On 18 March 1861, the church moved to their newly-built Metropolitan Tabernacle, at Elephant-and-Castle in London. The building could hold from five to six thousand people, and was like a modern-day "megachurch". Spurgeon read many books, up to six a week.
Spurgeon liked singing hymns and wrote several of them. He published a book of well-known hymns for use at his church. There was no pipe organ or other instruments in his church; the hymns were always sang unaccompanied. Spurgeon never called people to come forward after his sermons, which is a custom of many evangelical preachers, who like to talk to the people who have been moved in their faith by the preaching. Spurgeon would say that anyone could meet him on Monday to talk about Christ. There was always someone at his door the next day. He preached there until his death 31 years later.
When the missionary David Livingstone died in 1873, a copy of Spurgeon's sermon, "Accidents, Not Punishments", was found among his belongings. There was a comment at the top of the first page that read, "Very good, D.L." Livingstone carried the sermon with him when he travelled to Africa, but it was given back to Spurgeon. Spurgeon had given the message on Sunday, 8 September 1861, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in Newington, London. He had preached it because of two disasters that happened close to his house. On Sunday, 25 August 1861, there was a tragic accident between two trains in the Clayton Tunnel between London and Brighton. 23 people died from this crash and the crash also injured hundreds. About two weeks later, on Monday, 2 September another train wreck in North London that made 15 more people die.
Spurgeon gave his last sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on 7 June 1891. During his pastorate, 14,692 were baptised and joined the Tabernacle. Spurgeon's wife was often too sick to leave their home to hear him preach.
Near the end of his life, he had poor health with rheumatism, gout, and Bright's disease. He died in Menton, in France, on 31 January 1892. Spurgeon's wife and sons lived longer than him. His body is buried in a tomb in West Norwood Cemetery, in London.
Around the end of Spurgeon's life, he was part of many conflicts in the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB). Spurgeon later left the Baptist Union. Even after Spurgeon's death, there were such controversies there, such as the talk over whether or not the Baptist Union should be allowed to meet in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon's son, Thomas, who was the co-pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle with Archibald G. Brown, said that, "The Baptist Union almost killed my father." "Yes," replied someone at BUGB, "and your father almost killed the Baptist Union."
A controversy with Baptists started in 1887 when Spurgeon wrote what was later called the "Downgrade Controversy." It got that name when Spurgeon used word "Downgrade" when talking about how other Baptists looked at the Bible. Spurgeon meant that things such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution were making the Baptist Union weak.
The "baptismal regeneration" controversy was started by a sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle on 5 June 1864. That was when Spurgeon spoke to Anglican Christian leaders who supported infant baptism. The sermon is 16 pages long, so it took around an hour for Spurgeon to preach it. Over 350,000 copies of this sermon were sold. However, Spurgeon did work with Anglicans, as well as people from other denominations all his life.
Stockwell Orphanage was an orphanage started by Spurgeon in London in 1867. It opened on 9 September 1869, and was originally for boys only. It began taking girls as well in 1879. The children were fed, clothed and taught at the orphanage. The money to pay for this mainly came from donations.
The orphanage was open until London was bombed in the Second World War. It later turned into Spurgeon's Child Care (and then into Spurgeon's). It is now mainly in England, but has international projects in Mexico, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Spurgeon's College is a theological institute in London. Spurgeon started it in 1857. Spurgeon's College is a member of the Baptist Union.
In 1906, William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri paid £500 ($2500) for most of the Spurgeon library. The Spurgeon library had around 5,100 books in it at the time. In 2006, the whole library was sold to the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of Spurgeon's sermon notes are at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.
His works have been translated into many languages. He also made many volumes of commentaries, sayings, and other types of literature.
George Müller
George Fredrick Müller (German: Georg Friedrich Müller) (September 27, 1805 – March 10, 1898), was an Christian evangelist and worker of orphanages in Bristol, England. He cared for about 10,000 orphans in his life. He was well known for giving an education to the children under his care, so much that sometimes he was accused of giving the poor more than they should be given.
Müller was born in Kroppenstedt, a village in the Kingdom of Prussia. His early life he was not very righteous. He was a thief, a liar and a gambler. At age 14, while his mother was dying, he was playing cards with friends and drinking.
His father wanted to give him a religious education that would give him a wealthy job as a clergyman in the church. While studying divinity at college, a fellow student invited him to a Christian house meeting. He was welcomed there, and he soon began reading the Bible. He also began talking much with the others at the meetings. He soon left his sinful life, and began wanting to be a missionary. He began preaching in churches nearby. He still met with the growing group of evangelical believers in his university.
In 1828, Müller almost started working with Jews in England. But when he got there, in 1829, he fell ill. When he got better, he promises he would obey the will of God. He soon left London. He believed that God would provide for his needs as he did his Christian work. He became the pastor of a chapel in Devon. Soon after, he married Miss Mary Groves. While he was the pastor of the church, he would not take a regular salary. He also stopped renting pews for the church. He said that would give too much money to the wealthy.
He moved to Bristol in 1832. In 1834, he founded the "Scripture Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad". It had the goal of helping Christian schools and missionaries. And also it gave away the Bible. He did not get any money from the government. He only accepting personal gifts. But still they received, and gave away £1.5 million ($2,718,844 USD) by the time of his death. It was mainly used for supporting the orphanages he worked at. But also they giving away nearly two million Bibles and other religious texts.
Müller and his wife began working with orphans in 1836. They then kept thirty girls in their own home. Soon after that, they opened three more orphanages. That made the total of children they cared for about 130. In 1845, as they got bigger, Müller decided that they would build another building for around 300 children. In 1849, that home opened. By 1870, more than 2,000 children were being helped in their five homes.
To this point, Müller had never asked for financial support, and he did not go into debt. Even though their five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he would get free food donations only hours before it was time to eat. That helped his faith in God even more. Every morning after breakfast there was a time of Bible reading and prayer. Every child was given a Bible when they left the orphanage. The children had nice clothes. Müller even had a school inspector make sure things were done right.