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The Next Charles Spurgeon
- 07/29/10
- 21
When reading about Charles Spurgeon you will be drawn to the unavoidable conclusion that he was a unique individual. He was uniquely gifted by God and then raised up to a unique ministry. There can never be another Charles Spurgeon.
I spent some time this morning pondering what is unique in Spurgeon’s background that would keep another Spurgeon from arising in our day. And I started to think about our media-saturated world. And i started to think about the character qualities exemplified by the Prince of Preachers. And I started to think about a lot of other things. And then I started writing and rambling.
From his earliest days Spurgeon was drawn to great writing by great authors. Even when he was just barely old enough to read, he was reading some of the greatest theological tomes ever written. Even in the youngest days of his ministry, when most pastors today are finishing up high school, he was able to quote widely and quote deeply from these great writers of days gone by, relying on a photographic memory (or a near-photographic memory) to recall what they had said. But he did not rely on mere recall; he had not just read these authors, but he had applied their words to his own life. From the day of his conversion he was exceptionally godly and almost unbelievably mature.
By the time Spurgeon was in his mid-teens he was already successfully pastoring a church. Already he was becoming known as the boy preacher and his fame was beginning to spread. Yet God had gifted him with an extraordinary humility and a profound sense of his utter dependence upon God. He would pray earnestly before he preached, throwing himself on God’s mercy and begging for God to be present with him and to give power to his words—power to change the hearts of his hearers. Though he was the Prince of Preachers, easily one of the greatest preachers the world has ever known, still he relied entirely upon God rather than upon his own skill. More rightly, his utter reliance was the root and the cause of the power in his words.
If Spurgeon arose today, I wonder if we would ruin him. If we saw a young boy, just old enough to read, who was spending his time studying the Puritans, I think we would grab some footage of it and put it out on YouTube. We would want all the world to know, to ooh and ah just as we do today when we see a three-year old reciting Scripture. Grab the video camera! By the time that boy was seventeen and preaching in local churches—and not just preaching but preaching powerfully—we would be hoping for his videos to go viral, to be the talk of Twitter and to be linked on all the Christian blogs. We would beg for him to speak at conferences, to write forewords to our books, to start his own radio program. We’d commoditize him, turning him into something more, or something less, then he really was. And we might just ruin him along the way. Certainly we’d cheapen him.
Or maybe we wouldn’t. Maybe God would so gift the man, as he did with Spurgeon, that he could hold up even under such pressure.
I wonder sometimes what the Bible would read like if Jesus had come to earth 2010 years later than he did. Can you imagine the media frenzy that would follow Jesus today as he drove the dusty highways of the middle east, with all the networks following in their vans, cameras rolling? Can you imagine the skepticism regarding his miracles as we watched them unfold on his very own YouTube channel? Wouldn’t you want to hear him guest on the radio shows and watch him on Larry King? Can you imagine what the gossip blogs would say about him, what they’d accuse him of, how they’d have paparazzi staked out on every hill and in every garden in all the land?
I digress, I think. Except to say that God chooses his men and he chooses their context. I think there is a sense in which Jesus had to be born when he was born. Obviously God isn’t bound by circumstances and by technology. Yet the context of Jesus’ day was just as it needed to be. And i suppose the context for Charles Spurgeon was just as it needed to be. God shaped a specific man to a specific purpose. He gifted a man, placed him in just the right context to maximize those gifts, and gained so much glory through it all. There can never be another Spurgeon because there can never be another time and another set of circumstances that would necessitate or that would even allow such a man. There will be other great men, to be sure. But there will never be another Charles Spurgeon.
Next Week
For next Thursday, please read chapters 9, 10 and 11. We will do three since the chapters are quite short.
Your Turn
The purpose of this program is to read biographies together. So if there are things that stood out to you in this chapter, if there are questions you had, this is the time and place to have your say. Feel free to post a comment below or to link to your blog if you've chosen to write about this on your own site.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (21)
Tim, your commentary is moving. I wonder how many potential mini-Spurgeons we may have already ruined by our media-saturated society…
I continue to be encouraged about Spurgeon’s prayer life. Throughout his trials of bad press and circumstances, he was still such a powerful man of prayer. I like how the author of this book keeps that thread running through the chapters.
D. L. Moody, after his first visit to England, being asked upon his return to America, “Did you hear Spurgeon preach?” replied, “Yes, but better still, I heard him pray.”
His zeal to bring glory to Christ was evidenced in his prayers as much as his preaching. As a result, the Lord used Spurgeon to bring many to Himself.
I posted notes from these two chapters on my blog:
Fire in Spurgeon
I’m enjoying reading the comments here each week. Thanks again, Tim, for providing this forum for us to share.
You forgot to mention something else unique to Spurgeon’s background from our modern perspective, and crucial to understanding his makeup: he didn’t attend college. Instead of chasing footnotes, he had the time to drink deeply from the well of Puritanism on his own. Poor man!
If Spurgeon arose today, I wonder if seminary would ruin him.
I actually recall going to a Seminary several years ago and hearing a 17 year old preach. People ooo’d and ahhh’d over him. He later attended that college and entered ministry. Now, about 15 years later, he has taken the pastorate at a church and from what I hear about him, he is humbly serving the Lord. While not as famous as Spurgeon, his name might be recognizable to many people who read this blog. I think if it have been me, the preaching talent combined with the expectations and flattery would have messed me up. He seems to have kept his humility about him. ANyway, thought I’d throw it in there….
Tim,
I haven’t been apart of the book reading plan, but I wanted to comment about what you were saying about people being in the appropriate context.
I have often thought that it is history that defines the greatness of a person. I think of the American Revolution in this way. When we look back at the heroes of that time we find principled people working together for common ideal. I think maybe it is so with the heroes of the faith. They served God’s plan in humble obedience and it is our reflection of that service that reveals the greatness.
Good stuff!
Tony
I thought it was refreshing to see that in a world of people that are seeking out their own glory, Spurgeon tried to deflect it as much as possible. He thought he was completely unable to accomplish his calling. That is probably why the Lord blessed him so much. I recount the stories that are told that he could hardly stand to go into the pulpits (I think he said the deacons had to almost pull him from his study). Then when finished, he would shrink back into his study thinking that he totally blew it. This was extremely convicting to me as I sometimes struggle with the flesh that rears its ugly head telling me that I am better than what I am.
I wonder if what separated Spurgeon was that he was not content to rely upon his own personal giftedness. He knew that God had to do the work. He knew that God would have to open eyes. While we know that, I wonder how much we really think that if we craft our argument just the right way when we preach…God will do His work for sure, but wasn’t it really because of the way I crafted it? This is what separates Spurgeon from so many.
Great read so far!
Not reading the bio with you (read the two-volume Banner autobiography some years ago), but this discussion made me think of some things in light of another book I’m reading - The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk.
Spurgeon is seen as a prodigy (rightfully so), but Shenk makes the case that all of us can be miuch better than we are. He debunks the “nature vs nurture” dichotomy and the idea that genetics determine how much we can achieve.
In fact, Spurgeon illustrates Shenk’s point - he did the right thing (by God’s grace) in immersing himself in the Scriptures and Puritans from a young age. (According to Shenk, Mozart was not so much an innate genius as someone who was raised in a particular environment that shaped him and produced his talents).
Tim wonders if our current society would spoil young proto-Spurgeons. I think that even average forty-year-old preachers could become great if they were allowed to focus on that area by their congregations and also disciplined themselves to do so.
Shenk’s book is encouraging in that it allows us to see that we are less bound by our genetics and past than we often think we are.
Sorry for the digression…..
Spurgeon did have media to deal with, although on a more limited scale, as Chapter 7 attests to. I found it interesting that at that time there was a Calvin/Arminian debate with folks who supported the doctrines of grace and Calvinism being ridiculed. Doesn’t sound too much different from today.
The Surrey Gardens account was tragic.
To comment regarding a modern day Spurgeon, I sense that in addition for a child to be reading these great works, how often would we as parents even encourage our children to attempt to read these works or read these works with them? I think we need to emphasize the tone that can be set by parents and not selling our children short in what they can comprehend.
Hi Tim,
I appreciate your thoughts about Spurgeon, he truly was a prodigy of his time and I must add that it is interesting to contemplate the circumstances that surrounded the man’s life and how it might be different today.
My homoletics professor once said, “The best preachers in America are not the guys on the radio or the ones that everyone knows about they are the average guys in small towns across this country that not many people have heard.”
Had Spurgeon preached in a much earlier time or a different place, most of us may not even know about him.
And another thought, 99.9% of pastors will never be published or even heard of much outside of their scope of influence and that is okay with me. God calls us to be faithful, godly men not superstars, without a doubt, God does use the Spurgeons in a great way to encourage many.
I just received the book and quickly caught up this week—I am really enjoying learning more about an amazing servant of our Savior. As others have mentioned—his prayer life and his humility are what are most striking to me. I loved reading the prayer: such a sense of faith and neediness before a Sovereign God. I pray I can learn to pray like that, and I pray that for my church as well, that we would be people wholly, truly dependent upon a God we know to be both holy and gracious.
Good article. Yes, if Spurgeon’s time were now I would say he would never have been as deep as he was in his day. Our sociaty would most certainly have ruiened him with the possable exception of today`s anti smoking views which could possably have extended his life had he gave up smoking.
“There can never be another Charles Spurgeon.”
Very true. But there will never be another John Piper or Tim Keller either. It’s as you say, God grants grace designed for the place and time. But the defeatism I see in Reformed circles, lammenting that there is no modern Spurgeon, is alarming and dangerous. As James chided his readers and applied to us, We have not [a modern Spurgeon] because we do not ask, and when we do ask we ask with wrong motives.
And so we do not ask because we’ve convinced ourselves that a Spurgeon will never be raised among us.
Brad
Thanks brother. I read your posts often. This was especially good, an encouragement for me to continue giving myself to the great reading and not fritter time with the trivial.
Tim,
That you wrote this article and that you ask these questions tells me something about you. A few days back, you were questioning the quality of your entries on this site. Articles like these are shining examples of the gift you’ve been giving. This article inspired me - okay, I admit it - I choked up too. But maybe that just tells you something about me.
Thank you for choosing this book; it has proved to be a great blessing to me.
Today I am writing on how Spurgeon’s prayer life has challenged mine.
http://bit.ly/cSm7Ru
Blessings to you and all who are reading along!
Yes there can never be another Spurgeon… But I have heard by some people…. referring to John MacArthur as a present day Spurgeon
Tim and all-Thanks for pointing us toward this fascinating book and the experience of sharing it with you.
Your comments this week are touching on something that I’ve been trying to formulate in my own mind since starting through the book. I’m not sure that I’ve figured out my point yet , so I’m not expecting I’ll do much better here- but it’s worth a shot.
The accounts of Spurgeon’s “exceptionalism” is what I’m struggling with. I don’t deny that he was a remarkable child, and a specially blessed adult. (Though I’d suggest that it’s not uncommon for those who are looking back years later to attach significance to events that they might not have recalled had the man’s life turned out differently.)
But does the emphasis on those extraordinary traits encourage or discourage the rest of us?
We’re easily impressed by our fellow humans who are smarter, more talented, or better looking than average. I suspect that earthworms have their own hierarchy that we have trouble discerning.
The traits that are most predictive of success in our own estimation are not particularly important to the almighty God of the universe. In fact, we see ample evidence in scripture of God specifically chosing human instruments that DON’T measure up- see Moses, David, Gideon, and Saul of Tarsus for starters. Meanwhile, some of those who appeared to have the right stuff- King Saul and Samson come to mind- crashed on the rocks of high expectations.
Paul specifically makes the point that God “chose the foolish… weak.. lowly… despised things,… so that no one may boast before him.”
God can certainly be glorified when a greatly gifted individual makes a splash for the kingdom.
But contrast that with the account of Spurgeon’s conversion. The minister didn’t show up. It was left to a layman, “a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of the sort” to preach. He was “really stupid”, and “did not even pronounce the words rightly.”
Yet from this rude instrument, the Spirit spoke to the heart of the impressive young man, and the work of grace was done. Was that not as impressive as the talented young man becoming the talk of London?
Enough with the soapbox.
So far, my favorite quote from the book is that of mama Spurgeon, who told her son, “Ah Charles, I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you become a Baptist.”
Second is his reply, “Ah, Mother, the Lord has answered your prayer with His usual bounty, and has given you exceedingly abundantly above what you asked or thought.”
Amen, Charles…
Indeed, I wonder as well…
Good points JMarkH,
But God is looking for humility, usually wrought by brokenness - He can use whatever the world considers impressive or lowly, so long as they are humble, malleable vessels.
A great orator who genuinely loves and trusts his maker, will not be disqualified anymore than a pauper with a speech impediment. God recognizes faith and genuineness, not status or talent.
Tim,
You mentioned the fact that Spurgeon was 17 when he took his first pastorate… I am pretty sure that would never happen today either. From my experience (27 with an MDiv. and working on a DMin.) it is difficult to become a pastor before 30 in most places. The majority of churches are not looking for a young pastor and I certainly think much of Spurgeon’s zeal was cultivated in his early years of ministry. Maybe churches are also playing a part in keeping another Spurgeon from being raised up!
Tim Keller says the primary purpose of salvation is cultural renewal. He caricatures Christians who think the Christian’s primary calling is to help others see their need for forgiveness through Christ. He says this of them:
“An awful lot of Christians say, ‘this world is going to die, it’s going to burn up, and while we’re here basically the only thing that’s important is to get people saved, and if they get saved eventually they’ll be able to leave this world.’ So it’s a temporary theater for salvation.”
That’s how he caricatures the beliefs of Evangelical Christians.
Not exactly a Spurgeon of our time.
(for context, you can hear the audio of his talk where he made these disturbing statements here: http://www.faithandwork.org/uploads/photos/461-1%20Cultural%20Renewal_%2…)
So true, Mr. Challies….and beautifully written. You have a knack for this blogging/writing/thinking/digesting/verbalizing thing. Keep it up!