People often ask me where to look for Spurgeon memorabilia—especially letters and signatures from Spurgeon's own pen. Occasionally, eBay features quality Spurgeon collectables. At the moment, there's a rare opportunity to bid on a book personally inscribed from Spurgeon to Lord Kinnaird, a philanthropist who assisted in the support of the Pastors' College.The eBay listing bills the book as a "family Bible." The book is actually one of Spurgeon's own works—The Interpreter. This was a family devotional book written by Spurgeon and consisting of selected Bible passages with devotional commentary (much like Morning and Evening). The Interpreter was the largest of all Spurgeon's books and was as large as a family Bible, with similar binding. The signature and inscription on this copy bear all the marks of authenticity.
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PS: Not that such statistics mean anything, but according to the BlogSpot counter, this is post #100 on PyroManiac.
18 comments:
Hey Phil,
Have you ever visited the Spurgeon Library that I mentioned yesterday?
Just wondering..........
Maybe I could blog about it on my site and maybe someone could blogspot it???
in hopes of inspiration
Dave
uhm, $2.2k ... ouch
I hope this isn't off-topic, but it seems a little bit of a waste of money to spend so much on a Spurgeon "collectible". Not that I don't think it'd be kind of neat to have something like that... I think Spurgeon was a real man of God, and left a wonderful legacy of very useful literature to the Church. Several of his sermons have been particularly encouraging to me recently. And I really appreciate Phil's post yesterday on his conversion (and generally speaking, I really like this blog an awful lot).
But it seems kind of silly to honor Spurgeon by making memorabilia that sells for hundreds or thousands out of stuff he autographed or handwrote. I kind of doubt he'd think that was a really neat way for us to spend our money, but maybe I'm wrong. Isn't that kind or worldly? I'm sure someone could tell me why I'm out to lunch on this issue...
Sorry, I'm really not trying to be incindiary or mean or anything.
Stephen H.
Hey Hassel-man, I've got a Jack Hyles signed Bible I'll sell you for the right price.
:)
Hey James,
It's Hassle-man, thanks very much.
So I guess you didn't quite think my comment had any merit then? Honestly, the Jack Hyles allusion escapes me, but I found a site that seemed to belong to a fundamentalist web-ring or something. Am I a fundamentalist? Nuts.
I do have a signed copy of R.C. Sproul's Faith Alone, but he signed it in person and I let someone else borrow it once, so I guess that makes it OK. :)
100 posts. pheh. You take too many vacations. You could easily be past 200 by now ...
Hassel-man, I did think there was some merit to what you said. I was just in a bit of a frivolous mood. All in all, I would think that collecting Spurgeon memorabilia would be about as good a use of money as collecting sports memorabilia or stamps or coins or what have you. It would at least be a sort of 'Christian' hobby. It would certainly be a better use of money than purchasing Jack Hyles memorabilia. LOL
I'll trade you my autographed Jack Hyles book for your autographed Sproul book. :)
Baker Books Reprinted Spurgeon's Devotional Bible in 1990 and I was able to pick up a copy of it while I was a student at Moody. I really enjoy being able to get Spurgeon's comments on the text and enjoy reading it daily...
There are two drawbacks to it:
1. The text of the Scriptures is KJV, which isn't bad and is certainly what Spurgeon used, I would just like to have it in a modern (ESV if possible) translation.
2. The verse numbering is Roman Numerals instead of the common Arabic numbering system we use today. It makes it a little bit hard when you are doing a crossreference study and you have to look up 2 Chronicles XXXIV (34 maybe?)
Otherwise it is a great tool and certainly worthy of being edited and reprinted. Given what the Christian Focus label has done with J.C. Ryle's stuff lately in reprinting it they would be a good choice as a publisher to do this project... I nominate Phil (and I will gladly help) to jump start this project.
If you want a version of the Devotional Bible click here.
I bought a copy of Benny Hinn's "Good Morning, Holy Spirit" at Half Price Books to review it. Upon opening it one day, I saw that it was actually signed by Hinn himself (I assume). A dubious discovery, at best, I know.
Why can't that happen when I buy a used Cormac McCarthy novel?
hessel-man, that beats a Jack Hyles signed Bible anyday.....wanna trade? :-)
James,
When I get my Tales from the Temple book, will you sign it so I have a Spurgeon collectible?
Phil, I was comparing your picture with Spurgeon's. You could annex a pair of chops on that goatee of yours and get the full Spurgeon-esque beard effect. Just a thought...
James and Puritanicoal,
I dunno... your offers are tantilizing, but violate my principles. I only trade memorabilia/action figures of minister's whose writings I have a) heard of and b) profited from, or have the potential to profit from (spiritually, not financially). If I was to be a sell-out, I'd probably go with the Benny Hinn, since I've heard him (unfortunately) and since Puritanicoal doesn't find it a hassle to spell my name correctly. I did rather like the idea of a signed "Tales from the Temple" book, though... if there was, say, a complimentary play-set with it, featuring a communist-hunting preacher w/firearm, I would be sorely tempted indeed to trade my signed R.C. Sproul book
(http://holycall.com/jspurgeon/tales/TFTT2.HTM#top).
QOTD: Would Spurgeon have spent that much money on a book?
Hi Phil,
Some time ago in one of your blogs you mentioned Gary Ezzo and said you might give us some details on him. Are you going to?
Cheers,
William
Jeremy wrote: James,
When I get my Tales from the Temple book, will you sign it so I have a Spurgeon collectible?
LOL
It would be an authentic 'Spurgeon' that's for sure.
On another note, if Disney decides to do the movie, there will be lots of memorabilia available at Burger King, probably about a month before it comes out.
:)
Are we off-topic yet? I feel like I have a license to comment on anything I want if the initial blog post has the name 'Spurgeon' in it.
Dear Dr, Hassel-man, if it were not for my dyslaxia I would probably spell your name right.
:)
Hey Phil, out of the 100 posts, how many are blogspotting posts? Do those really count? That's sort of like the way they used to count bus attendance in my fundamentalist days. Sure, they had 53 on the bus, but 24 of them were workers. LOL
James - I guess I can forgive you if you have dyslexia. And calling me "Dr." more than makes up for it!
Steve - Thanks for pondering my question. You brought up some really good points, and it does take a lot of discernment. I think you're right. A purchase like that being a good use of our resources would largely depend on how much disposable income God had provided for us and what the motivations were behind it. I know, for myself, that sort of thing would be an unwise use of the resources I have - we have enough, but not such an abundance that I could justify that (I could get an awful lot of commentaries or theological works for that amount though!). And it's certainly a better use than some frivolous entertainment expense. And I do appreciate that people have preserved things like that.
I guess even with smaller purchases, like a small set of Spurgeon Sermons or something, one needs to be careful about idolizing the minister. It's unfortunately, easy to do.
I really do like the idea of a Spurgeon action figure with a Pyromanic shirt... Maybe Phil could whip up a graphic of that sometime? :)
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