Spurgeon - Single Reflection, Power of Comfort

The evening of October 19, 1856, 22-year-old Charles Spurgeon was set to preach at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall, which seated at least 10,000. The Hall quickly filled in anticipation of the service, people filling every seat and crowding the aisles and stairways, with thousands more standing outside to hear Spurgeon through the open windows. Shortly after Spurgeon began the services with prayer, someone in the crowd shouted, “Fire!” Panic swept the crowd and there began a rush on the exits. It is said that some outside, seeing now-opened seats inside the Hall, began to rush in. Throughout the chaotic events Spurgeon tried to calm the people, but in the end, 7 people were crushed to death, and 28 others were severely wounded. Spurgeon was devastated by what had happened, and his critics used the event to slander the young preacher.

Spurgeon withdrew from his ministry for over a week. He later reported that it was while walking through a friend’s garden that the Lord impressed upon him the text of Philippians 2:9, "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name."

Encouraged and strengthened by the Lord and His promises, he returned to the pulpit. In Spurgeon’s first sermon after the October 19th tragedy, he said, "The text I have selected is one that has comforted me, and in a great measure, enabled me to come here today - the single reflection upon it had such a power of comfort on my depressed spirit. It is this: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

*Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, to that One Single Name that is Above All Others!