Charles Surgeon

 Introduction
The Baptist practice is one of the principles of the protestant Christian denominations. Most Baptist churches stress the belief that only Christian believers should be baptized and the baptism should be by immersion. This is a belief the Baptist churches trace back to the early church. The protestants doctrines have much in common with the practices
of the Baptist church. Unlike the Catholic Church, Baptist churches have local autonomy; however, they are connected to each other through various organizations. Baptist churches trace their origin in England in the early 17th century. Part of the congregation in the Church of England disagreed with the churches doctrine. They decided to separate from the church and from local Christian communities with autonomy. They emphasized believers baptism and held the view that the church is primarily a community of believers. Several branches within the Baptist religion vary with regard to theology, worship, and missions. However, most Baptist churches are evangelical in canon, and contrast from extremely conservative to tolerant politically and socially. One of the most influential particular Baptist preachers in history is Charles Surgeon. Charles Surgeon was a sturdy figure in the converted Baptist tradition and was known as the Prince of Preachers to many Christians.
Born and Raised
Charles Spurgeon was born to John Spurgeon in 1834 in the small town of Essex east of London. He was the first born in a family of five. Both his father and grandfather were preachers. Because of family poverty, Spurgeon moved from his home in Essex to live with his grandfather until he was five. Spurgeon started reading theological books at a very young age. He converted into a Christian at the age of 15. This happened when he was on his way to an appointment in a snowstorm. The storm forced him to seek refuge in a nearby primordial Methodist chapel. While there, God opened his eyes to the deliverance message. That day the sermon in the church was from Isaiah 45:22- Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Later that same year he was admitted to the house of worship at Newmarket. At the river Lark the same year, Spurgeon was baptized.
Spurgeon had no formal education beyond Newmarket academy where he attended for less than a year. Despite his lack of formal education, Spurgeon was well read in the Puritan theology and Victorian literature. His lack of formal education did not hinder his preaching career, which he began at the age of 15. Spurgeon started preaching a few months after becoming a Christian. He first started preaching in Teversham where he taught Sunday school. The next year he accepted a pastorate job in a Baptist chapel in Waterbeach. When Spurgeon joined the church it had just a few dozen people; however, the congregation grew to a few hundred as the reputation of Spurgeon spread throughout London. He caught the attention of the leaders at the New Park Street. The New Park Street was London largest Baptist church.
Charles Spurgeon grew up in a church house. His earliest memories are those listening to sermons, singing hymns, and glancing at pictures of pilgrims and martyrs. At the age of six, Charles read The Pilgrims progress. he read the paperback more than 100 times and would later recommend it as the best Christian gift for the young children. Unlike other boys who would cultivate or take care of domestic animals, Charles Spurgeon was always reading books. One of the most significant book he read is the Foxes Book of Martyrs. He credited this book for vividly shaping his view toward established religion. Some of his childhood idols include the courageous Protestants burned at Smithfield, and other jailed for their faith, such as John Bunyan the valiant Puritans. Charles Spurgeons mother started teaching him the scripture at the age of seven. Charles Spurgeons mother had 17 offspring, nine of them died at a very young age.
Life as a Child
Charles Spurgeon was just 10 years when the missionary Rev. Richard Knill visited his father in their home. Rev. Knill had come to preach in the town and was impressed by how the young Spurgeon read the scriptures with emphasis. One morning after brunch, Spurgeon and the reverend took a walk in the garden. The reverend was speaking to Spurgeon about the lord. In the garden, they knelt down and the reverend prayed on behalf of Spurgeon. Before the reverend left the home, he called the family together and prophesied about the life of Spurgeon. He said Spurgeon would be a great preacher who would preach to thousands of people. He also requested that when Spurgeon would start preaching he should have the Hymn God works in mysterious ways performed. Spurgeon fulfilled this request in 1856 at the age of 21.
Spurgeon grandfather Rev. John Spurgeon was dedicated to the growth of his grandson in religious matters. It was common for him to permit Spurgeon to read the bible at family worships. Many of the visits who came to his home commented to how he read the Bible with weight and precision. His grandfather narrated the story of Spurgeon when he was only six-year-old he overheard his grandfather condemning the drinking lifestyle of a member of his parishioners, Old Rhodes. Spurgeon declared that he would kill the man and later returned to his grandfather and informed him that he had killed the man. Rhode later explained to the reverend that the young Charles had walked into the bar where he was drinking and declared, What doest thou here? Sitting with the ungodly, you a member of a church, and break your pastors heart! I am ashamed of you! Old Rhode was irritated for a short while but later realized the boy was right and declared never to drink again.
Powerful English Minister and Author
Charles was often described as a charismatic compelling speaker. While preaching, he would frequently act the parts in the biblical stories and sometimes run from side to side. In his sermons, he used examples that the ordinary person at the time would relate. Charles language was compelling and so were his dramatic devices, which were quite shocking to many during the Victorian era. Many preachers of the time openly criticized young Charles; however, many of them later adopted his styles and appreciated his teachings. Spurgeon married Susannah Thompson in 1856. Susannah was a member of his congregation and was highly critical of Spurgeons style of preaching. Their married was great by any account; however, they both periodically suffered from illnesses. A year after their marriage, Thomas and Charles were born. The twins became preachers and Thomas took over the Metropolitan Tabernacle after his fathers death. Charles took charge of the orphanage.
Spurgeon started presenting weekly sermons at the Royal Surrey Garden Music Hall on October 1856. That same morning while preaching at the New Park Street Chapel, he read the book of Malachi 3:10 prove me now the Surrey was designed to hold a total of 12,000 people but often the congregation reached 22,000 people. When one of the services was underway, a malicious individual walked into the church and declared there was a fire within the building. In the ensuing panic as people exited the building chaotically, seven people died, and several others were injured. This event almost ended Charles ministry. He was devastated that he had to be carried to a friends residence where he stayed for some days in melancholy. Soon after, Spurgeon suffered from his first incapacitating illness and frequently suffered from depression. Later the congregation would move to their new building, the Metropolitan Tabernacle with a sitting capacity of 5,000 people. The congregation in the church mostly comprised of the lower middleclass and was divided into males and females. Spurgeon personally interviewed every person who joined his congregation.
Spurgeon preached to more than 10 million people face-to-face. He only prepared his Sundays sermons on Saturday night. The Sunday dusk sermon was primed that Sundays afternoon. While ministering, he spoke at a pace of 140 words per minute and lasted a standard of 40 minutes. Spurgeon preached at the church, funerals, weddings, and other occasions. When Spurgeon was 20 years, he had preached more than 600 times. Spurgeon read sic book every week, and he would remember what he read and where. His personal library contained over 12,000 books, 1,000 printed before 1700. Spurgeon preached using only a one-page outline. An escritoire appointed by the worshippers recorded his sermons, and he revised them the next morning. Every Thursday, the sermons were printed and translated into a number of languages. Spurgeons sermons sold as far as Australia and U.S.A. Every week he sold over 25,000 copies of his sermon. By the time the publishing came to a halt, he had sold more than 100 million copies.
Contributions to Christian Education and Orphanages
Without formal education, Spurgeon was called to preach in London at the age of 19. Later the congregation in the church grew to more than 600 people. He has over 25 millions printed word and is the only Christian author to write so many books and sermons. Spurgeon published his journals weekly and had a monthly magazine. Other of his achievements includes a college for pastors, a home for the elderly, two orphanages, and colportage society. The entire collection of Spurgeons sermons comprises 63 volumes. Spurgeons work has been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and some in Braille. Spurgeon preaching reached its peak when England was in many crises. When Spurgeon began to preach in London, a break of cholera hit the city killing more than 20,000 people. During the same year, the Crimean war broke out. Three year later in 1857, the Indian mutiny happened resulting in an outpour of grief resulting in a countrywide day of fasting and mortification. Spurgeon was requested to preach to the congregation, which included 24,000 people. The American civil war in the 1860s also brought suffering to many in the city.
Charles sermon series are the biggest set of books by a lone author in Christian account. Other than the preachers in the bible, his sermons are the most widely read. Three of his books, including the multi-volume Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series are best sellers. All by Grace is one of his books that have sold more than one million copies. He spent 20 years of his life reading the volume of Psalm and writing commentaries on it. His annotation, The Treasury of David is his best work. Spurgeon was a close friend to Hudson Taylor the China Inland Mission founder. George Muller was also a close friend to Spurgeon. George Muller lived in Ashley Down where Spurgeon would often visit him, and they would spend whole days discussing the promises of God. Muller founded many orphanages and Spurgeon admired him to the extent that he once said if he had a chance to change his body for another, he would choose Mullers body. In 1867, Spurgeon was presented with 20,000 pounds to found an orphanage. He recommended to the benefactor to give his money to Muller but the donor insisted that he take it. He launched his orphanage, which he would later leave to his son Charles Jnr.
As a Young Adult
As a young adult, Spurgeon bravely proclaimed the word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, whom he depended upon to move through the people chosen by God to receive faith. He stirred many hearts as he pronounced invitation for everyone to get nearer to the Lord. Spurgeons work went beyond what the prophecy initially spoke. Though he fulfilled Gods prophecy by preaching at the Chapel in Rowland Hill, Spurgeons ministry extended throughout America and Europe as many believers bought his sermons so that they could learn more concerning God through him. His bold sermons, his invitation to the non-believers, his self-assured faith, and his focus on God were all nurtured during his youthful life as God molded him to carry out his work in the ministry.
  At the age of 19, Spurgeon became the minister of the New Park Street Chapel, which was the biggest Baptist Church in London. He became a very prominent pastor in the city within months and became friends with James Taylor, the man who initiated the China Inland Mission. Many people read Spurgeons sermons, which he published on a weekly basis. He also preached in a way that many were conversant with and his sermons were easy to comprehend, whether orally or in prose. Even before the invention of microphones, Spurgeon would preach to a large audience during his early adulthood, particularly at the Crystal Palace, which had the capacity of accommodating roughly 24,000 people. He got married in 1856 to his wife Susannah Spurgeon, who had to stay home for most part of her life due to her disabilities. They were blessed with two twins, Thomas and Spurgeon, on September of the same year they got married.      
Just like other ancient Christian leaders, Spurgeon struggled with frequent doubts about his salvation and constantly fought depression in his early adulthood. This is a common problem with Christians, who often distrust their salvation when depression threatens them. On one weekend for example, Spurgeon was so engrossed by depression that he sent a message to his deacons informing them that he would not be sermonizing that Sunday. He was indeed so low that he failed to trust his personal salvation. Depression disturbed him for many years and Spurgeon usually talked of crying for a reason he could not figure out, although his ministry still progressed.      
Call to Minister
It is the duty and the right of any Christian to spread the gospel of the Lord if they have the ability and willingness to do so. Spurgeon accepted salvation in 1849 at an ancient Methodist Church of England. Soon after his conversion, he was requested to become a teacher at the churchs Sunday school. He accepted the request and he became very successful that the church officials asked him to speak to the entire school. While ministering at the Sunday school, he started to have the urge for a life of ministering. He prayed to God to make him a faithful servant. In one of the epistles he sent to his parents, he stated that he wanted to emulate his father who was a very successful minister of the word of God. This indicates that Spurgeon was undergoing a distinctive call to gods ministry with his potent gifts. His heart had so much devotion to do Gods work and he had an unmistakable love for humanitys souls that it was certain he should become a preacher. He identified the very first sign of his call to serve God as a deep and all-absorbing aspiration for the work.
People called to the ministry sense a mounting urge to preach and teach Gods word, and to minister to Gods people. Spurgeon believed that only those who have a sense of godly calling should enter His ministry. He emphasized that without such divine calling, one is at a greater danger of backsliding. When a man is called by God to become a minister like Spurgeon, God furnishes him with all the abilities he requires. Spurgeon was called to a great job, and God equipped him for the responsibility with a powerful intellect, a ravenous enthusiasm to learn, and a powerful voice that could preach to thousands of people.
Conservative View Points
Contemporary conservative Christians uphold a continuing fascination with Spurgeon, who was a conservative Baptist. He preached the bible to uphold the truths of the gospel regardless of the changing and shifting tide within the society. Although he supported teaching the bible in public schools, many people believe that Spurgeon loved the idea of Americans regarding separation of the church and the state. He also supported and often spoke the disestablishment of the Anglican Church from the British government. Spurgeon was sensitive to the setbacks of the poor that emerged because of the industrial uprising in the west. He openly supported the liberal policies to tackle poverty.
Most conservative views agree that part of the contemporary Christian interest on Spurgeon is his expansive appeal. Theologically, Spurgeon was a Calvinist and this makes him fascinating to reformed Christians. Nonetheless, he placed the conversion of non-believers at the centre of his ministry and this makes him fascinating to Armenian Christians. Spurgeons sermons represent the best modification of the Calvinist views. He preached as if everyone could accept salvation, but also insists the Calvinist divinity that leaves the conversion of sinners to God. Thus, although Spurgeon preached like Calvinist, he acted like an Armenian. This is one explanation of the attraction of most people to him. In spite of the rationale conservative Christians admire Spurgeon, it is apparent that many have neglected important facets of his life and ideas. Spurgeon may have been an evangelist and a theologian, but many fail to realize that he was also an antiviolence and anti-colonial poverty supporter.
It is rather complex, however, to draw much development in Spurgeon theology. He shared the general conservative idea that theology contains nothing new, not forgetting the falsity in it. When reworking on the sermons he had published earlier, Spurgeon bragged that although he could alter some terminologies, there was no need to alter any doctrine. His actions reinforced the beliefs of more conservative views in the Baptist union. The basis for Spurgeon steadiness was that he found the theology of Puritans sufficient material to help him build his own. This serves as a partial explanation as to why his theological emphases differed from those of most evangelicals of the time. In the teachings of the puritans, he found three factors that he thought were underrepresented in the up-to-the-minute evangelicalism: affectionate spirituality, humble practicality, and thorough theology.
The Down Grade Controversy
Spurgeon wrote the famous Downgrade Controversies to express his views with reference to how other Baptists viewed the bible. He wrote them in 1887 and explained that the Baptist union was weakening due to things such as the Darwinian Theory of Evolution. During the December of 1887, Spurgeon wrote to Booth insisting that he wanted to surrender to the council the letters that they had exchanged. The letters contained detailed charges against some unorthodox preachers. This move would have cleared Spurgeon of the accusation that his criticisms were vague. Booth replied that his letter to Spurgeon was unofficial but confidential, and that Spurgeon could not use it. Many hold the perception that the welfare of the church was by far more essential than Booths politics and that Spurgeon should have paid no attention to Booth and publish the letter. However, Spurgeon was noble enough not to do so. He was therefore exposed to the blame of being a liar.
The Baptist Union council met in the same month and urged that a delegation visit Spurgeon. They agreed that the delegation could meet with Spurgeon whenever necessary while on his journey to France, a move that Spurgeon strongly objected, claiming to meet them when he returned. This delegation included four divinity doctors, Clifford, Booth, McLaren, and Culross. Booth, Culross, and Clifford met Spurgeon at the tabernacle, where he declined to withdraw his resignation. He failed to realize that the union had the authority to deal with heterodox opinions. He also refused to give names.
The crucial tragedy of the downgrade occurred at the unions assembly on April 1888, under the presidency of John Clifford. The church was full to capacity and a declaratory testimonial was set before the congregation for acceptance or dismissal. Spurgeon fought for the conservative theological opinion, although many, including his brother and the Clifford. John Clifford absorbed upheld divinity in the free style that differed greatly with theological standpoints. As the head of the Baptist union, he was a busy man, and viewed Spurgeons claims as an interruption. Clifford was not in compassion with controversies based on creedal thoughts. He viewed the allegations against Spurgeon as misguided.        
The results of the voting reported 2,000 to 7 votes against Spurgeon, which was considered a condemnation of the noblest and greatest Christian leaders. Spurgeon later wrote a three-page clarification concerning the censure motion by the Baptist Union. In the February publication of Sword and Trowel, he announced the veracity that if he offered evidence of unorthodoxy that could expose him to charges, the union had no values that could be administered, apart from the doctrine of baptism for believers by immersion. He also made clear his resentments of the hypocrisy of the delegates who had visited him with claims of deliberation about unity when they were all politically motivated. The leaders of the union out-maneuvered Spurgeon. He wrote an article titled New Evidence concerning the Downgrade Controversy. The deliberations of the council upon Spurgeons resignation were political in nature. On the other hand, Spurgeon was religious in his conduct resorting not to conniving but to the support of prayer and prayer congregations. The Downgrade Controversy was a lasting pain to Spurgeon until his early death in January 1892. His friends, brother, and even some of his students turned their back on him, but he affirmed to his last days that he did not regret the position he had taken.      
Early Death
Spurgeon died in January 1892 after suffering from recurring episodes of rheumatic gout. More than 60,000 people paid homage to his body during the three days wake at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. One of the major factors that contributed to his early death is the malicious incident during one of his sermons in the Surrey, which resulted in the death of seven people. This event affected his extremely. After this event, he fell sick frequently, and suffered from chronic depression. With his fame and success also came criticism from both the secular media and other preachers in the city. Often Spurgeon was torn between rejoicing in his persecution and feeling depressed. On the day of his burial, a funeral parade two miles long followed the hearse to the burial site in Upper Norwood. More than 100,000 people lined the roads from the church to the cemetery. The shops and pubs in the city were closed. The flags throughout the country flew at half-mast. Christian believers in London and throughout the world loved Spurgeon.
Suffering from physical and mental illnesses, some believed brought on by the stress of the downgrade controversy, Spurgeon passed away at the early age of 57. He died at Mentone, France, a place he loved wintering because of his chronic poor health. Upon his death, his assistant, Harrald, telegraphed a message to the London Tabernacle that stated...Our beloved pastor entered heaven, 11:15 Sunday night. The news of his death became the main subject of discussion in London, especially in the newspapers.
Conclusion
Spurgeon tirelessly and bravely preached the gospel during his short life. His sermons reached many across the world. Many consider him a hero and a noble Christian leader. Having had a firm Christian background, Spurgeon became a powerful and influential minister and author. Many people around the world admired him, although he faced difficulties that resulted to mental problems and depression. Through his books and writings over the years, Spurgeon H. Spurgeon has inspired and influenced billions by his passion for preaching the gospel. Surgeons contributions to the Baptist and evangelical community are immeasurable. Even at present, materials written by Spurgeon outnumber those written by any other Christian writer, whether dead or living. Spurgeon wrote more than 63 volumes of sermons during his ministry. Additionally, although he lived in great pain as an adult and endured the attacks of his ministry by the opponents, he continued to transmit the word of God until his premature death on January of 1892. Spurgeons main sources of success in the ministry included a life full of prayer and a plain, yet profound devotion to the grace and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although he lived in constant sickness and depression, God strengthened him as he fought for the spread of the gospel. His gifts and success made humbleness necessary.

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