“Beloved President, faithful Pastor, Prince of Preachers, brother Beloved, Dear Spurgeon–We bid thee not ‘farewell,’ but only for a little while ‘goodnight.’
Thou shalt rise soon at the first dawn of the resurrection day of the redeemed. Yet is the goodnight not ours to bid, but thine; it is we who linger in the darkness; thou art in God’s holy light.
Our night shall soon be passed, and with it all our weeping. Then, with thine, our songs shall greet the morning of a day that knows no cloud nor close; for there is no night there.
Hard worker in the field, thy toil is ended. Straight has been the furrow thou hast ploughed. No looking back has marred thy course.
Harvests have followed thy patient sowing, and heaven is already rich with thine ingathered sheaves, and shall still be enriched through the years yet lying in eternity.
Champion of God, thy battle, long and nobly fought, is over; thy sword, which clave to thy hand, has dropped at last: a palm branch takes it place.
No longer does the helmet press thy brow, oft weary with its surging thoughts of battle; a victor’s wreath from the great Commander’s hand has already proved thy full reward.
Here, for a little while, shall rest thy precious dust. Then shall thy Well-Beloved come; and at His voice thou shalt spring from thy couch of earth, fashioned like unto His body, into glory.
Then spirit, soul, and body shall magnify the Lord’s redemption. Until then, beloved, sleep.
We praise God for thee, and by the blood of the everlasting covenant, hope and expect to praise God with thee. Amen.”
–Archibald Brown, “Eulogy for Charles Haddon Spurgeon,” as quoted in Tom Nettles, Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Geanies House, Fearn, Scotland, UK: Christian Focus, 2014), 665. Brown gave this eulogy at Spurgeon’s funeral following his death on January 31, 1892.
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