The Secret To Spurgeon's Success

'What, then, is the propagation of the faith? I suggest another question. What is the faith? Here a hundred isms rise up, and I put them all aside; they may be phases of the faith, but they are not the faith. What, then, is the faith? Strange to say, the faith of Christians is a Person. You may ask all other religions wherein their faith lieth, and they cannot answer on this wise. Our faith is a Person; the gospel that we have to preach is a Person, and go wherever we may, we have something solid and tangible to preach. If you had asked the twelve apostles, in their day, "What do you believe in?" they would not have needed to go round about with a long reply, but they would have pointed to their Master, and they would have said, "We believe Him." "But what are your doctrines?" "There they stand incarnate." "But what is your practice?" "There stands our practice. He is our example." "What, then, do you believe?" Hear ye the glorious answer of the apostle Paul, "We preach Christ crucified." Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the person of Christ Jesus. The apostle preached doctrine, but the doctrine was Christ. He preached practice, but the practice was all in Christ. There is no summary of the faith of a Christian that can compass all he believes, except that word Christ; and that is the Alpha and the Omega of our creed, that is the first and the last rule of our practice--Christ, and Him crucified. To spread the faith, then, is to spread the knowledge of Christ crucified. It is, in fact, to bring men, through the agency of God's Spirit, to feel their need of Christ, to seek Christ, to believe in Christ, to love Christ, and then to live for Christ.'

--C.H. Spurgeon, Autobiography, Volume 2: The Full Harvest, p. 122-123.

Actually, it's no secret. It was the apostles' example. C.H. Spurgeon was so mightily used by the Holy Spirit for one simple reason. He did what the apostles did: Wherever he was in the Bible, whatever the doctrine he was teaching, whatever the occasion, he preached Christ. And the Holy Spirit loves to do nothing more than to glorify Christ (John 15:26, 16:14, Acts 1:8, 1 John 4:2,3).

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1,2

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…
2 Corinthians 2:14,15

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord...
2 Corinthians 4:5

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28

Father, grant us such infatuation with Your precious Son our Savior so that, waking and sleeping, our lives would be characterized by idolatry of the holiest kind, the only kind of idolatry that pleases You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.