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.
“Ver. 2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. He was banished from the spot which was the centre of his delight, and at the same time his mind was in a depressed and melancholy condition; both actually and figuratively he was an outcast, yet he does …”
“Ver. 3. For thou hast been a shelter for me. Observe how the psalmist rings the changes on, Thou hast, and I will, -- Ps 61:3-6. Experience is the nurse of faith. From the past we gather arguments for present confidence. Many and many a time had the persecutio…”
“Ver. 4. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. Let me once get back to thy courts, and nothing shall again expel me from them: even now in my banishment my heart is there; and ever will I continue to worship thee in spirit wherever my lot may be cast. Perhap…”
“Ver. 5. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Proofs of divine faithfulness are to be had in remembrance, and to be mentioned to the Lord's honour. The prayer of Ps 61:1 is certain of an answer because of the experience of Ps 61:5, since we deal with an immutab…”
“Ver. 6. Thou wilt prolong the king's life; or, better, "days to the days of the King thou wilt add." Death threatened, but God preserved his beloved. David, considering his many perils, enjoyed a long and prosperous reign. And his years as many generations. He…”
“Ver. 7. He shall abide before God for ever. Though this is true of David in a modified sense, we prefer to view the Lord Jesus as here intended as the lineal descendant of David, and the representative of his royal race. Jesus is enthroned before God to eterni…”
“Ver. 8. So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever. Because my prayer is answered, my song shall be perpetual; because Jesus for ever sits at thy right hand, it shall be acceptable; because I am preserved in him, it shall be grateful. David had given vocal u…”
“Ver. 1. Truly, or verily, or only. The last is probably the most prominent sense here. That faith alone is true which rests on God alone, that confidence which relies but partly on the Lord is vain confidence. If we Anglicized the word by our word verily, as s…”
“Ver. 2. He only is my rock and my salvation. Sometimes a metaphor may be more full of meaning and more suggestive than literal speech: hence the use of the figure of a rock, the very mention of which would awaken grateful memories in the psalmists's mind. Davi…”
“Ver. 3. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? It is always best to begin with God, and then we may confront our enemies. Make all sure with heaven, then may you grapple with earth and hell. David expostulates with his insensate foes; he marvels at t…”
“Ver. 4. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency. The excellencies of the righteous are obnoxious to the wicked, and the main object of their fury. The elevation which God gives to the godly in Providence, or in dispute, is also the envy of the b…”
“Ver. 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God. When we have already practised a virtue, it is yet needful that we bind ourselves to a continuance in it. The soul is apt to be dragged away from its anchorage, or is readily tempted to add a second confidence to the o…”
“Ver. 6. He only is my rock and my salvation. Alone, and without other help, God is the foundation and completion of my safety. We cannot too often hear the toll of that great bell only; let it ring the death knell of all carnal reliances, and lead us to cast o…”
“Ver. 7. In God is my salvation and my glory. Wherein should we glory but in him who saves us? Our honour may well be left with him who secures our souls. To find all in God, and to glory that it is so, is one of the sure marks of an enlightened soul. The rock …”
“Ver. 8. Trust in him at all times. Faith is an abiding duty, a perpetual privilege. We should trust when we can see, as well as when we are utterly in the dark. Adversity is a fit season for faith; but prosperity is not less so. God at all times deserves our c…”
“Ver. 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity. Here the word is only again; men of low degree are only vanity, nothing more. They are many and enthusiastic, but they are not to be depended on; they are mobile as the waves of the sea, ready to be driven to and fr…”
“Ver. 10. Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery. Wealth ill gotten is the trust only of fools, for the deadly pest lies in it; it is full of canker, it reeks with God's curse.”
“Ver. 11. God hath spoken once. So immutable is God that he need not speak twice, as though he had changed; so infallible, that one utterance suffices, for he cannot err; so omnipotent, that his solitary word achieves all his designs. We speak often and say not…”
“Ver. 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. This tender attribute sweetens the grand thought of his power: the divine strength will not crush us, but will be used for our good. God is so full of mercy that it belongs to him, as if all the mercy in the un…”
“Ver. 1. O God, thou art my God; or, O God, thou art my Mighty One. The last Psalm left the echo of power ringing in the ear, and it is here remembered. Strong affiance bids the fugitive poet confess his allegiance to the only living God; and firm faith enables…”
“Ver. 2. To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. He longed not so much to see the sanctuary as to see his God; he looked through the veil of ceremonies to the invisible One. Often had his heart been gladdened by communion with G…”
“Ver. 3. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life. A reason for that which went before, as well as for that which follows. Life is dear, but God's love is dearer. To dwell with God is better than life at its best; life at ease, in a palace, in health, in …”
“Ver. 4. Thus will I bless thee while I live. As I now bless thee so will I ever do; or rather, so as thou shalt reveal thy lovingkindness to me, I will in return continue to extol thee. While we live we will love. If we see no cause to rejoice in our estate, w…”
“Ver. 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Though unable to feast on the sacrifice at thine altar, my soul shall even here be filled with spiritual joys, and shall possess a complete, a double contentment. There is in the love of God a rich…”
“Ver. 6. When I remember thee upon my bed. Lying awake, the good man betook himself to meditation, and then began to sing. He had a feast in the night, and a song in the night. He turned his bedchamber into an oratory, he consecrated his pillow, his praise anti…”