40TH Anniversary of Publishing

40TH ANNIVERSARY OF
PILGRIM PUBLICATIONS'
PUBLISHING SPURGEON'S SERMONS

In 1955, at the age of 20, I traveled to Chicago with another young preacher who was in charge of a Mission where he preached periodically to a few families which wanted to start a church. It was my first time to be in Chicago, and while there we visited an old used bookstore named Blessing Book Store which had quite a large collection of old books. This store very definitely became a blessing to me! [See "Dreams Do Come True"]

While browsing around the multitude of old books, my eyes fell upon a shelf which had a large number of aging black volumes of considerable size. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the words "Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit" and "C. H. Spurgeon" were gold-stamped on the spines which also had an oval-shaped logo or symbol on the front cover, proclaiming "We preach Christ and Him crucified." It was a collection of original Spurgeon volumes, published in the 1800s by Passmore & Alabaster, London, England, during Spurgeon's ministry at Metropolitan Tabernacle.

I had, in God's Providence, become acquainted with the name of Spurgeon the first few days after I was converted in 1953, and I began to try to find some of his books. I found and read some of his sermons at a local Baptist university's library and also at the public library, But I had never seen anything like this huge set of original volumes of his sermons at that Chicago store in 1955, and I immediately was seized with the desire to possess those books.

I enquired of the book store manager about the price of the books, and made arrangements for their purchase.

Looking back at this decision to buy those books I would have to say the purchase was perhaps the most significant and life-influencing purchase I ever made. It seems that everything I have done from that day forward has had a direct or indirect relationship to the books. In fact, many others have had their lives influenced as a result of my buying and later publishing those books.

For example, recently an old friend, Al Smith, who now lives in Georgia, dropped by for a brief visit, and it was one of Spurgeon's sermon volumes we published years ago which brought Al into contact with Loretta, the lady he later married and with whom he raised a family. Al brought me a box of the famous Vidalia Onions, and I would not even have those onions if Al and I did not have a mutual interest in Spurgeon!

Most of my friendships which have developed across the years have been related to the books. Most of the ministers I have been privileged to meet, most of the schools and churches where I have spoken, and most of the traveling I have done resulted from something related to the books. The highlight of my travels was the trip I made with my friend, Boxley Boggs, to England in 1996 when we spent two weeks visiting every place which was known to have been associated with the life and ministry of Spurgeon. You can view the video of this trip to "Spurgeon Country" at this Google Video address -- http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22spurgeon+country%3A%22&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

Fast-forwarding . . . from 1955 when I purchased the books to 1969 . . . the announcement that Spurgeon's original and unabridged sermon set would be republished was mailed in 1969, dated May 5. It went to several thousand churches, preachers, and other individuals. We received a wonderful response from interested parties, but had they known how little money we had to bring this venture to pass, we might not have had any response whatsoever. We had just enough money to cover the printing of the first volume, and we were counting on advance subcription-type orders to continue republication of future volumes. It took us longer than we expected, but the plan worked.

In July of 1969, we took a booth at the Christian Booksellers Association's annual Convention, meeting that year in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first volume was put on display and we were blessed to have several dozen bookstores sign up for buying the books as they were published.

The Lord blessed, and we were enabled to finish off the entire series in 1980. He has continued to bless the effort through these 40 years.

We wish to thank each of you who has in any way assisted and encouraged the work of publishing Spurgeon's sermons. May the Lord Bless You! Numbers 6:24-26.

-- Bob L. Ross

June 19, 1834 Birthdays

I was doing some browsing on the web for "June 19, 1834," to see who was born on that date. So far as I found, the foremost person in history born on this day seems to have been Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892).

Had Spurgeon not been born on this date, it seems this date would have "gone begging" for any significant birth, especially in Christian History.

Spurgeon is the only name mentioned on the Christian History web site, born on this date.

CHS is also the only name on the Encyclopedia Britannica web site.

Selected quotations from people born on this date are exclusively from Spurgeon:

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/top/born-on-year/1834/born-on-day/june_19/

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_spurgeon.html

In the Providence of God, it seems that this day in history as a birthdate of highly significant persons belongs to Spurgeon.

A small group of us are getting together in Pasadena today to remember the birthday of Spurgeon. All of our lives have been so impacted by the influence of Spurgeon that we have no idea where or what we would have been had we not come into contact with his Christ-exalting sermons and other works. We give thanks to the Lord for this birth which was 175 years ago and what the child born on that day has meant to us with respect to our faith in Christ and understanding the teachings of the Word of God.

He was born in the humble village of Kelvedon, Essex, England, several miles northeast of London. He would eventually be converted in 1850 in the city of Colchester a little further eastward, then soon thereafter be baptized on May 3 in the River Lark near Isleham, preach his first sermon at age 16 in a cottage at Teversham, pastor his first church in the village of Waterbeach in 1851, and be called in 1854 to pastor the church known as the New Park Street Chapel (later, Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London, a pastorate which lasted till his death in 1892. See the Biography page at this web site: http://www.pilgrimpublications.com/homepage.htm

Today, in this age of advanced technology in communications, Spurgeon's sermons and works are known worldwide and easily accessible on the Internet and in other forms. As D. L. Moody said of Spurgeon at a meeting at Spurgeon's church at a Jubilee Service on June 18, 1884:

"You are never going to die. John Wesley lives more today than when he was in the flesh; Whitefield lives more today than when he was on this earth; John Knox lives more today than at any other period of his life; and Martin Luther, who has been gone over 400 years, still lives. Bear in mind, friends, that our dear brother is to live for ever. We may never meet together again in the flesh, but by the blessing of God I will meet you up yonder" (Memorial Volume, Mr. Spurgeon's Jubilee, page 9).

"Ask not . . . "

Do You Suppose JFK's Speech-Writer Ever Read C. H. Spurgeon?

Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 51, Year 1905, pages 246, 247:

I once heard a minister speak very grumblingly of the Baptist denomination. He said, “I do not know what the denomination ever did for me.”

I could not help thinking to myself, “Well now, that is a question which has never occurred to me and probably never will. The question that has occurred to me is, What can I do for the denomination?’”

And I think that is the kind of question which every Christian minister ought to ask, not only concerning the denomination, but concerning Christians in general. We ought not to ask, “What can these people do for me?” No, put the shoe on the other foot and say, “What can I do for these people?”

If you want to love a man, you must not get him to do you a kindness, but you must do a kindness to him and then you will love him. You cannot do good to another person without finding growing up in your heart some degree of interest in the person to whom you have done that good. It is possible that a child may forget its mother, forget that it drew its life, its nourishment and all the comforts of its infancy from its mother, but the mother does not forget that she reared it in its weakness and brought it up to strength.

If you want to love a person, do some loving thing for that person and love will spring up in your soul to that person. Our Lord Jesus Christ loved His disciples unselfishly—let us do the same.

Entire sermon is at http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols49-51/chs2936.pdf

Spurgeon makes Reader's Digest

"They never said that" --
Spurgeon said it.

Pastor Lennie Wilson of Rosedale Baptist Church, Beaumont, Texas, called my attention to an item in the June 2009 Reader's Digest, pages 158, 159.

In the article entitled, "They Never Said That," we find the following;

Just as an exercise, go to your computer's search engine and type in four words: lie, truth, boots, and world. You will get thousands of references to variations of the following quote: "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on."

Most will cite Mark Twain as the author of the aphorism. Al Gore has given Twain credit for it. So has Mississippi governor Haley Barbour.

But Twain didn't say it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon did, in 1855, and he attributed the wisdom to "an old proverb." Spurgeon was a mid-19th-century British pastor, as famous in his time as Rick Warren and Billy Graham are today in the United States. But that's the thing about fame: It can be fleeting. -- Carl M. Cannon.

While we appreciate Mr. Cannon's information about the quotation, his comment about fame might come in for some question in regard to Spurgeon's fame. If you enter Spurgeon's name in any form on your web search engine or on the image search, you will find that Spurgeon is still rather famous. There are thousands of links to Spurgeon, and there are many websites which feature his sermons and other writings.

"Tom come lately"?

Ascol's Critique of SBC's
Cooperative Program Not New

Tom Ascol, director of the "Founders Ministries," has of late been reversing his scope of focus by at least writing favorably about "church planting" and the "Great Commission Resurgence" proposed by Dr. Daniel Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and more recently puffed by Dr. Johnny Hunt, President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Up till more recent times, Ascol's and the Founders' "purpose" has been theological "reform," seeking to make Hybrid Calvinists out of alleged Arminian Southern Baptist pastors and churches.

In Ascol's latest post, the successor of Ernest Reisinger, Founder of the Founders, says the following about the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention:

The IMB announcement that financial shortfalls are forcing a reduction in the number of missionaries that we will send to hard places this year highlights the timeliness of the GCR call. I first wrote about this in December 2008, noting that it is time for Southern Baptists to get serious about the allocation of Cooperative Program dollars. Three years prior to that, I showed how money given through state conventions to the Cooperative Program (CP) actually is allocated. The little-known fact is that most CP dollars are used by the state conventions through which they are given. Less that 40% actually reaches Nashville and less than 20% gets to the IMB.
Now the trustees of the IMB are forced to announce (through tears, according to the BP report) that there is not enough money to appoint all of those who are willing, equipped and ready to be sent by their churches. Can we sit back and let this happen? Isn't it past time for Southern Baptists to reevaluate the structures of our convention organization and see how we can improve our financial stewardship?

Yes, Tom, it is "past time." But this is nothing new. You have not made a major discovery of some sort. It has been "time" for years now.

Ascol -- and any others -- who have begun recently to critically evaluate the SBC program are "Johnny-come-latelies," so far as some are concerned. At least a few of us are still around from the 1950s and 1960s who complained about the deficiencies of the Cooperative Program long before the Founders Ministries was born.

For instance, back in the early 1960s, I put together and published a collection of SBC news items and other materials entitled, The Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Program, which documented numerous deficiencies in "The Program." To do this, one merits being branded, "An uncooperating Baptist."

Among other things, there was a photographically-reproduced letter from the Foreign Mission Board of the SBC, headed by Baker J. Cauthen. This letter, dated September 14, 1959, revealed that the "active" or "locatable" SBC membership at that time (9,206,756) gave an average of less than $1.00 per Sunday to "all causes" of which only 15.5 cents per Sunday was for "all missionary causes" -- thru the Cooperative Program.

But more startling was the fact that barely over 3 cents per Sunday ($1.67 average per member, yearly) went to "foreign missions," according to the letter, signed by Eugene Hill.

And what was the prevailing attitude of Southern Baptist leaders and pastors at that time to such depressing stats? They persisted in declaring that the "The Program" was both "scriptural and reasonable" (E. S. James, The Baptist Standard, Sept. 26, 1952). The Alabama Baptist state paper alleged, "Any criticism of the Cooperative Program must stem from jealousy or a spirit of individualism" (Nov. 1, 1962). A tract written by Albert McClellan and published by the SBC pronounced the Cooperative Program to be "the Holy Spirit's way of doing missions."

Chances are, SBC ministers such as Ascol, Johnny Hunt, and Wade Burleson will never really get around to making any serious changes to the Cooperative Program. They will probably "line up" with what the Baptist Standard once said: "The Cooperative Program has made us what we are, and the Cooperative Program will carry us onward, if we stay with it," and with what the Mississippi Baptist Record said, "Were it not for our Cooperative Program our whole misson program would collapse."

An inerrant gospel?

No Inerrant Scriptures,
No Inerrant Gospel

"The world is on fire and we are putting it out with the gasoline of inerrancy. It's time we focused on dousing the fire with the water of the gospel," according to Pastor Wade Burleson in his May 20, 2009 blog.

Brother Wade seems to be smitten with finding fault with those in the Southern Baptist Convention with whom he disagrees. Now he is harping against those who apparently are viewed by Wade as allegedly being close to "making an idol of the Bible" like unto the Muslims' attitude toward their Koran. Be that as it may [whoever these strange "inerrantists" are], Wade's nit-picking leaves us with a very serious dilemma.

While Wade says we need to be "focused on dousing the fire with the water of the gospel," the fact is, the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation and is capable of dousing the fire is derived from the Bible -- not from sources who downgrade the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Modernists, Liberals, Neo-orthodoxists, and their kind never contributed very much -- if anything -- to the Gospel and its accomplishments such as we find in the case of the inerrantists -- men such as Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, George Whitefield, and other notable men of Christian history.

The question is, if the SOURCE of the Gospel is not inerrant, on what basis may we accept what is affirmed about the Gospel in that source?

Wade's idea reminds me of those who claim they accept Jesus, but they do not accept the views which maintain His virgin birth, deity, substitutionary death, and resurrection.

The Gospel is rooted in the Scriptures, and if the Scriptures are not inerrant, on what basis can we have confidence that the Gospel is everything the Scriptures affirm of the Gospel?

Wade's World

Did Wade Have "One Too Many"
When He wrote "Hardball Religion?"

Pastor Wade Burleson has a blog item which is critical of Peter Lumpkins' book on the matter of "total abstinence." Peter is for it, and Wade does not approve of Peter's view.

I'm not focusing on this difference between Wade and Peter, but what I found in Wade's article which aroused my curiosity was his statement, "I would much rather be personally led by the Spirit than by a man who claims his view is law for me."

I assume this means that Wade is "led by the Spirit," but Peter is a legalist -- at least, on this particular issue.

After reading Wade's "Hardball" book, I wonder if Wade may have had "one too many" when he put that book together. Surely, Wade does not appear to have been "led by the Spirit" when he tried to manipulate my book on Landmarkism so as to imply that the book supported his twisted presentation. If not dizzy on liquor, Wade was certainly inebriated on something when he tried to pull-off that sleight-of-hand act.

Was Wade "led by the Spirit" when he used a familiar Campbellite device, subterfuge, in his misuse of my book on Landmarkism?

Was Wade "led by the Spirit" when he falsely accused the Campbellite "Church of Christ" in regard to the administrator of baptism? See here.

Was Wade "led by the Spirit" when he said I was "not a Southern Baptist" and then later said that I was a Southern Baptist? Which time was he led by the Spirit?

Was he "led by the Spirit" when he adopted the "born again before faith" Hybrid Calvinist heresy of the Reformed Pedobaptists (baby baptizers)?

Was he "led by the Spirit" when he adopted a One Man Landmaker position by aligning himself with a certain view on the administrator of baptism?

Was he "led by the Spirit" when he wrote a book concerning which the Publisher, Smyth & Helwys, deemed it necessary to attach a "Disclaimer" to what Wade wrote?

Was he "led by the Spirit" when he endorsed the IMB policy on "public" tongues, but rejected the IMB policy on "private" tongues? How can Wade consistently endorse the policy of forbidding "publicly speaking in tongues" but defend "tongues in private"? If Paul's "command" -- forbid not to speak with tongues in 1 Cor. 14:39 - relates to "private" tongues, why not to "public" tongues, also? See here.

Was Wade "led by the Spirit" when he presented an erroneous version of Baptist history? See here.

Perhaps Wade did have one -- or maybe, two -- too many when he was compiling his book, for surely he can't blame the Spirit for these blunders.