My first introduction to Charles Haddon Spurgeon was well into my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Someone gave me a copy of MORNING & EVENING, a devotional book reprinted from the original.  Later a friend gave me an original copy (small enough to fit in the palm of my hand).  The book was published by Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd., London & Edinburgh. It was very tiny and dear with carefully pencilled notes from a saint who savored its instruction.  It is entitled MORNING & EVENING DAILY READINGS.  This is the one I have treasured!

Next, it was my good fortune to find a copy of THE SHADOW OF THE BROAD BRIM by Richard Ellswroth Day, The Judson Press.  I knew it was a book much loved, because it had been much read and was barely holding together.  I took it on vacation with me one year and read it devotionally each morning and evening, all 23 chapters of it.  What a blessing it was to me.

THE TREASURY OF DAVID is an exposition written by Spurgeon on the Psalms and a favorite used by Christians today.  Additionally, there are volumes of his sermons, many articles written by and about C.H.S., including a two-volume biography written in the 1800′s, THE EARLY YEARS, Volume I and THE FULL HARVEST, Volume II, written by Susannah Spurgeon, his wife and Joseph Harrald.  These are available in a revised edition from Banner of Truth Trust.

I have a number of these fine books in my library and one thing I remember from reading about Spurgeon is that he never allowed his public prayers to be published.  He considered his abiding in Christ a sacred thing and was in constant communion with Him, bringing everything pertaining to life back to its Source, to the throne of his God and King.

Spurgeon said he tried to keep some copies of good biographies so he could see and be reminded what God had done in the lives of His servants.  He was called the heir of the Puritans.  He was an eternal optimist.  To say he was a remarkable man is an understatement.  It was said he was a spiritual giant, although he was just five feet six inches tall.

He came from a long line of godly men, mostly ministers and non-conformists.  Spurgeon said, “I sometimes feel the shadow of [Job Spurgeon was his great-grandfather's grandfather, a comtemporary of John Bunyan] his broad brim come over my spirit.  There is a sweet fitness in the passing of the holy loyalty from grandsire to father, and father to son.  I like to feel that I serve God ‘from my fathers.’”  These men were part of what is known as the Puritans of England, from which perhaps some of the richest teachings of divinity came since the Apostles Paul and Peter.  They were men who were dynamic in truth, men like Owen, Charnock, Manton and Brooks.  There were many other Puritan devines.  They taught their children from the cradle the oracles of God.  They spoke them and lived them.  Many Puritan children learned early in life what would make them wise unto salvation–faith that is in Jesus Christ.

The boy, Charles, discovered some of the Puritan writings when he was six years old in a dark storage room of his grandfather’s house, beginning with the story of John Bunyan.  It is said he read the story over 100 times before his death.  Even as a young child, this story so stirred his heart that he spent the next 50 years acquiring such writings and left behind a priceless collection of them now owned by William Jewel College in Liberty, Missouri here in America.

He was tutored by his grandfather, himself a minister of the gospel the first seven years of his life.  He was taught faith, liberty of conscience and Puritan theology.  He was the successor of a race of spiritual giants, himself the heir and prince of them all.  Having been prayed for by his forefathers, he was prayed for and prayed with by his mother and grandmother.  Charles received verse by verse the teaching of the Bible at his mother’s knee while his father was away preaching to others.

At the age of 15, he realized he was a sinner, though not rampant outwardly, certainly raging inwardly.  God was at work and Charles came face to face with the Ten Commandments, God’s Law.  He knew he was a sinner and he knew not what to do.  He set out to search for the answer in the dead of winter, visiting this Church and that until finally, in a blinding snowstorm, he went into a Primitive Methodist Church.  About 15 people were in that Church with no formal preacher.  A tailor agreed to pitch-hit that night, taking for his text Isaiah 45:22:

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. . .”

Not being used to preaching, this substitute ran out of words after about ten minutes when he looked up to see the boy Spurgeon’s troubled face staring at him.  The “preacher” fixed his eyes on him and said, “Young man, you’re in trouble!  Look to Jesus Christ!  Look!  Look!  Look!”  So Charles Spurgeon did by an act of faith look to Jesus and God put His seal on his soul.  It was a glad surrender, full and final.  He flet like Bunyan when he said he wanted to tell all the crows on the plowed land about his conversion.  And Spurgeon continued plowing the gospel of Jesus Christ in well over 3,500 sermons, beginning at the age of 20 until he was taken home to heaven at age 57.

I want to emphasize the preparation for his service to God was recalled in many of his personal records:

“Schoolmasters are well enough, but godly fathers are, both by the order of nature and grace, the best instructors of their sons, nor can they delegate the sacred duty.  When fathers are tongue-tied religiously, need they wonder if their children’s hearts remain sin-tied?  Religious conversation need not be dull!”  C.H.S.

“Blessed are those crcumstances which subdue our affections, which educate us into Christian manliness, which teach us to love God not merely when He comforts us, but even when He tries us.  At last there must come an end to the nursing period; the boy ‘ere long is quite content to find his nourishment at the table with his brothers.  But he is weaned on his mother rather than from her.”  C.H.S.

“I vow to glory alone in Jesus and His cross and to spend my life in the extension of His cause, in whatsoever way He pleases.  I desire to be sincere in this solemn profession, having but one object in view, and that to glorify God.  Help me to honor Thee, and live the life of Christ on earth!”  C.H.S.

Much can be said of the fruit of such a life as Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but the summation lies in the sustained surrender of every aspect of his being to the will of God.  Early in his life he wrote:

“What can I write equal to the theme of sovereign grace?  It is a miracle, a perfect miracle, that God should love a man as to die for him, and to choose him before the foundation of the world.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon loved God because He first loved him.  The prince of preachers loved the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ with all of his heart.  I love Him, too.  What about you?