Digital Logos Edition
George Fox: An Address Delivered to the Society of Friends contains Spurgeon’s address on November 6, 1866 to the Society of Friends. George Fox was the founder of the Society of Friends and lived through the English Civil War. Spurgeon acknowledges not only the theological influence of Fox, but also the lasting impact of the Quakers in social matters. The Logos Bible Software edition of George Fox: An Address Delivered to the Society of Friends was originally published in Philadelphia by H. Longstreth in 1883.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England on June 19, 1834. He converted to Christianity in 1850 at a small Methodist chapel, to which he detoured during a snowstorm. While there, he heard a sermon on Isaiah 45:22 and was saved—“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.” He began his own ministry of preaching and teaching immediately, and preached more than 500 sermons by the age of twenty.
In 1854, at nineteen years of age, Spurgeon began preaching at the New Park Street Chapel in London. He was appointed to a six month trial position, which he requested be cut to three months should the congregation dislike his preaching. He gained instant fame, however, and the church grew from 232 members to more than five thousand at the end of his pastorate. Many of his sermons were published each week and regularly sold more than 25,000 copies in twenty languages. Throughout his ministry, Spurgeon estimated that he preached to more than 10,000,000 people. Dwight L. Moody was deeply influenced by Spurgeon’s preaching, and founded the Moody Bible Institute after seeing Spurgeon’s work at the Pastor’s College in London.
Spurgeon read six books per week during his adult life, and read Pilgrim’s Progress more than 100 times. In addition to his studying and preaching, Spurgeon also founded the Pastor’s College (now Spurgeon’s College), various orphanages and schools, mission chapels, and numerous other social institutions.
Charles Spurgeon suffered from poor health throughout his life. He died on January 31, 1892, and was buried in London.
“Consider what God’s truth is, and how we ought to handle it as God’s truth, not as a matter to be trifled with or to be spoken without prayerful earnestness; and consider by whose power we profess to speak, namely, by the power of the Spirit of God. Do we always speak by that power? Are we always conscious that we are true to the motions of the Spirit within, and that we deliver ourselves as dying men to dying men? Are we not occasionally silent when we ought to speak, or do we not speak when we ought to be silent? May not sins of commission and sins of omission both accuse us?” (Page 12)
“He adopted every mode which ingenuity could devise to arouse a slumbering nation, and better still, he also followed after the better wisdom which comes from the Spirit of God. As far as he knew it I believe he delivered every jot of God’s counsel, and that in all respects he was faithful to his conscience, so that he could say, knowing that God was hearing him, ‘I am clear.’” (Pages 12–13)
“Never has any more evil event happened to the church of God than when that baptized heathen Constantine pretended to be a Christian, and set up Christianity as a State Church.” (Page 9)
“a palace to him, yet the dungeons were loathsome to an in” (Page 10)