But Spurgeon took another course: he confronted Victorian culture with the knowledge of its own fallenness, and he held out the gospel of God as the only answer to human problems, whether individual or social.

The very fact that this entire series is again in print is one unmistakeable indication of the power of Spurgeon's sermons in printed form.

This would not surprise Spurgeon's contemporary William Robertson Nicoll, who wrote just six years after Spurgeon's death that: "The continued life and power of his printed sermons show that his oratory, noble as it was, was not the first thing. Our firm belief is that these sermons will continue to be studied with growing interest and wonder; that they will ultimately be accepted as incomparably the greatest contribution to the literature of experiental Christianity that has been made in this century, and that their message will go on transforming and quickening lives after all other sermons of the period are forgotten."

Nicoll offered further that "one dares to profesy [that Spurgeon's sermons] will not be out of date when this twentieth century is drawing to its close." Little did he know.

Pilgrim Publications, a Texas-based publisher devoted chiefly to Spurgeon reprints, began releasing the sermon volumes in the 1960s. All 63 volumes are now available, along with other Spurgeon materials.

The Pilgrim editions are exact copies of the original Passmore and Alabaster series. The quality of reproduction is outstanding, and the bindings are worthy of the contents. Taken as a set or as individual volumes, The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series present the preacher with an unrivaled homiletical, theological, and exegetical resource.

The young boy in Stambourne who once had an idea that his sermon might be printed, had but the barest notion of what that thought would eventually produce.

C. H. Spurgeon's Autobiography: His Diary, Letters, and Records 4 vols. (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1897-1900; reprint edition, Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1992).

Preachers are avid readers of biographies -- especially biographies of other preachers. A stellar autobiography is a genuine find, and practitioners of the preaching art can find much to celebrate in the reprinting of C. H. Spurgeon's Autobiography.

Spurgeon was an unusually reflective preacher. Even as a boy he committed his autobiographical thoughts and memories to print, but much of the material in the autobiography came from pages Spurgeon penned during rest periods at Mentone.

The four-volume autobiography was actually compiled by Spurgeon's widow, Susannah, and his personal secretary, J. W. Harrald. But the volumes contain far more than Spurgeon's reflective essays. Also included are selections from his personal diary, public and private records, materials from the New Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle ministries, press accounts, and letters.

Spurgeon was fortunate that his wife and personal secretary survived him and collaborated in producing this substantial project. Likewise, readers are fortunate that Mrs. Spurgeon shared so generously from her personal materials and released others for use in the autobiography. Without her active cooperation and participation, it is unlikely that the project would have been so generously filled with personal materials.