Book Review: Spurgeon - a New Biography

While in seminary, I remember a classmate (who will remain nameless for the simple reason that I cannot remember who it was) saying that it was his goal to go for his entire ministry without quoting Charles Haddon Spurgeon in a single sermon.

Not knowing much about Spurgeon at the time, I remember being neither particularly impressed nor discouraged. Yet a couple of decades later I am now proud to say that I have not succumbed to that temptation.

There is a reason that Spurgeon is oft-quoted in sermons and Christian writings — he really is the "Prince of Preachers."

And in the years following his death, multiple books and articles have been written about him. I acknowledge that I have not read enough biographical material about him to make a pronouncement like, "the best Spurgeon biography written," but one that is readable, interesting, concise, and informative is Arnold Dallimore's, Spurgeon: A New Biography. It may not be a creative title, but it is a well-written and interesting read.

Providing a balanced overview of his early (growing-up) years, his early ministry, and the extensive London ministry, Dallimore offers ample information without getting bogged down in tedious details. He provides significant anecdotal corroboration that helps the pace of the book and leaves the reader interested in reading more. While the book includes some of Spurgeon's frailties so that he is not "deified" (e.g., the reality of his bouts with depression, and his curious extended absences from his wife as he recovered from those bouts), those explorations are somewhat limited, and could have been profitably pursued more deeply.

Some summary notes about Spurgeon's life:

• He was a man of godly character. "The chief element of Spurgeon's entire career was his walk with God.…Amidst a success so great that it would have driven many a man to unbounded pride, he remained humble and was often utterly broken before the Lord."
  
• He was a man with deep convictions about the sufficiency of Scripture and a love for Calvinistic doctrine. "My daily labour…is to revive the old doctrines of Gill, Owen, Calvin, Augustine, and Christ."
  
• He was a man of remarkable natural and spiritual gifting. To this day, he remains the most prolific author in history (aside from the 62 volumes of his sermons, he also penned more than 40 additional books and it was estimated that in the first 50 years of publishing his material, between 200 and 300 million of his sermons had been distributed!); he not only preached multiple times weekly, but oversaw the weekly publication of his sermons, was the primary pastor of a church of 4000 attenders (doing things like conducting all the interviews for baptism personally), directed the Pastor's College, oversaw an orphanage and a school of 400 students, answered personally with his own pen 500 letters weekly, was personally involved with or instituted some 66 different institutions, and had a part in forming some 40 different mission ventures.
  
• He was a man unafraid of challenges when biblical truth was at stake. "The pain [that the Down-Grade controversy] has cost me none can measure. I can never compromise the truth of God.…It is not a matter of personalities, but of principles. And where two sets of men are diametrically opposite in their opinions upon vital points, no form of words can make them one."
  

That commitment cost him much. But it was that kind of commitment that made Spurgeon "The Prince of Preachers." He was worth hearing then, and he is worth reading today. If you do not know much about him, reading this biography this coming year would be a worthy starting point.

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Two other helpful resources on the web are:

• The Spurgeon Archive (the finest repository of all-things-Spurgeon on the web).
• "Charles Spurgeon: Preaching Through Adversity"