Charles H Spurgeon

CH Spurgeon – a short biography

Today our biography is on a very well known man. Indeed, his name is Charles Spurgeon, and I think he has his own section in the Koorong book shop. Many of you might have heard his name, but perhaps you don't know much about the man behind the books.

So for this story, we go back to England in the 1800's. Charles Spurgeon was born in 1834. This is just one generation after John and Charles Wesley and also George Whitfield, when there was such a fervor in England because they traveled up and down the country preaching in the open air to tens of thousands of people at a time. Many people were converted under Wesley and also George Whitfield and we've heard their stories. But a generation later perhaps things had died down a little bit. The church was again a formality of English life, and the class system was particularly strong. This was also a time of lots of industry, so the rich were getting richer with all the factories, and the poor were getting a lot poorer, and they were not able to escape that cycle.

But the Lord was at work during the 1800's because if we have a look at some of the other men who we have talked about, all these people knew Spurgeon. We've talked about George Mueller - he was a good friend of Spurgeon, and Hudson Taylor was very encouraged by Spurgeon. And the encouragement was mutual. And DL Moody also worked a lot with Spurgeon and was very blessed. And we know from our last biography, that Oswald Chambers was converted as a young man under Spurgeon's preaching. So all these were fellow laborers in England at the time, and what a rich time it was in England.

Spurgeon's grandfather and father were both workers in the church. His grandfather was an ordained minister, and his father was a pastor. Spurgeon's grandfather was a particularly learned man for that time - he read extensively all sorts of theology and Puritan writings. Many people thought that perhaps he should move to a bigger town, but he never did. He was very happy to be in his little country town of Stambourne in Essex in England, and he loved his people there, and he served them faithfully for his whole life.

Charles grew up with his grandparents for the first five to six years of his life and he was shaped particularly by his grandfather who understood from a very early age that little Charles Spurgeon was no ordinary boy. He had a fascination, even as a toddler, with books, and his grandfather had an extensive library. One of the books he had was Pilgrim's Progress, and little Charles Spurgeon before he could even read, probably just as he was able to walk, was already focused on the illustrations in Pilgrim's Progress, trying to understand the story. His aunt taught him to read, and by the age of five, he was reading such difficult books with such clear expression that he left people open mouthed because he read so beautifully. His grandfather recognized this unusual gift in the little boy, and he used to insist that the child sit with him whenever ministers from all over the county came and sought advice or wanted to understand some theological point. His grandfather would insist that Charles, aged four or five, sit with him through all those meetings. The little boy absorbed so much teaching in this way from his grandparents, and particularly his grandfather. While other little five-year-olds were jumping in puddles, and chasing pet rabbits, Charles was absorbing theology, teaching, and he also had a very sensitive heart. There's one example where he noticed that his grandfather was particularly grieved about a member of the congregation, Mr. Thomas Rhodes, who, although he professed faith, was now slipping away. This man was now frequenting the local pubs and taverns, and his grandfather would pray for this man, that he would come back, and was very down about this gentleman. Well, five-year-old Charles thought that his grandfather needed to take a more direct approach, and so, one afternoon, Charles walked straight into the tavern and he walked straight up to Thomas Rhodes who was there with his mug of beer, singing and laughing and carrying on. The little five-year-old Charles walked up to Thomas and pointed his tiny finger right at him, and with a shrill voice, said, "What doest thou here Mr. Thomas, sitting with the ungodly, and you a member of the church, breaking your pastor's heart. I'm ashamed of you. I wouldn't be going about breaking my pastor's heart." And he turned around and walked off, while Thomas Rhodes was there, with his mug of beer suspended in midair for quite a while. He didn't know what to do. But he put down his beer -he never had another sip, and he headed out to a lonely place, confessed his sin before the Lord, and was utterly restored.

This was young Charles, who had a very strong sense of righteousness, but he was not yet converted. Now as a teenager, he had a real clarity about the awesome wonder of God, the reality of God. But the idea that Christ died for our sin - he really couldn't apply that to himself. He understood things from the Scripture very well, he had a very good foundation, but he felt he really to Christian in Pilgrim's Progress with that burden on his back because he felt such a conviction of his own sin. He didn't understand how he was able to get rid of that burden from his back. As time progressed, he was so overcome by this that he was tempted to turn his back on everything and to even deny the existence of God. He was perhaps influenced by free thinkers in those days, people who were looking at the idea of atheism and all that kind of thing. But something held him back - he couldn't turn his back on the Lord because of that strong foundation he had in his early days. So instead, he traveled from church to church, desperate to hear something from the Lord, some clarity, to help him understand what to do. He wanted to feel something, he wanted to do something to earn himself, salvation, to get his sins forgiven completely.

In the winter of 1849, there was a snowstorm, and Spurgeon happened to have been sent home from boarding school because there had been a fever outbreak. So he was home a little early. He was intending as usual to go to a church and try to hear something from the Lord. He wanted to hear great theologians and different preachers. But because of the snowstorm, he was forced to go to a local chapel. It was a Primitive Methodist chapel, and the people there sang so loudly your head ached. So because of the snowstorm, and also, I think, the Lord has a little humor about Him, Charles Spurgeon was forced to go to this little Methodist chapel where about 10 people gathered. He sat there, but the regular minister didn't turn up - that man was snowed in as well - and so there was no minister. So a little thin wiry man, who was the local village shoemaker stood out in front of the congregation. This man was completely uneducated, and he could hardly read at all. So he was forced to stick to one verse which he could read. He read out this verse to the congregation. "Look unto Me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other." The old man began, and he could hardly read that verse without faltering. So he began to preach, and he said, "Now it says here, 'Look'. Now looking, it don't take a great deal of pain. You don't need to lift a finger. You don't need to lift a foot. You don't even need any learning or any college paper or anything. The biggest fool in the world can look. But the text says, 'Look unto Me', and now many of you have been looking unto yourselves. No use doing that. It says, 'Look unto Me' - you will not find comfort in yourself. You look to Jesus, it's Him we need. 'Look unto Me', it says, 'I am hanging on the cross. Look unto Me, I'm dead and buried. Look unto Me, I've risen again. Look unto Me, I'm at the Father's right hand. Oh, poor sinner, look unto Me."

Then the man didn't have any more to say - he'd run out - and hardly 10 minutes had passed. So he stood there for a while, and he glanced at his little congregation, and he noticed the 15 year old boy in the back, who wasn't looking too impressed. He pointed his finger at Charles who was in the back row and said, "Young man, you look very miserable, and you will always be miserable, if you don't obey this text. Look to Jesus, look and live." In that moment Charles Spurgeon did look to Jesus, and he realized that he had been looking to himself this whole time, so focused on his own sin, his own shame, and his own inability to sort that out, that he had never looked to the Lord Jesus. And so, Charles Spurgeon entered that chapel, an unbeliever, at 10:30, and he exited that chapel at 12:30 totally changed. He was so changed, even though you might have seen in his life that he was a very moral and good boy, but there was such a change in Spurgeon that his family could see it and they celebrated with him that their eldest child had now come to the Lord. And I think we need to thank God for that poor Shoemaker who brought Charles Spurgeon to the Lord that January morning.

Now, Spurgeon was soon after baptized, and still 15 years old, he started serving Lord immediately. The first thing he did was Sunday school. Now in those days, Sunday school was very different. It was really about trying to get the kids off the streets and to preach the gospel to them. Soon he was asked not to just address his Sunday school class, but the entire school. Soon, adults were coming, and it was very clear that Spurgeon had a gift for preaching. He knew that the Lord had given him this preaching gift, and so he prayed, and he asked the Lord, "Make me Thy faithful servant, O God. May I honor Thee in my day and in my generation and be consecrated for Thy service forever." The Lord really did hear Spurgeon's prayer and used him mightily.

Now, Spurgeon's father wanted him to have a good education, but they couldn't afford very much, and so he was he was put under the teaching of a tutor in Cambridge, but to pay for his board he also started to help in the classes. Spurgeon was an incredible man. He would read a book and remember everything. He had an incredible memory. His brother said his memory was like a vice - he would hold on to things for years, and it was as copious as a barn - he could retain so much from just reading. Spurgeon was very gifted.

Soon he was preaching in the local Sunday School in Cambridge, and the minister there realized that this teenager - he was only 16 - really had a gift. But he knew that if he just approached Spurgeon and said, "Please, would you come and preach at this meeting, and that meeting, and in that gathering there?" that Spurgeon would say, "No, no, no. I'm not old enough". So the minister had another way of doing this. He told Spurgeon on one occasion that he wanted him to accompany a young man who was not very used to preaching but was going to be preaching at a little village meeting in Teversham. Spurgeon readily agreed and said he would happily accompany the young man to preach in this little village. So the two young men set off, and they walked many kilometers and they were halfway there, or even over halfway, when Spurgeon turned to this youth, the other young man, his companion, and said, "I've just been praying for you that you would be blessed this evening in your preaching, and that the Lord would use your preaching." And the man stopped dead in the road and turned to Spurgeon and cried out and said, "What! I have never preached in my life. It's not me who's preaching, it's you who's going to preach, not me." And Spurgeon said, "What?", but he knew that it was too late - they were almost there - and he had to lift his eyes to heaven and ask the Lord to give him a word for that night. It was such a wonderful evening because the Lord did bless that, and he brought the Lord so genuinely to this group of cottagers and farmers in this little village of Teversham. As he preached people were so overcome that there was an elderly lady in the congregation who interrupted him at the end and said, "Bless your heart. How old are you?" And Spurgeon answered, "I am not yet 60." And she laughed and laughed and said, "You mean not yet 16!" Anyway, he created such a stir in this place that they demanded that he come again.

And so began Spurgeon's preaching. Even at the age of 16 he was preaching regularly. It was such a joy and a wonderful training ground as he traveled from village to village, sometimes walking 12 kilometers each way to bring the Gospel to these simple people who were not at all critical and were so warm and welcoming to him. It was here that he was nicknamed "the boy preacher". But soon he was given a more formal role to play. He was asked to be the minister in a place called Waterbeach - a little Baptist church. He was still only 16 at this time, and so he resigned from school, and he dedicated himself to these people in this small village.

Now, Waterbeach at this time had a terrible reputation. It had a lot of illegal alcohol stills where they would make cheap alcohol and sell it illegally. This was a center of crime, and all sorts of other social problems that came with drinking. There were brawls and riots and all sorts of violence as well. So Spurgeon came into this as a 16 year old, and he dedicated himself to these people. With his incredible memory, he got to know every single person in the village - he could call them by name and he knew their families. He preached to them, he visited them, he cared for them, and the 40 regulars that came to the church turned into 400 after only a few months. Spurgeon would open all the doors and windows of that little building and people would stand in a ring outside the church to hear him preach. It was such a changed place in so short a time. Spurgeon himself wrote about how, when he came, you would walk through the town and there'd be men lying on the street in a drunken stupor. There'd be brawls every night and there was so much anger and violence in families and homes. But now he was walking through the place, and he was hearing people singing hymns in the fields. He was seeing poor cottagers gather their family around to recite the Scripture at night. The change in this place was so immense that Spurgeon realized the power of the gospel to transform lives. He felt that it was such a privilege to witness this firsthand.

It wasn't long though before there was a visitor at Waterbeach who heard him preach. This person was a friend of a certain William Olney. They had heard about Spurgeon and they heard about his preaching. Soon they invited him to come to London where there was a church with no pastor at all. It was a church in New Park Street in the East End of London.

At first, Spurgeon was very nervous about going to London - it was so different. When he arrived there, it was the complete opposite of the lovely rural village of Waterbeach with its warm cottage folk and farmers. This church was right next to a brewery, and right down the road from a number of big factories. The housing there was very poor, because it was where the workers lived, and they hardly had any money. But then there were the rich as well, who were the factory owners, and it was so grimy and disgusting that even the church building itself was completely black with the soot. The church itself, seated 1200, but there were only about 80 people that gathered there, and the congregation, when they saw Spurgeon, was very critical. He was only 19 still and they thought, "Is this boy going to be preaching to us?" There was a lot of criticism, so he was given a three-month trial. They questioned his maturity, but after he had preached a few times, all of that was put aside, and he ministered to these people for the rest of his life.

When Spurgeon was 21 years old, he married a lovely woman by the name of Susanna or Susie. Their engagement wasn't completely smooth. He was taken at one time to a preaching engagement that he had in London, and he decided that he would take Susie with him on that day. It was, I guess, a special occasion, so Spurgeon took her, and they traveled together there. When he entered this vast building where he was to speak to a multitude of people he completely forgot about her existence. She was left at the door and he walked on and he talked to people. He was so focused on the job that he had at hand, to preach to these people, that he just left her there. She fought her way through the crowd, trying to keep up with him, but it was no use. She was so angry about the situation. She was so cranky that he had just left her at the door and had gone off as if she didn't exist that she decided she would walk straight out, take a cab, and go home. And that's exactly what she did. When she got home, her mother was quite surprised to see her back so early. In great anger she told her about how Spurgeon had forgotten her very existence. "What sort of a man is he anyway?" Her mother told her that she was marrying an extremely unusual man, and that she must never hinder him in God's work, because he was totally dedicated to God's work. This was a good lesson for Susannah Spurgeon. She wrote later, "He is God's servant, I must be prepared to yield my claim to His heart."

So Susanna and Charles married and they were God's appointment for each other. Spurgeon was a great leader, he was a powerful preacher, and he was unflinching in his dedication to his work for the Lord. But he had a very sensitive heart, he was a very tender-hearted man and he had a lot of inner struggles. He was very affected by things that happened, and she was his rock. She helped him, prayed for him, and she also was able to partner with him in his work. Charles was so busy that often she was left alone, and that lesson that she learned in her early days, while they were engaged, prepared her for the life ahead.

Now the little place at New Park Street - well, not exactly little - it seated 1200 people - was not now enough. Spurgeon preached to crowds where people were lining up outside the door. So it was evident they needed a new place, and Surry Music Hall was the new place - it could seat 10,000. It was not a church, of course, it was a huge auditorium, with galleries and all sorts of things. Spurgeon used this place, and on the very first day, when the people came, he was overwhelmed, because instead of the normal congregation of say, 2000, the whole place was filled with people, and people were even outside. He couldn't believe it. He thought it would be an adequate building, but so many people gathered from everywhere, just to hear him.

Now, as he began to look around at all the galleries that were full, and all the people, he was overwhelmed by his burden of responsibility to preach. As he began preaching, somebody in an upper gallery yelled, "Fire!" and then there was general panic. People in the upper galleries were looking at each other and people started to run out. Then other galleries started to try to get onto the stairs and soon there was a crush of people trying to get down one staircase at the back. Spurgeon couldn't see what was going on, but he could see that there was general panic everywhere. Soon, with the crush of people, the railing of the stairwells at the back of the galleries gave way and fell, and people were falling off the stairs. Not only that, but people were being pushed and having to jump off galleries as a result. There were people getting crushed on the floor as everyone was trying to make it to the doors. Spurgeon tried to call the people to order and call the people to calm. He didn't know what had gone on and if there was fire or not. He couldn't see. By the end of it, seven people were trampled to death, and at least 28 were seriously injured.

Spurgeon was so overcome by this that afterward he was a broken man. He fainted, and he never actually fully recovered from this trauma because any time that he saw an overcrowded building, he became physically anxious.

The newspapers after this event were very unkind to him. They wrote colorful articles about how he ranted and raved from the pulpit while the mangled and dying were crying for help and how he ignored it all. All sorts of strange things were written. But this taught Spurgeon at his very young age, he was still only about 21, that he had to lay down everything, including his reputation.

Spurgeon felt such a weight of responsibility in preaching. The crowds that gathered to hear him were immense. Sometimes before preaching, he would plead with God. He always prayed, and there were times when the burden of this responsibility crushed him. He would plead with God for the souls of the people who would hear him, and with such desperation that sometimes the elders had to physically lift him to his feet so that he could go and preach. Then he would go out there and preach with such power and clarity, and with such wit and humor as well, and then he would leave and again, cry before God and beg him to at least save some, and for the seed that was sown to bear fruit.

Spurgeon never asked people to come forward or raise their hand or stand up at the end. He would always say, "Meet God at home. Go now to a quiet room and pray. Speak to God alone." But every Tuesday he would open his home and he would encourage people to come. If they had been converted on that Sunday they were to come and tell him, and he would speak with them and make sure they really understood. If they had questions or needed advice, people would come. So his Tuesday's were full of people in and out, and he loved to hear the joy of just one sinner who had come to know the Lord.

But in this, there was something else. This was something that the Baptists did at that time. They were careful about people who were going to be a member of the church. Now to be a member meant that you were able to take part in the Breaking of Bread and you were able to serve the congregation. Spurgeon was very careful about this. He would hear about new converts coming, but he wanted to make sure they were truly saved. He would say that he never ever wanted someone to feel like they were saved or have even a cause to feel like they were saved when they were still on the path to hell. He was very clear about this. He trained many people because, of course, it was too much for him to see everybody. He trained people. He said that people need to know their sin. That's one thing that needs to be clear. You can say you're saved, but if you don't know your own sin, then you're not. And has there been a change in their life? If there's been no change, then there's been no conversion. That's what he thought. He felt that people must be different, must change, have victory over sin, see changes in their habits and have new attitudes to the word of God and new attitudes to other believers. He also wanted people to truly understand grace, and that it wasn't about their effort, or their work, or their goodness, but it was about the Lord Jesus and faith in Him. These were the three things that he insisted on. He refused a lot of people for membership and prayed for them. He wanted people to be clear, so that everybody who was part of the church, who gathered, who served, was truly born again.

In 1861, when Spurgeon was still in his 20's - about 26 or 27 years old, the Metropolitan Tabernacle was built. This was a building that Spurgeon himself wanted to build. It was a huge structure. It's still there today, and it held up to 5000 people, but it was built for a lot more than just preaching on a Sunday. He was now thinking about all the different ways the church could contribute to the community of London, and he started a college for preachers and leaders. He wanted to help people who were truly born again, who truly had a gift, to become more and more fruitful in their work. He had a course which was a two year course, but it had no degree, no graduation ceremony, no exams, no nothing. It was simply practical teaching. These people were called to work in the church and to be useful and they had a lot of opportunity to hear from Spurgeon and get advice. Many of these people came from very poor circumstances, and they had such a wonderful and personal relationship with Spurgeon that they used to call him "governor". He lectured his students a couple of times a week, and these lectures you can get now in volumes, and when you read them, his humor, and his wit, and just how funny he was, comes through, but also the practical teaching.

Now the tabernacle was an absolute hive of industry. Not only was there preaching on a Sunday to 1000's of people, but Spurgeon also started evening classes for young men. He understood that in that area the people worked in the factories, they worked long hours, they had little pay, that they could hardly feed themselves. This cycle of poverty continued as they had no education and so couldn't get a job anywhere else. They couldn't afford education for their children, so they too would end up working in the same factories. It was a cycle that was unbreakable. So Spurgeon started evening classes where he would teach practical things. There were no exams, no degrees, no nothing, but a scholarship. He taught these young men and soon hundreds were coming, and many of them then were able to find another job, just because they could read a little bit, they understood numbers and basic maths. Suddenly they were able to earn a bit more of a living and provide in a better way for their children. The social impact of this was felt in that region of London. More churches were built as well as students went out, and they started to pastor different churches around London.

Of course, there was a massive Sunday School. There was a particular teacher there by the name of Mrs. Lavinia Bartlett. Mrs. Bartlett was so gifted in teaching the children that at the time of her death over 1000 children had come to know the Lord through her classes. At one point, her class numbered 700 children.

Now, Spurgeon had been warned by many friends and many well-meaning people that nobody is known for both preaching and writing, and so people advised him to focus on one or the other, "Focus on your writing, if you want, or focus on your preaching, but you cannot really do both well." Spurgeon ignored this completely, and a good thing, too. He started a magazine, "The Sword and the Trowel", the idea of the spiritual battle and the building up of believers. In this we see the incredible breadth of his mind. He wrote articles, he wrote book reviews - he read about six meaty books every week and could remember all of them. Years later he wrote poetry. He wrote articles on such a range of topics that it was incredible. He also wrote book reviews and biographies. This magazine went out everywhere, and people learned so much from reading some of his articles. He also began working on many of his books. He started a commentary on all the Psalms - it took him 20 years - but this was one of his greatest works, "The Treasury of David".

At this time, Spurgeon also wanted to ensure that people had access to good teaching. He realized that books were so expensive and that there were in those days, peddlers, called colporteurs, who would travel from town to town with their little trolleys and sell things door to door. So he had the idea of giving out tracts. He would employ young men to go and hand out tracts to each cottage in a particular area, and also to sell some of Spurgeon’s sermons that he published for a very small fee. These people would not only sell things, but they would also meet with the people one on one, and they'd get to know the area. Some of them would preach on the streets, and when they would hear of somebody's difficulties, they would recommend certain things for them to read. This enabled many people to access very good teaching.

In 1866, when the Tabernacle had been around for maybe five or six years. Spurgeon prayed that the Lord would send him another work, a new work, something different. Later that week, he received a letter from Mrs. Heliad, who had been reading The Sword and the Trowel. She had decided that she wanted to give Spurgeon 20,000 pounds - that's millions of dollars in our money. She wrote a letter saying that she wanted to give this to him, and for him to start orphanages for boys and to educate them. Spurgeon went to see her. He said to her, "I very much thank you for your offer of 200 pounds", and she said, "Stop right there. I didn't say 200, I said, 20,000." But Spurgeon said, "I see. I couldn't believe that you actually meant 20,000 - I thought it was perhaps a slip of the pen with a couple of extra zeros." But she said, "No. 20,000, and you're going to start orphanages." And Spurgeon said, "Perhaps you would consider my good friend and brother, George Mueller. He's in Bristol. He already has orphanages for girls and boys. Perhaps the money is best spent there." And she said, "No, I want to give it to you. And you're going to start the orphanages." And then Spurgeon remembered that he prayed for a new work. The Lord had given them this new work and the means to do it, so he purchased a row of houses to make orphanages, and they were very homely for boys.

Everything was moving forward at a great rate. He preached to 1000’s every week, and the students loved him, they loved their "governor". The orphan boys were not only given a home, clothing, housing, a family environment, but Spurgeon was very extra - he even gave them swimming lessons, which was very unusual in that time. So many of these orphan boys grew up and came to the college, the Pastor's College, and many of them ended up serving the Lord in other areas of London.

Spurgeon published a sermon every week, and he wrote volumes of work. He also edited his magazine and contributed to it considerably. He answered and wrote an average of 500 letters every week. All of this toil, if you imagine all of this altogether, was so incredible, but it was not without consequences.

Spurgeon was still a fairly young man, but he was starting to break down physically. He had periods of very serious sickness, probably a result of nervous breakdown. On one occasion, when he had preached to a multitude of people - tens of thousands - with no amplification at all, he was so exhausted that he slept solidly for two days. He didn't wake - he slept on Friday and woke on Sunday. That was the extent of his exhaustion.

At this time, Susannah Spurgeon was not very well either. And she had had twin boys, and she had never been right since - her health had really suffered. She was prone to illness and sometimes lay in bed, unable to get up. She couldn't accompany Spurgeon to his various engagements. She really wanted to be partnering him with him in the Lord's work, but she felt she was so just incapable of doing this. One day, she finished reading Spurgeon's "Lectures to my Students" and she said to him at breakfast, "This is so practical and useful. If only more people could read this, if other pastors across the country could get hold of this." And Spurgeon said, "Well, why don't you do that? Why don't you send all this stuff out." She looked at her savings, and looked at the household expenses and she realized she had enough to purchase 100 copies with the postage and packaging. So she started. She sent out 100 of the "Lectures to my Students" to various pastors across the country. Pastors in those days were totally dependent on their congregation, so some of these pastors with big families lived in villages where people were so poor that they could hardly support him. Many of them couldn't afford an education for their children - the pastor was hardly able to feed his own family, let alone purchase even pamphlets and certainly not books - there was no money left for that. The idea of Susannah Spurgeon was so wonderful. She received letters back from pastors across England who wrote with tears, how they received these packages and opened it with their whole family assembled to pick up that one book, the only book that they had ever been given, and could ever afford. Soon, by the end of one year, she had sent out 3000 packages to various pastors, and people learned of her work and donated money and different items. She extended this to send out blankets and children's clothes and all sorts of things to all these needy pastors across the country. For her, this work was a double blessing. She wrote, "My cup runneth over."

Spurgeon's frequent illnesses were often also accompanied by severe depression. Perhaps this was a result of the illness itself, but it's more likely that it was a result of the incredible mental strain that he was under all the time. He struggled with his health to such a degree, and with his exhaustion, his depression, that he was advised that he needed to rest. And so he used to travel, particularly in the British winters, to the south of France to a place called Mentone, and there he would stay, often for six weeks at a time to rest and recover, so that he could continue the year. But the huge extent of his labors, and the fact that people from everywhere would come to him and pour out their great troubles to him, meant that he was really burdened, and he couldn't share that burden with anyone. At this time Susannah Spurgeon was also very ill, and he didn't want to burden her any further. So he chose to bear a lot of his burden all alone. He often wrote about being in the Castle of Despair, from Pilgrim's Progress. Yet at this time in his life, his preaching was so rich, and people who also were suffering great trials, and had many difficulties, were so blessed because his preaching was so full of sympathy for those who were struggling, and people left, uplifted and ready to face the week.

Spurgeon was one day traveling home, and he was, as he put it, "in profound depression", and a verse came to him. It was, "My grace is sufficient for thee." He read this verse again and he knew the Lord had given it to him. And when he read it again, it was as if the Lord put emphasis on a different word. The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for thee" [with emphasis on the last word]. And Spurgeon burst into laughter - he realized, and he said, as he shared this with some of his brethren, he said, "Of course, God's grace is sufficient for me. How silly is my unbelief. To think that His grace wouldn't be enough for me?" And he finished by saying, "Oh brethren, be great believers. Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls."

Around 1870, DL Moody was traveling around London. Spurgeon wrote to him and invited him to preach at the Tabernacle. Moody wrote a reply, "Dear sir, I consider this a great honor. In fact, I should consider it a great honor to polish your black boots. But to preach to people, that would be out of the question. If they will not turn to God under your preaching, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Yours with much love, Moody.

Now, a group of American preachers were visiting England with the sole purpose to hear some of these speakers that they'd heard so much about in America. This group went first to hear a Dr. Joseph Parker. His impressive building, 2000 people filled that hall, and the Americans, as they listened to the commanding voice of Joseph Parker and his eloquence and the clarity of his theology, they came away and they said, "What a wonderful preacher is Joseph Parker." And then that evening, they went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear Spurgeon preach, and again, the congregation was now twice the size, and the building was so impressive. Spurgeon's voice was so expressive in ways far better than Parker's was, and his wit, his humor, his clarity, and everything... At the end of the service, these men came away and said, "What a wonderful Savior is Jesus Christ."

That was what Spurgeon was - he was always behind the cross. Prayer was something that sets Spurgeon apart. It wasn't that he spent many hours in prayer like some of the other people of his time. But he communed with God in a way that was very noticeable. Moody, when he was asked by someone, "Have you heard Spurgeon preach?" answered, "Yes, I've heard him preach, but better still, I've heard him pray." And that was something that many people said. Spurgeon was so clear that prayer was never, never, to be a performance. He said, "A genuine groan of a sinner before God is worth infinitely more than eloquent, nicely phrased prose of excellent theology."

One day, when he was walking in the woods with a good friend, they were chatting, and there was a lot of laughter. Spurgeon made so many people laugh that he was often criticized for his jokes, his laughter and humor. But this person was no critic of that, and he was laughing. Both were roaring with laughter. Then Spurgeon stopped and said, "Let us fall to our knees now, and thank the Lord for the gift of laughter." And that's what they did. That was Spurgeon - there was no parenthesis in his life - prayer was a habit of his mind, and for him, the Lord was always so present with him.

During the 1860's in England there was a subtle change, or perhaps not so subtle. Charles Darwin had just published his great work, "The Origin of Species", and this was the first time that the theory of evolution had been proposed. There was a great stir around this, but at the same time, amongst many theologians there was another advancement, and this was called "The New Theology", where people looked at the Bible from a different perspective. They looked at the miracles and said, "Really, are they miracles? Are they symbols are metaphors for other things? Did this person really write this book, or is it actually written by other people? Is this the date of this - maybe it's not." Soon doubt was cast on many aspects of the Scripture. Many people at that time felt that this was modern, it was new, it was enlightened, it was new academic thinking. Many universities started teaching this. Soon ministry training colleges and all sorts of Bible schools started to teach this new theology or new thinking as it was called. Soon leading ministers and pastors were also preaching these things. But Spurgeon was completely against it.

At that time, he was a key member of the Baptist Union, and he contributed a lot to it. But he was not happy that they didn't take a clear stand against this. So Spurgeon distanced himself from the Union. This made him very unpopular - people thought he was overreacting. They were thinking, "Come on, we are advancing in our thinking, this is enlightened. Your old traditional ways that you're hanging on to are not right." But for Spurgeon, nothing could be clearer. He believed, and he wrote, that if you start to deny the absolute truth of the Scripture, then you will end up with a mix of the saved and the unsaved in a church, and there would be so much that was in a gray area. He said that this would mean that attendance would fall, prayer meetings would be empty shells. He said that there would be less evident testimony from transformed lives by the new birth, and he said preaching would be powerless if you do not believe in the inerrant Word of God. Perhaps time has proven Spurgeon quite correct in these things.

Now a man of 50, Spurgeon's health was becoming steadily worse. He suffered constant pain at times, so much so that he was unable to move in bed, he couldn't turn over or bend his knee at times. This also meant that he could hardly write, and we can see his handwriting declining in many of his letters. But he still had great zeal for the Lord and fervor, and we can see that in a time when he attended a certain prayer meeting. There were many leaders of the church at this prayer meeting, and they were praying fervently for their young children, and asking the Lord that their young children would personally come to know Christ. Spurgeon was particularly moved by one man who prayed for his little Arthur. So after the prayer meeting, Spurgeon wrote a letter to Arthur. It read, "Dear Arthur, your name is known in the courts of heaven. Your case has been laid before the throne of God. Do you not pray for yourself? If you do not do so, why not? If other people value your soul, can it be right for you to neglect it? I pray that you think of Heaven and Hell, for in one of those places you will live forever. Meet me in Heaven. Meet me at once at the mercy seat. Run upstairs and pray to the Great Father through Jesus Christ. Yours very lovingly, CH Spurgeon." The reason we have the original letter is because little Arthur did run upstairs and did give his life to the Lord. That was Surgeon's heart, even in times where he was so busy. He always had time for one soul to come to know the Lord.

Spurgeon knew that his time on Earth was coming to an end. And he addressed his people for the very last time in 1891. He was so tired, and so terribly sick. He traveled to France again, to rest and, hopefully, to recover in some way that he might be able to stand up and preach again. His wife and his brother came with him. And although he did revive slightly, his condition was such that he then deteriorated, and on the 28th of January in 1892, he slipped into unconsciousness. Two days later, he passed into eternity. He was 57 years old.

Many believers and many people, towns folk, came to farewell him at the tabernacle that he'd built. The taverns and the pubs closed in respect on that day, and all the bells on the churches rang as the carriages passed through the towns. A dear friend of Spurgeon, the man who would take his place at the Tabernacle, spoke at the grave. He said, "Beloved president, faithful pastor, prince of preachers, brother beloved, our dear Spurgeon, we bid thee not farewell, but only for a little while, good night. We praise God for thee and, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, hope and expect to praise God with thee."

As a young man, Spurgeon was on his horse, riding through the town one evening after an engagement. It was a winter evening, so it was already dark. He noticed as he rode that he could see London ahead of him. As he rode, he saw the lights, the little lamps, lighting one by one along the road. When he saw that he knew that there was a lamplighter, lighting each individual lamp, but you couldn't see the lamplighter in the darkness. Spurgeon wrote about that. He said, "How earnestly do I wish that my life may be spent in lighting one soul after another with the Sacred Flame of eternal life. I would myself, as much as possible, be unseen while at my work, and would vanish into eternal brilliance above when my work is done.