The faithful pastor’s wife
by Thomas Ray
Susannah Spurgeon will always be remembered as the faithful wife and encourager of the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon. However, she also deserves to be honored for her literary contributions and the founding of the Book Fund that supplied theological books to ministers who were too poor to buy them.
Susannah Spurgeon was born to Susannah Thompson on January 15, 1832. Her parents were earnest Christians and members of the historic New Park Street Chapel. Susannah was influenced by the ministry of the renowned Baptist pastor and author James Smith. She stated, “I have seen him administer the ordinance of baptism to the candidates, wondering with a tearful longing whether I should ever be able thus to confess my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Susannah’s conversion occurred from a sermon preached by S. B. Bergene at Poultry Chapel where she was visiting. She later wrote, “From that service, I date the dawning of the true light in my soul. The Lord said to me, through his servant, ‘Give me thy heart,’ and constrained by His love that night witnessed my solemn resolution of entire surrender to Himself.”
Susannah first heard 19-year-old Charles Spurgeon on Sunday night, December 18, 1853. It was his first Sunday at New Park Street Chapel. She was not impressed by the young preacher. She thought his manner was countrified, his clothes were rumpled, and his hair unevenly cut. But her first impression soon changed. Before long they were deeply in love, and Charles proposed August 2, 1854, and they were married 18 months later, January 8, 1856.
The first 10 to 12 years of their marriage Susannah played a very active part in her husband’s ministry. She was actively involved in personal work, visitation, and providing counsel to young girls and women. Susannah had given birth to twin boys named Charles Jr. and Thomas on September 20, 1856. The birth of the twins was extremely difficult. She would never fully recover, and her health would continue to decline until by the time she was 36 she was a semi-invalid.
Although weak and in poor health, Susannah was a constant encourager to her husband and a faithful instructor to her sons. They were converted at a young age and both became Baptist preachers. Thomas would become the successor of his father as pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle.
An important event occurred in Susannah’s life in 1875, when Charles gave her a proof copy of his Lectures to My Students. When she finished the book she told him, “I wish I could place this book in the hands of every minister in England.”
Spurgeon replied, “Then why not do so: how much will you give?”
Challenged by her husband, Susannah scraped together enough money to buy 100 books to give to poor ministers, and thus was born the Book Fund. Susannah and her helpers would eventually distribute over 200,000 books free of charge to poor ministers.
Mrs. Spurgeon was herself a gifted writer. She gathered the material and edited, assisted by Spurgeon’s private secretary Joseph Harrald, the four-volume Autobiography of Charles Spurgeon. She wrote several other books, but perhaps her most popular and influential was A Cluster of Camphire or Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls.
On October 7, 1903, with her life slipping away, she gave her parting blessing to her son, Thomas, “The blessing, the double blessing of your father’s God be upon you and your brother.” “When very near the end, she clasped her feeble hands together, and her face aglow with heavenly radiance exclaimed; ‘Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! I can see the King in His Glory!’” (Charles Ray in “Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon”). She went to be with her Lord October 22, 1903. She was 71 years old. She was laid to rest beside her husband’s grave at Norwood Cemetery where they will rise together on the resurrection day.