A Brief Summation of Spurgeon’s Life and Work
The Lord began His work in Charles Spurgeon while he was still a young child. In chapter nine of his autobiography, Spurgeon noted, “I was privileged with godly parents… and taught the way of God from my youth up.” His father and grandfather were both preachers, and his mother was, what one would call today, a “prayer warrior” for her children. Spurgeon spent most of the first six years of his life growing up on his grandfather’s farm in Stambourne, and his Christian upbringing and fondest memories rooted from those times. Reflecting fondly, he said, “there is no place like that house after all” (Chapter 3). Because of his father and grandfather’s example in working hard for their own churches, Spurgeon learned the value of hard work toward his own congregation from a very young age.
Charles H. Spurgeon is widely known as the “Prince of Preachers,” estimated to have preached to over ten million people, and, according to Dr. Stephen Schrader’s short biography in Our Baptist Heritage, Spurgeon “baptized over 10,000 persons, founded an orphanage of 500 children, established a pastor’s college, fostered hundreds of churches, operated 21 city mission halls, and gathered 6,000 hearers twice each Sunday for 40 years in the London Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle” (4). Spurgeon specified in one of his sermons that “the way to do a great deal, is to keep on doing a little” (Luminous Words), and that habits “formed in youth remain in old age” (McCaskell, 29). Without a doubt, Spurgeon did, in fact, accomplish a great deal during his own lifetime, more than most men could ever hope to accomplish in their own lifetime.
Spurgeon’s early childhood at Stambourne, family guidance, and truthful biblical Christian upbringing molded him into the man that he later became. These factors also helped him to remain a great example to many Christians today. His four thousand published sermons “fill 63 volumes, and the sermons’ 20-26 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of their Encyclopedia Britannica” (qtd. in Schrader). Throughout his adult life, Spurgeon spoke from the wisdom that his own childhood had created. Surrounded by godly examples and centered on biblical truths, Spurgeon was instilled as a child with a desire to see others come to a saving knowledge of God’s redemptive plan through Jesus Christ, and his lifetime is filled with him instilling that commitment in others. Spurgeon’s works are still in print and useful today because they are filled with godly wisdom and practical applications that are beneficial to the many Christians that he continues to influence even from his grave.
Spurgeon’s Greatest Strength
Spurgeon was a man of obedience to God’s will for his life; his passion, relatability, and character, all flow from its fountainhead. Upon his entrance to preach, seats where taken, hats removed, and the crowd quieted immediately. His preaching captivated the masses in his typical “slow, measured, and emphatic” style, so much so that he said that “the dropping of a pin might almost have been heard” when he announced the commencement of the opening prayer. His booming voice could be heard in a crowd of over 23,000, and yet “nothing seemed labored, nor did the voice lose any of its accustomed music. It was clear as a bell” (Agricultural Hall). With a voice that was music to the ears of the listener, Spurgeon seemed to speak to each person individually during his sermons; he spoke, but God touched their hearts with the conviction of His Holy Spirit. A former pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle, Eric Hayden, recounts that one day while testing the acoustics before he preached, “Spurgeon shouted, ‘Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’ A worker high in the rafters of the building heard this and became converted to Christ as a result” (Charles H. Spurgeon: Did You Know?).
Spurgeon’s passion was heard during his preaching, and a conviction for the “Great Commission” was alive and well inside of him; he made it the hallmark of his church. Spurgeon preached to a packed church of six thousand twice on Sunday’s throughout his over forty year career at London Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. Being a true pastor, he did not feel his duty to God was done only through the pulpit; his zeal for evangelism lasted all week, not only on Sunday’s. Spurgeon’s ministry planted hundreds of churches, but he did not individually plant all of these churches all by himself, instead, he “fostered” them through directing the people of his congregation to become motivated to do so themselves, even at the expense of losing his own church’s members. Jack Lamb correctly points out that “during his career he frequently arranged to have a group of members leave the Tabernacle to start a new church, and often one of the prominent men of the Tabernacle went with them to provide leadership” (Charles Spurgeon: Church Planter).
Spurgeon’s orphanage, pastor’s college, mission halls, and churches, were all the work of a man who was obedient to God’s will, guidance, and direction for his life. His obedience to the “Great Commission” fueled his earliest days when he would give out tracks, and it lasted until his death. At the end of his life, Spurgeon could look back on the estimated ten million people that he had personally preached too, but, oh, how he is looking from Heaven to the things which he planted continuing to be used by God to touch the hearts of countless others.
Spurgeon’s Greatest Crisis
Spurgeon’s greatest crisis was not his alone, but, being the most notable figure who took a stand, it seems that he was the man leading the charge. From August, 1887, to February, 1892, almost every issue of “The Sword and the Trowel” touched on the various elements concerning the “Down Grade Controversy.” Its name is most rightly attributed: doctrine and preaching had become downgraded in the churches, who had become less centered on preaching “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” that they “gradually drifted away towards Unitarianism,” Socinianism, Arianism, and many other heretical teachings (Autobiography, chapter 99; Shindler, The Down Grade).
Robert Shindler penned two consecutive articles, The Down Grade, in The Sword and the Trowel’s March and April 1887 editions, and Spurgeon gave it his expressed endorsement: “Earnest attention is requested for this paper. . . . We are going down hill at breakneck speed." In these two articles, Shindler gave a brief history of how the things they were seeing came to be in the churches of their day. In June, his third article, Andover Theology, even gave a modern example of how Andover Theological Seminary, having “been founded less than a hundred years earlier in response to Socinianism at Harvard,” had “seriously departed from the faith of the founders.” Shindler and Spurgeon had both noticed how the American Baptists and their doctrine were slipping down the heretical slope, and they were sounding the warning for the Baptist Union, as well to those who were reading their publications.
Various issues were adding to the downgrading of the church’s preaching. Shindler noted the foremost problem centering in a total lack of “faith in the divine inspiration of the sacred Scriptures.” Socinianism, Darwinism, Unitarianism, rationalistic skepticism, and many other liberal theologies, were causing sound Biblical doctrine to be downgraded into simple moral teachings as the church leaders were leading its members into full-scale apostasy. Their ministers were “mingled in a fraternal manner, even exchanging pulpits, with men whose orthodoxy was called in question.” These ministers were also appointing these people to prominent positions, such as associate pastor, in their own churches, thereby, allowing their congregations to be swayed over time into their beliefs.
Following Shindler’s articles, letters came pouring in to Spurgeon from all over the country. Their words led him to publish some of their personal grievances, as well as his own personal take concerning the matter in the August, 1887, article entitled, Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade. Hearing their concerns, Spurgeon summed up the entirety of the Down Grade Controversy, pronouncing, “The Atonement is scouted, the inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them!”
The controversy finally led Spurgeon to confront his own beloved Baptist Union; he saw the heresies that were plaguing the churches being facilitated through them. On April 23, 1888, the Baptist Union tried to appease Spurgeon by adopting a doctrinal statement to guard against the heresies, but its preamble clearly states that the creed would not be enforced upon their members, some of whom, according to its own footnote, did not even believe in it (McGlothlin). A creed that no one had to believe! In Spurgeon’s own words: “Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin” (A Fragment Upon the Down-Grade Controversy). It is no wonder that Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union.
Parallels between Paul and Spurgeon
Paul penned thirteen letters in the Holy Bible, from which an infinite amount of books have been published attempting to grasp the knowledge contained within them. On the other hand, Spurgeon’s sermons alone “are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of their Encyclopedia Britannica” (qtd. in Schrader), not to mention everything else he published. Paul, of course, penned Holy Scripture, but the parallel I draw is merely between the vast amounts of knowledge that they each wrote. The easiest similarity is that Paul and Spurgeon both preached, and their ministries were both directed to Gentiles.
Paul planted churches all along his missionary journeys, and, although Spurgeon was not a missionary in the traveling sense, his words traveled far beyond his pulpit and into the lives of the many people that read his sermons and publications. Paul trained church leaders through discipleship; Spurgeon did the same lecturing students and starting a pastor’s college. Paul allowed his disciples to flourish by allowing them to pastor the churches he founded (most notable were Timothy and Titus, his two most trusted companions). Spurgeon also let the top men of his church leave to start new churches, and both Paul and Spurgeon continued to foster them long after their departures.
Paul’s concern for the poor and direction for others to help them is seen in his personal letters; Spurgeon established mission halls for the poor and an orphanage for the children. Paul was “trained in the law” from his youth up and tutored under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3); Spurgeon was also raised from his early childhood in Scripture and mentored by his father and grandfather. Paul preached every day everywhere he went; Spurgeon preached twice every Sunday for forty years, and spent every day consumed in his work for the Lord. Paul used common language and preaching that related to the people; Spurgeon was known for relatability to the common man in his sermons.
Paul’s words reached thousands through his journeys, and millions through the Bible; Spurgeon also reached millions through all of his publications. Paul was obedient to his calling, as was Spurgeon. Paul was no stranger to controversy, being beaten and thrown into jail many times, and, although Spurgeon was never “persecuted” like Paul was, his “Down Grade Controversy” seemed to be his own form of persecution from which he never fully recovered. His wife said it basically killed him; remarking in his autobiography, she said that “his fight for the faith had cost him his life” (Chapter 99).
Works Cited
Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Print.
Hayden, Eric W. "Charles H. Spurgeon: Did You Know?" Christian History Magazine, Issue 29,
1 Jan. 1991. Web. 03 May 2015. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1991/issue29/2902.html>
Lamb, Jack. "Charles Spurgeon: Church Planter." The Lamb Family. N.p., 14 Dec. 2012. Web.
03 May 2015. <www.hopeforlacounty.com/blog/charles-spurgeon-church-planter/>.
McCaskell, Stephen. Through the Eyes of C.H. Spurgeon. Brenham, TX. Lucid, 2012. Print.
McGlothlin, W. J. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication
Society, 1911. 290-92. Web. 02 May 2015. <http://archive.org/stream/baptistconfessio00mcgl#page/290/mode/2up>
Schrader, Stephen R. “Charles Haddon Spurgeon.” Our Baptist Heritage. Springfield: Baptist
Bible Tribune, 2000. 4-8. Electronic file.
Shindler, Robert, "Andover Theology," The Sword and the Trowel, June 1887. Web. 02 May
2015. <www.spurgeon.org/downgrd.htm#10>
Shindler, Robert. “The Down Grade.” The Sword and the Trowel, Mar/Apr. 1887. Web. 27 April
2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg01.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H. "A Fragment Upon the Down-Grade Controversy." The Sword and the
Trowel, Nov. 1887. Web. 02 May 2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg06.htm>.
Spurgeon, Charles H. “Agricultural Hall.” The Sword and the Trowel, May 1867. Web. 27 April
2015. < www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/aghl1867.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H. “Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade.” The Sword and the Trowel,
August 1887. Web. 02 May 2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg03.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H., His Private Secretary, and His Wife. Charles Spurgeon Autobiography.
Harrington, DE. Delmarva Publications, 2013. n. pag. Kindle file.
Spurgeon, Charles H. "Luminous Words." The Complete Works of C.H. Spurgeon. Vol. 43.
USA: Delmarva Publications, 2013. n. pag. Kindle file.
The Lord began His work in Charles Spurgeon while he was still a young child. In chapter nine of his autobiography, Spurgeon noted, “I was privileged with godly parents… and taught the way of God from my youth up.” His father and grandfather were both preachers, and his mother was, what one would call today, a “prayer warrior” for her children. Spurgeon spent most of the first six years of his life growing up on his grandfather’s farm in Stambourne, and his Christian upbringing and fondest memories rooted from those times. Reflecting fondly, he said, “there is no place like that house after all” (Chapter 3). Because of his father and grandfather’s example in working hard for their own churches, Spurgeon learned the value of hard work toward his own congregation from a very young age.
Charles H. Spurgeon is widely known as the “Prince of Preachers,” estimated to have preached to over ten million people, and, according to Dr. Stephen Schrader’s short biography in Our Baptist Heritage, Spurgeon “baptized over 10,000 persons, founded an orphanage of 500 children, established a pastor’s college, fostered hundreds of churches, operated 21 city mission halls, and gathered 6,000 hearers twice each Sunday for 40 years in the London Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle” (4). Spurgeon specified in one of his sermons that “the way to do a great deal, is to keep on doing a little” (Luminous Words), and that habits “formed in youth remain in old age” (McCaskell, 29). Without a doubt, Spurgeon did, in fact, accomplish a great deal during his own lifetime, more than most men could ever hope to accomplish in their own lifetime.
Spurgeon’s early childhood at Stambourne, family guidance, and truthful biblical Christian upbringing molded him into the man that he later became. These factors also helped him to remain a great example to many Christians today. His four thousand published sermons “fill 63 volumes, and the sermons’ 20-26 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of their Encyclopedia Britannica” (qtd. in Schrader). Throughout his adult life, Spurgeon spoke from the wisdom that his own childhood had created. Surrounded by godly examples and centered on biblical truths, Spurgeon was instilled as a child with a desire to see others come to a saving knowledge of God’s redemptive plan through Jesus Christ, and his lifetime is filled with him instilling that commitment in others. Spurgeon’s works are still in print and useful today because they are filled with godly wisdom and practical applications that are beneficial to the many Christians that he continues to influence even from his grave.
Spurgeon’s Greatest Strength
Spurgeon was a man of obedience to God’s will for his life; his passion, relatability, and character, all flow from its fountainhead. Upon his entrance to preach, seats where taken, hats removed, and the crowd quieted immediately. His preaching captivated the masses in his typical “slow, measured, and emphatic” style, so much so that he said that “the dropping of a pin might almost have been heard” when he announced the commencement of the opening prayer. His booming voice could be heard in a crowd of over 23,000, and yet “nothing seemed labored, nor did the voice lose any of its accustomed music. It was clear as a bell” (Agricultural Hall). With a voice that was music to the ears of the listener, Spurgeon seemed to speak to each person individually during his sermons; he spoke, but God touched their hearts with the conviction of His Holy Spirit. A former pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle, Eric Hayden, recounts that one day while testing the acoustics before he preached, “Spurgeon shouted, ‘Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’ A worker high in the rafters of the building heard this and became converted to Christ as a result” (Charles H. Spurgeon: Did You Know?).
Spurgeon’s passion was heard during his preaching, and a conviction for the “Great Commission” was alive and well inside of him; he made it the hallmark of his church. Spurgeon preached to a packed church of six thousand twice on Sunday’s throughout his over forty year career at London Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. Being a true pastor, he did not feel his duty to God was done only through the pulpit; his zeal for evangelism lasted all week, not only on Sunday’s. Spurgeon’s ministry planted hundreds of churches, but he did not individually plant all of these churches all by himself, instead, he “fostered” them through directing the people of his congregation to become motivated to do so themselves, even at the expense of losing his own church’s members. Jack Lamb correctly points out that “during his career he frequently arranged to have a group of members leave the Tabernacle to start a new church, and often one of the prominent men of the Tabernacle went with them to provide leadership” (Charles Spurgeon: Church Planter).
Spurgeon’s orphanage, pastor’s college, mission halls, and churches, were all the work of a man who was obedient to God’s will, guidance, and direction for his life. His obedience to the “Great Commission” fueled his earliest days when he would give out tracks, and it lasted until his death. At the end of his life, Spurgeon could look back on the estimated ten million people that he had personally preached too, but, oh, how he is looking from Heaven to the things which he planted continuing to be used by God to touch the hearts of countless others.
Spurgeon’s Greatest Crisis
Spurgeon’s greatest crisis was not his alone, but, being the most notable figure who took a stand, it seems that he was the man leading the charge. From August, 1887, to February, 1892, almost every issue of “The Sword and the Trowel” touched on the various elements concerning the “Down Grade Controversy.” Its name is most rightly attributed: doctrine and preaching had become downgraded in the churches, who had become less centered on preaching “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” that they “gradually drifted away towards Unitarianism,” Socinianism, Arianism, and many other heretical teachings (Autobiography, chapter 99; Shindler, The Down Grade).
Robert Shindler penned two consecutive articles, The Down Grade, in The Sword and the Trowel’s March and April 1887 editions, and Spurgeon gave it his expressed endorsement: “Earnest attention is requested for this paper. . . . We are going down hill at breakneck speed." In these two articles, Shindler gave a brief history of how the things they were seeing came to be in the churches of their day. In June, his third article, Andover Theology, even gave a modern example of how Andover Theological Seminary, having “been founded less than a hundred years earlier in response to Socinianism at Harvard,” had “seriously departed from the faith of the founders.” Shindler and Spurgeon had both noticed how the American Baptists and their doctrine were slipping down the heretical slope, and they were sounding the warning for the Baptist Union, as well to those who were reading their publications.
Various issues were adding to the downgrading of the church’s preaching. Shindler noted the foremost problem centering in a total lack of “faith in the divine inspiration of the sacred Scriptures.” Socinianism, Darwinism, Unitarianism, rationalistic skepticism, and many other liberal theologies, were causing sound Biblical doctrine to be downgraded into simple moral teachings as the church leaders were leading its members into full-scale apostasy. Their ministers were “mingled in a fraternal manner, even exchanging pulpits, with men whose orthodoxy was called in question.” These ministers were also appointing these people to prominent positions, such as associate pastor, in their own churches, thereby, allowing their congregations to be swayed over time into their beliefs.
Following Shindler’s articles, letters came pouring in to Spurgeon from all over the country. Their words led him to publish some of their personal grievances, as well as his own personal take concerning the matter in the August, 1887, article entitled, Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade. Hearing their concerns, Spurgeon summed up the entirety of the Down Grade Controversy, pronouncing, “The Atonement is scouted, the inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an influence, the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them!”
The controversy finally led Spurgeon to confront his own beloved Baptist Union; he saw the heresies that were plaguing the churches being facilitated through them. On April 23, 1888, the Baptist Union tried to appease Spurgeon by adopting a doctrinal statement to guard against the heresies, but its preamble clearly states that the creed would not be enforced upon their members, some of whom, according to its own footnote, did not even believe in it (McGlothlin). A creed that no one had to believe! In Spurgeon’s own words: “Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin” (A Fragment Upon the Down-Grade Controversy). It is no wonder that Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union.
Parallels between Paul and Spurgeon
Paul penned thirteen letters in the Holy Bible, from which an infinite amount of books have been published attempting to grasp the knowledge contained within them. On the other hand, Spurgeon’s sermons alone “are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of their Encyclopedia Britannica” (qtd. in Schrader), not to mention everything else he published. Paul, of course, penned Holy Scripture, but the parallel I draw is merely between the vast amounts of knowledge that they each wrote. The easiest similarity is that Paul and Spurgeon both preached, and their ministries were both directed to Gentiles.
Paul planted churches all along his missionary journeys, and, although Spurgeon was not a missionary in the traveling sense, his words traveled far beyond his pulpit and into the lives of the many people that read his sermons and publications. Paul trained church leaders through discipleship; Spurgeon did the same lecturing students and starting a pastor’s college. Paul allowed his disciples to flourish by allowing them to pastor the churches he founded (most notable were Timothy and Titus, his two most trusted companions). Spurgeon also let the top men of his church leave to start new churches, and both Paul and Spurgeon continued to foster them long after their departures.
Paul’s concern for the poor and direction for others to help them is seen in his personal letters; Spurgeon established mission halls for the poor and an orphanage for the children. Paul was “trained in the law” from his youth up and tutored under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3); Spurgeon was also raised from his early childhood in Scripture and mentored by his father and grandfather. Paul preached every day everywhere he went; Spurgeon preached twice every Sunday for forty years, and spent every day consumed in his work for the Lord. Paul used common language and preaching that related to the people; Spurgeon was known for relatability to the common man in his sermons.
Paul’s words reached thousands through his journeys, and millions through the Bible; Spurgeon also reached millions through all of his publications. Paul was obedient to his calling, as was Spurgeon. Paul was no stranger to controversy, being beaten and thrown into jail many times, and, although Spurgeon was never “persecuted” like Paul was, his “Down Grade Controversy” seemed to be his own form of persecution from which he never fully recovered. His wife said it basically killed him; remarking in his autobiography, she said that “his fight for the faith had cost him his life” (Chapter 99).
Works Cited
Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Print.
Hayden, Eric W. "Charles H. Spurgeon: Did You Know?" Christian History Magazine, Issue 29,
1 Jan. 1991. Web. 03 May 2015. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1991/issue29/2902.html>
Lamb, Jack. "Charles Spurgeon: Church Planter." The Lamb Family. N.p., 14 Dec. 2012. Web.
03 May 2015. <www.hopeforlacounty.com/blog/charles-spurgeon-church-planter/>.
McCaskell, Stephen. Through the Eyes of C.H. Spurgeon. Brenham, TX. Lucid, 2012. Print.
McGlothlin, W. J. Baptist Confessions of Faith. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication
Society, 1911. 290-92. Web. 02 May 2015. <http://archive.org/stream/baptistconfessio00mcgl#page/290/mode/2up>
Schrader, Stephen R. “Charles Haddon Spurgeon.” Our Baptist Heritage. Springfield: Baptist
Bible Tribune, 2000. 4-8. Electronic file.
Shindler, Robert, "Andover Theology," The Sword and the Trowel, June 1887. Web. 02 May
2015. <www.spurgeon.org/downgrd.htm#10>
Shindler, Robert. “The Down Grade.” The Sword and the Trowel, Mar/Apr. 1887. Web. 27 April
2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg01.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H. "A Fragment Upon the Down-Grade Controversy." The Sword and the
Trowel, Nov. 1887. Web. 02 May 2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg06.htm>.
Spurgeon, Charles H. “Agricultural Hall.” The Sword and the Trowel, May 1867. Web. 27 April
2015. < www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/aghl1867.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H. “Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade.” The Sword and the Trowel,
August 1887. Web. 02 May 2015. <www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg03.htm>
Spurgeon, Charles H., His Private Secretary, and His Wife. Charles Spurgeon Autobiography.
Harrington, DE. Delmarva Publications, 2013. n. pag. Kindle file.
Spurgeon, Charles H. "Luminous Words." The Complete Works of C.H. Spurgeon. Vol. 43.
USA: Delmarva Publications, 2013. n. pag. Kindle file.