WasSpurgeontheGreatest Preacher Ever Born?
What was the secret of his ministry ?
T HERE were a dozen persons present that Sunday morning. A heavy snow storm had come on, and the minis ter did not arrive. “A thin-looking and illiterate man went into the pulpit.” Preach ing from Isaiah 45:22, he “managed to spin out ten minutes or so” and then “was at the end o f his tether.” A sixteen-year- old boy was present. For months he had been under agony of conviction. That morning he saw the way of salvation— the agony was gone, joy began. The boy’s name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon—
This editorial will be followed, beginning in the issue of June 2, by an extended series o f articles on Spurgeon written for T h e S u n d a y S c h o o l T im e s by one of
Dr. Scroggie takes up his narrative in three parts: 1. T h e S t o r y o f S p u r g e o n . II, T h e C o n t e m p o r a r ie s o f S p u r g e o n . III. T h e M a n if o l d n e s s o f S p u r g e o n . Spurgeon was one o f God’s greatest gifts to the Church and the world. Every Chris tian minister in the world today ought to
“ Spurgeon was not big because his period was little, for no similar period has ever produced so many distinguished men in every walk of life.” He was “ not a mountain among hills, but an Everest in a Himalayan range o f mountains.”
At twenty-three Spurgeon was asked to speak in the Crystal Palace, on a day of humiliation and prayer, and some 25,000 persons came to hear him. Throughout his ministry not only the poor and ignorant, but the rich and learned, hung upon his words. His meetings were attended by the Prime Min ister of England, the Lord Chief Justice, the Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, and such other distinguished citizens as David Livingstone and John Ruskin. “ For such popularity as this no parallel can be found in the annals of the Christian Church,”—and it was sustained throughout nearly forty years.
Spurgeon preached his first ser mon, in a cottage, at the age of sixteen, and his text was, “ Unto you therefore which believe He is precious.” He said o f it, after it was over: “To my own delight I had not broken down, nor stopped short in the middle, nor been des titute o f ideas.” But he was glad when he saw his “way to a fair conclusion and to the giving out of the last hymn.” Thus began what Dr. Scroggie believes was “the greatest preaching ministry o f the Christian age.”
the greatest British Baptist preachers and writers of our generation, the Rev. W. Graham Scroggie, D.D. (Edin.), who con cluded, last October, a rich ministry of many years at Charlotte Chapel, Edin burgh, and accepted a six-months’ engage ment in Auckland, New Zealand, following which he will be conducting Bible Confer ence and Missionary work for the Mild- may Movement for World Evangelization, in New South Wales and elsewhere. In a series of eight or ten articles Dr. Scroggie makes Spurgeon live again be-
Young Spurgeon at nineteen and two other ministers were speakers at a meeting. He spoke first, and the other two in their addresses rudely attacked him. His reply, when the chairman gave him per mission to speak again, resulted in his call to a pulpit that had been filled by famous preachers. “And so, out of the unpardonable inso lence of a professing Christian min ister came one of the most momen tous events o f the Victorian Age.”
have the rare blessing of these penetrating, revealing studies by Dr. Scroggie. Will you not let all your minister friends know about them ? There is a challenge in them also for all Sunday-school workers,—in deed, for Christian people of every sort, young and old. These biographical sketches will send many to their knees in confes sion, prayer, surrender, and heart-hunger.
and he was saved. His preaching ministry began almost at once. Perhaps the question that heads this page startles the reader. Perhaps one is moved to disagree most positively. It will be well to withhold one’s answer until more o f the evidence is in. Evidence of the most amazing and thrilling character will be presented in the pages of T h e S u n d a y S c h o o l T im e s .
It is estimated that 150,000,000 copies o f Spurgeon’s sermons have been sold. One of them was pub lished every week for more than sixty-two years. He began his literary career when he was seven years old, and continued it to the time of his death. His sermons have been translated into twenty- five or more tongues and dialects. Yet in nearly 3,600 published ser mons there is scarcely any repeti tion, even where the same text was preached from several times.
At seventeen Spurgeon began his first pastorate, at Waterbeach. The place was a moral cesspool, with gambling, drunkenness, immorality, robberies, and villanies the order of the day. Before he left, three years later, “crime had practically ceased, the church was filled to overflowing, and throughout the village, instead of oaths, were heard the Songs of Zion.”
fore us. Probably few Christian people of today have any conception o f the massive greatness, grandeur, and glory o f the life and character and work o f this English preacher. We have all known the name Spurgeon as one o f the mountain peaks of the nineteenth century in pulpit ministry. We have not realized, unless we have made a special study of it, the towering unique ness o f this man and o f what he accom plished in a comparatively brief life-time —he was only fifty-eight years old when he died.
One hundred years ago, on June 19, 1834, Spurgeon was born. Centenary memorials and tributes in his honor are being held throughout the world. The T im e s gladly shares in this, and rejoices in being able to offer its readers an extraordinary oppor tunity. The leading editorial in the issue of May 26 will review a new, Centenary edition of a priceless work that had become unob tainable : more than 600 o f Spurgeon’s greatest sermons, brought together in four large volumes under the title “The Treas ury of the New Testament.”
Dr. Scroggie’s articles, telling the story of Spurgeon’s life and work, some 14,000 words or more, will run in eight or ten in stallments exclusively in T h e S u n d a y S c h o o l T im e s , beginning with the issue of June 2. Please let your friends know of this extraordinary opportunity, especially noting that a Ten Weeks Get Acquainted subscription to the T im e s , for those not now taking the paper, may be had for 25 cents; such subscriptions will cover most of the series.
The Sunday School Times Co. Box 1550, Philadelphia, Pa. For the 25 cents enclosed please send The Sunday School Times for 10 weeks, beginning with the Spur geon series (starting June 2), to Name ................................. : ....... ......ii.... Address ........... ........ .............................
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