English Baptist preacher, writer, and pastor of the New Park Street Chapel and then of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, Charles Spurgeon remains one of the noblest preachers of all ages.
Charles Spurgeon came from a family of deeply spiritual heritage; both his father and grandfather were Independent pastors. His own preaching ability was early recognized and at the early age of seventeen he was appointed pastor. Three years later he was called to New Park Baptist Chapel in Southwark, London. The growth of the church soon made it necessary to rebuild the church in 1859 and it became the Metropolitan Tabernacle (it's still there in London, just a short walk from Elephant & Castle station). There he remained for the rest of his life and, through his life and ministry, it became one of the most vibrant centers of evangelical Christianity in Britain.
Soon after coming to New Park he also started the 'Pastor's College—supported financially for much of the time during its the first fifteen years from his own pocket—for the training of preachers; it continues today as Spurgeon's College.
His popularity was greatly enhanced when, beginning 1855, his weekly sermons were published for sale both in the UK and US, the profit from which he finance the Bible college he founded. His published works came to some 135 volumes; Treasury of David, his expositions of the psalms remain highly popular. He also founded a number of orphanages and associations aimed at the uplifting of the poor and disenfranchised. Theologically, he was Calvinistic, and when in the late 1870's he felt that the Baptist Union was getting too liberal, he withdrew from the Union. Though a man of integrity, Spurgeon was—as all of us—also a man of his age and not immune to the foibles and prejudices of his time. When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, he preached in the Crystal Palace to a congregation of 25,000 a sermon that amounted to a call for holy war:
My friends, what crimes they have committed . . . The Indian government never ought to have tolerated the religion of the Hindoos at all. If any religion consisted of betiality, infanticide and murder, I should have no right to it unless I was prepared to be hang. The religion of the Hindoos is no more than a mass of the rankest filth that imagination ever conceived. The Gods they worship is not entitled to the least atom of respect. Their worship necessitates everything that is evil and morality must put it down. The sword must be taken out of its sheath, to cut off our fellow subjects by their thousands.
Spurgeon was married to Susanna Thompson and she bore him twin sons, one of whom, Thomas Spurgeon, followed in his father's footsteps, studied at Spurgeon College, served for a time in New Zealand and Australia, before returning to London to lead Metropolitan Tabernacle in its rebuilding after it was burned down in a fire, and eventually also served as president of Spurgeon College. Thomas's own son would eventually serve for many years as principal of the Irish Baptist College in Dublin.
©ALBERITH
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