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Credit where due: Virgil asked about Spurgeon to which I PMed a reply but felt that this man of God deserves some recognition since he has had an enormous influence on my faith and belief system.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English minister who lived from 1834-1992. He was saved by the grace of God at age 16 I believe and felt called to the ministry. In London word of his youth and zeal for preaching the gospel led to church having visitors numbering 3-4000 at every service--so many that tickets were offered up for entry and standing room only.

He undertook to have a larger building constructed that became the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit in 1660-61 and the crowds came gladly year in and year out.

His sermons were printed weekly begining in 1856 (under the banner of the New Park Street Pulpit until the Metro was built and the sermons were renamed. When he went to glory in 1892 he had preached so often the weekly sermons continued being printed until early 1917 for an unmatched record of 3561 sermons. (NOTE: In my daily readings 15 of them were considered double numbers so upon completion of the 3561 I will have read one sermon per day for 3546 days.) The series were issued in annual collections during the lifetime of the pastor and beyond and completely reprinted by Pilgrim Publications and available. I currently own 59 of the 63 volumes with the end in sight.

Spurgeon also spent almost twenty years working on The Treasury of David- a commentary on the 150 Psalms from the Bible and it is unmatched for spiritual warmth, devotion and expounding the word of God to the common man. Not only does he comment on each Psalm but he gives quotes from other writers down thru his time period and also suggestions for sermon topics. No library should be without this work on the Psalms.

He maintained a college for preachers (mostly out of his own pocket) to train men up for God. He started an orphanage for boys (and later girls), and had many activities benefiting others.

He was a man of prayer and faith. He never sought fame for himself but his earnest plea for the hearts and souls of men to be saved from their sins by a simple faith in the substitution of the Lord Christ on the cross for their sins and His resurrection. He was a Calvinist by doctrine belief because he felt that was the Biblical faith. He preached God's sovereignty and man's responsibility as two parallel paths that lie side by side in harmony.

He wrote an incredible number of bookson a wide variety of topics. One of his most interesting ones came about when he was lecturing his college students that you could preach the gospel using anything as a starting point even a candle. From the look on the students faces he rose to the challenge and produced two Sermons on Candles which serve as almost a history of the types and varieties of candles in history but how God is revealed to Man in creation by many examples of the types and purposes of candles. Sadly this book is out of print and my copy got donated to a base chapel when I was winnowing my Christian library to one that I felt I could handle and not just own them for the bragging rights ala Batman and Avengers if you catch my drift. But someone posted it to the internet so just go to Yahoo and type in Sermons in Candles and prepare to be delighted.

While having a blessed ministry Spurgeon suffered incredible ill health and sometimes would be laid up for weeks. His output in writings is miraculous in light of all the time he would spend convalesing.

I first was introduced to him in 1972 while stationed on Guam by Tom J. with the sermon in pamphlet form Free Will-A Slave; then another Election; then a series of reprints volumes by subject taken from the MTP. A life-long love and admiration came about. Even during the apostate years of the 70s I had him about. We confess neglecting the opportunity to read him during that fallow period but when son James abandoned the familiy December 31, 1998 I started the MTP the next day and have lived to see James return somewhat the better--he is a prodigal son being molded as we write this and have seen much of God in the details thanks to a timely reading on a certain day. It was Spurgeon who introduced me to the Puritan writers, Thomas Watson, Thomas Brooks, Calvin, Luther, in his book Commenting on Commentaries a book that lectures on how one approaches commenting on the Bible and another lecture on some of the great writers Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Adam Clarke and others then provides a catalog of writings on all the books of the Bible at that time available. Nowadays prudent publishers often take Spurgeons comments on some of these writings and publish books that have as much relevance today as back then as the Bible is timeless in its lessons and man has not changed a whit in his moral compass whatever they so vainly think.

If this encourages anyone to read a man who shows the Lord Christ for the mighty God that he is and is mighty to save and reveal the Bible for the blessed book that it is this entry shall have served a purpose unlike my usual ramblings in comicbook/pulp land.