I am currently reading, as a part of my devotional set, the “Letters of Charles Hadden Spurgeon” compiled and edited by Iain Murray. Charles Spurgeon, known as “The Prince of Preachers,” was a minister in London for the middle to late part of the 19th century. His writings, his work, his ministry was wildly influential when he was alive, and his work is probably as influential now, 100+ years after his death, as during his lifetime. I have just started reading the letters and these early ones, which I’ll cite below, are from when he was a teenager. I have been simply struck at Spurgeon’s zeal and wisdom, even as a 16-year-old, as expressed in some of his early letters. His joy, his earnest commitment to God, and his red-hot zeal for the gospel literally “leaps” off the page to “grab” the reader. There are 2 thoughts that immediately come to my mind: 1. I desire that my own children, when they are 16, would speak in this manner. 2. How many 16 year-old teenagers, even in the church today, speak this way? My guess to that would be “Very Little.” Was Spurgeon’s early zeal and wisdom due to a simple gift from God? Or was it due to the influence of both his father and grandfather, who were both ministers? Spurgeon gives credit to both his parents and to the influence of his grandfather, upon his faith. Can we, as parents, influence our kids in the same way? What can I do, as a parent, to instill into my kids this solid, yet exuberant, type of faith? Regardless of the means, it is all of God’s grace and mercy. The letters I cite below are either written to his father or to his mother. I will not comment on the letters, but will let them stand as he has written them. Let us learn from the zeal and wisdom of Charles Spurgeon, and let us also ask God how we might raise our children, or grandchildren, up in the Lord in such a way as to have a zeal for His work. Read below from the hand of a young, 16-year old Charles Spurgeon
“How sweet is prayer! I would be always engaged in it. How beautiful is the Bible! I never loved it so before; it seems to me as necessary food. I feel that I have not one particle of spiritual life in me but what the Spirit placed there. I feel that I cannot live if He depart; I tremble and fear lest I should grieve Him” (20).
“Oh, how I wish I could do something for Christ! Tract distribution is so pleasant and easy that it is nothing,–nothing in itself, much less when it is compared with the amazing debt of gratitude I owe” (21).
“Why is not my heart always warm? Is it not because of my own sins?…Pray for me, oh my dear Father and Mother! [he was writing to his mother, Eliza, specifically in this letter]…”(22).
“Since last Thursday I have been unwell in body, but I may say that my soul has been almost in Heaven…Doubts and fears may soon assail me, but I will not dread to meet them if my Father has so ordained it; He knows best. Were I never to have another visit of grace, and be always doubting from now until the day of my death, yet ‘the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His.'” (24).
“…all beyond hell is mercy…” [young Spurgeon wrote this phrase in reference to a particular trial his mother had just been through] (24).
“I trust the Lord is working among my tract people, and blessing my little effort. I have most interesting and encouraging conversation with many of them. Oh, that I could see but one sinner constrained to come to Jesus! How I long for the time when it may please God to make me, like you, my Father, [again, Spurgeon writing to his father, John Spurgeon] a successful preacher of the gospel! I almost envy your exalted position!” (24-25).
“Oh, that the God of mercy would incline Archer’s heart to Him [Archer is his younger brother], and make him a partaker of His grace! Ask him [Archer] if he will believe me when I say that one drop of the pleasure of religion is worth ten thousand oceans of the unconverted, and then ask him if he is not willing to prove the fact by experience. Give my love to my dear Mother…” (25).