Digital Logos Edition
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was undoubtedly Spurgeon’s favorite book. He read it more than a hundred times throughout this lifetime. This volume, Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress collects Spurgeon’s various reflections and addresses on Bunyan’s important work. Some of this material first appeared in The Sword and the Trowel, also included in this collection; other material is unique to this volume. Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progresswas compiled and edited by Thomas Spurgeon and published in 1903. Twenty chapters in all, this is a helpful volume of introductory material and commentary on Bunyan’s classic. The Logos Bible Software edition of Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress was originally published in London by Passmore and Alabaster in 1903.
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.
“Beware, I pray you, of any religion that merely springs from the carnal desire of enjoyment of Heaven. Both the terrors of hell and the joys of Heaven are insufficient to make the soul seek the Saviour truly. There must be a sense of sin and a desire after holiness, because, after all, the essence of hell is sin, and the essence of Heaven is holiness, and you are not likely to go to God merely because of the external hell or Heaven. You will only be led to trust in Jesus Christ through the essence of the two external things, namely, sin pressing upon you, and your soul crying out after purity, and holiness, and likeness to God.” (Page 27)
“It was not so with Pliable. What he heard Christian read from the Book did not make him sorrowful, but enchanted and delighted him. He only thought of the Celestial Country, not of the plague of his own heart, nor of the damnable nature of his sin.” (Pages 19–20)
“Sympathy is the mainspring of our ability to comfort others. If you cannot enter into a soul’s distress, you will be no ‘Son of Consolation’ to that soul.” (Page 42)
“Your next step may be, to comfort these poor brethren with the promises of God.” (Page 43)
“NEXT to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ I believe I have read it through at least a hundred times. It is a volume of which I never seem to tire; and the secret of its freshness is that it is so largely compiled from the Scriptures. It is really Biblical teaching put into the form of a simple yet very striking allegory.” (Page 11)
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