Prince Of Preachers

Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!




Charles Haddon Spurgeon was known as the "Prince of Preachers". He loved GOD and he loved man. He trusted and obeyed what JESUS said in Matthew 22:36... " TEACHER, which is the great commandment in the law?" JESUS said to him, "You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." He understood this and applied this to his life.


He was born June 19, 1834 in Kelvedon, Essex, England to Rev. John and Eliza Spurgeon. He was a brother to seventeen siblings. His parents sent him to live with his grandparents where he learned about JESUS. He was six when he returned to his parents. Though he was surrounded by Godly parents and grandparents, he had not made a personal decision for CHRIST. At the age of fifteen years old he entered the Primitive Methodist Church while trying to make it to his church, but was deterred by a snowstorm. The preacher who was supposed to preach that night was unable to make it due to the storm. A man came forward to help out and he just started speaking from the WORD; He preached from Isaiah 45:22... Look to me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am GOD, and there is no other.

This is the account given by Charles himself of the day he met the SAVIOR, "When he (the man speaking) had managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, 'Young man, you look very miserable and you always will be miserable. Miserable in life, and miserable in death, if you don't obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.' Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted as only a Primitive Methodist could do, 'Young man, look to JESUS CHRIST. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.'
"I saw at once the way of salvation... and when I heard the word. 'Look!' what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of CHRIST, and the simple faith which looks alone to HIM."

Charles began preaching when he was only nineteen years old, and his love grew for the LORD and he obeyed HIM with everything he had. It is said that he was not for the flowery speech of the humanists or the rhetoric of the High Calvinists. Nor did he muddle through, as did many of the rural preachers. He spoke simply from his heart and did not try to impress man. He just wanted to impress upon man the glory of GOD, the fallen sinning state of each of us and the salvation of CHRIST. He not only preached to who would hear him, but he also put out a monthy magazine called "The SWORD and the TROWL". He wrote many books and also gave many college addresses and lectures. Through his obedience he brought many to CHRIST.

He was a man who was in constant pain because gout (an acute, recurrent disease characterized by painful inflammation of the joints) had attcked his body. He had a passion for the lost and he never let the pain stop him from preaching or spreading the WORD. He saw his suffering as a blessing from GOD for he was able to move with much compassion on those who were downtrodden.

Charles Jr. had this to say about his dad...

"I know of no one who could, more sweetly than my dear father, impart comfort to bleeding hearts and sad spirits. As the crushing of the flower causes it to yield its aroma, so he, having endured in the long continued illness of my beloved mother, and also constant pains himself, was able to so sympathize most tenderly with all sufferers."

In his last years, Spurgeon went to Menton in South france. In 1892, became very sick. Though illness was upon him, he could not help but continue attending services with his friends and family. In his biography, it was said that he had delivered his message to groups of thousands, but would expound the word of GOD to any group, no matter how small.

His friend, Wilson Carlile, was with him during his last days. Wilson tells of Charles' last prayer... "When he was dying at the East by, Menton, my wife and I went to his family prayers, which he took though in bed. He prayed for all the wandering sheep, concluding, 'THOU, LORD, seest the various lables upon them and rightly regardest them by the mark of the CROSS in their hearts. They are all THY one fold."

He went to be with the FATHER January 31, 1892, but his ministry is still influencing many today through the enormous amount of sermonic material and varied writings he left behind.

Charles Spurgeon wrote and preached 3, 500 individual sermons, and I want to share some of his wise words with you, so every Sunday I will have "Spurgeon Sunday". I hope you will come partake in some wisdom. Here is an example of how much he loved the wandering sheep and how he pleaded with others to reach the lost...

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." (I love this statement!)

We should all be filled with such compassion for the "wandering sheep". I pray you all will ask GOD to help you find what you need to spread the GOSPEL!

GOD Bless You!




9 comments:

Dear donna, I understand this man found his sense in life through preaching. The last quote was an impressive on showing the speech skills of this man... Nevertheless, although the post is well written and a good read, I asked myself, why did you chose to tell of him, what made this man special? More than other preacher?

January 20, 2009 at 5:59 PM  

Hi Donna!
I so admire Spurgeon's preachings as well. Thanks for sharing!

PS: (i was trying to sign your guestbook list but for some reasons i can't post this:
I just want to encourage you to write more about your faith, about salvation and most importantly about Christ!
Press on!)

January 21, 2009 at 5:16 AM  

Ray,
Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate all my readers! :)

As I grow in CHRIST, I find many modern day preachers to be very worldly. They allow so much of the WORD to be watered down. They just want to fill their pews. There are those who do not even touch on sin or the Lake of Fire. As a parent adds water to take the bitterness out of a much needed medicine, they are making it palatable to the youngster, but taking away its effectivess to do its job. More and more preachers have watered down the message so it will not offend anyone(making it palatable)and so losing the effectiveness of the true message of CHRIST and why HE had to come.

I love ministers who do not care about impressing man, but staying true to the work of the LORD. I find Charles Spurgeon to have been one of those preachers, and wish more modern day preachers were like him. He did not mince words, he told it like it was.

He told it like it was, because he had a heart for the lost. A real compassion for the "wandering sheep". I too, have a passion to reach the lost. I really love people and I do not want anyone to experience the "wrath to come".

January 21, 2009 at 5:18 AM  

Suedonim 16,
Thank you for stopping by sister! I am so happy to hear someone else loves him as much as I do! :)

Come back on Sunday for a nugget of truth from the Prince of Preachers!

Your sister in CHRIST,
Donna

January 21, 2009 at 5:26 AM  

Have you seen the new Spurgeon collection from Logos Bible Software? I thought you might be interested:

Charles Spurgeon Collection (78 Vols.)

January 21, 2009 at 11:04 AM  

Thank You Kent! I will check it out! Thank You for stopping by, and I hope you come back! :)

January 21, 2009 at 12:27 PM  

I have awarded you the Lemonade award for your blog because it shows an attitude of gratitude, uplifting and has good content. Pick it up at: Julie's Daily Inspirationals: Food for Thought

January 22, 2009 at 1:14 AM  

As your Grandma Millie would say "Right On". This was a terrific post to read. We need more preachers like Spurgeon. I have been at one church for almost 10 years and never heard a sermon on Lake Of Fire. It is all amount Love, Compassion and Family. Sin, yes, but not as far as telling about Hell. Maybe I should be looking for a new church that will tell me about all of the bible instead of the uplifting parts.

January 23, 2009 at 8:43 PM  

Mom,
The more I grow in CHRIST, the more I understand that if a preacher does not tell of the lake of fire they are doing the people an injustice. What do people think they are being saved from? There is a wrath to come because of our sin and JESUS paid our fine so the law would have hold on us. That is where the love comes in, that is where true understanding comes. We can not preach a salvation message without using the law and lake of fire. Psalm 19:7 says that the law is good for converting the soul. Where does the BIBLE say people are going if they do not trust what JESUS has done or them?
Yes, we do need more preachers like Spurgeon.

GOD Bless You Mom!

In service for CHRIST,
Donna

January 25, 2009 at 10:23 PM  

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