Susie: The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon, wife of Charles H. Spurgeon

by Ray Rhodes Jr.

I pour out my grief before the Lord, and tell Him again that though I am left alone, yet I know that “He hath done all things well.”

God knows all our wickedness. He has seen all our waywardness; yet His purpose towards us is one of healing and pardon, and not of anger and putting away.12

Many years later, after her conversion, Susie still grieved over her “misgivings” and “weaknesses.” In her later years, she still considered herself “so forgetful, so unworthy, so inexcusable,” yet by that time she understood God’s kindness and sought Him for help to overcome her sins.28

It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else might we sometimes turn away from our best blessings, and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of His providence.5

Seek a good wife of thy God, for she is the best gift of his providence; Yet ask not in bold confidence that which he hath not promised. Thou knowest not his good will:—be thy prayer then submissive thereunto; And leave the petition to his mercy, assured that he will deal well with thee. If thou art to have a wife of thy youth, she is now living on the earth; Therefore think of her, and pray for her weal; yea, though thou has not seen her.2

‘Dear boys of mine, I have no reason to suppose that you are yet trusting Christ: you will, I hope, in answer to our constant prayers, but till you definitely do you must not say or sing ‘I do believe, that Jesus died for me.’ It is just as wrong to sing a lie as to tell one.”

“Though we may not at the time, see His purpose in the afflictions which He sends us, it will be plainly revealed when the light of eternity falls upon the road along which we have journeyed.”41

My God, I read this day, That planted Paradise was not so firm, As was and is thy floating Ark; whose stay And anchor thou art only, to confirm And strengthen it in ev’ry age, When waves do rise, and tempests rage.45

None of her writings, at least, indicate that Susie felt bitter or angry with her lot in life; on the contrary, she said that she was “so unworthy” of the kindnesses of God.43

Similarly, a year after Charles’s death, she wrote: “Dear fellow-Christian, do not faint or fear when the blessed Husbandman cuts, and grafts, and wounds thee!” She encouraged her readers to not be as much concerned about the pain the grafting causes but more that fruit should come through suffering. She was convinced that God does not forget His people but “watches with loving scrutiny every indication of developing fruit-buds” and that “great will be His joy, when, in full strength and beauty, thou shalt glorify Him by thy abundant fruitfulness.”44 She declared, “Yet how good God has been to me! He has upheld me through days of darkness, and seasons of sorrow, of which none knew but Himself and my own soul.”45

The Tabernacle had many ministries, including a “flower mission.” Regularly, servants in this unheralded ministry made the seven-mile trip to Westwood to gather flowers for their baskets to bring a bit of joy to the suffering and discouraged poor.34

This is a theme that recurs in Susie’s work; she writes about her suffering, not to evoke the pity of her readers but to display the comfort of God and His pity and compassion. Her aim is to glorify God, not to exalt her loneliness, physical sufferings, or emotional turmoil.

Commenting on Psalm 31:15, My times are in Thy hand, Susie recognized that the practical aim in the passage was to calm the reader and provide a foundation of peace. She asked: “Why then need I trouble or tremble?” Believing that almighty God ordered and kept her life and that His Word was trustworthy soothed her troubled heart.16 She appealed to her readers to apply the doctrines of God’s ordering of their lives, His power, and His care to “your present circumstances, however dark or difficult they may be.”17

“If we would trust Him for the keeping, as we do for the saving, our lives would be far holier and happier than they are.”19

published three devotionals: A Carillon of Bells (1896), A Cluster of Camphire (1898), and A Basket of Summer Fruit (1901).

Eyes and heart are both sorely aching with grief at the sight of the sin, and selfishness, and sorrow, which are within and around me; but help me, dear Lord, to look up, enable me to “lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh mine help.” As travellers on the great mountains refrain from looking down the steep precipices, keeping their eyes fixed on the heights above lest a sudden vertigo should overcome them, so may I look unto the Lord with humble, steadfast gaze, and receive courage and strength to press onward and upward in the path he has marked out for me!2

Keep your minister’s table well provided, and you shall be fed with the finest of the wheat; see that his earthly cares do not press on him painfully, and your own hearts’ burdens will be lifted by his heavenly teachings; supply him with this world’s needful comforts and he will not fail to bring you solace and consolation in your time of extremity. If he has sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing that he shall reap carnal things?13

When the storms come, and our trees of delight are bare and leafless, when He strips us of the comforts to which His love has accustomed us—or more painful still,—when He leaves us alone in the world, to mourn the absence of the chief desire of our heart;—to sing to Him then, to bless and praise and laud His dear name then, this is the work of His free grace only.20