SPURGEON, CHARLES HADDON A ( A ,_92 Nonconformist divine, was born at Kelvedon, Essex, on June 19, 1834. He was the grandson of an Essex pastor, and son of John Spurgeon, Independent minister at Upper Street, Islington. He went to school at Colchester and Maidstone, and in 1849 he became usher at a school in Newmarket. He joined the Baptist communion in 1851, and in 1852 he became pastor of Water beach. His powers as a boy preacher became widely known, and at the close of 1853 he was "called" to New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. In a very few months' time the chapel was full to overflowing. Exeter Hall was used while a new chapel was being erected, but even that could not contain Spurgeon's hearers. The enlarged chapel at once proved too small for the crowds, and a huge tabernacle was projected in Newington Causeway. The Tabernacle was opened for service on March 25, 1861. Spur geon preached at the Tabernacle on Sundays and Thursdays. His Sunday sermons were sold literally by tons. They are models of Puritan exposition and of appeal through the emotions to the individual conscience, illuminated by frequent flashes of spontaneous and often highly unconventional humour. Collected
as The Tabernacle Pulpit, the sermons form some fifty volumes. His book of sayings called John Ploughman's Talks; or, Plain Advice for Plain People (1869) found many readers. In the summer of 1864 a sermon which he preached on Baptismal Re generation (a doctrine which he strenuously repudiated, maintain ing that immersion was only an outward and visible sign of the inward conversion) led to a difference with the bulk of the Evan gelical party, both Nonconformist and Anglican. Spurgeon main tained his ground, but in 1865 he withdrew from the Evangelical Alliance. Subsequently in 1887 his distrust of modern biblical criticism led to his withdrawing from the Baptist Union. He died at Mentone on Jan. 31, 1892.
See the 'Life by Schindler (1892) and Spurgeon's Autobiography, compiled by his widow and his private secretary from his diary, sermons, records and letters (1897-1900).