Charles Spurgeon

===Opposition to slavery===
[[File:Portrait of Rev C. H. Spurgeon (4671162) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Photograph of Spurgeon c.1870]]
Spurgeon strongly opposed the owning of slaves.<ref name="slavery">{{cite web| last =Spurgeon |first= Charles | url= http://www.newsforchristians.com/spurgeon/chs1709.html| title= The Best War Cry | date= 4 March 1883 | access-date= 26 December 2014}}</ref> He lost support from the [[Southern Baptists]], sales of his sermons dropped, and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence.<ref name= ray>{{Cite book| last= Ray |first= Charles | title= A Marvelous Ministry: The Story of C.H. Spurgeon's Sermons: 1855–1905 | publisher= Pilgrim publications | url= http://grace-ebooks.com/library/Charles%20Spurgeon/CHS_A%20Marvelous%20Ministry-C%20Ray.PDF | asin= B0006YWO4K}}</ref>
{{Blockquote | Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished? It was when [[William Wilberforce|(William) Wilberforce]] roused the church of God, and when the church of God addressed herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing to pieces.  I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|Act of Emancipation]]. He merrily said to a friend when it was all done, "Is there not something else we can abolish?" That was said playfully, but it shows the spirit of the church of God. She lives in conflict and victory; her mission is to destroy everything that is bad in the land.
''The Best Warcry'', March 4, 1883.<ref name="slavery" />}}

In a letter<ref>{{cite news |editor-last= Garrison |editor-first= William Lloyd |editor-link= William Lloyd Garrison |title= Spurgeon on Slavery |date= 17 February 1860 |access-date= 19 April 2018 |newspaper= [[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]] |page= 1 |volume= 30 |number= 7 |url= http://fair-use.org/the-liberator/1860/02/17/the-liberator-30-07.pdf |quote= Finally, let me add, John Brown is immortal in the memories of the good in England, and in my heart he lives. C. H. SPURGEON, [letter written from] Clapham, London, Jan., 1860.}} In column 5.</ref> to the ''[[Christian Watchman and Reflector]]''<ref>{{cite journal |title= Christian Watchman and Reflector |publisher= Ford, Olmstead |location= [[Boston]] |oclc= 8383897}}</ref> ([[Boston]]), Spurgeon declared:
{{Blockquote | I do from my inmost soul detest slavery… and although I commune at the Lord's table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind. Whenever [a slave-holder] has called upon me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness, and I would as soon think of receiving a murderer into my church… as a [[kidnapping|man stealer]].<ref>{{cite web |last= George |first= Christian |title= The Reason Why America Burned Spurgeon's Sermons and Sought to Kill Him |date= 2016-09-21 |access-date= 2018-04-19 |website= The Spurgeon Center |location= [[Kansas City, Missouri]] |url= https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/the-reason-why-america-burned-spurgeons-sermons-and-sought-to-kill-him}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Pike |first= Godfrey Holden |title= The Life and Work of Charles Haddon Spurgeon |year= 1894 |page= 331 |location= [[Edinburgh]] |isbn= 9780851516226}}</ref>}}