An Author Interview from Books At a Glance
Greetings, I’m Fred Zaspel, and welcome to another Author Interview at Books At a Glance.
I don’t think there is anyone alive who knows Charles Spurgeon better than Tom Nettles. You might recall his earlier major work on Spurgeon – Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Dr. Nettles has just now released another book on Spurgeon entitled, The Child is Father of the Man: C. H. Spurgeon, and he is with us to talk about it today.
Tom, great to have you back with us!
Nettles:
Thank you very much for having me on Fred.
Zaspel:
Every time I read or talk to you about Spurgeon, I find it striking how well-acquainted you are with his life and preaching. I must ask you – is there anything of Spurgeon’s that you have not read?
Nettles:
I have not read all his sermons but have read some in every volume. I am definitely acquainted.
Zaspel:
I have at times been very disappointed to find that the younger generation of ministerial students coming up is not as well acquainted with Spurgeon as we were early on – or, I’ll say it, not as well acquainted with Spurgeon as they should be! So, for those who are not as familiar with him, give us an introduction to Spurgeon – who he was, what his ministry was like, and why he merits our attention still today.
Nettles:
He was born in the 19th century. Grew up in the Victorian age. It was a very formal and religious age. It was a time when high church Anglicanism was developing. Roman Catholicism was reasserting itself and getting its hierarchy back in place in England. There was a lot of alarm about Catholicism. There was a division with Anglicanism. The Gorham case was a famous case where evangelicals sued for the right to stay in the church of England. G. C. Gorham was an Anglican evangelical. They ruled they could stay within the church of England though they did not seem to believe in baptismal regeneration. Which the book of common prayer taught. That phenomenon became significant for Spurgeon in his sermon on regeneration. He was going after evangelicals in the church of England even though they did not believe in the document on baptismal regeneration.
He was raised in a home of a minister. He was very conscientious as a pastor and Spurgeon would see his father studying. When Spurgeon was young, he went to live with his grandfather who was also a minister. It was there that he came in contact with the Puritans and he saw all those books in his grandfather’s house. He had a picture version of Pilgrim’s Progress. It flamed his imagination of what a journey to the heavenly city must be like. Everyone who had read Spurgeon knows how vivid his images are in capturing ideas within short images. Some of that was fueled by Pilgrim’s Progress. That is one reason he was so attracted to it because that is how his own mind worked.
He was converted around 15 years of age. He had deep convictions. He said the law was a whip that was constantly applied to his back. He was converted in a primitive Methodist chapel. The minister preached the passage out of Isaiah, “look unto me and be saved.” The minister spotted Spurgeon and told him to look to Jesus or he would be miserable. Spurgeon commented he was miserable but was not accustomed to having the preacher pointing it out before the congregation. Spurgeon said he looked to Jesus and was saved. Soon he began handing out tracks and teaching Sunday school. A man who was a part of a lay preacher’s association tricked him into preaching his first sermon. About the time he was 16, he was called to his first pastorate in Water Beach. By the time he was 19, he was preaching in London at the New Park Street Pulpit. He spent the rest of his ministry there. He died in 1892. He was one of the most productive men in the history of evangelical Christianity.
Zaspel:
Okay, tell us briefly about your previous book on Spurgeon, and then tell us about this book and what you have set out to contribute. And I am sure it would be helpful to many if you would explain your unusual title: The Child is Father of the Man.
Nettles:
That is a phrase I found several times in reading Spurgeon. When he would teach at the Pastors’ College, he would talk about living by revealed truth. He would talk about how all those who live by revealed truth would know this is the case. This was deeply embedded in his own conscience. We are so deeply set in sin in the world we do not realize how much of our life is controlled by sin and flesh. The scripture is revealed truth that helps replace the impulse of the flesh with the basis of truth. You keep reading and understanding the word of God and this has a transforming effect to replace your action and thoughts based on the flesh with revealed truth.
The Spirit has inspired Scriptures and implants it in our hearts in a transforming way. I saw that as the theme of his life. Both in his personal sanctification, in the way he prepared for preaching, and the way he wanted his church to have a ministry. So, living by revealed truth was that thing which governed him. It was not pragmatism. He believed if you did things God wanted you to do within society, they would make people’s lives better. It was not because it was some other science that told him that.
I try to blend a biographical approach with more of a subject theme throughout. As I wrote this book, I became aware that Spurgeon was a person who had such keen insight and grown up around evangelical thinking so much that most of his convictions that he lived with throughout were formed very early. Before he was converted, he became convinced baptism was for believers by immersion only. Upon his conversion, the Bible was absolutely precious and dear to him. For example, he knew he was given to sickness, depression, and challenges in his emotions. He said he would live by every word of God and devote himself to Jesus who was always with him. If he had that resolution, he could overcome all of these. I have isolated these 10 things I think constitute his life and his ministry and try to show where they arose in his ministry. I punctuate his life through the middle and to the end showing how these ideas were still present.
He learned how to analyze and engage critically with the challenges to his convictions. The reason I chose the title is that the child is father of a man. It is from a poem by William Wordsworth. He thought Christians should seek to stimulate that kind of tendency in themselves, to recognize the heavens declare the glory of God. They should begin to learn about the beauty of life and God.
Zaspel:
There have been seemingly endless books about Spurgeon written over the last 130 years, but I am not aware of any that take this angle to understand him. Yours is the first, isn’t it?
Nettles:
There are people who recognize this. In select places in other books, they will point it out. I thought it would be a good thing to check how many of these ideas you could locate within the first months of his Christian life and before and trace it out. We find when people are trained early, and the Holy Spirit does the job of conversion on them it puts them way ahead in their usefulness. It gives them a comprehensive grasp much earlier. We do not convert our children but there are things we can to do increase their usefulness if God converts them.
Zaspel:
Alright then, I will ask for a couple of specifics in a minute, but for now, give us just a brief overview of your book and highlight the themes that you examine. And with that, tell us how these convictions shaped Spurgeon and his ministry.
Nettles:
The first chapter is a quick biographical overview. The theme is providence. I try to highlight things in Spurgeon’s life until the time he went to the New Park Street Pulpit. He brings up how apart from God’s providence he would be nothing. The second chapter is about the doctrines of grace. He realized he would not have been converted if it were not for divine grace. The third chapter is about his baptism. Spurgeon talks about how his grandfather does not blame him for being a Baptist. I talk about how he became a Baptist all the way to when he met the Baptist Union. Spurgeon explains the downgrade and resigns from an evil confederacy but had not stopped being a Baptist when he left the union.
In the chapter on evangelism, I talk about how in one of his lectures he said, “let him mind soul winning.” He wanted social good and relief for the poor but that was not an end in itself. You must always have eternal life when you engage in these things. When you are preaching you must aim for this. He was not manipulative but called people to Christ. I have a chapter called “Extremely Unwell and Exceedingly Depressed.” That was one of the stories he wrote in The Sword and Trowel. He believed he lived through a lot of things, so his people did not have to. He would lead his people in the paths of righteousness.
There is a chapter called “An Earnest Contention for the Faith.” Many people he was teaching were Arminian. His job was not to please people. This is a chapter about his controversies. Spurgeon defined his ministry by setting forth with truth in the world. Controversy is a part of ministry. One of the deepest blows in the controversies he faced was dissolving and reorganizing the Pastor’s College. The last chapter is about his view of the Bible. He loved to address the Bible. This chapter traces Spurgeon’s commitment to the Bible’s inerrancy and how he defended it as the word of God.
Zaspel:
Pick one or two more chapters/themes that you consider most outstanding in making Spurgeon who he was. And with that, highlight for us how we preachers today could learn from him.
Nettles:
The chapter about his depression is one to learn about people who are very affected by sorrows and how ministry can help them. Depression is a reality in the world and does not mean someone does not believe the Gospel. Spurgeon’s works are helpful in how we can recall the Gospel in the dark times. The chapter about preaching is another outstanding one. For the minister, most hours are involved in study. All those hours of investment are for people to hear a sermon for 45 minutes or so. During the sermon is the time the word of God can have an expansive effect on people. Learning to magnify Christ in preaching and to see how Spurgeon does this is helpful.
His contention for the faith was so prominent. He was always being watched and reported. Sometimes to congratulate or commend but sometimes to ridicule him. We explore the whole idea of controversy and how often it plagued him and how he learned to deal with it. He was realistic and not afraid of it. We need to learn to know what things are important to argue for. He tried to have good relationships with all but there were people he was not able to be in community with. He did not lose the clarity of his convictions.
Zaspel:
We are talking to Dr. Tom Nettles about his excellent new book, The Child is Father of the Man: C. H. Spurgeon. It is an insightful study of the convictions that shaped the famous 19th century English preacher and a genuine contribution to Spurgeon studies.
Tom, always great to have you with us – thanks so much for your faithful and helpful work, and thanks for talking to us today.
Nettles:
Thank you, Fred.
