Geese in their Hoods: Selected Writings on Roman Catholicism by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Edited by Timothy F. Kauffman

White Horse Publications, 1997, 206 pages

English Baptist Pastor, Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), was known as the “Prince of the Preachers” for his eloquent and often fiery oratory. In this volume, Timothy F. Kauffman has collected some of Spurgeon’s uncompromising views on Roman Catholicism and the pro-Romanist faction of the Anglican church (aka the Oxford Movement). Spurgeon’s nineteenth-century grandiloquent prose is far from breezy reading but the material is well worth the effort.

Where are the Spurgeons of today to warn Evangelicals of accommodation with ritualism, legalism, and the gospel of merit? In stark contrast, several of today’s Evangelical leaders stumble over each other in their determined efforts to embrace Rome in the interest of ecumenical “Christian” unity. If Spurgeon were with us today he would be roundly criticized as being uncharitable and ungracious. Yet…

“Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho.”-Joshua 6:26

Since he was cursed who rebuilt Jericho, I much more the man who labours to restore Popery among us. In our fathers’ days the gigantic walls of Popery fell by the power of their faith, the perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel trumpets; and now there are some who would rebuild that accursed system upon its old foundation. O Lord, be pleased to thwart their unrighteous endeavours, and pull down every stone which they build. It should be a serious business with us to be thoroughly purged of every error which may have a tendency to foster the spirit of Popery, and when we have made a clean sweep at home we should seek in every way to oppose its all too rapid spread abroad in the church and in…

The bleak truth about most people who claim to be Christians today is that their foundation of belief is mainly built on what mere mortals like themselves say and do and on the traditions and commandments of the same mere mortals instead of being built solely and solidly on the word of God.

In other words, many Christians do what is right in their own eyes (or in the eyes of other humans and/or organizations), not recognizing, as was the pattern of Israel throughout the Old Testament, that we, like they, have a King whose authority we are under and whom we are subject to, should be wholeheartedly loyal to, and to whom we owe our complete, total and uncompromised allegiance, obedience, honor, respect, and love.