Book Review: The Prince of Preachers, by Christian Timothy George

Title: Charles Spurgeon - Prince of Preachers Author: Christian Timothy George Publisher: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2006

Charles Spurgeon preaching at the Surrey Music Hall

Charles Spurgeon was born in Essex, England, in 1834. He was converted at age fifteen and preached his first sermon the next year. He was a popular and able preacher of the Scripture and was compared to D.L. Moody, an American evangelist born in 1837.

Mr Spurgeon married Susannah Thompson in 1856. They had twin sons, Thomas and Charles.

Mr Spurgeon was a Baptist and a Calvinist. He frequently preached to crowds of more than 10,000. He also wrote many books, all of which have been very popular.

This biography is aimed at children aged 8-14. I took it from the bookshelf hoping to get a good, basic overview of Spurgeon’s life. I was quite disappointed.

The book incorrectly states the date of Spurgeon’s death. It also contains many errors in spelling and grammar. Another possible source of confusion for young readers is that it says that Spurgeon’s son Thomas was twelve years old in 1877, when in fact he was born in 1856. The reference to Thomas’ age is contained in a chapter headed "Sunday morning, 1877".  The rest of the book appears to be in plain chronological order. So either the maths is wrong, or the author wasn't paying attention to the order of his anecdotes.

Overall, this book seemed to be just a collection of exciting and emotional stories from the life of Charles Spurgeon. It even includes a legendary story about Queen Victoria disguising herself as a peasant in order to go and listen to Spurgeon preach.

I would recommend this book to someone wanting to read several interesting stories about Charles Spurgeon, and who doesn't mind imperfect grammar.

Me reading the book last night :-)

I plan to read another biography of Charles Spurgeon next week. Hopefully it will be both accurate and encouraging!

~I did not receive any compensation or reward for reviewing this book~

P.S. Sorry this is late--I (Esther) was gone over the weekend at a conference (and we got to meet Rhoda and her family at the same time!), so this sadly had to wait until I got home to be posted.