Pilgrim Publications has released a reprint of the original Passmore and Alabaster set, with the complete four-volume set published in two bindings. As usual, the production quality and bindings are outstanding. These volumes belong on every preacher's bookshelf.

Lewis Drummond, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1992), 874 pp., available in both paper and cloth editions.

Biographies of Charles Haddon Spurgeon abound -- ranging from superficial treatments of Spurgeon as a Victorian personality to major surveys of his life and legacy. Popular biographies have numbered works by Russell Conwell (1892) and W. Y. Fullerton (1920). More substantial works included the six-volume work of Godfrey Holden Pike (1890s -- recently reprinted by Banner of Truth Trust) and George Carter Needham (1883).

A pleasant and insightful volume was offered by Arnold Dallimore (1984), and Iain Murray's The Forgotten Spurgeon (1964/1973) is a necessary corrective to superficial renderings of Spurgeon's ministry.

Nevertheless, no genuine majesterial biographical analysis of Spurgeon has appeared in recent decades. That was true, at least, until the release of Lewis Drummond's Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, released in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Spurgeon's death.

Drummond, who taught at Spurgeon's College in London for several years, was drawn to Spurgeon as a model of evangelistic ministry. Currently Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, Drummond served in a similar post at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville before his election as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1987.

The author's love and respect for his subject is apparent throughout the volume, yet the result is not hagiography but an appreciative analysis which does not dodge difficult issues.

Drummond placed Spurgeon's story within the construct of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress -- an interesting and particularly appropriate literary device, given Spurgeon's lifelong fascination with Bunyan's allegory.

The volume has a notable narrative flow for a book of over 800 pages, and the material is well organized. Drummond includes chapters on every phase of Spurgeon's ministerial career, and provides a wealth of documentation within the narrative.

Those who are building libraries will find this volume a worthy addition. If preachers can have but one volume on Spurgeon, this should be the choice.

Charles H. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981).

These volumes, first released in 1884, were Spurgeon's attempt to provide needy preachers with basic fodder for sermon construction. They represented his basic approach to sermon design, with an outline emerging from the biblical text, and the sermon expressing the honest meaning of the passage. The volumes (two on the Old Testament and two on the New Testament are of enduring value.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Christ's Words from the Cross (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992).

The Best of Charles H. Spurgeon (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977).

Charles H. Spurgeon, Twelve Sermons on Prayer (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990).

These volumes, all selected reprints of Spurgeon's sermons and writings, are helpful introductions to Spurgeon's preaching. The Best of C. H. Spurgeon was originally published by Revell as The Treasury of C. H. Spurgeon. It includes materials from a wide range of Spurgeon's writings, including his shorter and more popular works.