Most evangelicals acknowledge some familiarity with Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), the great English preacher of the 19th century. The other day I came across a rendition of Spurgeon's sermon on Esther that I thought utterly superb. The man did such a good job I thought Spurgeon must have sounded much like him. Spurgeon's sermon was originally preached Nov. 1, 1874 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England.
The great 20th century German preacher, Lutheran theologian, and university professor, Helmut Thielicke, held Spurgeon up as a preacher to be emulated. In his book Encounter with Spurgeon, he wrote:
In the midst of the theologically discredited nineteenth century there was a preacher who had at least six thousand people in his congregation every Sunday, whose sermons for many years were cabled to new York every Monday and reprinted in the leading newspapers of the country, and who occupied the same pulpit for almost forty years without any diminishment in the flowing abundance of his preaching and without ever repeating himself or preaching himself dry. The fire he thus kindled, and turned into a beacon that shone across the seas and down through the generations, was no mere brush fire of sensationalism, but an inexhaustible blaze that glowed and burned on solid hearts and was fed by the wells of the eternal Word. Here was the miracle of a bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed (Exod. 3:2). p. 1
"It is characteristic of his preaching ministry that, despite the turbulence of a successful life in which he was surrounded by crowds of people, he did not allow himself to become swamped with externals and consumed with busyness. Instead he immersed himself in the quietness of prayer and meditation, receptively filling his mind and soul, and then went forth recreated from these quiet hours to pour himself out without reserve," p. 7
Although I have read some Spurgeon, I wish to become far more familiar with the man and his work. I need to read more deeply in Thielicke' s book as well as Spurgeon itself. Thielicke's short, terse phrase perhaps sums up Spurgeon as well as anything: "He saw everything in the light of eternity."
A brief internet search produced the Spurgeon Archive,