THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON OF BLESSED MEMORY.

Charles Haddon, elder son of John Spurgeon, by his wife, the youngest sister of Charles Parker Jarvis of Colchester, was born at Kelvedon, Essex, in England on 19 June 1834.

His early childhood was spent with his grandfather, James Spurgeon, but in 1841 he was sent to a school at Colchester conducted by Henry Lewis. In 1848 he spent a few months at an agricultural college at Maidstone.

In the following year he became an usher in a school at Newmarkert.

His employer was a Baptist, and although Spurgeon had been reared an independent, and converted in a primitive Methodist chapel, he was baptised and formally joined the Baptist community at Isle ham on 3 May 1850.

In the same year he obtained a place in a school at Cambridge, recently founded by a former teacher and friend, Henry Leeding.

Spurgeon’s conversion from nominal Anglicanism came on 6 January 1850, at age 15. On his way to a scheduled appointment, a snow storm forced him to cut short his intended journey and to turn into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Artillery Street, Newtown, Colchester where, he claimed, 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 4 April 1850, he was admitted to the church at Newmarket.

There he became an active member of a Baptist congregation, and while a boy of sixteen, dressed in a jacket and turndown collar, preached his first sermon in a cottage at Teversham, near Cambridge

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.

He 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 his 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.

In 1852 he became the pastor of the Baptist congregation at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. In April 1854 he was preaching in the pulpit of the Baptist congregation at New Park Street, Southwark. Within a few months as a preacher made him famous.

The chapel had been empty; before a year had passed the crowds that gathered to hear the country lad of twenty rendered its enlargement essential.

Exeter Hall was used while the new building was in process of erection, but Exeter Hall could not contain Spurgeon’s hearers.

The enlarged chapel, when opened, at once proved too small, and a great tabernacle was projected.

In the meantime Spurgeon preached at the Surrey Gardens music-hall, where his congregations numbered ten thousand.

In April 1854, after preaching three months on probation and just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 19, was called to the pastorate of London’s famed New Park Street Chapel, Southwark (formerly pastored by the Particular Baptists Benjamin Keach, theologian John Gill and John Rippon). 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 Westbourne Grove Church, an older man who along with Spurgeon went on to found the London Baptist Association.

On 18 March 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, Southwark, seating 5000 people with standing room for another 1000.

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 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.

On 5 June 1862, Spurgeon challenged the Church of England when he preached against baptismal regeneration. However, Spurgeon taught across denominational lines as well: for example, in 1877 he was the preacher at the opening of a new Free Church of Scotland church building in Dingwall.

It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the inter-denominational China Inland Mission.

Spurgeon supported the work of the mission financially and directed many missionary candidates to apply for service with Taylor.

He also 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.

Following the example of George Müller, Spurgeon founded the Stockwell Orphanage, which opened for boys in 1867 and for girls in 1879, and which continued in London until it was bombed in the Second World War. The orphanage became Spurgeon’s Child Care which still exists today. On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discolored and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon’s printed sermons, “Accidents, Not Punishments, “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.

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. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000. At 22, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.

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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 20 September 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 devastated by the event and it had a sobering influence on his life. He struggled against depression for many years and spoke of being moved to tears for no reason known to him.

Spurgeon married, in 1856, Susannah, daughter of Robert Thompson of Falcon Square, London, by whom he had twin sons, Charles and Thomas. His widow and sons survived him. Towards the end of his life he suffered severely from gout, and was repeatedly forced to take long rests.

Spurgeon’s wife was often too ill to leave home to hear him preach. Spurgeon also suffered ill health toward the end of his life, afflicted by a combination of rheumatism, gout and Bright’s disease. He often recuperated at Menton, near Nice, France, where he died on 31 January 1892. He enjoyed cigars and smoked a “F. P Del Rio y Ca.” in his last days according to his grandson. Spurgeon was survived by his wife and sons. His remains were buried at West Norwood Cemetery in London, where the tomb is still visited by admirers. His son Tom became the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle after his father died. 
i bless the God that made you.