April 24 – The Direct Approach
Inauspicious beginnings. Born to parents that couldn’t afford to raise him, Charles Haddon Spurgeon lived with his grandparents. His grandmother and his father were Congregationalist ministers, but he rejected that life and attended an agricultural school. Sometimes God just doesn’t release people to their desires, though.
One Sunday morning, as Haddon trudged through a blizzard, he ended up in a Primitive Methodist church. As he listened to the preacher, God spoke to his heart and he gave himself up to the Lord. Two years later, he found himself the pastor (at the age of 18) of a small church. The people that attended weren’t fine or cultured, so Haddon adjusted to a more direct style. He told them what the Bible said and they responded. His talent for speaking became legendary and within a year, a large church in London asked him to preach.
At the age of nineteen, Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the prestigious New Park Street Chapel. Though it had been a powerful church at one time and could hold over a thousand, there were barely a hundred showing up on Sunday mornings. Spurgeon changed that. People were attracted to his preaching style and soon there was no room for the congregation, they had to rent a hall which would hold 4500 people.
While the people loved Spurgeon, he was taunted in the press as speaking with theatrics, using coarse language (the colloquial language of the day as opposed to that used by academics) and speaking roughly and rudely. He ignored them. His plain speech and direct approach drew people to God. More than 5000 people began attending and soon the numbers had exploded to over 10,000 people each week. There were times when the 12,000 seat Surrey Music Hall was packed with over 10,000 people outside waiting to get in.
Each week, Spurgeon published his sermons. He wrote them out completely, but spoke only using a small notecard. A stenographer would take notes, then give those to him. These were transformed and by Monday morning were ready to be shared with the world. By the time he died in 1892, he had preached over 3600 sermons, with 49 volumes of commentaries, dissertations, devotions and sermons published. He is one of the most prolifically published pastors ever known.
A favorite story that is told of Spurgeon comes from a day he was testing acoustics in The Crystal Palace in London. He would preach two days later to over 23,000 people, but on this day, he tells:
“In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God. Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.”
Spurgeon went on to establish a pastor’s college and Stockwell Orphanage. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was finally built to hold all of the people that came to hear him speak and still exists. He preached sermons all through the week and while he never had an altar call, always invited people to come to his office and it never failed, there was always someone there who had found Jesus through his teaching. He published over 140 books and continued to preach throughout his life.
Inauspicious beginnings. Born to parents that couldn’t afford to raise him, Charles Haddon Spurgeon lived with his grandparents. His grandmother and his father were Congregationalist ministers, but he rejected that life and attended an agricultural school. Sometimes God just doesn’t release people to their desires, though.
One Sunday morning, as Haddon trudged through a blizzard, he ended up in a Primitive Methodist church. As he listened to the preacher, God spoke to his heart and he gave himself up to the Lord. Two years later, he found himself the pastor (at the age of 18) of a small church. The people that attended weren’t fine or cultured, so Haddon adjusted to a more direct style. He told them what the Bible said and they responded. His talent for speaking became legendary and within a year, a large church in London asked him to preach.
At the age of nineteen, Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the prestigious New Park Street Chapel. Though it had been a powerful church at one time and could hold over a thousand, there were barely a hundred showing up on Sunday mornings. Spurgeon changed that. People were attracted to his preaching style and soon there was no room for the congregation, they had to rent a hall which would hold 4500 people.
While the people loved Spurgeon, he was taunted in the press as speaking with theatrics, using coarse language (the colloquial language of the day as opposed to that used by academics) and speaking roughly and rudely. He ignored them. His plain speech and direct approach drew people to God. More than 5000 people began attending and soon the numbers had exploded to over 10,000 people each week. There were times when the 12,000 seat Surrey Music Hall was packed with over 10,000 people outside waiting to get in.
Each week, Spurgeon published his sermons. He wrote them out completely, but spoke only using a small notecard. A stenographer would take notes, then give those to him. These were transformed and by Monday morning were ready to be shared with the world. By the time he died in 1892, he had preached over 3600 sermons, with 49 volumes of commentaries, dissertations, devotions and sermons published. He is one of the most prolifically published pastors ever known.
A favorite story that is told of Spurgeon comes from a day he was testing acoustics in The Crystal Palace in London. He would preach two days later to over 23,000 people, but on this day, he tells:
“In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like a message from heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God. Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.”
Spurgeon went on to establish a pastor’s college and Stockwell Orphanage. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was finally built to hold all of the people that came to hear him speak and still exists. He preached sermons all through the week and while he never had an altar call, always invited people to come to his office and it never failed, there was always someone there who had found Jesus through his teaching. He published over 140 books and continued to preach throughout his life.
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