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Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Born	June 19 1834(1834-06-19) Kelvedon, Essex, England
Died	January 31 1892 (aged 57) Alpes-Maritimes, France
Occupation	pastor, author
Religion	Christian (Baptist)
Spouse	Susannah Spurgeon
Children	Charles & Thomas Spurgeon (twins) (1856)
Parents	John & Eliza Spurgeon

This may not be right yet. For accurate information, please see Charles Spurgeon.

Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 – January 31, 1892)^[1] was a British Baptist preacher. People still know him as the "Prince of Preachers".^[2] His sermons have been translated into many languages. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon's which works all over the world.^[3]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Family background and childhood 1.1.1 His family 1.1.2 Interests 1.1.3 Spirituality 1.2 Early adulthood 1.2.1 Beginnings 1.2.2 New Park Street Chapel 1.2.3 Tragedy 1.3 Middle life 1.4 Final years and death 2 Controversies 2.1 Baptist Union controversies 2.2 Downgrade Controversy 2.3 Baptismal Regeneration 3 Spurgeon's ministries 3.1 China Inland Mission 3.2 Spurgeon's 3.3 Spurgeon's College 3.4 Spurgeon library 4 Selected works by Charles Spurgeon 5 See also 6 References 7 Other websites

[change] Biography

[change] Family background and childhood

[change] His family

Spurgeon's mother (her maiden name was Eliza Jarvis), was born at Otton Belchamp on May 3, 1815.^[4] She was about nineteen years old when Spurgeon was born.^[4] His father, born at Clare, Suffolk on July 15, 1810, was about twenty-four.^[4] Spurgeon was born June 19, 1834, in Kelvedon, Essex, England. There were seventeen children in Spurgeon's family, but nine of them died as babies.^[4] Spurgeon was the eldest of all his siblings.^[4]

[change] Interests

At age 6, Spurgeon read The Pilgrim's Progress. He read that book over 100 times in his life.^[5] Spurgeon was also very good at mathematics. As a young boy, he would read the Scriptures at family worship. He memorized many hymns as a child, and would use many of them in his sermons later in life.^[6]

[change] Spirituality

As a early teenager, he was very smart and intelligent, but was also fearful and doubting. By the influence of his father and grandfather, Spurgeon was kept from most normal sins. As a kid, he thought that he was a pretty good person. But he later said that, "Day and night God's hand was heavy on me."^[6] He read the whole Bible, but he thought that it was more threatening him, rather than promise him good things. But as he began to get older, these things weighed on his conscience.^[6]

On January 6, 1850, when he was 15 years old, a snow storm made him seek shelter in a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester.^[7] As he was there, a worker there said to him, ""Young man, you look very miserable."^[8] Spurgeon knew this, and he believed now that only God could heal him. The worker, seeing his need, replied, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ! Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to look and live."^[8]

Within moments, he was converted to Christianity.^[7] Or as he says it "God opened his heart to the salvation message."^[9] He later said that, "I thought I could dance all the way home." On May 3, 1850, he was baptized in the river Lark, at Isleham. Later that year, his family moved to Cambridge.

[change] Early adulthood

[change] Beginnings

He preached his first sermon in the winter of 1850-1851. In that year, he was made the pastor of the Waterbeach Baptist Chapel in Cambridgeshire.^[10] His preaching was thought to be very good. In 1853, he authored his first written work: a Gospel tract.^[11]

[change] New Park Street Chapel

In April 1854, at age 19 and after he had preached for three months, Spurgeon became the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel. At that time, it was the largest Baptist congregation in London. Within months of Spurgeon being the pastor there, he became very famous. Even before age 20, Spurgeon had preached over 600 times.^[5] His sermons were published every week, and many people read it.^[12]

The way Spurgeon preached was not new, but it was easy to understand. When he would read and teach the Bible in his messages, many people would think about what Jesus had said. Because the church got to large for their buildings, they would had to move to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall, and later to the Metropolitan Tabernacle.^[13] He would preach to more than 10,000 people at a time.^[14] Spurgeon once spoke to an audience of almost 24,000.^[15] This was before electronic sound was invented. By the age of twenty-two, he was a very popular preacher.^[16] On January 8, 1856, Spurgeon got married to Susannah Spurgeon.^[17] They had two twin sons; Charles and Thomas.^[17]

[change] Tragedy

While he was preaching on October 19, 1856, there was a tragedy. A group of men yelled "Fire!"^[18] This made many people panic and run for the exits. It was later found out that seven people had died of being trampled to death.^[18] Spurgeon was hurt emotionally by the actions of these men, and it had a large influence on his life. He had clinical depression for many years. He later said that he cried for no reason that he could think of. But still, his ministry went on.

[change] Middle life

On March 18, 1861, the church moved to their newly made Metropolitan Tabernacle (left). It sat about five-six thousand people.^[19] The building was very large, and it was almost the same as the "megachurch."^[20] Spurgeon's church had no instruments in their music. He did not have people come to an altar after his sermons. But he said that anyone could meet him on Monday to talk about Christ.^[21] There was always someone at his door the next day. He preached there until his death 31 years later. He was attacked by people in the media all of his life.

When missionary David Livingstone died in 1873, a used copy of Spurgeon's sermon, "Accidents, Not Punishments", was found among his belongings.^[22] There was a comment at the top of the first page that read, "Very good, D.L." Livingstone carried the copy with him when he traveled to Africa, but it was given back to Spurgeon.

[change] Final years and death

Spurgeon's wife was often too sick to leave their home to hear him preach. Near the end of his life, he also had poor health with several diseases. He died near Nice, France, on January 31, 1892. Spurgeon's wife and sons lived longer than him. His body is buried in a tomb in London.^[23]

[change] Controversies

[change] Baptist Union controversies

Around the end of Spurgeon's life, he was part of many conflicts in the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB).^[24] Spurgeon later left the Baptist Union.^[25] Even after Spurgeon's death, there were such controversies. Such as the talk over whether or not the Baptist Union should be allowed to meet in the Metropolitan Tabernacle.^[24] Spurgeon's son, Thomas Spurgeon, who was the co-pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle with Archibald G. Brown, said that, "The Baptist Union almost killed my father."^[24] "Yes," replied someone at BUGB, "and your father almost killed the Baptist Union."^[24]

[change] Downgrade Controversy

A controversy with Baptists started in 1887 when Spurgeon wrote what was later called the "Downgrade Controversy." It got that name when Spurgeon used word "Downgrade" when talking about other Baptists' look at the Bible.^[26] Because he was a Orthodox Christian, he said that things such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution were making the Baptist Union weak.

[change] Baptismal Regeneration

The "baptismal regeneration" controversy was started by a sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle on June 5, 1864.^[24] That was when Spurgeon spoke to Anglican Christian leaders who supported infant baptism"^[27]The sermon is sixteen pages long, so it took around an hour for Spurgeon to preach it.^[24] Over 350,000 copies of this sermon were sold.^[28] However, Spurgeon did work with Anglicans, as well as people from other denominations all his life.

[change] Spurgeon's ministries

[change] China Inland Mission

Main article: China Inland Mission

While he was at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon became friends with James Hudson Taylor. Taylor was the founder of the China Inland Mission. Spurgeon gave much money to the mission.

[change] Spurgeon's

Main articles: Stockwell Orphanage and Spurgeon's

The Stockwell Orphanage was an orphanage started by Spurgeon for boys in 1867, and for girls in 1879. It was open until London was bombed in World War II.^[29] It later turned into Spurgeon's (or Spurgeon's Child Care). It is now mainly in England, but has international projects in Mexico, Africa and Eastern Europe.^[3]

[change] Spurgeon's College

Main article: Spurgeon's College

Spurgeon's College is a theological institute in London. Spurgeon started it in 1857. Spurgeon's College is a member of the Baptist Union.^[30]

[change] Spurgeon library

In 1906, William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri paid £500 ($2500) for most of the Spurgeon library.^[31] The Spurgeon library had around 5,100 books and such at the time. In 2006, the whole library was sold to the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.^[31] Some of Spurgeon's sermon notes are at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.^[32]

[change] Selected works by Charles Spurgeon

Main article: List of the works of Charles Spurgeon

• All of Grace : ISBN 1602064369
• Chequebook of the Bank of Faith : ISBN 1857922212
• C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography : ISBN 0851510760
• God Promises You : ISBN 0883684594
• Lectures to My Students : ISBN 0310329116
• Morning & Evening : ISBN 1845500148
• Power in Prayer : ISBN 0883684411
• Soul Winner, The : ISBN 1602067708
• Spurgeon's Sermon Notes : ISBN 0825437687
• Treasury of David, The : ISBN 0825436834
• Word and Spirit : ISBN 0852345453
• The Wordless Book

His works have been translated into many languages. He had also made many volumes of commentaries, sayings, and many other types of literature^[33] Today, there is more writings and books by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author.^[5] Spurgeon would often preach 10 times a week at different places.^[5] In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people.^[5]

[change] See also

• List of events in Charles Spurgeon's life

[change] References

[change] Other websites

• More information on Charles Spurgeon
• Spurgeon Gems - 2,750+ Spurgeon sermons in modern English
• Spurgeon's quotes and illustrations
• Spurgeon's Biography - at Christian Biography Resources
• Spurgeon's Audio Biography
• Charles Haddon Spurgeon, A Biography - By W. Y. Fullerton
• The Autobiography of Charles Spurgeon, vols. 1 and 2