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"I believe that, at this present time, we are in great danger of being burdened with a crowd of so-called converts who do not really know anything as it ought to be known. They attended a revival meeting, were much excited, and thought they were converted; but just ask them to explain to you the simplest truths of the gospel, and you will soon discover how little they know. Could they explain the three R's, ruin, redemption, and regeneration. Do they know what the ruin is? Do they know what the remedy for that ruin is? Do they understand at all what it means to be born again? Do they comprehend what the new nature is, or what "justification by faith" means. Perhaps someone says, "They do not comprehend your theological terms." I do not mind whether they know the meaning of the terms that are familiar to many of us; but do they know the truths themselves? There is a certain degree of Christian knowledge which is absolutely necessary to salvation." (ca.1860) ?Charles H. Spurgeon
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon
was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century.
In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of
London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian
John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to
Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering
more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the
congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle. "Mr. Spurgeon's magnum opus, The TREASURY OF DAVID, which occupied over twenty years of the author's busy life, is too well known to need any lengthy description. The comments and expositions abound in rich, racy, and suggestive remarks, and they have a strong flavour of the homiletic and practical exposition with which Mr. Spurgeon is accustomed to accompany his public reading of Holy Scripture. There is an intensity of belief, a fulness of assent to the great points of Calvinistic orthodoxy which our author would not be true to himself if he attempted to conceal. The brief introductions are very well done, and the abundant apparatus criticus, the list of hundreds of writers on the Psalms, whose meditations have been laid under contribution to enrich the work, render this commentary one of the most voluminous in existence. At all events, the volumes will be an encyclopaedia of reference." — [British Quarterly Review] CHARLES SPURGEON'S MILLENNIAL VIEW "I am not now going into millennial theories, or into any speculation as to dates. I do not know anything at all about such things, and I am not sure that I am called to spend my time in such researches. I am rather called to minister the gospel than to open prophecy. Those who are wise in such things doubtless prize their wisdom, but I have not the time to acquire it, nor any inclination to leave soul-winning pursuits for less arousing themes. I believe it is a great deal better to leave many of these promises, and many of these gracious out-looks of believers, to exercise their full force upon our minds, without depriving them of their simple glory by aiming to discover dates and figures. Let this be settled, however, that if there be meaning in words, Israel is yet to be restored. Israel is to have a SPIRITUAL RESTORATION or a CONVERSION." [from The Restoration & Conversion of the Jews MTP Vol 10, Year 1864, pg. 429, Ezekiel 37:1-10 (age 30)]
CHARLES SPURGEON ON ECCLESIASTICAL SEPARATION
“It now becomes a serious question
how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternize with
those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and
divisions are to be shunned as grievous sins, but how far are we justified in being in
confederacy with those who are departing from the truth? It is a difficult question to
answer so as to keep the balances of the duties. |
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