how they did it is beautifully recorded in Murray’s book, and it stands (in my opinion) as a sorry indictment of a group of men who should have known better. Fullerton believed that Spurgeon himself should have come to the Baptist Union assembly, but since he had already resigned, this would have been impossible.
Alexander Maclaren was one of four pastors assigned to meet with Spurgeon, but he kept himself completely out of the matter. We wonder why. After Spurgeon’s death, the Baptist Union put in the entrance to its headquarters an imposing statue of Spurgeon!
But let’s turn from these disappointing events and consider some other facets of this man’s amazing life and ministry. It is well known that Spurgeon smoked, although it must be admitted that many famous British preachers smoked. (I have been told by one who ought to know that Campbell Morgan smoked as many as eight cigars a day! And R. W. Dale said that he could get along without food more easily than without his tobacco.) Once Spurgeon was gently reprimanded for his smoking by a Methodist preacher. “If I ever find myself smoking to excess, I promise I shall quit entirely,” Spurgeon said.
“What would you call smoking to excess?” the man asked.
“Why, smoking two cigars at the same time!” was the answer.
In Echoes and Memories, Bramwell Booth’s interesting book of reminiscences, this son of the founder of the Salvation Army mentioned Spurgeon’s habit of smoking. Scheduled to preach at a Salvation Army meeting, Spurgeon arrived “in a fine carriage, smoking a cigar. His remark that he smoked to the honor and glory of God is one of those oft-quoted sayings which have done infinite harm to the world, putting into the mouth of many a youth not only a poisonous weed but a flippant and irreligious apology.”3
Strange to say, while Spurgeon saw no harm in tobacco, he did oppose the theater. In fact, it was this (among other things) that precipitated his famous “open-letter” controversy with the famous Joseph Parker, eloquent pastor of the City Temple in London. Parker’s congregation was second in size only to Spurgeon’s, but his ecclesiastical circle was much wider and much more diversified. Spurgeon had been preaching in London for fifteen years when Parker came to Poultry Chapel (which later became the famous City Temple), and the men were on good terms. They exchanged pulpits and on occasion preached in support of various Christian enterprises in the city. On February 23, 1887, Parker invited Spurgeon to address an interdenominational gathering in defense of “the old evangelical faith.” The next day Spurgeon wrote a letter of refusal, kindly pointing out that Parker’s own ministry did not consistently defend the faith. The fuse had been lit. Parker immediately wanted to know if there was “aught against thy brother” and, if so, why Spurgeon had not told him sooner. Spurgeon replied, among other things: “The evangelical faith in which you and Mr. Beecher agree is not the faith which I hold; and the view of religion which takes you to the theater is so far off from mine that I cannot commune with you therein.” Parker’s reply was on a postcard: “Best thanks, and best regards—J. P.”4
The matter was forgotten until April 25, 1890, when Parker published an open letter to Spurgeon in the influential British Weekly, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll. Spurgeon’s Pastors’ College Conference was in session that week, making Parker’s attack that much more devastating. Nicoll himself was a great admirer and defender of Spurgeon, and it is difficult to understand why he published the letter. It said in part:
Let me advise you to widen the circle of which you are the center. You are surrounded by offerers of incense. They flatter your weakness, they laugh at your jokes, they feed you with compliments. My dear Spurgeon, you are too big a man for this. Take in more fresh air . . . scatter your ecclesiastical harem. I do not say destroy your circle: I simply say enlarge it.
Spurgeon ignored the letter and advised his staff and pastor friends to do the same. Parker should have known that Spurgeon’s power lay in concentration, not diffusion. He functioned best within his own household of faith, although he was generous to evangelicals in other denominations. “I am quite sure that the best way to promote union is to promote truth,” he said in a sermon. “It will not do for us to be all united together by yielding to one another’s mistakes.” There are men like Parker, Campbell Morgan, and D. L. Moody, who seem to belong to all believers, regardless of denominational affiliation; but there are also men like Spurgeon, Maclaren, and Truett, who helped the evangelical cause best by concentrating on their own denominational ministry. We need both kinds of preachers, and one should not be quick to condemn the other.
You will want to read Spurgeon: Heir of the Puritans by Ernest W. Bacon, one of the best biographies; and also A History of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle by Eric W. Hayden, who pastored the tabernacle for five years beginning in November 1956. The book is published in this country by Pilgrim Publications in Pasadena, Texas, and I urge you to secure it. It contains a wealth of information about the ministry of the tabernacle following Spurgeon’s death, and the bibliographies of titles by and about Spurgeon are excellent.
But, above all else, read Spurgeon himself! Get a complete edition of his Lectures to My Students and read it carefully. Granted, some of the material is antiquated, but much is relevant to our ministry. “The Minister’s Fainting Fits” and “The Need of Decision for the Truth” ought to be required reading for all ministerial students.
I enjoy reading An All-Round Ministry, a collection of Spurgeon’s presidential addresses to the students and alumni of the Pastors’ College. I say “enjoy reading,” but I must confess that these messages have more than once driven me to my knees in confession and prayer. Perhaps they will do the same for you.
Spurgeon was a lover of good books, with a library of some twelve thousand volumes. His views on books are found in the delightful volume Commenting and Commentaries, first published in 1876 and reprinted by Banner of Truth in 1969 (the new edition includes a complete index of Spurgeon’s sermons). If nothing else, simply enjoy reading his comments, many of which he must have written with a broad smile on his face. Naturally he favors the Puritans; but he had some kind words for writers of other schools—except the dispensationalists.
Of C.H.M.’s Genesis he wrote, “Precious and edifying reflections marred by peculiarities.” Of Exodus, “Not free from Plymouth errors, yet remarkably suggestive.” He warned that Leviticus “should be read cautiously.” By the time he got to Numbers, he used both barrels: “Like the other notes of C.H.M., they need filtering. Good as they are, their Darbyism gives them an unpleasant and unhealthy savour.” His comments about Darby’s books are not flattering: “Too mystical for ordinary minds,” he wrote about Practical Reflections on the Psalms. “If the author would write in plain English his readers would probably discover that there is nothing very valuable in his remarks.” Of that other great Brethren writer, William Kelly, Spurgeon wrote: “Mr. Kelly’s authoritative style has no weight with us. We do not call these lectures expounding, but confounding.” Four decades later, C. I. Scofield would preach often in Spurgeon’s pulpit during the pastorate of A. C. Dixon, who, by the way, had resigned from Moody Church to go to London.
One could go on and on about Spurgeon, citing facts and recalling anecdotes; but this is something you need to experience yourself. Plunge right into his sermons, his autobiography, and his other writings, and revel in the grace of God that was so real to this mighty preacher. Like all of us, Spurgeon had his faults and weaknesses, but he magnified God’s grace and glorified God’s son. We cannot all be Spurgeons, but we can all be faithful, as he was, in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.