About a week ago I finished up the biography, Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore. In the past few weeks I’ve posted some thoughts from the book, which can be found here, here, and here. Now, I’ll give a brief review of the book itself. A few themes come to mind about Spurgeon’s life, the gospel, prayer, and love for people. It was evident that the biographer was honing in on these elements of Spurgeon’s life.
The following is how Dallimore summed up Spurgeon’s life.
How nice his life had been. He walked with God and lived in prayer. Nothing in his actions was merely put on, but all was wonderfully real. His one purpose had been to “preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” and in this determination he had devoted all his talents—the extraordinary memory, the great powers of public speech—and his joy had been found in bringing glory to the Savior and in leading souls to know Him. Early in life he had lost all consideration of his own self, and his prayer that he might be hidden behind the cross, that Christ alone might be seen, had expressed his heart’s chief purpose. (Page 238-239)
Even though Dallimore probably has read and researched far more than I ever will on Spurgeon’s life, I agree with his summary. Of the 1500 or so pages I’ve read from Spurgeon himself, the gospel was clearly proclaimed and prayer was regularly instructed and taught. In Spurgeon’s sermon on “Paul’s First Prayer,” he makes note that you can tell if one is a Christian by whether one prays. He believed in prayer and knew God was actively working through prayers, so much so, that I wonder if God had assigned him more faith than the average Christian in regards to prayer (Romans 12:3-8).
Spurgeon believed in the gospel and that it truly was the power of God. As I’ve said before, the gospel was the foundation of his entire ministry. His sermons, prayers, love for people, and all the other good works that he did flowed from his understanding of the gospel. Works and faith truly go hand in hand.
I thank God for men like C.H. Spurgeon, but Spurgeon was just one person. Don’t get me wrong I consider him a hero, but he was one of the instruments used by God to proclaim Christ crucified in the churches he served. It is easy to focus in on one man, especially a man like Spurgeon. But his ministries were surrounded by countless other elders, deacons, and church members who God used to do His good work. It wasn’t the work of one man, but the church as a whole.
I would recommend this biography. And as you read it and any other biography don’t get caught up in the individual, but get caught up in an amazing God and how he accomplished his purposes throughout history.
