Bible Reading In The Marriage Of Charles And Susannah Spurgeon -- By: Ray Rhodes, Jr.
Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 05:1 (Fall 2015)
Article: Bible Reading In The Marriage Of Charles And Susannah Spurgeon
Author: Ray Rhodes, Jr.
JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 139
Bible Reading In The Marriage Of Charles And Susannah Spurgeon
Ray Rhodes, Jr. (M.Div., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) is president of Nourished in the Word Ministries (where he is a Bible conference and marriage retreat teacher), pastor of Grace Community Church of North Georgia, author of Family Worship for the Reformation Season, The Marriage Bed and several other books and articles. He is a Doctor of Ministry student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he is writing a thesis on the marriage of Charles and Susannah Spurgeon. Ray is married to Lori and they are blessed with six daughters, one son-in-law, and two grandchildren.
On Sunday evening, March 18, 1855, Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) looked to his Bible and declared in his sermon: “If these words were written by a man, we might reject them; but O let me think the solemn thought, that this book is God’s handwriting — that these words are God’s!”1 For Spurgeon it was beyond the pale of sound reasoning for anyone to reject God’s words. He was not alone in those convictions; his wife Susannah (1832–1903) also believed in the divine authorship of Scripture. Reflecting on John 14:27, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,”2 Susannah asserted that those “tender words” were words of “Jesus Christ himself, my gracious Lord and Master, who thus speaks, and I shall do well to ponder every weighty sentence
JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 140
as I listen to his loving voice.”3 For Susannah, the words of Scripture were “the loving voice” of Jesus Christ. Hearing Scripture as the very voice of God formed the foundation of Charles and Susannah’s marriage.
Charles Spurgeon’s views about the Bible and marriage were cultivated in him from childhood by his grandparents and parents. Susannah Thompson was also raised in a Christian home and regularly heard biblical preaching at London’s prominent Baptist congregation, New Park Street Chapel. While attending a special service at the nearby Poultry Chapel, Susannah was converted. She described her conversion as, “the dawning of the true light of my soul.”4 Following that experience, however, she fell into a season of spiritual decline.
Shortly after Charles began his London ministry in the spring of 1854, he learned of Susannah’s spiritual struggles, and he took a pastoral interest in her. He provided her with a copy of John...
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