Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers." He was a strong figure in the Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.
Spurgeon was pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years. He was part of several controversies with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and later he left the denomination over doctrinal convictions.
While at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he built an Almshouse and the Stockwell Orphanage. He encouraged his congregation to engage actively with the poor of Victorian London. He also founded Spurgeon's College, which was named after him posthumously.
Spurgeon authored sermons, an autobiography, commentaries, books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, and hymns. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. He is said to have produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills are said to have held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.
Biography
Early life
Born in Kelvedon, Essex, he moved with his family to Colchester at 10 months old.
The missionary Richard Knill spent several days with Spurgeon while visiting his grandfather in 1844; he announced to him and his family that the child would one day preach the gospel to great multitudes.
alt=Blue plaque reads 'Charles Haddon Spurgeon "The Prince of Peachers" Began his ministry here in 1851'|thumb|Plaque commemorating Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon's conversion from nominal Congregationalism came on 6 January 1850, at age 15. On his way to a scheduled appointment, a snowstorm forced him to cut short his intended journey and to turn into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Artillery Street, Newtown, Colchester, where he believed God opened his heart to the salvation message.
The text that moved him was Isaiah 45:22 ("Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else"). Later that year, on April 4, he was admitted to the church at Newmarket. His baptism followed on 3 May in the river Lark, at Isleham. Later that same year he moved to Cambridge, where he later became a Sunday school teacher. Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the winter of 1850–51 in a cottage at Teversham while filling in for a friend. From the beginning of Spurgeon's ministry, his style and ability were considered to be far above average. In the same year, he was installed as pastor of the small Baptist church at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, where he published his first literary work, a Gospel tract written in 1853.
New Park Street Chapel
left|thumb|Spurgeon at age 23.
In April 1854, after preaching three months on probation and just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 19 years old, was called to the pastorate of London's famed New Park Street Chapel in Southwark (formerly pastored by the Particular Baptists Benjamin Keach, and theologian John Gill). This was the largest Baptist congregation in London at the time, although it had dwindled in numbers for several years. Spurgeon found friends in London among his fellow pastors, such as William Garrett Lewis of Westballs Grove Church, an older man who along with Spurgeon went on to found the London Baptist Association.
thumb|[[Staffordshire figurine, c. 1860]]
Within a few months of Spurgeon's arrival at Park Street, his ability as a preacher made him famous. The following year the first of his sermons in the "New Park Street Pulpit" was published. Spurgeon's sermons were published in printed form every week and had a high circulation. By the time of his death in 1892, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations and devotions.
Immediately following his fame was criticism. The first attack in the press appeared in the Earthen Vessel in January 1855. His preaching, although not revolutionary in substance, was a plain-spoken and direct appeal to the people, using the Bible to provoke them to consider the teachings of Jesus Christ. Critical attacks from the media persisted throughout his life. The congregation quickly outgrew their building and moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. At 22, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.
On 8 January 1856, Spurgeon married Susannah, daughter of Robert Thompson of Falcon Square, London, by whom he had twin sons, Charles and Thomas born on September 20, 1856. At the end of that year, tragedy struck on 19 October 1856, as Spurgeon was preaching at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall for the first time. Someone in the crowd yelled, "FIRE". The ensuing panic and stampede left several dead. Spurgeon was emotionally impacted by the event and it had a sobering influence on his life. For many years he spoke of being moved to tears for no reason known to himself.
right|thumb|Spurgeon later in life.
Walter Thornbury later wrote in "Old and New London" (1898) describing a subsequent meeting at Surrey:
thumb|Pastors College 1888Spurgeon's work went on. A Pastors' College was founded in 1856 by Spurgeon and was renamed Spurgeon's College in 1923, when it moved to a new building in South Norwood Hill, London. At the Fast Day, 7 October 1857, he preached to his largest crowd ever – 23,654 people – at The Crystal Palace in London. Spurgeon noted:
Metropolitan Tabernacle
thumb|Spurgeon preaching at the [[Surrey Music Hall circa 1858.]]
On 18 March 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, Southwark, seating 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon continued to preach there several times per week until his death 31 years later. He never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation that if anyone was moved to seek an interest in Christ by his preaching on a Sunday, they could meet with him at his vestry on Monday morning. Without fail, there was always someone at his door the next day.
He wrote his sermons out fully before he preached, but what he carried up to the pulpit was a note card with an outline sketch. Stenographers would take down the sermon as it was delivered and Spurgeon would then have the opportunity to make revisions to the transcripts the following day for immediate publication. His weekly sermons, which sold for a penny each, were widely circulated and still remain one of the all-time best-selling series of writings published in history.
thumb|right|Missionary preaching in China using the [[Wordless Book]]
Besides sermons, Spurgeon also wrote several hymns and published a new collection of worship songs in 1866 called "Our Own Hymn Book".
On 5 June 1864, Spurgeon challenged the Church of England when he preached against baptismal regeneration. Spurgeon aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting "The Wordless Book", a teaching tool that he described in a message given on 11 January 1866, regarding Psalm 51:7: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." The book has been and is still used to teach people without reading skills and people of other cultures and languages – young and old – around the globe about the Gospel message.
On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discoloured and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons, on Luke 13 (the falling tower of Siloam) was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page: "Very good, D.L." He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa. It was sent to Spurgeon and treasured by him.
Metropolitan Tabernacle Societies and Institutions
In 1876, 22 years after becoming pastor, Spurgeon published "The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work". His intention stated in the preface is to give a 'printed history of the Tabernacle'. The book has 15 chapters and of these 5 are given over to what he called 'Societies and Institutions'.thumb|upright|Metropolitan Tabernacle Almshouse
The Five Chapters are:
xi. The Almshouses. Explaining how the New Park Street Chapel site was sold to allow the Tabernacle to build an Almshouse and school.
thumb|upright|Stockwell Orphanage 1876
xiii. The Stockwell Orphanage. This opened for 240 boys in 1867 (and later for girls in 1879). These orphanages continued in London until they were bombed in the Second World War. The inspiration for starting an orphanage came from a visit with George Müller and the financial support of Anne Field Hillyard. The orphanage changed its name to Spurgeon's Child Care in 1937, and again in 2005 to Spurgeons. Spurgeon was linked more with the Stockwell orphanage than any other Metropolitan Tabernacle endeavour. There are probably four reasons for this:
xiv. The Colportage Association. Colporters were employed to take Bibles, good books and periodicals for sale, from house to house. They also were involved in visiting the sick and holding meetings.
xv. Other Institutions Connected with the Tabernacle. Here Spurgeon describes 21 other 'Institutions'. Two examples are: The Ordinance Poor Fund which distributed money amongst poor members of the church of about £800 annually, and the Ladies' Benevolent Society. This group made clothing for the poor and 'relieved' them, with an income of £105.
Eight years later at Spurgeon's fiftieth birthday celebration an updated list of 'Societies and Institutions' was read out. With Spurgeon's strong encouragement and support the 24 groups listed in 'The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work', had become 69. Before they are read out Spurgeon says: "I think everybody should know what the church has been moved to do, and I beg to say that there are other societies besides those which will be mentioned, but you will be tired before you get to the end of them." and finishes after the list by saying: "We have need to praise God that he enables the church to carry on all these institutions."
He encouraged others to give, with comments like these:
On the Green Walk Mission: "Here a good hall must be built. If some generous friend would build a place for this mission, the money would be well laid out",
On colporters: "Mr Charlesworth’s two Bible classes have generously agreed to support a brother with a Bible Carriage in the streets of London. Would not some other communities of young people do well to have their own man at work in the regions where they dwell? THINK OF IT",
On the almshouses: "WE GREATLY NEED AT LEAST £5000 TO ENDOW THE ALMHOUSES, AND PLACE THE INSTITUTION UPON A PROPER FOOTING. Already C. H. Spurgeon, Thomas Olney, and Thomas Greenwood have contributed £200 each towards the fund, and we earnestly trust that either by donations or legacies the rest of the £5000 will be forthcoming."
Spurgeon had one infirmary built, at the Stockwell Orphanage. However, he also recognised that the poor had limited access to health care and so was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund. He left us this quote: thumb|The Stockwell Orphanage Infirmary
Downgrade controversy
right|thumb|300px|Sword and Trowel original cover page
A controversy among the Baptists flared in 1887 with Spurgeon's first "Down-grade" article, published in The Sword & the Trowel. In the ensuing "Downgrade Controversy," the Metropolitan Tabernacle disaffiliated from the Baptist Union, effectuating Spurgeon's congregation as the world's largest self-standing church. Spurgeon framed the controversy in this way:
The controversy took its name from Spurgeon's use of the term "Downgrade" to describe certain other Baptists' outlook toward the Bible (i.e., they had "downgraded" the Bible and the principle of sola scriptura). Spurgeon alleged that an incremental creeping of the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and other concepts were weakening the Baptist Union. Spurgeon emphatically decried the doctrine that resulted:
The standoff caused division amongst the Baptists and other non-conformists and is regarded by many as an important paradigm.
Opposition to slavery
thumb|upright|Photograph of Spurgeon c.1870
Spurgeon strongly opposed the owning of slaves. He lost support from the Southern Baptists, sales of his sermons dropped, and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence.