THE PRINCE OF PREACHERS – Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England’s best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, 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 London Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Spurgeon’s sermons are still in wide circulation today, along with his many printed works such as his “Letters to My Students”, and “The Treasury of David.”
Late last week, the English Prime Minister gave a quite amazing speech honoring the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. He said:
If we can use our imagination Jesus, shortly after His birth, it would be true to say that humanly speaking, He was fragile as He was being held in the arms of His mother; yet if we could peer for a moment beyond the physical, Jesus as God, was not only holding His mother, but every cell and atom together in this Universe.