On this and attached pages are various descriptions of one of Britain's greatest preachers, Charles H. Spurgeon, taken from a book called: Charles H. Spurgeon, His Faith and Works, by H.L. Wayland, 1892. I was particularly struck by this description: "He believed. Everything was a reality. When he was in his study, when he went into the pulpit, everything was a reality. He stood as God's representative to man, and as man's representative to God. The man who believes every word he says is a power. God works sometimes through narrow-minded men, sometimes through weak men, but always through men who believe."
Charles Spurgeon's Conversion
On a snowy, cold Sunday, a heartbroken Charles Spurgeon, desperately seeking God, came upon a little Primitive Methodist mission station. And it changed his life. Here is the story, in his own words.
James Garfield's Observations of Spurgeon
This is a journal entry by General James Garfield, later to become the 20th US president, in which he watches Charles Spurgeon preach at his London church.
Listening to Charles Spurgeon Preach
This is another glimpse from the congregation of what it was like to hear Charles Spurgeon, and perhaps more importantly, what Spurgeon himself was like.
Spurgeon's Outline for a Theology School
In a letter to the Secretary of the American Baptist Education Committee, Spurgeon gave 22 ideas for a school of theology. I thought his final point made especially good sense: If my recommendations aren't working, don't use them.
Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund
Mrs. Spurgeon wanted to get copies of her husband's books into the hands of ministers all over England. Here is what it led to. And I wonder if something similar might be done today.
Comments About Spurgeon in the Press
Here are a few excerpts about Spurgeon from the British press, trying to capture the essence of the man at the time of his death.
From the Heart of the Oak
Charles Spurgeon's wife was sickly, and it distressed her when she could not be with her husband. One gloomy day, as night drew on, she lay alone in her bedroom asking God why she must be sick in bed when she longed to be helping him. Then something happened...
Suddenly, she heard a soft, sweet sound, like the trill of a robin by the window. 'Surely,' she said, 'no bird can be singing at the window at this time of the year and night.' Presently she found the sound came from an oak log that was burning on the hearth. Then she said: 'The fire is bringing out the imprisoned music from the inmost heart of the old oak.'"
His Social Activism
I didn't know that Spurgeon had a streak of social activism in him until I found this quote. (I believe "dram shops" are bars or pubs.)
You will find petitions in the other end of the house against the opium traffic in India and China; I hope you will all sign them. For a government to carry on dram shops for the sake of profit is inexcusable; but that the government should carry on poison shops is utterly abominable.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
– Romans 12:1