A Joyful Preacher Familiar With Sorrow

“There are difficulties in everything except eating pancakes,”[1] these tongue and cheek words from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) sums him up very well. Spurgeon was a man who loved life, who believed one could glorify God in the everyday things of life.

Yet, at the same time Spurgeon was familiar with difficulties. Spurgeon was well acquainted with suffering: physically, emotionally and spiritually.

One Sunday morning as he began to preach from Hebrews 4:14, Spurgeon said,

“I desire to speak, as a weak and suffering preacher, of that High Priest who is full of compassion: and my longing is that any who are low in spirit, faint, despondent, and even out of the way, may take heart to approach the Lord Jesus.”[2]

Spurgeon could preach such tender words because he knew what it was like to be lowly, to come before a glorious God in need of compassion.

The Night That Marked Him Forever

When one reads Spurgeon’s works, it is easy to see a man filled with the joy of the Lord, and yet in this broken world stained by sin, this great preacher was not impervious to life’s heartaches and challenges.

One night Spurgeon was preaching to a large crowd in a music hall, a young man started to yell “fire.” This rabble-rouser caused a panic in the hall, seven people died and close to thirty were severely injured.[3] Spurgeon would never be the same after this night.

He battled bouts of severe depression throughout the rest of his life. In a sermon he said,

“my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for . . . a kind friend was telling me of some poor old soul living near, who was suffering very great pain, and yet she was full of joy and rejoicing. I was so distressed by the hearing of that story, and felt so ashamed of myself.”[4]

The pressures of pastoral ministry, especially the care for souls weighed heavily on Spurgeon.

A Body Marked by Pain

Along with mental anguish, chronic physical pain was a shadowy figure that always seemed to loom in the background of Spurgeon’s life. “He suffered burning kidney inflammation called Bright’s Disease, as well as gout, rheumatism, and neuritis.”[5]

During his travels back to London from the south of France, Spurgeon stopped in Paris, overcome with great pain. He wrote to his church while in Paris,

“I travelled home in great pain, until I reached this city [Paris], and now since Sunday I have been unable to move. Rheumatic pains seemed to paralyse the muscles, and I cannot stand.”[6]

There were many times where the pain was so great that Spurgeon was unable to preach. In a letter to his friend and fellow pastor A.G. Brown; Spurgeon dealing with the pains of gout wrote, “I thank you much for preaching for me, praying for me, and loving me.”[7] Despite much physical and emotional suffering, Spurgeon never gave up hope, he would always look to his beautiful Saviour in times of great anguish.

Seeking Christ in the Midst of Suffering

Instead of dismissing his suffering or letting it control his life, Spurgeon sought to understand Christ in the midst of his suffering. In one sermon Spurgeon said,

“As long as I trace my pain to accident, my bereavement to mistake, my loss to another’s wrong, my discomfort to an enemy, and so on, I am of the earth, earthy, and shall break my teeth with gravel stones; but when I rise to my God and see his hand at work, I grow calm, I have not a word of repining.”[8]

Spurgeon believed there was no suffering too great, no trail insurmountable for the sovereign God of the universe. In the midst of great pain and heartache, Christ was right beside Charles Spurgeon, tending to his soul.

Again in his sermon on Hebrew 4:14 Spurgeon said,

“Our High Priest is quite at home with mourners, and enters into their case as a good physician understands the symptoms of his patients. When we tell our Lord the story of our inward grief, he understands it better than we do. He rightly reads our case, and then wisely presents it before the Majesty on high, pleading his sacrifice, that the Lord may deal graciously with us.”[9]

A High Priest Who Understands

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon teaches us that in the midst of our pain and agony, no matter physical, emotional, or spiritual, Jesus deals with his children tenderly. The Lord Jesus not only sees our suffering but understands it.

Jesus Christ was acquainted with grief, with suffering beyond our understanding. As we go through the trials of our lives Charles Haddon Spurgeon reminds us to look to Christ, allow Jesus to teach us as we walk through the fires that come our way. God is sovereign over all things and he knows and understands our pain, and reveals himself to us in a special way as we seek him in the midst of the most gruesome trials.