A Bee-Line to the Cross: The Preaching of Charles H. Spurgeon
By R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
"Brethren," he pleaded, "weigh your sermons. Do not retail them by the yard, but deal them out by the pound. Set no store by the quantity of words which you utter, but try to be esteemed for the quality of your matter."16
Spurgeon held fast to Calvinist theology, even as he extended a universal appeal to the gospel. When asked how he could reconcile his understanding of election and his evangelistic appeal, Spurgeon retorted quickly: "I do not try to reconcile friends."17
That quality of vigor and vitality produced one of the most remarkable ministries of the church in the modern age -- or any age. Upon Spurgeon's death, Texan B. H. Carroll was moved to deliver an address celebrating his British colleague's life and ministry: "With whom among men can you compare him? He combined the preaching power of Jonathan Edwards and Whitefield with the organizing power of Wesley, and the energy, fire, and courage of Luther. In many respects he was most like Luther. In many, most like Paul."18
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But Spurgeon never intended to be the center of attention -- in life or in death. He would point to the cross. As Thielicke stated plainly, "His message never ran dry because he was never anything but a recipient." And to that Spurgeon would say a hearty "Amen."
1. Helmut Thielicke, Encounter with Spurgeon, trans. John W. Doberstein (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1964), p. 1.
2. Charles H. Spurgeon's Autobiography, vol. 1 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1897; reprinted edition, Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), p. 110.
3. Autobiography, 1/201.
4. "Charles Haddon Spurgeon," in 20 Centuries of Great Preaching: An Encyclopedia of Preaching, 12 vols., edited by Clyde E. Fant, Jr. and William M. Pinson, Jr. (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1971), VI/3.
5. T. Harwood Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1903), p. 335.
6. Charles Ray, A Marvelous Ministry: The Story of C. H. Spurgeon's Sermons (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1905; reprinted edition, Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1985), p. 17.
7. Thielicke, p. 1.
8. Cited in Lewis Drummond, "The Secrets of Spurgeon's Preaching," Christian History, issue 29 (1992), pp. 14-15.
9. Thielicke, pp. 40-41.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 25.
12. Cited in Ray, pp. 34-35.
13. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1966), p. 5.
14. Autobiography, I/113.
15. C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1881), I/72.
16. Lectures, I/73.
17. Cited in Drummond, p. 15.
18. B. H. Carroll, "The Death of Spurgeon," an address delivered in Nashville, Tennessee, February, 1892, in Sermons and Life Sketch of B. H. Carroll, D.D., compiled by J. B. Cranfill (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1893), p. 29.