Charles H Spurgeon was born on June 19th, 1834 in Kelvedon, Essex. His mother could not cope and at fourteen months, sent her son to stay with her parents at Stambourne, for the next five years. His ancestors for four generations were believers, with one, Job Spurgeon, imprisoned for attending a non-conformist meeting in the seventeenth century. His grandfather had been pastor of the Congregational church there for the last 25 years.
At the age of three, Spurgeon showed he had an interest in books and at five or six he was able to read perfectly, unlike his friends of a similar age, and he would read out passages at family worship. Spurgeon's father wanted to ensure that his son got a good education, so he began school around five years of age. His mother was a very strong Christian and imparted her beliefs into her son Charles, and she would often be in prayer, pleading for the salvation of her children. Very early he took to reading books by great Puritan scholars and he would listen to theological discussions between his father and his friends. By the age of nine or ten Spurgeon had a good grasp on theological matters, which was an extraordinary thing. A former missionary was present during the Spurgeon family worship, and he commented, "I have heard old ministers and young ones read well, but never did I hear a little boy read so correctly before." One day he had Charles on his knee and he prophesied, "This child will one day preach the Gospel and will preach it to great multitudes and I am persuaded he will preach it in the chapel of Rowland Hill." The chapel was one of the largest of its day, and Spurgeon later did preach there.
These words really impacted the young boy and he determined to be a preacher, but to do that he first had to be saved. From the age of ten he was at a school in Colchester and then he was put in his uncle's school in Maidstone for a year. Spurgeon had such a talent for mathematics that his uncle asked him to prepare a set of life tables for a London insurance company that were still in use in 1903. His father said that Charles did not take part in the normal things boys did - he just wanted to study all the time.
While he was at his next school in Newmarket, Charles experienced a time of conviction of sin that was very painful. He later wrote, "I would rather pass through seven years of languishing sickness, than I would ever again pass through the terrible discovery of the evil of sin." For several months he sought Christ, but whenever he read the Bible, he felt the judgments were for him, but not the promises. The knowledge that he had sinned against God was a huge trial for him, even though he had sinned less than most boys of his age. He said, "Though God knoweth, I would weep and cry and lament till my heart was breaking within me." Charles was even tempted to turn away from God completely. One text kept him from falling for good, even from suicide -"Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
While at Newmarket he visited church after church, trying to find out how to lift the dreadful burden he was carrying. While back home for Christmas, on January 6th, 1850 Charles was going to a church when there was a snowstorm and he had to find one nearer. He found himself near a Primitive Methodist church, so he went in. The minister was snowed in at home, so somebody else preached from the text, "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth." The speaker did not have much going for him; evidently he could not even pronounce the words properly. After spinning out his talk for ten minutes, the speaker pointed to Spurgeon and said, "Young man, you look very miserable, and you always will be miserable - miserable in, life and miserable in death - if you don't obey my test; but if you obey now, this minute, you will be saved." Then he lifted his hands and shouted, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ, Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!" Spurgeon immediately understood; he had been trying to attain salvation through good works, but now he realised, all he had to do was look! He saw at once the way to salvation. He was full of joy when he returned home and his family immediately saw the change in him.
Strangely, despite a lot of research, nobody was able to find the relevant preacher on that fateful day. Three people claimed to have been him, but Spurgeon did not recognise them. Was he converted through an angel?
On returning to Newmarket, everything was different. He decided to make a covenant with God, giving himself completely over to Him. He started by handing out tracts; he would not be happy unless he was doing something for God. He joined a Congregationalist church, and he was made a Sunday School teacher. He was so popular that adults started to join the children to hear him. Sometimes he would go and help the children in their homes and he would take advantage of this by preaching the Gospel to the parents. But soon found disagreement there, because he believed in Baptism by immersion and not infant Baptism. He asked for permission from his parents to be baptised, permission which was only reluctantly given. Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, he was baptised in the river Lark in front of many people who lined both banks of the river. Spurgeon felt his timidity washed away, together with his fear of man.
Shortly after his father, wanting to give Charles the very best education, sent him to Cambridge to attend a new school there. Whilst there he joined St Andrew's Street Baptist Church. In the following weeks he grew rapidly in Christian knowledge and Spiritual maturity. In actions and words he really seemed to be an adult, rather than a sixteen-year-old. There was a preachers' association there, led by James Vintner, which sent out preachers to surrounding villages. Vintner immediately recognised Spurgeon's extraordinary gift of public speaking and wanted him to preach for him, Fearful that Spurgeon would reject the suggestion, he asked him to go to Teversham the following Sunday, "as a young man was to preach there who was not much used to services and very likely would be glad of company" He set out with the young man the following Sunday and on their journey commented that he hoped he would feel the presence of God while preaching. The young man said, "he had never preached in his life and could not attempt such a thing." He said, "There would be no sermon unless I delivered one." Spurgeon was surprised, but attracted to the idea. As they walked along, he thought, "Surely I could tell a few cottagers of the sweetness and love of Jesus, for I felt them in my own soul." The people were so blessed by what he said that they insisted he return the following Sunday. From this experience Spurgeon realised that preaching would be his life's work.
Spurgeon pursued his studies to such an extent that his brother thought that there would be few young men his equal. His teacher strongly believed that, had he not been a non-conformist he would have got a degree at Cambridge University. His preaching became so sought after that he soon was preaching almost every evening; it was a kind of training school for the future. In October 1851 he preached in the Baptist church, Waterbeach and they liked him so much that the asked him to be their pastor, which he accepted. He became known as "the Boy Preacher." He had 40 in the church, but soon people came from around the area to hear him and in no time the church had grown to 400. There were so many that many stood outside listening to him. During his time there he developed an extraordinary gift of understanding and influencing people. A number of people felt convicted of sin and received the Saviour under his ministry there. Waterbeach was quite a debauched town and it became virtually transformed as the biggest vagabonds and villains in the town gave their lives to Jesus.
When preparing his talks at Wisbeach, Spurgeon, unlike other young preachers, was able to apply the depth of knowledge he had gleaned from reading all those books as a child. During this time he learned how to deal with people and his character developed. He was audacious and fearless. He did not just wait to preach in church, he went into the highways and byways to speak to people and to encourage them to come to the church. All he wanted when he preached was for someone to be saved. His secret was his absolute dependence on God, his sincerity and his passion.
It was suggested to the young preacher that he enter a Baptist College to get ministerial training and he was decided to do so, when one day he heard an audible voice saying, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not!" He therefore decided against going to the College.
After being at Wisbeach around three years, a deacon of Loughton Baptist church heard Spurgeon speak at the Guildhall, Cambridge. This man was very impressed by what he heard and later, when talking to his friend, a deacon of New Park Street chapel in London. He recommended Spurgeon to fill the empty pastorate there. New Park Street chapel had a brilliant past, having been led by several very gifted pastors, but by this time, the building that could contain 1,200 people could only scrape together two hundred. The chapel had moved from Carter Lane due to development at London Bridge, but the site chosen in Southwark was very poor. It was so low lying that it would often flood, also it was close to Southwark Bridge and people had to pay a toll if coming from the City, and what had been a residential area was fast becoming an industrial one.
Spurgeon received an invitation to speak at New Park Street in November 1853; he went nervously to preach his 673rd sermon to a smallish congregation. The people enjoyed it and told their friends about it, so the congregation in the evening was much larger than normal. After the sermon the people were too excited to go home. The got into groups to discuss the merits of asking Spurgeon to be their pastor. The deacons assured them that they would do their best to get the young preacher to say yes. He was asked immediately if he would come for six months, but Spurgeon thought that everything was moving too fast, so he agreed to preach there a couple more times over the coming month. In a letter to his father he said that the deacons were only impressed because they had had such poor preachers for a long time to compare him with. He recognised that he was in the hands of God. In another letter to his father he said that the people were more extreme in their Calvinism than he was, but he could change that. On receiving the offical invitation to pastor there for six months, he agreed to three because he felt that they were being too hurried in inviting such a young man with little experience.
As soon as he started to minister in Southwark, the building was packed to the rafters. The prayer meetings were full of power and there were many conversions. The people wanted his probation to end and on April 19th, 1854 he was asked to be the pastor of the church and he accepted. Spurgeon mentioned to the deacons his lack of College training, but they considered that an advantage as he would not be the power he was had he gone to college.
A contempory observer wrote, "His voice is clear and musical; his language plain; his style flowing, but terse; his method lucid and orderly; his matter sound and suitable; his tone and spirit cordial, his remarks always pithy and pungent, sometimes familiar and colloquial, yet never light or coarse, much less profane. Judging from a single sermon, we supposed that he would become a plain, faithful, forcible and affectionate preacher of the Gospel in the form called Calvinistic; and our judgment was the more favourable, because while there was a solidity beyond his years we detected little of the wild luxuriance naturally characteristic of very young preachers."
More eulogistic was the opinion of Sheridan Knowles, the actor and playwright. "Go and hear the Cambridgeshire lad at once he is only a boy, but he is the most wonderful preacher in the world. He is absolutely perfect in his oratory, and beside that, a master in the art of acting. He has nothing to learn from me or anyone else. He is simply perfect. He knows everything. He can do anything. I was once lessee of Drury Lane Theatre, and were I still in that position I would offer him a fortune to play for one season on the boards of that house. Why, boys, he can do anything he pleases with his audience! He can make them laugh and cry and laugh again in five minutes. His power was never equalled. Now mark my words, boys, that young man will live to be the greatest preacher of this or any other age. He will bring more souls to Christ than any man who ever proclaimed the Gospel, not excepting the Apostle Paul. His name will be known everywhere, and his sermons will be translated into many of the languages of the world."
There appeared to be no pride in Spurgeon; he attributed all his success to God. He wrote that his success appalled him! It was not all praise and success - within a year there was a cholera outbreak. He had invitations to speak from all over the country, but he felt he had to stay close to minister to his people who were afraid or who were dying. He had calls to help the dying almost every day from all over the district.
The crowds were so great that hundreds could not get into the building on Sundays, so they decided to expand the building which took a little over three months, opening in May 1855. A year later the chapel was again not big enough, so they moved Sunday services to the Exeter Hall in the Strand. An hour before the opening of the doors, crowds would line up down the Strand and traffic would have to be diverted. Ninety percent of the congregation was men. The strain of giving out so much took its toll on Spurgeon; he gave everything of himself in his preaching. By the end of 1856 the church had 860 members.
Notable figures came to the church to hear Spurgeon, but he did not care about that. Whenever and wherever he preached the building could not contain the crowds. They said that there had not been crowds like this since Wesley and Whitfield. In June 1855 he spoke to 10,000 in a field in Hackney, but he could not find his way back out of the crowds, amidst cheers, prayers and shouts. Finally, he found an open carriage that took him away. He stood up, waving his hat, crying, "the blessing of God be with you!" The people waved their hats in the air and cheered and cheered.
Spurgeon could have been wealthy, but he did not covet money. He told the deacons that he would pay for the expenses of the building out of his salary and he did not want any collections made. People in those days paid rent for their seats in the church. In 1853 income was less than £300, but in 1855 it was £2,374.
On his arrival at the church there was a member of the congregation called Susannah Thompson. She was not overly impressed with the young preacher, but their paths crossed occasionally. In June 1854, they were in a party together for the opening of the Crystal Palace and the young man gave her a book and asked her what she thought of what was written under the heading, 'Of Marriage'. Then whispering, he asked her, "Do you pray for him who is to be your husband?" She immediately understood and her heart beat faster. Two months later Spurgeon proposed and she accepted. However, they did not see much of each other, because her fiancé was doing twelve or thirteen preaches a week and travelling hundreds of miles to fulfil engagements. However, their love for one another grew and Susannah soon learnt that she came second to God in her fiancé's heart. It could not have been easy always coming second. They were married on January 8th, 1856.
They set up home in the New Kent Road, but they were financially stretched in those early years. In September, Mrs Spurgeon had twin boys.
Because of his youth and his incredible talent, Spurgeon received a lot of abuse. London preaching had degenerated until it had practically ceased to be a power. The bourgeoisie were happy with the preaching because it left their consciences easy, but the masses were hungry for something more. As the young man was rattling the cages of the upper class and wealthy, he had to be taken down. Articles started to appear in the religious and secular press that were strongly against him, even saying he was not properly converted. Untrue stories were published about him; some of them were repeated for a long time, like the story of him sliding down the banister (which did not exist) of his pulpit to show a backslider. One of the preacher's responses to the libel that regularly befel him was, "Never mind; when Satan opens his mouth he gives me the opportunity of ramming my sword down his throat." One after another the newspapers printed bitter and censorious articles about Spurgeon. Month after month the attacks continued; scores, if not hundreds of vile articles were published. Spurgeon's response was characteristic of the man; he told God that if he had to take away his character, then take it away! He considered that these attacks helped balance the flattery he received, keeping him on the right path, but eventually the attacks ceased to bother him.
However, just like in modern times, with Donald Trump, the more negative articles published, the more popular Spurgeon became. The masses did not like the elite, standing on their high perch, abusing a young minister. After the abuse died down a bit, he announced in a sermon that he was expecting fewer conversions because the attacks on him had reduced. Despite the plethora of attacks from the newspapers over 1855 and 1856, there were some newspapers that were favourable to him.
In the summer of 1855 Spurgeon went for a rest to Scotland, but found that his fame had spread there and he ended up preaching and travelling a lot. While there he received a great deal of abuse from the "Christian News." His final meeting in a large church in Glasgow resulted in a reported 20,000 people being turned away from the church. The next day the secular press reported the preacher as possessing genius in an unusual degree and contradicted the various slanderous statements that had been circulated as to his irreverence and presumption. Similar crowds attended all his meetings, wherever they were.
At this time he started to write. This was something he hated. He had so little time available, so it was stolen moments here and there. However, he began to be grateful for the meditation time that was required to create his books, that he considered that time made it all worth while.
At the end of 1856, the Exeter Hall said that they could no longer rent the building to one church as they would get a denominational reputation, which was not what they wanted. A fund had been started for the building of a new chapel, but the end of the project was a long way off. The answer was a daring one; they decided to rent the newly built Music Hall in the Royal Surrey Gardens. The building catered for 10,000 people, but no church had ever taken a place of entertainment as a venue and some of Spurgeon's congregation were horrified. The first service was to be on October 19th, 1856. As the day approached Spurgeon, "felt overweighted with a sense of responsibility and filled with a mysterious premonition of some great trial shortly to befall me."
The doors were opened early and the vast hall was filled quickly. There were ten or twelve thousand in the hall and the same number outside, trying to get in. The road from the entrance to the grounds up to the hall was a solid mass of humanity. A prayer was said, a hymn sung, a scripture read and then, during general prayer cries were heard among the throng sitting and standing around the entrance to the hall; Fire! Fire! some people cried. Then, close by, a number of voices shouted, "The galleries are giving way!" and then in another place, "The building is falling!" As can be imagined this caused panic and people started to stream out of the main doors, terrified. People claimed over each other in a desperate attempt to get out. The scene was worse on the staircases, where people died from the crush and through people falling over the bannisters and a balustrade gave way. Once outside in the gardens the panic did not end; people rushed down the road to the entrance, but the gates were locked to stop the crowds outside getting in and because of the crush on both sides the gates could not now be opened.
Spurgeon was relatively oblivious to it all as the screams did not reach that end of the hall. He could see a commotion and he heard the word 'fire' so he tried to calm the congregation, saying there was no fire. Quiet was restored and people called on him to preach, so he began addressing the people. However, word came that some people had been injured, although they had no idea of the scale. Then commotion broke out again and Spurgeon closed the meeting. On leaving he heard that some people had died and this threw him into a severe spin, impacting his mind and he went home in a daze.
It turned out that seven people had died and a large number were injured, with 28 having to go to the hospital. There was an investigation and it was generally decided that this was organised by Spurgeon detractors. Too many people were shouting the same lies in three different parts of the building for it to have been anything else other than a premeditated crime. Sadly, the instigtors were never caught. Several newspapers took advantage of what happened to write scurrilous lies about what happened, blaming Spurgeon for the injuries and death. Evidently, the Daily Telegraph was the most egregious. Other newspapers and journals put their full support behind Spurgeon.
Spurgeon himself was in a dreadful state. He and his wife and newly born sons went to stay with friends in Croydon to rest. Some said that the light had gone out of his eyes and they wondered if he would ever preach again. He said that it was as if his heart was being cut to pieces. He could not be comforted; his days were full of tears and his nights full of nightmares. However, one day he was walking in the garden with his wife when the old light returned to his eyes and he exclaimed, "Dearest, how foolish I have been! Why! what does it matter what becomes of me if the Lord shall be but glorified?" He said it was like a flash of lightning from the sky his soul returned to him. Two weeks later he was able to resume his duties.
Spurgeon was not one to believe that is what happened was a sign of displeasure from God, so he arranged for the services at the Music Hall to be resumed, but this time in the morning daylight. A month later the meetings resumed and they went on until December 1859, during which time thousands were converted. Spurgeon was the first person to have big meetings in entertainment halls, drawing the masses who would not set foot in church, but this idea would multiply dramatically during our biggest revival 1858-64. He explained his way of preaching. "I determined, that whether my hearers would receive the Gospel or reject it, they should at least understand it, and therefore I preached it in plain, homely Saxon that a child could comprehend and with all the earnestness of which I was capable." Many people from high society went to hear him speak at the Hall; many of the nobility and many Members of Parliament attended, but they would have been very unlikely to have attended a non-conformist church. He found himself getting Words of Knowledge and looking at specific people as he spoke them. One day he pointed at a man and told him he was a shoemaker who normally worked on Sunday, and the previous Sunday he had made a 4p profit, so he sold his soul to Satan for 4p. Everything he stated was true and the words eventually led to the man's salvation. So many people got saved that the character of the audience eventually changed, from careless hearers to committed Christians, so the tone of Spurgeon's messages changed to more doctrinal than evangelistic.
In October 1857 he was asked to do a service, on behalf of the sufferers of the Indian Mutiny, in the Crystal Palace. He spoke to 23,654 people! Before the event he went to test the acoustics. He placed the pulpit in different parts to find the best place and each time he spoke out," Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world" in each position. Much later they discovered that there was a carpenter working in one of the galleries who heard what seemed to be a voice from heaven repeating the text. He was smitten with conviction of sin, put down his tools and going home found Jesus. The meetings ended at the Music Hall because the company wanted to admit the public to the gardens on Sundays.
Just like John Wesley, over time the great amount of criticism died down, eventually turning to praise. One of the best critiques came from the Evening Star: - "
"There never yet was a popular orator who did not talk more and better with his arms than with his tongue, Mr Spurgeon knows this instinctively. When he has read his text, he does not fasten his eyes on a manuscript, and his hands to a cushion. As soon as he begins to speak, he begins to act, — and that not as if declaiming on the stage, but as if conversing with you in the street. He seems to shake hands with all around, and put everyone at his ease. There is no laboured exordium, making you wonder by what ingenious winding he will get back to his subject; but a trite saying, an apt quotation, a simple allegory, one or two familiar sentences, making all who hear feel interested and at home. Then there is no philosophical pomp of exposition, — but just two or three catch-words, rather to guide than to confine attention. Presently comes, by way of illustration, a gleam of humour, — perhaps a stroke of downright vulgarity, — it may be, a wretched pun. The people are amused, but they are not left at liberty to laugh. The preacher's comedy does but light up his solemn earnestness. He is painting some scene of death-bed remorse, or of timely repentance; some Magdalene's forgiveness, or some prodigal's return. His colours are taken from the earth and sky of common human experience and aspiration. He dips his pencil, so to speak, in the veins of the nearest spectator, and makes his work a part of every man's nature. His images are drawn from the homes of the common people, the daily toil for daily bread, the nightly rest of tired labour, the mother's love for a wayward boy, the father's tenderness to a sick daughter. His anecdotes are not far-fetched; they have a natural pathos. He tells how some despairing unfortunate, hastening with her last penny to the suicide's bridge, was stopped by the sound of psalmody, and turned into his chapel; or how some widow's son, running away from his mother's home, was brought back by the recollection of a prayer, and sits now in that pew. He does not narrate occurrences but describes them, with a rough, graphic force and faithfulness. He does not reason out his doctrines, but announces, explains, and applies them. He ventures a political allusion, and it goes right to the democratic heart. In the open air? someone may interrupt or interrogate, and the response is a new effect. In short, this man preaches Christianity — his Christianity, at any rate. To us, it appears that dulness is the worst fault possible to a man whose first business it is to interest, — that the dignity of the pulpit is best consulted by making it attractive, — and that the clergy of all denominations might get some frequent hints for the composition of their sermons from the young Baptist preacher who never went to college."
However, an article in the illustrious 'Times', by an eminent scholar in April 1857 did most to turn the tide for Spurgeon. He began to have many powerful and influential friends.
One of his friends described him this way: "Could any face more fully express geniality, friendliness, warmth of affection and overflowing hospitality?... His greeting was warm as sunshine... There was light on his countenance that instantly dispersed all gloom. I have never known one whose presence had such charm or whose conversation was such a rich and varied feast... The brain of this truly great man was of a giant order... He could grasp the bearings of a subject, hold his theme well in hand and deploy his thoughts like troops in tacticl movements."
Raising the money to build the new church took a long time. The original budget more than tripled. Spurgeon went around the country preaching in order to raise money. They bought the land which had an abandoned hospital on it. Building was able to commence because someone guaranteed £20,000 in costs, although he said that he expected to only contribute £50 in the end. Over s million people contributed to the building of the church. Before it was complete the first meeting was held on August 21st, 1860. This was in the middle of the greatest revival the United Kingdom had ever seen, and it started to impact London about the beginning of 1860. Spurgeon told the people he wanted to open the church with no debt and on its completion in March 1861 the debt was paid; the money having come from every type of individual and from all over the world. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was really quite a unique project, but it did not stop some of the newspaprs taking a swipe at Spurgeon.
Spurgeon was a man whom people had faith in. I guess the loyalty he engendered was due to the purity of his character. All his career he had leaders around him who never caused any disunity; how many leaders can say that?. He was known as the 'Governor', but he never led over people, he always led with people, consulting his team on ll important matters. At one point he called his deacons, "lovable, active, energetic, warm-hearted, generous men." He was often in awe of the devotion of his deacons. The lead deacon once responded to him, "Yes, dear Pastor; but it is because we have such absolute confidence in your leadership that we are ready to follow you anywhere. You have never misled us yet and we do not believe you will ever do so." No wonder they had such an amazingly successful church! One day, when Spurgeon was ill and he got to worrying about the finances of the church, even though there was no need. A deacon, who was with him realised he needed some assurance, so he went home, collected all his stock certificates and the funds he had available and, putting them on the bed, told his pastor that he owed everything to him, so he could take anything the church needed from what he owned.
There was a man who Spurgeon considered appoint as an elder, but the deacons said that he had too much of a temper. He was a man who often tried to annoy or offend Spurgeon, but he never rose to the bait. One day he was particularly troublesome and his pastor asked him to come and see him the following day. He made it difficult by saying he could only do 5 am, so Spurgeon had coffee ready for him the next morning. When asked what his problem was he said he had lost £25 on a project which he could not afford. Spurgeon gave him five £5 notes from his personal money. A strange look came over him, then Spurgeon prayed for him and sent him home. The man then sent for the assistant pastor, who went to see him at 5 pm. The man confessed to him that he had broken up two churches before and it was his aim to break up the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He said he was always trying to put Spurgeon out of sorts, but never could and that he was a devil. He was told that Spurgeon had considered him for being an elder, which stunned the man. That evening, word csme to the church tht the man had slit his throat! He had been killed with kindness!
Spurgeon was very popular amongst the masses. One day he was in a closed carriage, stuck in traffic on London Bridge. He was recognised by a working man and the word quickly got round. His carriage was surrounded and he was given a huge. He was cheered again and again, men and women struggled for front places to catch a glimpse of his face, and his hand was nearly wrung off and his arm almost pulled out of its socket in the enthusiasm of the delighted bystanders.
Needless to say he gave many brilliant sermons and lectures. Probably his most famous was, "Baptismal Regeneration." He was concerned about giving it and was worried about the consequences, however he felt impelled to do it. That sermon sold over 250,000 copies. This sermon created an extraordinary sensation; everywhere, replies and refutations were preached, 135 of which were collected my Spurgeon.
For a month is 1867 the Metropolitan Tabernacle was closed for repair, due to the huge numbers that kept coming. During the closure, Spurgeon spoke to 20,000 people in the Agricultural Hall.
In 1869 Spurgeon needed a bigger house, so his home in Nightingale Lane was knocked down and rebuilt - his friends got together to pay for most of this. He was a very generous man, always donating to different projects so he was left with very little. He was offered £10,000 once to do 50 sermons in Australia, but he felt he needed to be at home.
Both Spurgeeon and his wife suffered from general poor health. One time she had an operation from an eminent surgeon who was asked how much the operation was? He said, 1,000 guineas which Spurgeon could pay once he became Archbishop of Canterbury; until then it was settled by love. On one occasion when his wife was ill he asked her if she needed anything. She jokingly replied, "an opal ring and a piping bullfinch." This caused some amusement between them for a few days, but not long afterwards an old lady sent a small box to Spurgeon and in it was an opal ring. A few weeks later he was visiting a friend whose husband was dying and she gave him a piping bullfinch to give to his wife. Doesn't the Lord give us the desires of our heart!
Back in 1855 Spurgeon led a young man to the Lord. This young man was a gifted preacher, but Spurgeon thought that he needed some training, so he committed to finance his tuition and support. This put quite a strain on his finances, particularly when he got married, but he was already thinking about financing another young man who showed a lot of potential. After training the young man soon found a pastorate and Spurgen took on another pupil. Friends heard of this new venture and contributed towards it so that there were soon over twelve students. When the Tabernacle opened the 'Pastors College' moved to the basement of the building. Spurgeon's aim was to train men with proven giftings; they had to show they were good at preaching and that God wanted them in ministry. There had to be a definite sign of a Divine call. Some of the students paid for themselves, but poverty was never a bar to admission; nor was a lack of education, even someone unable to read would be admitted. "Have you won souls for Jesus?" was the primary question asked of applicants. Spurgeon looked for men who loved Jesus and loved people.
On one occasion an expected source of finances dried up, so Spurgeon paid the bills out of his own money, until he had not left to give. But Spurgeon was a man of faith; he believed that prayer would make a way in any circumstance, he prevailed (travailed) in prayer. So he prayed and immediately £200 was deposited for the College and then more money came in. After some years the College had outgrown the Tabernacle, so separate building was built and on opening in September 1874, it was fully paid for. At the time of Spurgeon's death nearly nine hundred men had been sent out from the College it was calculated that up to 1880 the graduates had baptised 39,000 people. Quite a legacy!
In August 1866 Spurgeon asked his congregation for God to send them a new ministry. A few days earlier a lady had been asking a friend who she could entrust £20,000 to, in order to further the Kingdom of God. The friend suggested Spurgeon and as it happened she had a copy of Spurgeon's magazine, in which there was an article on helping educate poor children. This really impacted her and she immediately wrote to Spurgeon saying she would like to start an orphanage with the £20,000 she had. The letter arrived just a few days after they had prayed for a new ministry. On meeting the lady, he suggested that she give the money to George Muller, but she believed that God wanted him to have it.
Having seen how God supplied the funds to build the Tabernacle, he decided to pull on God by faith once more in the building of the Orphanage. He wanted to copy George Muller in the way he raised funds for his huge Orphanages; in other words he just wanted to pray for the money to come in and not ask anyone for funds. He believed God wanted this done, so, being a man of faith, he trusted in Him and the trust was well-founded. Whenever funds ran out and more were required, they prayed and the prayers were answered. Not only was Spurgeon a man of faith, but the men he gathered around him regarding the Orphanage project were like-minded. By the end of 1869 the Stockwell Orphanage was built at a cost of £10,200 and paid for.
The Orphanage ran out of money time and time again, but prayer brought the money when it was required. There were 220 boys. They were divided into different houses, each having a Christian matron, meals were taken in a common hall and every morning family prayers were said. Spurgeon made a point of each boy dressing differently, individually. They received a good education that would help them to find jobs in commerce. The institution was strictly Christian but non-sectarian - the headmaster was a Congregational minister. By the time of Spurgeon's death around 1,600 boys had passed through the school, about 40% CofE, 25% Baptist... In 1879 a girls wing was planned and by 1882 the whole Orphanage was open, with 250 boys and 250 girls. Just as with the boys wing, the money came in exactly when it was required.
In 1866 Spurgeon asked for help in setting up a printers to produce books and tracts, and almost immediatley he had a volunteer with some of the finance. In 1867, they moved the almshouses close to their old church to near their new one. Selling off the old building the built a new one containing 17 almshouses and a day school for 400 children. Later, Spurgeon gave £5,000 as an endowment for the almshouses. There was also Mrs Spurgeon's Book Fund to supply theological books to pastors who could not afford them. In 1879 the Pastor's Aid Society was begun.
Sadly, Susannah Spurgeon was sick on and off for most of their marriage, oftentimes she was bedridden and Spurgeon himself had many years of sickness. At the end of 1869 he contracted smallpox mildly, which laid him low for a while, but the most debilitating problem he had was gout and rheumatism. He suffered from this for over twenty years and it kept him out of the pulpit for about a third of the time. It caused him a great deal of pain and he often fell into depression. His problems probably stemmed for his extreme workload and the huge number of responsibilities he carried around on his shoulders. Apart from all the responsibilities of a church with around 5,000 members, he had the Pastors College, the Almshouses, the Orphanage, the church newspaper and many other 'tributaries' that came from the mainstream, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Add to that all the preaching he did around the nation, mainly to raise funds, his book writing, the 66 organisations that he supervised and he reputedly wrote 500 letters a week. He was also connected to dozens of churches which were being led by his students. To help him his brother was appointed head of pastoral matters, but it must still have been overwhelming and something had to break. This is a problem with many gifted leaders - they overwork and die young!
I cannot but think Spurgeon's cigar smoking did not help his health. Evidently, in his youth smoking was considered healthy, so he might not have recognised the health concerns or the addictive nature of smoking. He was warned though, but continued smoking until the last couple of years of his life. I consider this to be a small blot on his life, but I guess it just shows he was human.
In 1880 he was persuaded to sell his house and move to a healthier area which was less damp. So, they bought "Westwood," in Norwood. The house gave the Spurgeons much more room and they had nine acres of garden to enjoy. Spurgeon had many invitations, but he could not accept the majority, particularly the ones from abroad, because his responsibilities were so great at home. So many of the great and the good wanted to visit him, so his new home was a blessing for that.
In 1887, Spurgeon left the Baptist Union. This was very controversial and caused him a great deal of distress and criticism. He discovered that quite a number of Baptist minister opposed some of the basic orthodox tenets of the Christian faith - the infallability of Scripture, the denial of hell, universalism and the denial of the necessity of the atonement. Spurgeon finally realised that the leadership were not going to address the wrong doctrine by some of its members, so he left, feeling that he could not fellowship with people who, in some things, believed the opposite to what he believed. These were issues you could not compromise on. Many ministers asked him what they should do, but they were told they had to be guided by the Lord. The problem was the Baptist Union had only been formed on the understanding that all members believe in baptism by immersion and nothing else. So long as you believe in that, you were in, it did not matter what other crazy things you believed. A lot of evangelical ministers from other denominations wrote thanking Spurgeon for taking the stance he did for orthodoxy, but the cost to him must have been very great considering his state of health and he lost many friends.
Spurgeon wrote prolifically. Apart from 150 books, there was his yearly volume of sermons and his editing and writing in the church newspaper, the Sword and the Trowel. Writing was a trial for Spurgeon, but he put up with it because some people were benefiting from it. He had a wonderful command of the English language. He had a plain, simple style of composition and he easily was able to convey his deepest thoughts. Few authors have been read by so many people. Taking his eight most popular books, over a million had been sold by 1903. His 'Treasury of David,' was his great work and came in seven volumes - 148,000 volumes had been sold by 1903. Had he been a different sort of man, he would have died a rich man from his royalties, but he always sowed them into the many institutions he was involved with.
Spurgeon also published a sermon weekly and this went on for about fifty years, even long after his death. By 1903 it was estimated that over 150 million had been sold. They also were published in newspapers all over the world, being translated into 40 languages. On one occasion there was an order for a million copies and someone bought 250,000 and gave them away. Another had one printed each week in the advertisement section of several Australian newspapers to get to people in the bush. One of the papers, a sporting journal, charged the man maximum advertising rates and after seven months or so he asked the readers what they thought and he received around 400 letters begging that they continue, with many of them including testimonies of spiritual blessing - some were saved just by reading a sermon! One man, alone in the bush, picked up a torn sheet that the wind blew in. He read the sermon over and over and was saved. A publican's wife in England received a package from Australia, wrapped in a newspaper. She was saved through reading the sermon. Spurgeon found out thirty years after one sermon's publication that a murderer in South America had been saved through reading it! He wrote, "Seldom does a day pass and certainly never a week, for some years past, without letters from all sorts of places, even at the utmost ends of the earth, declaring the salvation of souls by means of one or other of the sermons." In 1867 someone form California was at a conference in Chicago and asked if a missionary could go out there to minister to the 200 people who had been saved through reading Spurgeon's sermons. A woman asked Spurgeon for help as her husband had walked out on her. He prayed for the immediate conversion of her husband. Several months later she returned with her husband. At the time of Spurgeon's prayer he was at sea and came across one of the sermons. He read it and was converted! Goodness, the anointing on those sermons!
Over time Spurgeon's illness became longer lasting and more intense; the pain sometimes was unbearable. Despite his illnesses he tried to fulfil all his responsibilities, but he continued to overtax himself and on June 7th, 1891 when preaching, it was clear to his beloved congregation that his health was broken down. That week his illness took an alarming turn and people began to wonder if it was fatal. Prayers were offered up three times a day at the Tabernacle and in thousands of churches across the land. All denominations were joined in praying for his healing; including Archbishops and Bishops and the Chief Rabbi. Very different from the time when so much abuse was heaped on him. Inquiries as to his condition poured into 'Westwood,' including from the Prince of Wales, nobles, statesmen, ministers and the common man. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a heartfelt letter to him.
He went to Mentone in the South of France to get some warmth during the winter, as he had done every year for a while. People were hoping they saw signs of recovery, but he knew it was not to be so. His illness was so severe he had to take to his bed and eleven days later on January 31st, 1892, Charles Haddon Spurgeon died. He was buried in Norwood Cemetery amongst his Tabernacle friends and deacons. Hundreds of thousands lined the route to the cemetery.
What an extraordinary man! Spurgeon was a man of faith, a man of prayer who kept as close as possible to God, day by day. He was full of mighty gifts, and at the same time a very humble, generous man of noble character - a rare combination. I wonder if we will see his like again. How fortunate this nation was to have at this time such men as Spurgeon, Booth and Shaftesbury to spread the word of God across our nation and the world!
Spurgeon may have had amazing gifts, but I believe he would not have led tens of thousands to the Lord if he had not preached the pure Gospel over and over again. I like to think that were he at the Metropolitan Tabernacle today, he would have had the same results. For the last 75 years we have been watering down the Gospel year by year, trying to fit the Gospel to the people, rather than the other way around. Pastors need to get back to preaching the Gospel and nothing but the Gospel!