Charles and Susannah Spurgeon: Pioneering Baptists

The ‘Prince of Preachers’ Charles Spurgeon had a ‘princess’ of a wife, Susie. Their romance is one of the most remarkable clergy marriages in the history of Christianity. They were married for thirty-six years until Charles’ death at age 57 in 1892. 

Susie, as a wealthy, sophisticated Londoner, was not initially impressed with 19-year-old Charles, because of his ill-fitting country clothes and accent: ‘…his countrified speech incited more regret than reverence, alas for my vain and foolish heart.’ Through his powerful, passionate preaching, however, Susie was rescued from her backsliding. 

He preached up to ten times a week, giving two hundred sermons before he was age 20. Using vivid illustrations and a bit of humour, Charles preached in a way that related to people from all walks of life. Many thousands of unchurched people came to know Jesus Christ personally and were fully immersed, radically changing their lives. In 1854, he invited Susie to Prince Albert’s opening ceremonies at the Crystal Palace. While there, he handed her a book of Thomas Brook’s poetry:

If thou art to have a wife of thy youth, she is now living on the earth;
Therefore think of her, and pray for her weal (wellbeing); yea, though thou has not seen her.

He then whispered to her, “Do you pray for him who is to be your husband?” Charles baptized Susie in February 1855.  They married in January 1856.  They honeymooned in Paris, where she enjoyed educating Charles about French art and architecture. Susie had often travelled to France with her parents, where she was taught to speak French by a Huguenot pastor. She called Charles ‘the best man on God’s earth.’ Charles loved being married, writing:

Matrimony came from Paradise, and leads to it. I never was half so happy, before I was a married man, as I am now. When you are married, your bliss begins.

Charles became such a superstar, 10,000 people came to hear him preach at Surrey Music Hall. Another 10,000 couldn’t even get in to the building. Hooligans falsely called out ‘fire’ and ‘the balcony is collapsing,’ causing people to panic, and trample seven to death. Twenty-seven others were badly injured while trying to flee.  Because the hall was so large, Charles initially didn’t know what was happening during his sermon. After he tried to calm people down, Charles collapsed, causing some to think that he too had been trampled to death.  

Afterwards, Susie, who missed the service, was very strategic in helping comfort her husband Charles:

When my beloved was brought home, he looked a wreck of his former self. An hour’s agony of mind had changed his whole appearance and bearing…he refused to be comforted. I thought the morning would never break. And when it did come, it brought no relief…my beloved’s grief was so deep and violent that reason seemed to totter in her throne. I sometimes feared that he would never preach again. It was truly the valley of the shadow of death.    

In order to accommodate the surging church attendance, Charles built the 6,000 seat Metropolitan Tabernacle, one of the first mega-churches. Charles and Susie served as ‘Governor’ and ‘Mother’ of the Spurgeon Pastors College, helping 900 pastors get a solid pastoral education. They were a remarkable ministry team with ‘iron sharpening iron.’  Charles later said, “My wife’s presence is also a main ingredient in my cup, which runs over with mercies.”

Once on a late Saturday night, Charles could not figure out the meaning of his sermon passage, despite his best efforts. Susie encouraged him to get some sleep and get refreshed. During the night, he woke her up as he was successfully preaching the sermon in his sleep.  She stayed awake, making a mental recording of this sermon. ‘This is wonderful’, Charles said when Susie told him his key sermon points. This became his dynamic sermon that Sunday morning!

Charles and Susie modelled an intimate life together of bible reading. For the Spurgeon’s, this was their very lifeblood: “Do not read the Bible as a book for other people. Take it home to your heart.” Next to the Bible, Charles’ favourite book was John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress which he read over one hundred times through his life.  He had 12,000 books in his personal library.  Charles also wrote 135 books, with great encouragement from Susie. He developed his love of books while living with his grandfather as a child. Charles’ father and grandfather were also Congregational pastors:

Books, I loved books, the smell of them, the feel of them, my grandfather had hundreds written by Puritan writers of an earlier age and full of the theology that became my meat and drink.

Despite his workaholism, Charles consistently made time for prayer with Susie: “It is upside down to say, ‘I have too much to do; I cannot pray long.” Their mutual prayer life was the foundation of his miraculous preaching revival:

My own soul’s conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe, that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation or any of those secret forces which men have called by name, but which they do not understand.

Susie began experiencing health problems after the birth of twins, Charles and Thomas, in 1856. Through Queen Victoria’s own physician Dr. James Simpson, Susie had unsuccessful female surgery in 1868.  This left her in so much pain at age 33 that she could no longer attend church.  When afflicted, she could not even lift her hand or head.  To travel even a mile would leave her in great suffering for the next several days.  Susie never gave in to bitterness over her chronic illness, praying:

Your ways, O Lord, are past finding out, but they are very gracious and tender; and this turning of seeming evil into good, of making your children’s trials grow into triumphs, and their pains into pleasures, is a wonderful proof both of your pity and your power. 

Despite her debilitating pain, nothing could stop her serving others. Many see her as one of the greatest women of her time. Susie began a Book Fund in which she raised enough money to give away over 200,000 books to 25,000 impoverished pastors. She also gave them money, clothing, stationery, and other family necessities. The Spurgeon’s radical generosity inspired others to generously support the Book Fund.

As Charles suffered from depression, gout and kidney disease, she was always there for him.  One psychiatrist, Dr. Anil Den, noted that if Charles lived today, he would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with medication. 

One of the most healing things that Spurgeon did for his depression was gardening.  Charles used to linger over the plants as over verses of the Bible:

Is that not exquisite? Look at the veins and colours in these leaves; don’t you think God has put His own thoughts in them? The plant has His laughable thoughts…this His loving thoughts…this His serious ones.  All nature is full of God.  His autograph is on every leaf and in every flower. 

The London smog was so damaging to Charles’ health in later years that he began spending the winters in the French Mediterranean town of Montane.  He called London ‘Gog, Magog, and Fog’, saying he was frequently depressed in the sea of smoke-swamp in which they swim in London.  Susie was not always well enough to join him, but nothing quenched their deep romantic love for each other.  Kruppa noted:

To the end of their lives, they were lovers; and what could be more touching than these two old invalids, she had grown plump and looking slightly absurd wearing the girlish curls, prematurely tied and aged, yet writing each other love poems as though they were still twenty and courting under the dome of the Crystal Palace.

Incessant letter-writing was the very heart of their tender romance:

“My Own Dear One (Susie), — None know how grateful I am to God for you. In all I have, ever done for Him, you have a large share, for in making me so’ happy you have fitted me for service. Not an ounce of power has ever been lost to the good cause through you. I have served the Lord far more, and never less, for your sweet companionship. The Lord God Almighty bless you now and for ever!” 

After Charles died in January 1892 in Mentone, France, over 100,000 people attended his funeral in London. Both sons became pastors, with Thomas taking over Charles’ Metropolitan Tabernacle. Susie planted a church after his death. She continued to write books, fundraise for their orphanages, the Book Fund, and other Christian ministries until she died eleven years later at age 71.

Charles and Susie were an embodiment of Ecclesiastes 4:9,12: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil…a three-fold chord is not quickly broken.” May God continue to raise up many healthy, life-giving pastoral marriages in our local churches.