Larry Wessels, director of Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater (YouTube channel: CANSWERSTV, see our playlist "Charles H. Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, Our Spanish Videos" at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE91032ED05E42487&feature;=plcp; websites: http://www.BIBLEQUERY.ORG, http://www.HISTORYCART.COM & http://www.MUSLIMHOPE.COM) interviews Bob L. Ross, author, speaker & director of Pilgrim Publications (website: http://www.PILGRIMPUBLICATIONS.COM), one of the leading publishers of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most famous Christian preacher in the world during the nineteenth century. This presentation features original video footage of historic sites associated with C.H. Spurgeon. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 -- January 31, 1892) was a British Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations & he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the "1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith" understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church in his day. In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10 million people, often up to 10 times each week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years. Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, poetry, hymnist & more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Born in Kelvedon, Essex, Spurgeon's conversion to Christianity came on January 6, 1850, at age fifteen where "God opened his heart to the salvation message." The text that moved him was 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." ln 1854, after preaching three months on probation and just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 19, was called to the pastorate of London's famed New Park Street Chapel, Southwark (formerly pastored by the Particular Baptists Benjamin Keach, theologian John Gill, and John Rippon). This was the largest Baptist congregation in London at the time. Within a few months of Spurgeon's arrival at Park Street, his ability as a preacher made him famous. The following year the first of his sermons in the "New Park Street Pulpit" was published. Spurgeon's sermons were published in printed form every week and had a high circulation. By the time of his death in 1892, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published forty-nine volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations, and devotions (some of the best selling writings in history). Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000. At twenty-two, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day. Still the work went on. A Pastors' College was founded in 1857 by Spurgeon and was renamed Spurgeon's College in 1923, when it moved to its present building in South Norwood Hill, London;[1]. At the Fast Day, October 7, 1857, he preached to the largest crowd ever -- 23,654 people -- at The Crystal Palace in London. On March 18, 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, seating five thousand people with standing room for another one thousand. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon continued to preach there several times per week until his death 31 years later. Spurgeon taught across denominational lines as well. It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the inter-denominational China Inland Mission. Spurgeon supported the work of the mission financially and directed many missionary candidates to apply for service with Taylor. He also aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting "The Wordless Book", a teaching tool that has been and is still used to teach uncounted thousands of illiterate people around the globe about the Gospel message. Following the example of George Müller, Spurgeon founded the Stockwell Orphanage, which opened for boys in 1867 and for girls in 1879, and which continued in London until it was bombed in the Second World War. This orphanage became Spurgeon's Child Care which still exists today. On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discolored and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons, "Accidents, Not Punishments," was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page: "Very good, D.L." He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa. It was returned to Spurgeon and treasured by him.

• published: 19 Jun 2011
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