In 1856 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the radical young preacher who was taking London by storm, married Susannah Thompson. Theirs was a loving and mutually supportive partnership in which they both endured their share of physical and mental struggles. They had twin sons in 1857, Charles and Thomas. Following a difficult delivery Susannah was left house-bound for much of her life despite seeing the best consultants and surgeons. She remained active in ministry, publishing several of her own books and overseeing a vast book distribution ministry that was a huge blessing to many pastors.
In his early thirties Charles began to suffer from gout, and depression, which was initially triggered by the death of audience members at one of his overcrowded early meetings, began to regularly afflict him. In the midst of many successes and much suffering both Charles and Susannah expressed their affection for each other throughout their 36 years of marriage. They were a source of great happiness for each other.
Here are a couple of examples:
Charles on Susannah
When she bought him a set of Calvin’s commentaries Charles wrote in the first volume:
‘The volumes making up a complete set of Calvin were a gift to me from my own most dear and tender wife. Blessed may she be among women. How much of comfort and strength she has ministered unto me it is not in my power to estimate. She has been to me God’s best earthly gift, and not a little even of heavenly treasure has come to me by her means. She has often been as an angel of God unto me.’[1]
Susannah on Charles
As she continued the work of compiling his autobiography she recalls her feelings after he had proposed to her, all those years before:
‘I left my beloved, and hastening to the house, and to an upper room, I knelt before God, and paused and thanked Him, with happy tears, for His great mercy in giving me the love of so good a man. If I had known then, how good he was, and how great he was to become, I should have been overwhelmed, not so much with the happiness of being his, as with the responsibility which such a position would entail. But, thank God, throughout all my blessed married life, the perfect love which drew us together never slackened or faltered, and though I can now see how undeserving I was to be the life companion of so eminent a servant of God, I know he did not think this, but looked upon his wife as God’s best earthly gift to him.’[2]
In contrast to other ministers disastrous marriages, Charles and Susannah loved each other steadfastly to the end, a great example for us today.
For the first post in a series on CH Spurgeon click here
[1] The Autobiography of Charles H Spurgeon, Vol 2. (1897) London: Passmore and Alabaster, p.11
[2] ibid, p.9
© 2021 Lex Loizides / Church History Review
Church History Review 
That is such an inspiring story Lex
Thanks
Neville