Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
an eminent English Baptist minister, was born at Kelvedon, Essex, June 19, 1834. He began preaching at the age of seventeen at Waterbeach, near Cambridge, where he remained for two years, thence going to New-Park- Street Chapel, London. In 1856 and the three years following services were held in the Surrey Gardens Music Hall. In 1859 the Metropolitan Tabernacle, costing nearly £ 32,000, was opened. During Mr. Spurgeon's pastorate 14,691 members were added to the church. There he acquired his world-wide reputation as a preacher. His Pastors' College was first planned in 1854. As the head of the Stockwell Orphanage his work was very severe. As an author his work was voluminous and variform. His greatest work, The Treasury of David, 7 volumes, reached a large sale on both sides of the Atlantic. He was also author of Commenting and Commentaries: — John Ploughman's Talk: — The Clue of the Maze: — My Sermon Notes: — and others. His works, including all but The Treasury of David, have been published in twenty volumes. He died at Mentone, France, January 31, 1892. See Shindler, From the Usher's Desk to the Tabernacle Pulpit. Several other lives have also appeared.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
A great preacher, born at Kelvedon, Essex; had no college training; connected himself with the Baptists; commenced as an evangelist at Cambridge when he was but a boy, and was only 17 when he was appointed to a pastorate; by-and-by on invitation he settled in Southwark, and held meetings which were always requiring larger and larger accommodation; at length in 1861 the Metropolitan Tabernacle, capable of accommodating 6000, was opened, where he drew about him large congregations, and round which he, in course of time, established a number of institutions in the interest at once of humanity and religion; his pulpit addresses were listened to by thousands every Sunday, and were one and all printed the week following, and circulated all over the land and beyond it till they filled volumes; no preacher of the time had such an audience, and none such a wide popularity; he preached the old Puritan gospel, but it was presented in such a form and in such simple, idiomatic phrase, as to commend it as no less a gospel to his own generation: besides his sermons as published, other works were also widely circulated; special mention may be made of "John Ploughman's Talk" (1834-1892).
