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. 11. I made sackcloth also my garment. This David did literally, but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. And I became a proverb to them. He was ridiculed as "the man…”
“Ver. 12. They that sit in the gate speak against me. The ordinary gossips who meet at the city gates for idle talk make me their theme, the business men who there resort for trade forget their merchandise to slander me, and even the beggars who wait at men's d…”
“Ver. 13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord. He turned to Jehovah in prayer as being the most natural thing for the godly to do in their distress. To whom should a child turn but to his father. He did not answer them; like a sheep before her shearer…”
“Ver. 14. Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. He turns into prayer the very words of his complaint; and it is well, if, when we complain, we neither feel nor say anything which we should fear to utter before the Lord as a prayer. We are allowed to a…”
“Ver. 15. Let not the waterflood overflow me. He continues to recapitulate the terms of his lament. He is willing to bear suffering, but entreats grace that it may not get the victory over him. He was heard in that he feared. Neither let the deep swallow me up.…”
“Ver. 16. Hear me, O Lord. Do not refuse thy suppliant Son. It is to the covenant God, the ever living Jehovah, that he appeals with strong crying. For thy lovingkindness is good. By the greatness of thy love have pity upon thine afflicted. It is always a stay …”
“Ver. 17. And hide not thy face from thy servant. A good servant desires the light of his master's countenance; that servus servorum, who was also rex regium, could not bear to lose the presence of his God. The more he loved his Father, the more severely he fel…”
“Ver. 18. Draw nigh unto my soul. The near approach of God is all the sufferer needs; one smile of heaven will still the rage of hell. And redeem it. It shall be redemption to me if thou wilt appear to comfort me. This is a deeply spiritual prayer, and one very…”
“Here we have a sad recapitulation of sorrows, with more especial reference to the persons concerned in their infliction. Ver. 19. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. It is no novelty or secret, it has been long continued; thou, O God, …”
“Ver. 20. Reproach hath broken my heart. There is no hammer like it. Our Lord died of a broken heart, and reproach had done the deed. Intense mental suffering arises from slander; and in the case of the sensitive nature of the immaculate Son of Man, it sufficed…”
“Ver. 21. They gave me also gall for my meat. This was the sole refreshment cruelty had prepared for him. Others find pleasure in their food, but his taste was made to be an additional path of pain to him. And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. A crimi…”
“From this point David and our Lord for awhile part company, if we accept the rendering of our version. The severe spirit of the law breathes out imprecations, while the tender heart of Jesus offers prayers for his murderers. The whole of these verses, however,…”
“This second plague even exceeds the first. Ver. 23. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not. They shall wander in a darkness that may be felt. They have loved darkness rather than light, and in darkness they shall abide. Judicial blindness fell upon Isra…”
“Ver. 24. Pour out thine indignation upon them. What can be too severe a penalty for those who reject the incarnate God, and refuse to obey the commands of his mercy? They deserve to be flooded with wrath, and they shall be; for upon all who rebel against the S…”
“Ver. 25. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. This may signify that their posterity shall be cut off, and the abode which they occupy shall be left a ruin; or, as our Lord quoted it, it refers to the temple, which was left by it…”
“Ver. 26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten. They are cruel where they should be pitiful. When a stroke comes to any in the providence of God, their friends gather around them and condole, but these wretches hunt the wounded and vex the sick. Their …”
“Ver. 27. Add iniquity unto their iniquity. Unbelievers will add sin to sin, and so, punishment to punishment. This is the severest imprecation, or prophecy, of all. For men to be let alone to fill up the measure of their iniquity, is most equitable, but yet mo…”
“Ver. 28. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Though in their conceit they wrote themselves among the people of God, and induced others to regard them under that character, they shall be unmasked and their names removed from the register. Enrolle…”
“Imprecations, prophecies, and complaints are ended, and prayer of a milder sort begins, intermingled with bursts of thankful song, and encouraging foresight of coming good. Ver. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful. The psalmist was afflicted very much, but his fai…”
“Ver. 30. I will praise the name of God with a song. He who sang after the passover, sings yet more joyously after the resurrection and ascension. He is, in very truth, "the sweet singer of Israel." He leads the eternal melodies, and all his saints join in chor…”
“Ver. 31. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. No sacrifice is so acceptable to God, who is a Spirit, as that which is spiritual. He accepted bullocks under a dim and symbolical dispensation; but in such offeri…”
“Ver. 32. The humble shall see this and be glad. Grateful hearts are ever on the look out for recruits, and the rejoicing psalmist discerns with joy the fact, that other oppressed and lowly men observing the Lord's dealings with his servants are encouraged to l…”
“Ver. 33. For the Lord heareth the poor. The examples of David and David's Lord, and tens of thousands of the saints, all go to prove this. Monarchs of the nations are deaf to the poor, but the Sovereign of the Universe has a quick ear for the needy. None can b…”
“Ver. 34. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein. The doxology of a glowing heart. The writer had fathomed the deeps, and had ascended to the heights; and, therefore, calls on the whole range of creation to bless the …”
“Ver. 35. For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah. Poor, fallen Israel shall have a portion in the mercy of the Lord; but, above all, the church, so dear to the heart of her glorious bridegroom, shall be revived and strengthened. Ancient sain…”