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C.H. Spurgeon's forgotten early sermons

He still speaks

C.H. SPURGEON’S FORGOTTEN EARLY SERMONS
A companion to the New Park Street Pulpit
Edited by Terence Peter Crosby
Day One Publications. 316 pages. £15.00
ISBN 978 1 846 252 020

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the most gifted Baptist preacher in Victorian England. His weekly sermons sold in their thousands and were eagerly read across the world.

This volume contains 28 of his early sermons, which appeared only in his journal, The Sword and Trowel, all but one after his death. It is stating the obvious in commending the orthodoxy of his doctrinal content and the helpfulness of many of the subjects he addresses in these sermons. Some of these items contain sermon notes rather than a fuller transcript of the messages, but the essence of his themes is clear.

His topics include ones that are so often under challenge today: for example, substitutionary atonement (sermon 8); and the seriousness of sin (sermon19). His style is so down to earth and practical: ‘Instead of disputing about whether the atonement be general or particular, enquire whether it has been applied to you’ (p.166); or, ‘You have not to feel your need before you come to Christ. Come to Christ, and you shall feel all you need to feel afterwards’ (p.68). Occasionally the language has a dated feel, but the majority of what he proclaimed could be uttered with profit in the pulpit today. As a devotional tool, reading one sermon at a time, I found this book encouraging; as a preacher, I found his simplicity of language very powerful and his passion for evangelism clear.

This book is attractively laid out by its editor and reasonably priced by the publisher. It is recommended.

Brian Talbot,
pastor of Broughty Ferry Baptist Church, Dundee