Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in 1834 and born again in 1850. Soon after his conversion he became the pastor of a small village church. At the age of 19 he was called as pastor to the church meeting at the New Park Street Chapel in London, England. Seven years later, the congregation moved to their new building named The Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon preached there to audiences of 6,000 hearers until his death in 1892. There were no electronic amplification systems in those days, but everyone was able to hear him clearly.
During his 39 years in London his sermons were printed each week across the world and in many languages. He also began a college for pastors, established an orphanage, wrote over 100 books, edited a magazine called The Sword and the Trowel, provided living accommodations for widows in their church, supported workers called colporteurs who went door to door selling inexpensive Christian literature and Bibles as well as holding Bible studies, and began a Society of Evangelists for the preaching of the gospel.
Mr. Spurgeon originally produced The Interpreter for family devotions. I like it because it has so much Scripture along with explanatory comments designed to keep the reader in God’s Word. In fact, this devotional book actually contains about 35% of the Bible.
Family Devotions: Over the years I tried several ways to have a devotional time with my young family. Reading from the Bible, reading a daily devotional with a Bible verse and a short page of thoughts on the passage, and even a book or two I thought our children would enjoy or at least sit still for. All of my attempts failed. Either our children didn’t like it or I didn’t like it. I never tried what was then called Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible because the Scripture was in the King James Version and Spurgeon used 19th century British English. I hope families will find the English Standard Version and Spurgeon’s comments updated into 21st century American English helpful. Each reading takes about five minutes to read aloud. Another ten minutes for discussion and prayer, and your children have had to endure less time than it takes for advertisements in a one-hour television program and hopefully will occasionally learn something of lasting value.
Personal Devotions: Even though Mr. Spurgeon wanted to help parents with family time, I suspect most who use this are like me and read it for personal devotional time. It is an excellent way to read a large portion of the Bible without getting bogged down with all those genealogies. I strongly believe in the importance of reading the Bible completely and regularly and without explanatory notes. I also believe something like Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible can be a refreshing, although infrequent, change of pace.
Translation Choice: Crossway has very graciously given permission to use their translation. The English Standard Version is my first choice. It combines both the smooth reading found in many Dynamic Equivalence or thought-for-thought versions with the accuracy of Formal Correspondence or more word-for-word translations.
Footnotes: I hope readers will not be distracted by my footnotes. Spurgeon’s original work did not have footnotes. So why does this edition? It was only during my third reading that it finally dawned on me that every title of every day’s reading was actually a Bible verse. I thought that deserved a footnote. He will often quote the Scriptures while commenting on the Scriptures. I thought that deserved a footnote too. Then there were big words that I believe should be kept in the Christian’s vocabulary, but that newer Christians and young readers might not yet be familiar with. Words like, “omnipotence,” “omniscience,” “intercessor,” “ordinance,” “propitiation,” and “type.” Hopefully, these footnotes will help a parent answer a child’s questions as well as help a newer Christian who is unfamiliar with them. As long as I was at it, I included some short biographical notes about some of the people Spurgeon quotes in this book
Illustrations: Here and there I have added an image I thought might be helpful as well as the occasional picture from Spurgeon’s life in case there are any readers that might enjoy them like I do. I have made use of the world wide web. I have tried to avoid using any images I thought might be copyrighted. If any readers find me in violation of copyright laws, please make a note in the Comment section under that day’s reading. I want to correct any unintentional errors.
Hymns: Spurgeon concluded almost every reading with a hymn to be sung by the family. I have left these out. Most are not familiar to today’s church attender, there is no musical score, and updating poetry is definitely not part of my skill set.
Scripture Index: Spurgeon included an index to the Scripture used in each day’s reading. I have found this helpful when preparing a sermon or lesson and have included it.
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