The Voices
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon's theology is Particular-Baptist Calvinism unashamedly preached as gospel.
Short bio
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 – January 31, 1892) — "the Prince of Preachers" — was an English Particular (Reformed) Baptist preacher whose 38-year pastorate at New Park Street Chapel, expanded as the Metropolitan Tabernacle (London, 1861), made him one of the most-heard Christian voices of the 19th century. Born in Kelvedon, Essex, raised by his Independent grandfather Rev. James Spurgeon, he was converted at age 15 in a snow-bound Primitive Methodist chapel under the text "Look unto Me, and be ye saved" (Isaiah 45:22). He preached his first sermon at 16, took his first pastorate at 17, and was called to London at 19. His weekly sermons, published from 1855 as the *New Park Street Pulpit* and after 1861 as the *Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit*, ran to 63 volumes — the largest collection of sermons by one preacher in Christian history. He founded the Pastors' College (1856), the Stockwell Orphanage (1867), and the Colportage Association (1866). His final years were marked by the Down-Grade Controversy (1887–1892), in which he resigned from the Baptist Union over its drift on biblical authority and the gospel.
What they believed
- Fear of the Lord Emphasis — Fear of the Lord is the right disposition of the soul before God's holiness. Spurgeon preaches reverence and tender-heartedness joined; his sermons routinely begin with awe before the divine attributes and end with evangelistic appeal.
- Cost of Following — Spurgeon preaches counting the cost as integral to genuine conversion; nominal evangelical assent without ongoing repentance and obedience is rejected as not the gospel. His Down-Grade resignation is itself the dramatized cost of doctrinal fidelity.
- Wealth and Money — Wealth is to be held loosely under God; the believer is steward, not owner. Spurgeon's own life was a model — he founded and sustained the Pastors' College, the Stockwell Orphanage, and the Colportage Association out of book royalties and donations rather than personal wealth. Anti-prosperity in posture.
- Rapture Timing — Spurgeon held a clear premillennialism — Christ returns visibly to inaugurate a literal millennial reign — but pre-dates and rejects the dispensational pre-tribulation rapture system (Darby's framing emerged in the 1830s but did not capture British evangelicalism in Spurgeon's day). He is a historic premillennialist in modern terms.
- Cessation — Functionally cessationist in the 19th-c. Reformed Baptist mode. Spurgeon does not engage modern continuationism (which postdates him). His pneumatology emphasizes the Spirit's anointing on preaching and the Spirit's regenerating, sanctifying work.
- Modern State Prophetic Significance — Spurgeon held the future literal national restoration and conversion of Israel as a clear teaching of Romans 11 and the prophets. He preached this repeatedly, often noting that the conversion of the Jewish people would be one of the great events of redemptive history.
Notable works
7 listed
| Title | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Treasury of David | 1869 | His verse-by-verse commentary on the Psalms — about twenty years' work, published in seven volumes from 1869 to 1885. Old enough to be public domain, so it can be read in full. |
| The New Park Street / Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit | 1855 | The largest single-author sermon corpus in Christian history. The primary source for any Spurgeon position on any topic. |
| Lectures to My Students | 1875 | Spurgeon's instruction to his Pastors' College — the standard 19th-c. handbook on evangelical preaching, prayer, and pastoral life. |
| A Defense of Calvinism | Spurgeon's own account of his Calvinism, from his Autobiography — "I have my own opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism." | |
| All of Grace | 1886 | Spurgeon's gospel of grace written for the unconverted reader — the most widely distributed of his books. |
| Morning and Evening | 1865 | The standard Spurgeon daily devotional, in continuous print since publication. |
| The Down Grade Controversy correspondence and articles | 1887 | Spurgeon's defense of biblical authority, penal substitution, and eternal judgment against the Baptist Union's emerging modernism. |
Where to find them
Their words on MannaFest
2,220 quotes across 1 book
Where this voice speaks on the site — each quote links to the verse it was chosen for.
“Verse 1. "BLESSED" - see how this Book of Psalms opens with a benediction, even as did the famous Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount! The word translated "blessed" is a very expressive one. The original word is plural, and it is a controverted matter whether it…”
“Verse 1. We have, in these first three verses, a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God. No better comment is needed upon it than the apostolic song in Acts 4:27, 28: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast ano…”
“Verse 1. The poor broken-hearted father complains of the multitude of his enemies: and if you turn to 2 Samuel 15:12, you will find it written that "the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom," while the troops of David consta…”
“Ver. 1. This is another instance of David's common habit of pleading past mercies as a ground for present favour. Here he reviews his Ebenezers and takes comfort from them. It is not to be imagined that he who has helped us in six troubles will leave us in the…”
“Ver. 1. There are two sorts of prayersthose expressed in words, and the unuttered longings which abide as silent meditations. Words are not the essence but the garments of prayer. Moses at the Red Sea cried to God, though he said nothing. Yet the use of langua…”
“Ver. 1. Having read through the first division, in order to see it as a whole, we will now look at it verse by verse. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger. The Psalmist is very conscious that he deserves to be rebuked, and he feels, moreover, that the rebuke i…”
“Ver. 1. David appears before God to plead with him against the Accuser, who had charged him with treason and treachery. The case is here opened with an avowal of confidence in God. Whatever may be the emergency of our condition we shall never find it amiss to …”
“Ver. 1. Unable to express the glory of God, the Psalmist utters a note of exclamation. O Jehovah our Lord! We need not wonder at this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter, the half of the greatness of Jehovah. The whole creation is full of his glory …”
“Ver. 1. With a holy resolution the songster begins his hymn; I will praise thee, O Lord. It sometimes needs all our determination to face the foe, and bless the Lord in the teeth of his enemies; vowing that whoever else may be silent we will bless his name; he…”
“Ver. 1. To the tearful eye of the sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if he calmly looked on, and did not sympathize with his afflicted one. Nay, more, the Lord appeared to be afar off, no longer "a very present help in trouble, "but an inaccessible mo…”
“Ver. 1. These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would h…”
“Ver. 1. Help, Lord. A short but sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of angel's sword, to be turned every way, and to be used on all occasions. Ainsworth says the word rendered "help, "is largely used for all manner of saving, helping,…”
“Ver. 2. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour. They utter that which is vain to hear, because of its frivolous, foolish, want of worth; vain to believe, because it was false and lying; vain to trust to, since it was deceitful and flattering; vain to r…”
“Ver. 3-4. Total destruction shall overwhelm the lovers of flattery and pride, but meanwhile how they hector and fume! Well did the apostle call them "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame." Free thinkers are generally very free talkers, and they…”
“Ver. 3-4. See Psalms on "Ps 12:3" for further information.”
“Ver. 5. In due season the Lord will hear his elect ones, who cry day and night unto him, and though he bear long with their oppressors, yet will he avenge them speedily. Observe that the mere oppression of saints, however silently they bear it, is in itself a …”
“Ver 6. What a contrast between the vain words of man, and the pure words of Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the Lord's promises are yea and amen.”
“Ver. 7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as to be baited by their cruelty, or polluted by their influence, is an evil to be dreaded beyond measure; but it is an evil foreseen and provided for in the text.”
“Ver. 8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made the psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of wickedness. When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so d…”
“Ver. 1. How long? This question is repeated no less than four times. It betokens very intense desire for deliverance, and great anguish of heart. And what if there be some impatience mingled therewith; is not this the more true a portrait of our own experience…”
“Ver. 2. How long shall I take counsel, in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? There is in the original the idea of "laying up" counsels in his heart, as if his devices had become innumerable but unavailing. Herein we have often been like David, for we ha…”
“Ver. 3. But now prayer lifteth up her voice, like the watchman who proclaims the daybreak. Now will the tide turn, and the weeper shall dry his eyes. The mercyseat is the life of hope and the death of despair. The gloomy thought of God's having forsaken him is…”
“Ver. 4. Another plea is urged in the fourth verse, and it is one which the tried believer may handle well when on his knees. We make use of our arch enemy for once, and compel him, like Samson, to grind in our mill while we use his cruel arrogance as an argume…”
“Ver. 5. What a change is here! Lo, the rain is over and gone, and the time of the singing of birds is come. The mercyseat has so refreshed the poor weeper, that he clears his throat for a song. If we have mourned with him, let us now dance with him.”
“Ver. 6. The Psalm closes with a sentence which is a refutation of the charge of forgetfulness which David had uttered in the first verse, He hath dealt bountifully with me. So shall it be with us if we wait awhile. The complaint which in our haste we utter sha…”