Susannah Spurgeon

Life

Susannah was born in London on January 15, 1832, the only daughter of Robert and Susannah Thompson. The family attended New Park Street Chapel, a Baptist congregation in London. Around 1853 she first heard the young preacher Charles Spurgeon preach there; by some accounts, she was not greatly impressed at first. In 1854 Spurgeon, who had by then become the church's pastor, learned that she was struggling with questions of faith and gave her a copy of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. The two became engaged in August of that year. Susannah was baptized by Spurgeon in early 1855, and they were married at New Park Street Chapel on January 8, 1856. In September of that year she gave birth to twin sons, Charles and Thomas, both of whom became ministers.

After undergoing surgery for a gynecological condition in the late 1860s, she spent most of the rest of her life in frail health, largely confined to her home. After her husband's death in Menton, France, in January 1892, she continued her ministry and writing. She died of pneumonia at her home in Norwood, London, on October 22, 1903, and was buried beside her husband.

Ministry and Accomplishments

• The Book Fund: In 1875, after proofreading the first volume of her husband's Lectures to My Students, she expressed a wish to send the book to every minister in Britain. The fund began when she used money she had saved to buy copies and send them free of charge to rural pastors and other ministers who could not afford books. In its first year the fund distributed more than 3,000 theological volumes, and by the time of her death some 200,000 books are reported to have been sent throughout Britain and abroad. In her will she left part of her estate to ensure that the fund would continue.
• Relief work: The Book Fund expanded into a broader fund for the support of ministers, which also sent money and clothing to the families of struggling pastors.
• Support for churches: In 1895 she helped raise funds to establish a Baptist church in Bexhill-on-Sea. When the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where her husband had served as pastor, burned in 1898, she also assisted in raising money for its rebuilding.
• Writings: In 1886 she published her first book, a retrospective on the work of the Book Fund, and between the late 1890s and 1901 she published three devotional volumes. After her husband's death she compiled Spurgeon's Autobiography with Joseph Harrald.

Influence on the Korean Church

No activities directly connected with the Korean church have been documented. In Korea she is known chiefly as Charles Spurgeon's wife and is mentioned mainly in works about him. Nevertheless, her practice of helping ministers of limited means by sending them books is sometimes cited as a forerunner of present-day literature missions and book-support ministries for pastors.

Assessment

Spurgeon scholars regard her as a partner in ministry who steadfastly supported her husband's work. In his 2018 biography, Ray Rhodes Jr. argued that her activities sprang from a desire for the glory of God, the good of many people, and the wider spread of her husband's legacy. The British publisher Banner of Truth Trust, following the model of her fund, continues to send theological books free of charge to ministers and missionaries. Because her ministry centered on distributing her husband's writings, however, she is more often discussed alongside him than as an independent figure. No formal criticism directed specifically at her has been documented.