Spurgeon's EvangelismSpurgeon’s evangelistic calls appeared at some point in every sermon. Like lightning that strikes in various places during a strong summer storm, Spurgeon’s appeals to those who were unconverted or undecided with respect to Christ and the Gospel came at various places in his powerful sermons: sometimes in the introduction, periodically in the various points of his messages, and very often at the conclusion. This master preacher seemed to study to avoid sameness in both the place and manner of his evangelistic applications. As a fisher of men he cast his net thoughtfully and drew it in, always anticipating a catch. And, following his own dictum that “genuine love to God and fervent love to man make up the great qualification for a pleader,” Spurgeon’s appeals were marked by a tender earnestness that could not help but bring the compassion of God to a congregation through the heart, mind, and energies of the preacher. In this excerpt from a sermon appropriately entitled “Earnest Expostulation,” based on Romans 2:4 (“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”), one can feel the influence of a minister who has pleaded with God for sinners before he pleads with sinners for God.Even the reading of Spurgeon’s sermons brings a sense of the earnestness and urgency with which Spurgeon pleaded with those who were present under his actual preaching. He used every righteous motive to, without hesitation or embarrassment, press the issues of life and death, heaven and hell, everlasting bliss and everlasting misery upon his hearers. Note the penetrating vividness of this conclusion to his sermon, “The Water of Life,” preached in 1867. Also pay attention to how the preacher sensitively identifies himself with his congregation, without ever giving up the role of the herald who speaks in the second person to those gathered to hear the Word of the Lord:“God grant that there may be no...postponing here, lest we postpone ourselves into eternity, where there are no acts of pardon past. May we have Christ now. We may not live to see tomorrow’s sun. Albeit that the sun is well-nigh gone down, yet the light of this evening may not have gone before our life may be ended. How near to death we stand, and yet we scarcely think of it! Right on the edge of our graves sometimes we are, and yet we sport and laugh as though we had a lease of life! You forget death, most of you. The cemetery is so far out of town, but still you should not quite forget, for the hearse goes to and fro with awful regularity, and the church bell that tolls is not rusty, and those words, ‘Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes’ are still familiar to the ears of some of us. It will soon be your turn to die. You, too, must gather up your feet in the bed, and meet your father’s God; God grant that you may be found right with him. Little do I know for whom these sentences may have a special bearing; but they may have a bearing, dear friend, upon you. I see some of you dressed in black; you have had to go to the grave mourning because of others: that black will be worn by others soon for you, and the place that now knows you shall know you no more for ever. Oh! by the frailty of life, by the near approach of the Master, or by the certainty of death, I pray you see to it that you breathe the prayer, ‘Lord, give me of thy grace.’ The Lord help you to pray it. Amen.”
