Charles Spurgeon

===Metropolitan Tabernacle===
{{see also|Religious views on smoking#Christianity}}
[[File:SpurgeonSurrey.jpg|thumb|Spurgeon preaching at the [[Surrey Music Hall]] circa 1858.]]
On 18 March 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built [[Metropolitan Tabernacle]] at [[Elephant and Castle]], Southwark, seating 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was the largest church edifice of its day. Spurgeon continued to preach there several times per week until his death 31 years later. He never gave [[altar call]]s at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation that if anyone was moved to seek an interest in Christ by his preaching on a Sunday, they could meet with him at his vestry on Monday morning. Without fail, there was always someone at his door the next day.

He wrote his sermons out fully before he preached, but what he carried up to the pulpit was a note card with an outline sketch. [[Stenographers]] would take down the sermon as it was delivered and Spurgeon would then have opportunity to make revisions to the transcripts the following day for immediate publication. His weekly sermons, which sold for a penny each, were widely circulated and still remain one of the all-time best selling series of writings published in history.<ref>''Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers'', by Lewis A. Drummond, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, 1992, p.215</ref>
[[File:Open Air Preaching WB.jpg|thumb|right|Missionary preaching in China using [[The Wordless Book]]]]

{{Blockquote | I would propose that the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist, although I claim to be rather a Calvinist according to Calvin, than after the modern debased fashion.  I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist. You have there (pointing to the baptistry) substantial evidence that I am not ashamed of that ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ; but if I am asked to say what is my creed, I think I must reply: "It is Jesus Christ."  My venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, has left a body of divinity admirable and excellent in its way; but the body of divinity to which I would pin and bind myself for ever, God helping me, is not his system of divinity or any other human treatise, but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel; who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life.

— The kernel of Spurgeon's first sermon at the Tabernacle<ref name="philj">{{cite web | url = http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0369.htm | title = The First Sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle | work = Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Preached Monday, March 25, 1861 | number = 369 | access-date = 2014-12-19 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150130064855/http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0369.htm | archive-date = 30 January 2015 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>}}

Besides sermons, Spurgeon also wrote several [[hymn]]s and published a new collection of worship songs in 1866 called "Our Own Hymn Book". It was mostly a compilation of [[Isaac Watts]]'s Psalms and Hymns that had been originally selected by [[John Rippon]], a Baptist predecessor to Spurgeon. Singing in the congregation was exclusively [[a cappella]] under his pastorate. Thousands heard the preaching and were led in the singing without any amplification of sound that exists today. Hymns were a subject that he took seriously. While Spurgeon was still preaching at New Park Street, he entered the [[Rivulet controversy|''Rivulet'' controversy]] over a hymn book. He found its theology largely [[deist]]ic. At the end of his review, he warned:

<blockquote>We shall soon have to handle truth, not with kid gloves, but with gauntlets, – the gauntlets of holy courage and integrity. Go on, ye warriors of the cross, for the King is at the head of you.</blockquote>

On 5 June 1862, Spurgeon challenged the [[Church of England]] when he preached against [[baptismal regeneration]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Spurgeon | first = Charles Haddon | url = http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0573.htm | title = Baptismal Regeneration | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070104145525/http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0573.htm | archive-date = 4 January 2007 | df = dmy-all}}</ref> However, Spurgeon taught across denominational lines as well: for example, in 1877 he was the preacher at the opening of a new [[Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)|Free Church of Scotland]] church building in [[Dingwall]]. It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in [[James Hudson Taylor]], the founder of the inter-denominational [[China Inland Mission]]. Spurgeon supported the work of the mission financially and directed many missionary candidates to apply for service with Taylor. He also aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting "[[The Wordless Book]]", a teaching tool that he described in a message given on 11 January 1866, regarding Psalm 51:7: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." The book has been and is still used to teach people without reading skills and people of other cultures and languages&nbsp;–  young and old&nbsp;– around the globe about the Gospel message.<ref>{{Citation | publisher = Spurgeon.org | url = http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3278.htm | title = The Wordless Book | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070504130848/http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3278.htm | archive-date = 4 May 2007 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>{{Sfn | Austin | 2007 | pp = 1–10}}

On the death of [[missionary]] [[David Livingstone]] in 1873, a discolored and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons, "Accidents, Not Punishments,"<ref>{{Citation | last = Spurgeon | first = Charles Haddon | url = http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0408.htm | title = Accidents, Not Punishments | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060918171908/http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0408.htm | archive-date = 18 September 2006 | df = dmy-all}}</ref> was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page: "Very good, D.L." He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa. It was sent to Spurgeon and treasured by him.<ref>[[William Young Fullerton|W. Y. Fullerton]], [http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/bio10.htm ''Charles Haddon Spurgeon: A Biography''] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060927021747/http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/bio10.htm |date=27 September 2006}}, ch. 10</ref>