Spurgeon was severely criticized because he did not practice Victorian pulpit etiquette. That is, he preached without pretenses. He charged his students, “Be yourselves and not anybody else.” Studied oratory is the death-knell of preaching and a sermon should not be delivered as if it were a work of literature. Jesus did not say, “Go and read the gospel to every creature.” This caused Spurgeon to say, “Give us sermons, and save us from essays!”
Everyone loves Charles Spurgeon. Even those who feel compelled to edit the Calvinism from his sermons and writings have shown great appreciation for him as a preacher of God’s Word. Little wonder, Spurgeon is a rare gift of God to the church. His life and labors stand like Mont Blanc over the post-Apostolic landscape of the Christian church.
At the celebration of his fiftieth birthday sixty-six organizations that Spurgeon oversaw were listed, including an orphanage and Pastors’ College. Coupled with his writing and personal work these other enterprises joined to make him one of the busiest men in London. Yet, in and through it all, Spurgeon was a preacher. He gave himself to that work above all else.
As such, he has much to teach preachers today. Following are five lessons I have learned from Spurgeon.
1. Preach Christ
During a season of sickness the South African Dutch Reformed minister read a volume of Spurgeon’s sermons and was greatly helped by them. He concluded that the secret to their power was their clear emphasis on the person of Christ. “The Lord Jesus was to him such an intense, living reality, he believed so in His nearness and presence and the wonderful love with which he loves us, that the hearer felt that he spoke out of living experience of what he had seen and heard…In the fullest sense of the word, ‘he ceaseth not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.’”
This was his constant counsel to the students at his Pastors’ College as well as to his fellow laborers in pastoral ministry. To the former he said, “Preach CHRIST always and evermore. He is the whole Gospel. His person, offices, and works must be our one great, all-comprehending theme.” He admonished the latter, “Give the people Christ, and nothing but Christ. Satiate them, even though some of them should say that you also nauseate them with the gospel”
2. Preach Naturally
Spurgeon was severely criticized because he did not practice Victorian pulpit etiquette. That is, he preached without pretenses. He charged his students, “Be yourselves and not anybody else.” Studied oratory is the death-knell of preaching and a sermon should not be delivered as if it were a work of literature. Jesus did not say, “Go and read the gospel to every creature.” This caused Spurgeon to say, “Give us sermons, and save us from essays!”
One reporter described Spurgeon’s preaching in the following words “As soon as he begins to speak he begins to act; and that, not as if declaiming on the stage, but as if conversing with you in the street. He seems to shake hands with all round, and put everyone at his ease.”
