The Prince of Preachers on the Art of Speaking: Spurgeon’s Use of Language

Reading Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) immerses one in a sea of images, metaphors, similes, and personifications. He produced simple, plain declarations couched in exalted and poetic ideas. Reading his works is a study in a memorable turn of phrase, a perfectly-formed sentence, an aptly-put proposal, all done in the service of eternal truth. On the superiority of eternal truth to temporal fascinations, Spurgeon wrote, “That only is worth my having which death cannot tear out of my hand.” Spurgeon observed an invincible prejudice against the Bible for its supposed difficulties. “Is there any man so credulous as the man that will not believe the Bible?” Spurgeon asked. Such a complainer “swallows a ton of difficulties, and yet complains that we have swallowed an ounce of them.”^[1]

1. Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia, 15:335–36. Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia refers to Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977) volume Number: page number. 

In describing the unnatural status of an unconverted man in the ministry, Spurgeon wrote, “He is a dumb man elevated to the chair of music; a deaf man fluent upon symphonies and harmonies! He is a mole professing to educate eaglets; a limpet elected to preside over angels.”^[2] When speaking of sermon-hearers who come with minds preoccupied, Spurgeon gave vivid metaphors adopted from the words of Jesus: “These are the rocks which prevent the seed from entering the mind, these the birds which devour that which is sown, these the weeds which choke the upspringing shoots. . . . If you bring your measures to this place filled to the brim with chaff, how can you expect to have them filled with wheat?”^[3]

Indeed, Spurgeon was a master of language, and this was coupled with a courageous and gospel-loving heart that he commended to others. How exactly did the most famous preacher of his time counsel others in their use of words? In this article, I will focus on Spurgeon’s example and instruction in the areas of impromptu speeches, pulpit preaching, and ordinary conversation. Though long passed, the prince of preachers still speaks, and we would do well to heed his words about ours.

Impromptu Speech

We find such literary art in Spurgeon’s sermons for a reason—he studied the art of language and communication with a sense of stewardship. In giving principles involved in “impromptu speech,” Spurgeon highlighted its value by looking at the occasions of its usefulness, the necessity of theological content, and the readiness of vocabulary and ideas. When gatherings are subjected to theological vagueness or mere empty rhetoric, a pastor should thus be prepared to rescue the situation and turn an unprofitable gathering into a God-honoring, truth-driven convocation. To be ready to overflow in an impromptu situation “you must be full.”^[4] “Ignorance is no rare thing in our pulpits,” Spurgeon noted, and if a man “would be fluent” and ready for any moment, he must be “filled with all knowledge, and especially with the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord.” To be ready to speak without specific preparation for one occasion must mean that a person is intimately acquainted with the first principles of Scripture, staying current with a deeply coherent grasp of biblical narrative and biblical themes. Their unwavering acquaintance with God’s Word primes them for a yet unknown time that will require his engagement. In this situation, though specifically unprepared, the “cream of his meditations [will be] warmed by the glow of his heart.” He will be well-stocked with “a rich vocabulary.” Forcible sentences, well-selected beauties of language, and elegancies of speech should be treasured, stored up so as to be brought out on some relevant occasion. ^[5]

Spurgeon urged his students to be able to “know what words mean, to be able to estimate the power of a synonym, to judge the rhythm of a sentence, and to weigh the force of an expletive.” By “expletive”, Spurgeon does not mean profane speech but a well-chosen word to finish the rhythm of a sentence. For effective impromptu speech, and indeed for regular occasions, preachers must be “masters of words, they must be your genii, your angels, your thunderbolts, or your drops of honey.”^[6] The words he commends are not random polysyllabics designed to impress without increased power, but carefully selected like a good team of horses “to draw the wagon of your thoughts.” Spurgeon’s impromptu speaker will have a treasure trove of words serving as “baskets of silver in which to serve up his apples of gold.”^[7]

To increase vocabulary and develop powerful and communicative delivery aptitude, Spurgeon surprisingly recommended the “acquisition of another language.”^[8] This discipline gives facility in word derivation, parts of speech, moods, tenses, syntax, rules of speech, and techniques of communication. He recommended the translation of Tacitus and Virgil as an exercise to increase one’s storehouse of effective communication principles. “Who does not see,” Spurgeon asked, “that the perpetual comparison of the terms and idioms of two languages must aid facility of expression?”^[9] An extempore speaker must have such syntactical knowledge and verbal diction as a habit of mind. He insisted that his students “put together, and unscrew all the machinery of language, mark every cog, and wheel, and bolt, and rod, and you will feel the more free to drive the engine, even at an express speed should emergencies demand it.”^[10]

The extempore preacher must not harbor timidity about his task but proceed with courage and coolness. The occasion might arise when words flow like oil, unleashing “metaphorical spangles which flash poetry upon your audience.” Suddenly the flow stops, and the height of fluidity becomes a regret, for the speaker wonders if he would “be able to conclude the sentence, or find a verb for the nominative, or an accusative for the verb.”^[11] What does the preacher do in this moment? He proceeds in an unflurried manner, not drawing attention to the lapse in oratorical transcendence. If the sentence will not finish in one way, bring it to conclusion in another. Make sure the content is faithful even if the oratory began to sputter. “You have to deliver your Lord’s errand as he enables you, and if this be done, you are responsible to no one but heavenly Master, who is no harsh judge; . . . you are the messenger of heaven and not the servant of men.”^[12]

Preaching

That commitment to the truthfulness of the message should persist unexceptionally in the regular week by week delivery. “The man who is sent of God cannot do otherwise than deliver the message that has been given to him; he feels that the fire within him would consume him if he did not let flaming words pour forth from his lips.”^[13] Preaching on the text, “I believed, therefore have I spoken” (Ps. 116:10), Spurgeon said, “A true man declares what he believes, even though his hearers gnash their teeth at him because of his faithful testimony.”^[14] For Spurgeon, what is believed is determined by what is written in Scripture. Arguing against the mental looseness and faddishness of growing modernistic theology, Spurgeon expressed the full range of biblical verities that he must proclaim. In preparation for the clear and joyous biblical truth of a propitiatory transaction through Jesus’s blood, the preacher must show its connection with the just verdict of death that rests on every descendant of Adam. “We believe,” Spurgeon insisted, “that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that God is angry with the wicked every day, and that, if men live and die in their sins, they must be cast away from his presence for ever.” Though speech about hell and the wrath to come has become unfashionable, Spurgeon vowed, “We cannot keep silent concerning these terrible truths, and we try to use them as Paul did.” To keep back from sinners the message of the terror of the Lord, the present lost condition of man, his susceptibility to future wrath and doom apart from heartfelt repentance, would be “unhallowed silence.”^[15]

The duty to speak upon revealed belief “accounts for our style of speaking.”^[16] Spurgeon further recognized that intensity of belief accounted for the “faults” of delivery. He acknowledged that at times he might “wax too warm,” and some might judge that he is “harsh and intolerant.” Intensity of conviction might produce intensity of language while the radically different outcomes between believing the truth or maintaining error might justify both the tone and the fervor of language. If one may use intensity of language about “gold or government,” how much more “about God and his truth, about heaven and hell, about the eternal welfare of our own and our fellow-creatures’ souls.”^[17]

Spurgeon appealed to the intensity of motivation and urgency of language characteristic of Luther and Knox, and while he gave a caveat on Luther, he still argued that Luther “spoke as the times in which he lived needed that he should speak.”^[18] He noted how Knox, even in weak old-age, rose up in his preaching to a level of intensity so remarkable that his hearers thought that he would smash the pulpit into splinters. Spurgeon much preferred to be esteemed “mad” by a society “engrossed with its idols and heresies” rather than forsake the reality of urgency in plucking brands from the burning. The gentle tones of whispering simulating a love-sick maid will betray Christ when the situation both for this time and for eternity call for one to “cry aloud and spare not; we must preach earnestly, intensely, and as some will judge, roughly.”^[19]

Ordinary Conversation

Spurgeon’s advice for “ordinary conversation”^[20] seeks to depersonify the language, tone, and argumentative spirit of a gospel minister. He must have a congenial and familiar tone and expression, should be sociable, friendly and encouraging to all ages—“the big boys, and the young ladies, and the little girls, and everybody.” A friendly countenance and a hearty sentence will do much to endear him to people and increase his credibility in the pulpit. Spurgeon commended “cheerfulness to all who would win souls; not levity, and frothiness, but a genial happy spirit.”^[21] In company, let other people talk; be verbally sparse, but not a mere dummy, and season the conversation with affable godliness. Don’t ruin the pulpit proclamation by indiscreet parlour conversation. Without dominance or roughness and force steer the conversation to matters profitable for godliness. Careful steering can make the journey smooth without unnatural jerks.^[22]

When controversy arises, Spurgeon counsels ministers to seek to avoid debate without sacrificing truth. Lay down the straight stick of truth and allow the other sticks of a variety of curvatures be set beside it. “Use very hard arguments and very soft words.”^[23] He commends doing all one can to win affections without ignoring the truth. The minister must recognize that “common conversation may be a potent means for good,” and a single sentence may start a train of thought that brings the fruit of conversion. In the midst of all this amiability, however, “the minister should be firm for his principles, and bold to avow and defend them in all companies.” While wrong-headedness, chit-chat, frivolousness, spiritual error will be talked and heard, the love and holy purpose of Christ may also be told. If others take the liberty to sin and promote error, “we shall not renounce our liberty to rebuke and warn them.”^[24]

Preaching Revisited

Pulpit manners, however, still retain the quality of an unchallenged pronouncement of revealed truth, not a conversation of people on equal terms so that all opinions find their place. No, it is a monologue to be heard and believed. If biblical words like, “repentance,” “wrath,” “condemned already,” “deceiving yourselves,” “the fire is not quenched,” “burn her with fire,” “propitiation, “the blood of Christ,” and other strong and absolute words are omitted from the sermonic discourse, the preacher becomes useless. He has capitulated to fear, embraced doctrinal assassination, usurped divine authority, and leaves his hearers to be surprised by wrath. “Can Ahab love Elijah?” No, it is better to offend now than be condemned eternally. Spurgeon told of a man who arose and exited a service “in hot indignation at what I had said, which happened to come personally home to him.”^[25] Spurgeon indicated no troubled spirit at having so offended a hearer, for “What I said was the pure truth of God, and could not be sorry that an ill-living man was indignant at it.”^[26]

Summary

In short, Spurgeon taught that words carried reality to the mind. God made Adam talk and give names to all other living things so that he could distinguish clearly between himself and them. In the same way, God has revealed Himself and his view of and purpose for the world and its creatures, particularly his image-bearers, in words. The larger our cache of words, the more clearly our grasp of their definition. Greater grasp of definitions lead to more accurate and powerful communication. In interpersonal conversation we must know and speak the truth yet conduct ourselves with a gracious and unimposing demeanor, listening with deference as each person has his say. Words of truth do not recede and are not hidden but must tactfully engage with the words of others to gain their rightful place of authority. Preaching, on the other hand, is an authoritative declaration; it is a “Thus saith the Lord;” it is life or death, heaven or hell, and the steward of the words must be found faithful. He diminishes no portion of the ontological reality embedded in the words. He does not present himself or his wisdom or opinion but speaks plainly of the things revealed. He holds himself and others to the warning:

¹⁸ For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; ¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Rev. 22:18–19 NKJV).