AP

Charles Spurgeon, No Tears in Heaven, Fearn: Christian Focus, 2021.

            Here are seven sermons from Charles Spurgeon which reveal him as his sermonic best. They are all to do with the subject of heaven, and, characteristically, Spurgeon says he would like to dwell there near to the region of somewhat quirky characters like Rowland Hill and John Berridge. Spurgeon was his own man before God, and there have been few preachers who could match him for vigour, his personal interactions with his congregation, and his warm applications as he opens up a text. He does not explain a text; he lives in it.

            Spurgeon declares: ‘The best believer only gets half a glimpse of Christ.’ With Spurgeon, we tend to think that we get a little more than that. Reading a sermon in print does not prevent us from a sense that we are present in the congregation when he is declaring the Word. In some circles, Spurgeon is regarded with condescension as simply a flowery Victorian orator. Not so. He does not shirk the difficult subjects, such as heaven being a place of perfect love, even though the redeemed will know of friends and family who are lost. Yet he does not try to explain more than can be explained.

            It would be a hard heart indeed who could not derive great blessing from this short (143 page) work.

–  Peter Barnes