Sermons in Candles

By Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers". Spurgeon was to 19th century England what D. L Moody was to America. Although Spurgeon never attended theological school, by the age of twenty-one he was the most popular preacher in London.


A strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times each week at different places. Spurgeon was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years, despite the fact he was part of several controversies with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and later had to leave the denomination. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon's which now works globally, and he also founded Spurgeon's College, which was named after him posthumously.


Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works, including sermons, an autobiography, commentaries, books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, hymns and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krill Press
• Release date: Dec 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781518324178

Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), nació en Inglaterra, y fue un predicador bautista que se mantuvo muy influyente entre cristianos de diferentes denominaciones, los cuales todavía lo conocen como «El príncipe de los predicadores». El predicó su primer sermón en 1851 a los dieciséis años y paso a ser pastor de la iglesia en Waterbeach en 1852. Publicó más de 1.900 sermones y predicó a 10.000,000 de personas durante su vida. Además, Spurgeon fue autor prolífico de una variedad de obras, incluyendo una autobiografía, un comentario bíblico, libros acerca de la oración, un devocional, una revista, poesía, himnos y más. Muchos de sus sermones fueron escritos mientras él los predicaba y luego fueron traducidos a varios idiomas. Sin duda, ningún otro autor, cristiano o de otra clase, tiene más material impreso que C.H. Spurgeon.

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SERMONS IN CANDLES

..................

Charles Spurgeon

SCRIPTURA PRESS

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Copyright © 2015 by Charles Spurgeon

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Lecture No. 1.

Lecture No. 2.

Sermons in Candles

By

Charles Spurgeon

Sermons in Candles

Published by Scriptura Press

New York City, NY

First published circa 1892

Copyright © Scriptura Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

About Scriptura Press

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INTRODUCTION

..................

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON (19 JUNE 1834 – 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the Prince of Preachers. Spurgeon was to 19th century England what D. L Moody was to America. Although Spurgeon never attended theological school, by the age of twenty-one he was the most popular preacher in London.

A strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times each week at different places. Spurgeon was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years, despite the fact he was part of several controversies with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and later had to leave the denomination. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally, and he also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him posthumously.

Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works, including sermons, an autobiography, commentaries, books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, hymns and more. In Sermons in Candles, Spurgeon basically used something as simple as a candle to illustrate how easy it was to take any object and use it share God’s word.

LECTURE NO. 1.

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I am not an adept at lecturing, and when I take to it under constraint, I either signally fail in it, or else the successful production is a sermon in disguise. You cannot drive out nature by command: the old pulpit hand must preach, even though you bid him do somewhat else. It would be no good sign if it were otherwise; for a man must keep to one thing, and be absorbed in it, or he will not do it well. I have preached now for so many years, that use is second nature; and a lecture, a speech, an address, and I fear even a conversation, all have a tendency to mould themselves sermon-fashion. It is just the old story over again of the artist who had been painting red lions all his life. The landlord of a public-house in a certain street desired to have his establishment known as The Angel, and he commissioned the clever gentleman of the brush to produce one of those flaming spirits. The budding Academician replied, You had better have a red lion. I can paint red lions against any man, and they seem the right sign for publicans who do a roaring trade. But said Boniface, there are three of your red lions quite handy already, and we want a little variety. I have made up my mind to have an angel. Cannot you arrange it? Well, said the artist, I will see what I can do. You shall have your angel, but it will be awfully like a red lion. So, when I am requested to lecture, I reply, I cannot manage it; my business is to preach. But if they press their suit, and I am weak enough to yield, I warn them that my lecture will be wonderfully like a sermon.

I suppose a lecture signifies a reading; but enough of my brethren use manuscripts, and I will not compete with them. If I cannot speak extemporaneously, I will hold my tongue: to read I am ashamed.

In a lecture one has the advantage of more freedom than in a sermon. One is permitted to take a wider range of subjects, and to use an easier style than a theological discourse allows. I will use this freedom, but my aim will be the same as if I were preaching. I trust my lecture may possibly impress some minds to whom a sermon would seem too dull a business. By calling this lecture Sermons in Candles, I claim the right to mingle the severe with the lively, the grave with the gay. In due proportions the mixture may be taken with good effect.

This is how the lecture came about in the first place. It has grown considerably since it was born, as all lively children do. In addressing my students in the College long ago, I was urging upon them the duty and necessity of using plenty of illustrations in their preaching, that they might be both interesting and instructive. I reminded them that the Saviour had many likes in his discourses. He said, over and over again, The kingdom of heaven is LIKE; The kingdom of heaven is LIKE. Without a parable spake he not unto them. The common people heard him gladly, because he was full of emblem and simile. A sermon without illustrations is like a room without windows. One student remarked that the difficulty was to get illustrations in any great abundance. Yes, I said, if you do not wake up, but go through the world asleep, you cannot see illustrations; but if your minds were thoroughly aroused, and yet you could see nothing else in the world but a single tallow candle, you might find enough illustrations in that luminary to last you for six months. Now, the young brethren in the College are too well behaved to say Oh! or give a groan of unbelief, should I perchance say a strong thing; but they look, and they draw their breath, and they wait for an explanation. I understand what they mean, and do not make too heavy a draft upon their faith by long delays in explaining myself. The men who were around me at that particular moment thought that I had made rather a sweeping assertion, and their countenances showed it. Well, I said, I will prove my words; and my attempt to prove them produced the rudiments of this lecture.

To the nucleus thus obtained, other things have been added as the address has been repeated. The lecture is a cairn, upon which stone after stone has been thrown, till it has become a heap, in fact, two heaps. To use a figure from the subject itself my candles have been dipped again and again, and each time they have grown in bulk, till I now feel that they are ready to go from the makers to the consumers. The matter has been moulded under my own hand, but at the same time the materials are so various, that whether my candle is a dip, or a mould, or a composite, I leave to you to decide.

This lecture of mine has proved a boon to several other public instructors, who have largely used it, and possibly have improved upon the original. I am sure they have not been more free than welcome. As I have taken out no letters-patent, I have never