Well as you know I have a little bit of an interest in church history and I like from time to time to do these biographical studies and it occurred to me just this week that I've only ever looked at what we might call the heroes of the faith and never very much at the heroines. Which, if you think about it, is not really a biblical way of doing things because in the Bible we see many great female heroines, technically the word. We don't just have the Joshua's and the Moses' and the David's and Daniel's and Paul's and Peter's, but we also have the Ruth's and the Deborah's and the Anna's and the Mary's and many others. So, I thought what I would do this morning, especially as it's Mother's Day, I thought I would try and redress my error there, and do so by looking at one of the great female servants of the Lord from church history, one who is not only a great servant of Christ, but who is also a very godly mother as well. And the name that came to my mind, perhaps you've got a number of names going through yours, but the name that came to my mind was that of Susanna Spurgeon. wife of the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon and also mother to twin boys Thomas and Charles Junior. Now hers is a life well worthy of study because not only was she used for the propagation of the gospel in South London and far beyond that as well but also she was a very godly Christian mother, a wonderful example. And so that's what we're going to do this morning for a little while. A brief historical sketch of Susanna Spurgeon. Some Mother's Day lessons. Mother's Day lessons from Mrs. Spurgeon. Five areas of her life that I want us to look at which we can apply. And I'm just going to list them for you to begin with. Seeking. courting, mothering, suffering, and serving. I want us to look at those stages of our life. Seeking, courting, mothering, suffering, and serving. And we're going to make some biblical applications from each of those points. Now the primary resource for this study, there's only really one book that's ever been written on Susanna Spurgeon, exclusively about her. That was a book by Charles Ray written over a hundred years ago, I think. It's about the only material there is on her life, so I'm drawing pretty much exclusively from that book, but I'm going to mix in a few of my own applications as we go along. So let's then begin with the first point, and that is seeking. Susanna Spurgeon is an example of seeking the Lord in her youth. She was born January 15, 1832. She wasn't born like that, obviously. That's when she's much older. but she grew up in the southern suburbs of England for the first few years of her life and then moved to the City of London. Her father, Mr. R. B. Thompson, and her mother, they attended New Park Street Chapel in Southwark in London and Susannah was known to accompany them regularly. Charles Ray says in his little book that one of her earliest remembrances was Really strange when it was to do with one of the deacons in the church and the way he used to give announcements and would announce the hymns. She said, when the time came to give out the hymns, he mounted an open desk immediately beneath the pulpit. Maybe, I guess, a bit like this one. He was a short, stout man and his rotund body, perched on his undraped legs and clothed in a long tail coat, gave him an unmistakable resemblance to a gigantic robin. And when he chirped out the verses of the hymn in piping, twittering voice, I thought the likeness was complete." So those are her earliest memories. So if you ever get discouraged by what your children remember from church services, don't be too discouraged. Even Susanna Spurgeon at a young age didn't have the most profound spiritual reflections. Over time, though, the word of God did begin to penetrate her heart, and it was by means of a sermon preached by Reverend S.B. Byrne on Romans 10, verse 8, the word is, On that text, she believes, or through that text, a work of grace was done in her life. She said, 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 my entire surrender to himself. So those were the first stirrings of spiritual life. After that there followed a period of darkness and indifference and apathy towards the things of God, seasons of darkness, despondency and doubt, she described it as. And so she went through what was really a very difficult time for her and she didn't really feel able to share this with anyone until eventually the burden just became so great that she decided she had to tell her cousin, a spiritually minded young fellow by the name of William Olney. Now he was, in her words, a true Mr. Great Heart and a comforter of young pilgrims. So she felt able to confide in him. Now whether he passed this information on to Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who had just recently become the pastor of the church, we don't know. I don't think she ever knew, but one day, much to her surprise, she received from him a book, an illustrated copy of Pilgrim's Progress, and written inside the front cover was an inscription to Miss Thompson with desires for her progress in the Blessed Pilgrimage from C.H. Spurgeon, April 20, 1854. Now, at this particular point, she didn't really read too much into that. She thought he was just expressing genuine concern for her spiritual well-being. But she was impressed by this, and she found the book to be very helpful as well. It became very precious to her. She read it often, along with the scriptures. And that, combined with his own preaching, this helped to bring her to a full assurance of faith. So that's just the first point, her seeking, just by way of introduction. Susanna Thompson seeking after the Lord. She sought the Lord early in life. which is what the Bible exhorts us to do. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. That's the very best time. That's the opportune time, when your soul is tender, when it's malleable, when you're teachable, before you've passed through many years of hardness of heart and sin and resisting the pleadings of the gospel. No, before that, seek the Lord while you're young. That's what the Bible says. While you've still got, hopefully, many, many years of service ahead of you, don't give all your best years to the devil. I like that quote of Matthew Henry from Ecclesiastes chapter 12. He says, It is the greatest absurdity and ingratitude imaginable to give the cream and flour of our days to the devil and reserve the bran and the refuse and the dregs for God. This is offering the torn and the lame and the sick for sacrifice. Well, that wasn't Susanna Spurgeon. She sought the Lord in the days of her youth. So that's the first point, her seeking. Let's now think about her courting, how this romance came to develop. Her first encounter with young Spurgeon was when he came to New Park Street Chapel to preach. Up until that time, he had been pastor of a country church in Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire in East Anglia. But he had this growing reputation as a very powerful preacher, so he was in demand, and he was called to come and supply the pulpit for New Park Street Church. This was really a very well-known church in those days. It was the Baptist flagship church in England at that time. Benjamin Keech, Dr. John Gill, John Rippon had all ministered there at that church. and here Spurgeon was called as a young man 19 years of age he came to preach his first time in the morning and evening but Susanna for some reason she wasn't there in the morning we're not told why but she wasn't there in the afternoon she received an urgent invitation from her cousin Mr. Olney to come to the evening service to come and hear this preacher and so she duly obliged she came along really just to satisfy him and her friends more than anything else. She was a little bit wary of this young preacher. She'd heard things about him, particularly about the funny clothing that he wore, a strange country boy and the strange outfits that he wore. Not the kind of thing that you would wear in the city. So she came along and she was ready for the service and at the moment in the service where the door inside the wall would open and the preacher would come in, outbounded young Spurgeon and sure enough her suspicions were confirmed. His clothes had the village tailor marked upon every part of them. Around his neck he wore a great stock of black satin, and in his hand he carried a blue handkerchief with white spots. What business had such a youth in the pulpit of Dr. Gill and Dr. Rippon? So those were her first impressions. In later years, she looked back and she said this, ah, how little then I thought that my eyes looked on him who was to be my life's beloved. How little I dreamed of the honor God was preparing for me in the near future. It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us, else might we sometimes turn away from our best blessings and put us from the choicest and loveliest gifts of providence. For if the truth be told, I was not at all fascinated by the young orator's eloquence, while his countrified manner and speech excited more regret than reverence. Alas for my vain and foolish heart! I was not spiritually minded enough to understand his earnest presentation of the gospel and his powerful pleading with sinners. But the huge black satin stock, the long badly trimmed hair, and the blue pocket handkerchief with white spots, these attracted most of my attention, and I fear awakened some feelings of amusement. So the initial introduction to this young man didn't seem very promising, too much the country dandy for Susanna. But after Spurgeon was eventually called to the pulpit of New Park Street Church, sure enough the Lord gently and gradually began to melt the hearts of this young lady towards the country boy with his funny hair and his funny clothes. Indeed there was one particular evening in those early days which seemed to stand out. That was the opening of the Crystal Palace Exhibition Centre, June 10, 1854. Now this was a great exhibition hall that was built really to be a showcase for the British Empire at that time. England was known as the workshop of the world in those days. And this was really a shop window for people from all over the world, ambassadors, delegates to come and they could see the progress that England had made in areas of manufacturing and engineering. Well, this was the opening day of the Crystal Palace Exhibition Centre, and a group of young people from the church went along. And Charles and Susanna went, they sat together, they were laughing and talking as the various processions went by. and then at one point in the proceedings Spurgeon took out a book that he had brought with him, I don't think he ever went anywhere without a book but on this particular occasion he brought a book with him it was Martin Tupper's proverbial philosophy and he passed it to Susanna and he pointed to the chapter on marriage and the opening sentence went like this seek a good wife of thy God, for she is the best gift of his providence. Yet ask not in bold confidence that which he hath not promised. Thou know'st not his good will. Be thy prayer then submissive thereunto, and leave thy petition to his mercy, assured that he will deal well with thee. 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 well. So he took that book and he put it into her hand, and he leaned over and whispered into her ear, do you pray for him who is to be your husband? She said, I do not remember the question received any vocal answer, but my fast-beating heart sent a telltale flush to my cheeks, and my downcast eyes, which feared to reveal the light which at once dawned in them, may have spoken a language which love understood. That's flowerly Victorian language for yes, I think. She had fallen for him. Cupid had fired his arrow and it had hit her in the heart. Now the rest of the evening they spent talking and laughing together as they walked around the palace grounds. She later wrote, during that walk on that memorable day in June, I believe God himself united our hearts in an indissoluble bond of true affection, and though we knew it not, gave us to each other forever. So that was the beginning of their courtship, the first joyful, heady days of romance. It wasn't all easy though. Spurgeon was becoming very famous at this point. He was only 19 years of age but he was phenomenally popular and he was in demand in many places across the country. And there were times when she would agree to meet him at the church and he would be so absorbed with the task before him that he would greet her as if she was just a regular visitor. or one particular occasion he came to a church and there was just a vast throng of people and he was swept away on this tide of people and he lost track of her and she was not only bewildered by this but she was also quite hurt and offended by this and she didn't even stay for the service she just rushed home And she went and she poured her heart out to her mother about this, and her mother was a wise woman and gave her some words of counsel. She wisely reasoned, said Susanna later, that my chosen husband was no ordinary man, that his whole life was absolutely dedicated to God and his service, and that I should never hinder him by trying to put myself first in his heart. Presently, after much good and loving counsel, my heart grew soft, and I saw I had been very foolish and willful. And then apparently, as her mother was talking with her, the sound of a cab could be heard pulling up outside. And then Spurgeon came running into the house in a great state of anxiety. Where's Susie? Where's Susie? I've been searching for her everywhere and I cannot find her. Has she come back? And so mother then performs the role of the peacemaker and brings them together and a reconciliation is made and Spurgeon assures her of his deep affection for her and I don't think the matter was really raised ever again. So that then is her courting What's the lesson that we can draw out from that? Well, I think particularly for the young people, the lesson is, seek to marry in the Lord. Probably there was, as there is for many young people today, the temptation to look for love among the ungodly. That temptation was there in those days as much as it is here in our day. But she resisted that. She wouldn't start a relationship with a man who was not a believer. She took seriously the Bible's command that we are not to be unequally yoked. And so she committed her way to the Lord. She waited his time. She waited upon his providence and in time he honored that and he provided for her. So that's another important lesson. She sought to marry in the Lord. Now what about mothering? Today is Mothering Sunday, isn't it? What lessons can we learn from Susanna Spurgeon concerning mothering? Well, we've actually jumped ahead a little bit there. Let me just fill in a few details in between. Charles and Susanna were married. I think that's sometime after, but that's the closest I could get. They were married. This is January 8, 1856 at the New Park Street Chapel. Dr. Alexander Fletcher officiated, and the place was jam-packed. As I said, Spurgeon was a household name in those days, and so there were great throngs of people around the church from the break of day, so much so they had to close off New Park Street itself and many of the adjoining streets. Traffic was brought to a standstill. Eventually the doors of the church were open. There was a rush for seats. After 30 minutes the whole place was packed to the gills and the people then spilled out onto the streets. Thousands, apparently thousands of people lined the streets just to get a glimpse of the couple. Well, they honeymooned in Paris. Mrs. Spurgeon, apparently, was a French scholar, and so she was able to show her husband around the city, took him to the palaces and the churches and museums. They had a very happy time. Ten days there, they would have liked to have spent longer, but he had this great burden of work to undertake back at the church, so he came back, and they began their life in a modest little house in the New Kent Road. and theirs was a very happy home. He would refer to Susanna playfully as wifey. They had this very deep, joyful friendship and not long after that they had two twin boys as well, born nine months, two weeks after they were married. Charles and Thomas Spurgeon, born September 20, 1856. Now happily that day turned out to be a Saturday, so Spurgeon was at home the whole day and he was able to be there to help and comfort his wife. Charles Ray says, with what pride he gazed upon the babes and how tenderly he comforted his wife and spoke of the new and happy responsibility which they now had to fulfill. Sadly, the pregnancy and the rigours of it took its toll on Susanna. She was 22 at the time, Spurgeon was 20, and due to some complications from the birth, she remained very weak for several months after that. In fact, she never really fully recovered from the birth of the twins. I think it was due to the physical trauma of the delivery. They didn't have the modern medicine that we have today and the skilled medical help on hand. And so it really broke her physical constitution and she never fully recovered after that. But in spite of that, she was able to maintain the role of a devoted mother and a faithful nurturer of her two sons, investing in them countless hours of love and care, as well as seasons of fervent prayer. And the result was in the gracious providence of God that Charles and Susanna came to see their sons converted at a young age. Spurgeon himself baptized them at the tabernacle a day before their 18th birthday. huge crowd of people in attendance, and Charles races that thanks were expressed to Almighty God for calling so early in life to the fellowship of the saints, the two sons of our beloved and honored pastor, and praising our gracious Lord that it should have pleased him to use so greatly the pious teachings and example of our dear sister, Mrs. Spurgeon, to the quickening and fostering of the divine life in the hearts of her twin sons. So the Lord then was pleased to use Susanna's efforts in caring and nurturing for the boys. Both were converted. Both went through the minister's training college there at the Tabernacle. Both went into the ministry. Charles Jr. became a pastor. There's a story of him preaching Charles Sr. was preaching at a church in Greenwich on one occasion, and again those vast crowds came to hear him. So many people there that they were spilling out into the streets. So he instructed his son, he said, Charles, go to the chapel across the street and preach to the overflow. And so you've got one side of the street, you've got Charles Sr. preaching, and you've got his son preaching to all the rest who couldn't get in to hear his father. Quite an unusual situation that. The other son, Thomas, went off to Australia. He went to do some evangelism. He came back after a year and then he went back down under to New Zealand where he passed to the Baptist Church in Auckland. before his father died he also, Thomas eventually became the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle as well for 15 years. So Susanna's mothering then was blessed and owned of the Lord. Two faithful sons brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Two faithful sons who went on to become very useful servants in the kingdom of God. What was the means for that? What was the human means? Well both of them would point to their mother I traced my early conversion, said Thomas, directly to her earnest pleading and bright example. She denied herself the pleasure of attending Sunday evening services that she might minister the word of life to her household. There she taught me to sing, but to mean it first. I do believe, I will believe, that Jesus died for me, that on the cross he shed his blood from sin to set me free. My dear brother was also brought to Christ through the word of a missionary, but he too gladly owns that mother's influence and teaching had their part in the matter. By these the soil was made ready for later sowing." So it was her faithful work as a mother and a shepherd then to her children that the Lord used to work in their lives. What a work that is. What an invaluable work that is. What great kingdom work is done in that way. I remember listening to Christian radio a couple years back and there was this lady on there, a Christian mum, and she was asked how she described herself. People asked her what she did and so tired was she of the disappointed looks that she would get from people when she said she was a housewife and a mother. She said, well now I tell them I'm in leadership training. I'm training the leaders of tomorrow. And that's true, isn't it? That's especially true of Christian mums. You are raising the church for tomorrow. You are raising the leaders of tomorrow. What an invaluable task that is. And how vital it is that Christian mums be willing to make the necessary sacrifice for that. It's not easy, especially in our society. We live in a society that doesn't appreciate, doesn't have value, doesn't esteem at all the work of the mother. I was reading in the Daily Telegraph in England, just recently they did an interview with this woman who is a self-professed career mum. And she said this, I love being around my children, but the happiest time is if you have a fulfilling career and then I can really enjoy the small amount of time I do get to spend with my children. People who spend all their time with their children, well, the tedium gets to them. Being fulfilled professionally means you can be happy spending time with your children. You can't be happy if you only spend all your time with your children. Now, as I read that, it brought to mind something I'd heard by Tim Keller in a message a while back. And he was talking about this whole aspect of child rearing and the importance of spending time with your children, being there for them. He said that children are in this state of childness, he called it. It's a state of almost complete dependency and need which goes on for a number of years. And so, because of that, you've really got to put your life on hold for them. You need to be there for them to do pretty much everything for them, to feed them and clean them and read to them and listen to them. They need all of these things. It's not always that stimulating, as you know, listening to a three-year-old. The conversation is not always the most intellectually stimulating, but they need it. And you need to be there for them so that they can do this, so that they can grow up happy and healthy and whole. You need to put your life on hold for them. But what Tim Keller was saying in this message is that many people are not actually willing to do that today, that they don't really want to make that necessary sacrifice. And so what happens is then the children end up making the sacrifice. Someone's got to make the sacrifice. Either it will be the parents who sacrifice their lives for them now, or it's the children who will have to pay the price later on in life. So who's going to make the sacrifice? Well, we can see from the life of Mrs Spurgeon, she was willing to pour herself into the lives of her sons. So she's an example then in mothering. Okay, we're about halfway through. Any thoughts, comments, questions on the life, so far the life of Susanna Spurgeon? Kent. Yeah, that's a good question, isn't it? Well, she thought he wore a funny dress, so maybe he dressed his sons up likewise, so I don't know. Yeah, they do look a little bit like girls. I think Abigail thought first one of them was a girl, but no, those are two boys, Victorian outfits. Those are city clothes. That's right, city clothes, yeah. No, I think they just had the two boys. Those were born nine months, two weeks after they were married, and after that, her physical constitution was very weak, so they weren't able to have any more children. Did she outlive Charles? She did, yes. We're gonna come to that. He died, I think he was maybe 57, and she lived on to about 70, 71. Okay, let's get on to some of the sufferings. This is the fourth area of life, her suffering. She had to endure great physical sufferings because of problems in childbirth. By the time she was 33, she was really an invalid and was confined to her home and to her bed for long periods. Early on in their marriage, she had been able to accompany her husband when he went on holiday. He himself had a very painful condition of gout. And so the only thing that could really relieve that was getting himself away to the warmer temperatures in south of France. She would go with him to begin with but by 1868 she has to concede that her travelling days are done. Henceforth for many years I was a prisoner in a sick chamber and my beloved had to leave me when the strain of his many labours and responsibility compelled him to seek rest far away from home. These separations were very painful to our hearts, but we each bore our share of the sorrow as heroically as we could and softened it as far as possible by constant correspondence. So these seasons of physical pain and weariness were a very sore trial to Susanna. They kept her away from her husband for long stretches of time and limited the kind of things that she could do in the life of the church. But Charles Ray points out, they never led her to despair or to rebel against the strange providence that had so marked out a hilly path for her. If for a moment the mystery of life perplexed her, she quickly found comfort and consolation by trusting to him who doeth all things well. So she's an example then of patient endurance of affliction, physical affliction and also spiritual as well. Her husband was a very high-profile public figure and he quickly became the target for criticism and contempt, especially from the newspaper reporters of the day and the London press. They very quickly honed their sights in on this young preacher and their tirades really reached a fever pitch around the time of the Surrey Gardens Music Hall disaster. Probably most of you are familiar with this story. For those of you who aren't, Surrey Gardens Music Hall was a huge concert and exhibition centre and it was used by the New Park Street Church when their own premises became too small. so many people wanting to come and hear Spurgeon that they had to move and so they rented out the Surrey Gardens Music Hall and on one particular day, this is September 20, 1856, Spurgeon is scheduled to preach there and again the vast crowds came, it's absolutely chock-a-block Spurgeon gets up to preach and a couple of scurrilous individuals had come in wanting to disrupt the meeting and they shouted, fire! fire! and one of them said, look the balcony's collapsing And there was bedlam, absolute mayhem after this. There was a stampede, people charging to get to the exits and eight people died in the stampede. Spurgeon himself, he had to be carried out in a state of deep emotional trauma. Mrs. Spurgeon is at home. She's got the twins, just a month old at this point. She's walking around the room praying for her husband and she hears a carriage pull up outside. She thinks, this is early. What's happening? And it was a deacon from the church. He came to forewarn her of what to expect sometime after that Spurgeon himself arrives home. She said he looked a wreck of his former self. An hour's agony of mind had changed his whole appearance and bearing. The nights that ensued was one of weeping and wailing and indescribable sorrow. He refused to be comforted. I thought the morning would never break, and when it did come, it brought no relief. So the effect of that disaster left a very profound effect upon Spurgeon for many years to come and also brought forth an even more virulent, even more personal attacks from the press upon Spurgeon. Mrs. Spurgeon would later write, my heart alternately sorrowed over him and flamed with indignation against his detractors. For a long time I wondered how I could set continual comfort before his eyes. Then, she says, at last, I hit upon the expedience, having the following verses printed in large Old English type and enclosed in a pretty Oxford frame. Matthew 5 verse 11 and 12, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So that text was duly framed and hung up on the wall of their bedroom and unfailingly every day Spurgeon would read that text before he ventured out into the world. What a comfort this woman was to him in the sufferings that he had to go. Spiritual, emotional, the downgrade controversy as well. This is also later on. This is when liberalism begins to sweep into the country. Spurgeon himself sees it straight away. He makes a stand. Many of the other ministers in the country would do nothing about it, but he stood four square against this liberalism that was sweeping in. He lost many friends as a result. Many pastors turned against him. Even some students from his own college turned against him as well. It was a very painful trial that he went through, but his wife stood resolute, steadfast beside him throughout the whole ordeal. He said, 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. And so Susanna Spurgeon then is an example to us of faithful endurance and suffering, and particularly with regard to persecution. Think of that text, "'Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.'" How do we respond to that? What do we think about? What's our willingness to suffer persecution? It's probably going to become, the way our society is going, the chances are that's going to become more and more our lot in the coming days. Are we ready for that? When men and women may revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us. Are we ready for that? I was reading an article, it was last week, it was entitled Christians, the hated minority. And it was really in response to the events of a couple of weeks back when you had this very high-profile basketball player who came out and made this public profession of his homosexuality. And the writer of the piece said that, you know, in today's society, there's nothing really very brave or courageous about that. you know, the media were falling over themselves to embrace this man and even the president went on air to publicly commend this man. The writer of this article said there's nothing brave about what he did. What was really brave was what the ESPN commentator Chris Broussard, I think his name was, said the next day. He was a man who's a professing Christian and he went on air and he said that the lifestyle of this other basketball player is a life which is in open rebellion against God. and he's engaging in unrepentant sin. He said that live on air and the writer of this article said that's a brave thing to do in today's society, not what the basketball player did. That's not courageous today. What he said afterwards, that's the brave thing. And so that's the challenge for us, isn't it? Are we ready for persecution? Obviously, it's a different kind to the sort that Mrs. Spurgeon and Mr. Spurgeon faced in those days, but in principle, are we ready to stand for the truth, the truth of God's Word, and to pay the price for that, whatever that price may be? Okay, a final thought this morning as we think about the life of Susanna Spurgeon. We thought about seeking, courting, mothering a suffering. Now let's think about serving, finally, serving. What an example she was in serving, serving the Lord faithfully and serving his people. In earlier years when her health was stronger, she took part in most of the activities of New Park Street Church and then also the Metropolitan Tabernacle after that. She was on hand to give counsel to the women and the girls who needed counsel and help. She also sought to give help to her husband in sermon preparation. Interestingly enough, Saturday evenings he would be there in his study and he would have his outline there before him and he would have his books and all the passages that were relevant to his sermon would be marked out and so she would come in and she would read out these passages to him and he would sit there and the great brain that he had, he would absorb everything that she was saying and then he would sort of incorporate that ready for his message the following day. So that was a great help for him. I think it was probably also a help for her as well. If she wasn't going to be able to be in church the following day, then at least she could have had her soul fed by the remembrance of these words and thoughts that had come from these books which she had read to her husband the night before. So that's one of the ministries that she performed there in the home. Another big one, of course, was the pastor's book fund. Maybe some of you have heard of that. It really began in the summer of 1875. Spurgeon had just completed the first volume of Lectures to My Students. And he proudly presented one of the first copies to his wife for her to proofread. And so she read it through, and then he asked her, what did she think? And she beamed and said, I wish I could place it into the hands of every minister in England. And so Spurgeon said, well, why not? How much will you contribute to the project? So she then begins to think, well, have I got any money? And remembers that she has a few crown pieces that she stuffed away in a drawer up in her room that she was keeping for an emergency. And she went and got those and added them all up, and turned out there was enough for a hundred copies of the book to be printed. So then some more money comes into her hands as well, and she's got enough then for 200 copies. And so the pastor's book fund begins to snowball. Mrs. Spurgeon's book fund, or the pastor's... Mrs. Spurgeon's book fund it became known as, and it was her ministry for the next 27 years. 500 letters a week would come to their home from various ministers and impoverished pastors from around the country and theological books were then mailed out, financial assistance was sometimes given as well. In total, 200,000 theological works were sent out during that time. 25,000 ministers received various forms of assistance. Spurgeon said of this, I gratefully adore the goodness of our Heavenly Father in directing my beloved wife to a work which has been to her fruitful in unutterable happiness. That it cost her more pain than it would be fitting to reveal is most true, but that it has brought her a boundless joy is equally certain. Our gracious Lord ministered to his suffering child in the most effectual manner when he graciously led her to minister to the necessities of his servants. By this means, he called her away from personal griefs, gave tone and concentration to her life, led her to continual dealings with himself, and raised her nearer the center of that region where other than earthly joys and sorrows reign supreme. Let every believer accept this as the inference of experience that for most human maladies the best relief and antidote will be found in self-sacrificing work for the Lord Jesus. That's good counsel, isn't it? One of the temptations, perhaps you've experienced this, one of the temptations when you become sick, when you're unwell, when you're laid aside, one of the temptations you're prone to there is self-absorption, self-pity. All the arrows start going inwards, poor me, having to put up with this. That's a real temptation and one of the best ways to deal with that, Spurgeon says here, is get those arrows pointing outwards. Start thinking about the Lord, first of all. Start thinking about what you can do for the Lord, how you can help others. That's one of the best remedies for that, isn't it? It may not, at that stage, it may not be very much. Maybe like Mrs Spurgeon there, just a few crowns stuffed away in a drawer, but like the five loaves and the two fish when you put those into the hands of the Lord how he can multiply those to the tune of 200,000 theological books over the course of 27 years God is able to exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think cast your bread on the waters many days it will return to you well the summer of 1891 Spurgeon's health was failing again In October that year he takes himself off to Mentone in the south of France once again. This time he is accompanied by his wife and a few friends. And at first his condition seems to improve under the warmth of the French sun, but then his symptoms come back in a very serious way. He has to take to his bed and this time he will never get up from it. He's unconscious for five days and then January 31, 1892 he passes into the presence of his Lord. Also there in the room at the time was his wife and four close friends. Mr. Harold, his private secretary, knelt by the bed and offered prayer, followed by Mrs. Spurgeon, says Charles Ray, who thanked the Lord for the precious treasure so long lent to her and sought at the throne of grace strength and guidance for the future. She then sends a cable to her son Thomas in Australia, said simply this, Father in heaven, mother resigned. The news was then headlined in the London papers on the following Monday and then messages of condolence poured in from all around the world, even from the King and Queen of England. When Spurgeon was buried, the shops closed early, flags flew at half-mast, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets in London that day. Well, following the death of her husband, Susanna remained a widow for some 12 years, and during that time, her labours didn't diminish, as you might think. You'd think perhaps she might start to taper off. They didn't. They actually increased. She maintains the work of the book fund with great diligence. She starts to write books herself. She authored seven small works on her own. She was a great writer. Most of all, she devoted the bulk of her time to her magnum opus, which was her husband's autobiography. and so she spent many many hours every day sifting through letters and correspondence and books and sermons all the material necessary to put together this autobiography which in the end reached to four volumes and is still available today still widely read today and those of you who've read it will know it's a treasure a treasure that she has left to the church Well, summer of 1903, Mrs. Spurgeon has a severe attack pneumonia, one from which she, this time, will never recover. Her sons visit her almost daily to comfort her and cheer her as she's getting weaker and weaker. On October 7th, 1903, she gives her parting blessing to her son Thomas. The blessing, the double blessing of your father's God be upon you and upon your brother, she said. And a few moments later, goodbye Tom, the Lord bless you forever and ever. Amen. When very near the end she clasped her feeble hands together and her face, glowing with heavenly radiance, said, Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, I can see the King in his glory. Well, she eventually passed into his presence. She was buried beside her husband at Norwood Cemetery. You can still go there to this day. This is in South London. She died at 71 years of age, a life of seeking, a life of mothering, a life of suffering, and a life of serving. She was devoted to her Lord, devoted to her husband, devoted to her boys, devoted to the people of God. One writer has said of her, if greatness is determined by the amount of good a person does in the world, if it is only another name for unselfish devotion in the service of others, then Susanna Spurgeon must go down in history as one of the greatest women of her time. Susanna Spurgeon, a true mother in Israel. We've got one or two minutes left. Anyone have any other questions or thoughts or comments? John? That must be, that would be, she would be older than that, maybe got the dates wrong there. Get that wrong, but the twins were born in 1856. They were married in 1856, January. That's right, yeah. The book fund, hang on, let me see here. 1875. Would he have completed lectures to my students then? Unless the figure's wrong. Could be, I think it's later than that, but yeah, I see the point you're making. I'm always looking for patterns, and you've drawn this, patterns for our women, for my wife. Are we going to go back to the workplace after our children are gone, or are we going to serve? That's quite an example. She started her service to the kingdom after her boys were gone. She completed her first task first. Yes, she is a tremendous example of service, particularly when you think of she has these two boys, these twin boys. Her own health is very poor. She has the demands of the church supporting her husband who's away for long seasons of time as well. Plus the his physical affliction as well, she has to cope with him being laid aside, his physical needs too, plus the persecution they're suffering. You've got the downgrade controversy, you've got Surrey Gardens Music Hall, and still she manages to complete these other tasks as well. Yeah, tremendous model. Sometimes, I don't know about you, sometimes you can hear about these where you can feel kind of crushed by the weight of what they were able to do. I think we have to be careful, don't we, when we come to studies like this. We realize that we're not all gifted to do these kind of things, but we can all, I remember Dr. Beakey at seminary, he would say, you know, we're not all made to be in the same way as some of the great heroes of the faith, but we can all stretch the band a little bit is the phrase that he would use. We can all stretch ourselves a little bit and I think that's what we can do from a study like this. She was a great and mighty woman of God and now there are areas that we can maybe stretch ourselves to emulate some of the things that she did.