Biographical Sketch

Susannah is a shining example of a woman who fulfilled God’s will in being a help, meet for her husband's needs. She herself gives the summary of her life as the wife of Charles Spurgeon: “I can see two pilgrims treading this highway of life together, hand in hand, heart linked to heart."

"Take my life, and let it be / Consecrated, Lord, to Thee." These lines have been sung and echoed in many hearts since they were written over 100 years ago. Today we will look at the life of the author. Her name is well-known in the world of hymn writers: Frances Ridley Havergal.

It was a cold winter morning and the snow was falling steadily. A fifteen-year-old boy made his way slowly through the streets of Colchester in the southeastern part of England. All his life, he had been exposed to the Word of God. His father was a pastor. His grandfather was a pastor. But he was as yet a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was a simple wedding. It had to be. The bride and groom had only known each other in the last few months, but they were bound together by a purpose greater than themselves. The groom was a young medical doctor named Marcus Whitman who had offered himself as a missionary to the tribes of the Oregon Territory on the west side of the Rocky Mountains.

The prize made the eyes of the lad sparkle with anticipation. His Sunday school teacher had offered a New Testament to any boy in the class who would memorize Psalm 119, all 176 verses! The young boy had never done anything like this before, and he was only nine years old. Sure enough, by the required time, the boy stood erect on the stand and quoted the entire psalm with only five small errors.

In 1890, one brave missionary ventured into the sandy deserts of Arabia to bring the Gospel back to the lands of the Middle East from which it had arisen centuries earlier. Samuel Marinus Zwemer would become known as the Apostle to Islam, a man who unlocked the language, culture, and religion of Islam to the Western World.

Moody’s life, preaching, and legacy have touched many lives all over the world. The boy who had honored his mother and had eaten obediently his simple porridge of cornmeal had grown up to honor the Lord and give the simple, nourishing Bread of Life to hundreds of thousands of souls across the globe.

No one in England ever would have guessed that C. T. Studd would become a missionary. Why? He was the most famous cricket player in England! His name was a household word known throughout England and the entire English-speaking world wherever the sport of cricket was followed.

Ira Sankey seemed to hear a voice say gently to him, “Sing the hymn you found on the train.” But that was impossible! The poem had no tune. In vain, he considered what to do next. Again, compelled by the quiet leading of the Holy Spirit, Sankey pulled out the newspaper clipping from his scrapbook and placed it on the organ.

As a young girl living in Boone, Iowa, the cry of Darlene’s heart was, “Lord, I’d go anywhere for you, no matter what the cost!” This enthusiastic promise she made as a child was tested many times over her long life. She carried with her all her life the lesson learned in prison: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

More than any other one man, a British politician named William Wilberforce was raised up as an instrument in the hands of God to put an end to the human-enslaving practices of the British Empire. In the generation before his birth, the Great Awakening had swept through the British Isles and the American colonies.

Just after the end of the Civil War, a pastor and his wife welcomed another baby boy into the world. They named their baby John Nelson Hyde, and they devoted their son to the service of the Lord. The father, Pastor Smith Harris Hyde, and his wife Lucinda had prayed that one of their boys would be used mightily of God in the advancement of the Gospel.

The emaciated monk wept bitterly on the floor of his chamber. Try as he might, he could not break the chains of uncleanness. He had renounced the world. He had fled all temptation. He had taken the Augustinian vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Everyone in the room knew that this Nonconformist meeting was illegal. The sound of larks and sparrows took the place of the peals of the organ. A simple table served as a pulpit, and upon it rested the well-worn Bible of John Bunyan, their pastor.

In a dark rainforest in what is now Nigeria, a young African mother placed two large clay pots under a tree. Any observer from Europe might have imagined that she was collecting food for her family. But there was a darker purpose for her actions!

Many Christians have read with spiritual profit the works of E. M. Bounds on prayer. His rich and powerful quotes on the subject of prayer have been repeated many times. He said rightly, “The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer.”

On May 11, 1928, a baby boy was born to a Dutch blacksmith and his invalid wife. They named their little boy Anne. In the Dutch language, Anne can be a masculine name. This little boy would grow up to become known as “Brother Andrew” in the English-speaking world.

George Washington Carver is most famous for discovering many remarkable uses of the sweet potato and the peanut. But Carver’s influence was far beyond these two commodities. His greatest legacy was the way that he overcame the prejudices of his generation. He helped white men, even former slaveholders, to appreciate the gifts of their black brethren. He set an example of not judging men by the color of their skin, laying aside prejudice, and following the example of His Master, Jesus.

The young couple from America stood side by side on a hill. The location was a remote area deep in the heart of China. A year earlier, the two had stood together at the marriage altar. They had faced a bright future before them, a future seemingly filled with hope and promise as they purposed to serve the Lord together. Little did they know then that their love for the Master would lead them to their present situation—on the hill of execution outside the Chinese village of Miaoshou.

The sixteen-year-old boy stood in amazement as he beheld a large temple in Kyoto, Japan. It was acclaimed to be the “temple of 33,333 gods.” Row upon row were carved wooden images, brightly gilded and set in niches in the walls. He had never seen anything like it before. William Borden was already a devoted Christian by the age of sixteen. The trip around the world opened his youthful eyes to the realities of heathenism.