"The North and the South were in antagonism and slavery was a burning question, although the great Civil War was not to come for some years yet. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in the course of his sermons, felt bound to pass strictures [moral criticism] upon the whole system of slavery, and at once the sale of his sermons in the Southern States fell almost to nothing, while scores of insulting and threatening letters were sent to the preacher."
Charles Ray in A Marvelous Ministry: The Story of C.H. Spurgeon's Sermons: 1855-1905. Forest Gates, Essex. 1905. p.13
And yet after the war, Southern Baptists returned to their love of Spurgeon. The faculty of SBTS sent a cablegram/telegram congratulating Spurgeon on one of his anniversaries (I think it was the 25th). Ministers traveling to England and Europe would make it a point to visit the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the largest Baptist Church in the world (perhaps the largest Protestant Church, too). One of the visitors was, so I understand, James Petigru Boyce who was invited to preach by Spurgeon and who turned it down, feeling unworthy. Interestingly enough, Boyce would die in France (the nation of Calvin's birth) and so would Spurgeon. Boyce and Spurgeon were two of the most noted Calvinists of the 19th century. One of my deacon's in my third Church (Gum Springs) was the son of a minister who was born in 1892, the year of Spurgeon's death, and he was named after the famous Baptist. The Rev. Spurgeon Glosson would obtain a Bachelor's and a Master's from Wake Forest College and a third degree from Southern Seminary. He withdrew from the more active life of a pastor to pastor country churches (he owned a farm and could afford to do so), because he objected to the more liberal views on the Bible. In 1934 on the Centennial of Spurgeon's birth, the pastor of the then largest Baptist church in the world, First Baptist of Dallas, Dr. George W. Truett was invited to speak and was introduced by the Prime Minister of the British Empire at a memorial service in the Royal Hall in London. Truett made it a point to stress the fact that Calvinism pressed down on the brow of man the crown of responsibility. W.A. Criswell, Billy Graham, and many other leading Southern Baptist ministers of the 20th century wrote eulogies of appreciation for Spugeon and his ministry. By the way I should mention that Spurgeon's sermons were published in this country in the newspapers and in pamphlets and that they often led to the conversion of their readers.
Posted by: dr. james willingham | 2014.06.08 at 08:17 AM
Great history. Thanks for sharing.
Ironically, this dislike apparenlty spanned across the theological spectrum. Crawford Toy, for example, was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy.
But isn't it great today that the churches and members in those churches now agree with Spurgeon, and Spurgeon is among the most widely read and beloved preachers.
Posted by: Louis | 2014.06.08 at 02:34 PM
Peter: You do remember you were born, raise, and live in the South don't you? You even come complete with the Southern Drawl.
Posted by: Debbie Kaufman | 2014.06.08 at 09:51 PM
"Peter: You do remember you were born, raise, and live in the South don't you? You even come complete with the Southern Drawl. "
??? Peter was raised in the Confederacy? Being from the South at anytime in history automatically makes one pro slavery? Can you please clarify? I am also from the South from a line of abolitionists on one side. They were helping slaves escape while pro slavery Boyce was dithering about Succession.
Posted by: Lydia | 2014.06.10 at 07:38 PM
Lydia:
Ditto. Born/raised in Louisiana, never lived outside of south yet great great grandfather and brother were volunteer calvary and infantry with Union during Civil War out of NW Arkansas.
No slave ownership in family history....we were the slaves, or at least farmed cotton right alongside freed slaves in central Louisiana prior to mid twentieth century.
Abolitionist sympathies in the "heart of hell" during that period.
Have seen and felt for years the misperception of "Southerners" from the rest of the country.
Posted by: Scott Shaver | 2014.06.17 at 03:15 PM