Charles Spurgeon's conversion: 6 January 1850

Pete Woodcock

If you are a preacher, stop and give thanks to God for this day: the day C H Spurgeon was born again. 

Where would we preachers be without C H Spurgeon?

The pithy quotes, the anecdotes, the wise sayings, the illustrations… I would think most preachers have used and benefited from Spurgeon.

If you read John Ploughman's Talk, you will see how Spurgeon's mind works. He is so taken up with the Scriptures that he sees Christ everywhere. The special revelation of the Scriptures makes him see Christ everywhere in the general revelation of the world. Everything is an illustration or an example to reinforce God’s word. 

I guess a walk with Spurgeon would be a bit like the old hymn says:

Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.

Spurgeon said:

“A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” 

“Leave Christ out? O my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ’s name in it, it ought to be his last, certainly the last that any Christian ought to go to hear him preach.” 

“A sermon without Christ in it—a Christless sermon! A brook without water; a cloud without rain; a well which mocks the traveller; a tree twice dead, plucked up by the root; a sky without a sun; a night without a star. It were a realm of death—a place of mourning for angels and laughter for devils." 

No wonder that the Anglican Bishop JC Ryle said, “I am not a bit ashamed to say that I often read the sermons of Mr. Spurgeon. I like to gather hints about preaching…” 

Spurgeon’s language was pictorial, full of emotion and compelling, explaining great truths for the ordinary person to understand. He talked about preachers preaching in such high language that you would think Jesus said, "Feed my giraffes" and not "my sheep"! Spurgeon always fed the sheep. Of course, Spurgeon was heavily criticised and even mocked, particularly by the established church. They criticised his style, manner and appearance.

But in the end, many tried to copy him. So the limerick goes:

There once was a preacher called Spurgy,
Who really detested liturgy.
But his sermons are fine;
and I use them as mine!
And so do most of the clergy!

During his lifetime Spurgeon is estimated to have preached to 10 million people face to face. He often preached ten times a week, and his sermons were not repeats. Imagine writing ten new sermons a week! Of course, in order to do that he had to feed his own soul, and so to keep himself fresh he typically read six books a week.

In 1865 Spurgeon’s printed sermons were selling 25,000 copies every week. They were translated into more than 20 languages. These sermons were issued weekly until 1917 (19 years after he had died), by which time sales had totalled over 100 million copies. On top of that number, they were printed in the London Times and in the New York Times.

The New Park Street Pulpit and the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit – The Collected Sermons of Spurgeon – fills 63 volumes. The more than 20 million words of these sermons are equivalent to 27 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Along with his printed sermons, he edited a monthly magazine, The Sword and the Trowel, and he wrote many books and commentaries, such as Lectures to My Students.

He is the most widely read preacher (apart from biblical ones) in the world. Today there is more material available written by Charles Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or dead. 

Spurgeon was a preacher but he was much, much more than that. He set up a Pastors’ College and planted many churches through the pastors he trained; also Stockwell Orphanage, the Colportage Association and many, many more gospel organisations.

On his spiritual birthday, give thanks to God for CH Spurgeon.

If you are a preacher, there is one more thing to remember and give thanks for on this day.

This prince of preachers was brought to Christ by a poor, stammering preacher. That’s right—God used a man who was standing in for a preacher who, because of the weather, couldn't get to the church.

It was on this day in 1850 that the 15-year-old Charles Spurgeon couldn’t get to the church he intended to go to because of a snowstorm. The weather forced him to turn off the road he was on and he found a Primitive Methodist church where an unknown substitute preacher stepped into the pulpit and read the Bible text, 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.”

Spurgeon tells the story:

“He had not much to say, thank God, for that compelled him to keep on repeating his text, and there was nothing needed—by me, at any rate—except his text. Then, stopping, he pointed to where I was sitting under the gallery, and he said, ‘That young man there looks very miserable’ … and he shouted, as I think only a Primitive Methodist can, ‘Look! Look, young man! Look now!’ … Then I had this vision—not a vision to my eyes, but to my heart. I saw what a Saviour Christ was … Now I can never tell you how it was, but I no sooner saw whom I was to believe than I also understood what it was to believe, and I did believe in one moment...

I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, ‘Look!’ what a charming word it seemed to me... I looked to Jesus, and he looked on me; and we were one for ever.

And as the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God.”

A poor substitute preacher was used by God to bring a 15-year-old boy to Christ who became the prince of preachers and has led thousands to Christ and by his books and sermons still is leading people to salvation. Keep preaching and let’s pray that each of us will lead someone to Christ who will go on and preach to thousands.

By the way, if you have never read any works by Spurgeon, get Morning and Evening, his short daily devotionals, and you will be mightily blessed by seeing Christ in a new and glorious light.

Pete Woodcock

Pete Woodcock is Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church Kingston, London. He was a founder of the ‘Contagious’, a youth Bible conference and summer camp, and, with his wife Anne, has written a number of books and bible studies.