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Revival Fires And Awakenings, Thirty-Six Visitations Of The Holy Spirit

The Divine Art Of Soul-Winning

What Jesus Started: Joining The Movement

Susannah Spurgeon

Susannah Spurgeon was the wife of the famous Baptist preacher of the second half of the nineteenth-century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. She was born Susannah Thompson in January, 1832. Her early years were spent in London, where she often accompanied her parents or elderly friends to the New Park Street Chapel. She was converted upon hearing a sermon at the old Poultry Chapel by Rev S. B. Bergne from Romans 10:8 – ‘From that service I date the dawning of the true light in my soul’. But her initial joy was replaced by ‘seasons of darkness, despondency, and doubt’, and it was not until she was helped by the new, youthful, pastor of New Park Street – Spurgeon – that she found ‘the peace and pardon [her] weary soul was longing for’. Her friendship with Spurgeon grew, and they were married in January 1856. Their twin sons, Charles Jr. and Thomas, were born in September, 1857. Susannah became a true partner in her husband’s ministry. Spurgeon would call his ‘wifey’ to come and help him on Saturday afternoons. Together they would read commentaries and discuss the Scripture for the next day’s sermon. If he was discouraged, she would read to him. She counselled women and girls in the church and assisted female candidates at baptismal services. Her activities were restricted at times when she became chronically ill in the late 1860s, and was often confined to her room, or visited Brighton for relief. In 1875, when she had proof-read the first volume of her husband’s book Lectures to My Students, she expressed a desire to ‘place it in the hands of every minister in England’ – and so began the ministry of her Book Fund. Within a year, over 3000 volumes of theological books had been distributed by the Fund; by the time of her death, over 200,000 volumes had been sent out. Today, the supplying of theological books free to ministers and missionaries continues through the Book Fund of the Banner of Truth Trust, modelled upon that started by Susannah Spurgeon. Susannah’s work expanded to include other ministries, such as the Pastors’ Aid Fund and the Westwood Clothing Society. In her remaining years, following Charles’ death in 1892, she assisted Joseph Harrald in compiling C.H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography and also wrote a number of devotional books, including Free Grace and Dying Love, published by the Trust (which volume contains a Life of Susannah Spurgeon by Charles Ray). She died in October, 1903, after a severe attack of pneumonia from which she never recovered.

Meeting Christ in Aslan

Over the next five years, the seven installments of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narniaseries will turn seventy. Generations of children have found delight in stepping through the wardrobe door to this mythical world, filled with magic, meaning, and a whole cast of fantastic characters. Still, in the end, the appeal of The Chronicles comes back to a single character. Aslan, the Great Lion, who calls the children into Narnia, plays the central role in each adventure. It’s not exactly correct to call Aslan an “allegory” of Jesus. Lewis might prefer that we instead think of Aslan as Christ transposed into a Narnian key, a Creator and Lord fit for a world primarily inhabited by talking animals. Throughout The Chronicles, Aslan often emphasizes that he really is a lion and not an illusion or symbol. “Touch me,” he tells one character in “The Horse and His Boy”. “Smell me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast.” True to Lewis’s genius and his love of myth, Aslan’s purpose in calling children from our world into Narnia is the same as Lewis’s purpose in writing The Chronicles. Through the Great Lion, Lewis gives us a glimpse of the character of the Savior and King he called “myth become fact,” and whom Scripture calls “the Lion of Judah.” Two moments in the Narnia series are particular favorites of my colleague Shane Morris, and illustrate Aslan’s mission with particular clarity. One takes place during the third Chronicle (the fifth in publication order), “The Horse and His Boy.” Shasta, the main character, has ridden through the night and is lost in the mountains. Having grown up in a foreign country and just returned to Narnia, he doesn’t realize he is royalty. After running and riding for his life for so long, he’s tired and discouraged, and concludes that he must be the unluckiest boy alive. Suddenly, a great Voice confronts him out of the darkness, and asks to know his sorrows. A very frightened Shasta, not knowing what else to do, relays how he and his companions fled from their captors across the desert, how fear and danger have stalked them at every turn, and how he’s been threatened by at least four lions. “There was only one lion,” replies the Voice. “But he was swift of foot.” Aslan reveals that he was the lion, and that his intervention at these crucial moments saved the boy’s life, as well as the lives of his fellow travelers and his native kingdom. What Shasta saw as bad luck was Aslan’s providential paw guiding him through danger toward his rightful throne, and even introducing him to his future wife. The second scene takes place at the end of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace have just come to the edge of the world after months at sea. The rest of the characters have gone home or paddled into Aslan’s Country, and the three children are left alone. They encounter Aslan on a grassy shore, who’s taken the form of a lamb and invites them to breakfast. There, he tells the children that it’s time for them to go home and, for Edmund and Lucy, there will be no returning to Narnia. They don’t take the news well. “It isn’t Narnia, you know,” cries Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how are we to live, never meeting you?” “But you shall meet me, dear one,” Aslan replies. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” Like Jesus revealing Himself to His disciples at the breaking of bread, here Lewis has Aslan shed the disguise to allow readers to fully recognize him. When Aslan reveals his role in Shasta’s story, it brings to mind how Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, revealed to His disciples everything concerning Himself in the Law and Prophets. It’s no wonder that, like those disciples, many who have met Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia have also felt their hearts burning within them. Seventy years on, C.S. Lewis’s stories deserve every bit of their status as classics, filled as they are with spiritual treasures for young and old alike. But the lion’s share of the credit goes to Aslan. In him we meet a character too good to be just a story. And, like Lucy, we long to know his true name—not in spite of the mane and tail, but because of them. Publication date: October 20, 2021 John Stonestreet