Charles Spurgeon sermon notes: where to find them (+ how to make your own)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) preached in London for nearly forty years, most of it at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and was known in his own lifetime as the Prince of Preachers. His sermons were taken down in shorthand, revised by him, and published weekly, which is why the collected series known as The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit runs to sixty three volumes.
This changes the entire problem for a note-taker. Spurgeon died in 1892 and his works are in the public domain, so you are not hunting for an official transcript or wondering what a ministry permits. The full text of thousands of his sermons is legally free to read, quote, print and share. Almost nothing else on this site is like that.
So if you are searching for Spurgeon sermon notes, the question is not where to find the words. It is how to outline a Victorian sermon, which is built quite differently from a modern one: a short text, formal numbered divisions, extended imagery, and a closing section that speaks to different groups of hearers in turn.
Where to find official Charles Spurgeon sermon notes
Because the works are public domain, the sources are archives and libraries rather than a ministry:
The published sermon series
The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit together contain the weekly sermons as revised by Spurgeon himself. These are the authoritative texts, and being public domain they are widely reproduced in full online and in print.
Public domain text archives
Large free text libraries carry his sermons and books complete. Prefer a source that gives the sermon number and the volume, because a Spurgeon sermon is properly cited that way and it makes your notes traceable.
His own books
'The Treasury of David' on the Psalms, 'Lectures to My Students', 'Morning and Evening' and 'All of Grace' are among his best known works and are also public domain. The Treasury in particular is effectively his study notes on a whole book of the Bible.
Modern audio readings
Volunteer read recordings of the sermons exist because the text is free to record. If you prefer listening, these are a legitimate route, and a transcript of one is simply a copy of a public domain text.
A note on copyright: Charles Spurgeon's sermons and any official notes remain the intellectual property of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Everything below is about making notes for your own study, not about republishing the ministry's content.
Notes on individual Spurgeon sermons
Outlines, key quotes, Scripture references and small-group questions for 33 of Spurgeon's sermons, made from the public-domain text with the same Sermon Pack our customers get for their own preaching.
The Immutability of God
Malachi 3:6 · Sermon No. 1
The Good Shepherd
Psalm 23:1 · Sermon No. 3060
Compel Them to Come In
Luke 14:23 · Sermon No. 227
Under His Shadow
Psalm 91:1 · Sermon No. 3267
Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility
Romans 10:20-21 · Sermon No. 207
Immeasurable Love
John 3:16 · Sermon No. 1850
Christ Crucified
1 Corinthians 2:2 · Sermon No. 2673
The True Christian's Blessedness
Romans 8:28 · Sermon No. 159
Baptismal Regeneration
Mark 16:15-16 · Sermon No. 573
Sin Laid on Jesus
Isaiah 53:6 · Sermon No. 694
Free Will, a Slave
John 5:40 · Sermon No. 52
Rest, Rest
Matthew 11:28-30 · Sermon No. 969
Particular Redemption
Matthew 20:28 · Sermon No. 181
All-Sufficiency Magnified
Philippians 4:13 · Sermon No. 346
Human Inability
John 6:44 · Sermon No. 182
God's Thoughts Of Peace and Our Expected End
Jeremiah 29:11 · Sermon No. 1965
Christ Our Passover
1 Corinthians 5:7 · Sermon No. 54
The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death
Psalm 23:4 · Sermon No. 1595
The Power of the Holy Ghost
Romans 15:13 · Sermon No. 30
The Snare of the Fowler
Psalm 91:3 · Sermon No. 124
The Personality of the Holy Ghost
John 14:16-17 · Sermon No. 4
The Universal Remedy
Isaiah 53:5 · Sermon No. 834
Turn or Burn
Psalm 7:12 · Sermon No. 106
The Meek and Lowly One
Matthew 11:28-30 · Sermon No. 265
Songs in the Night
Job 35:10 · Sermon No. 2558
How To Keep the Heart
Philippians 4:7 · Sermon No. 180
The Blood
Exodus 12:13 · Sermon No. 228
Renewing Strength
Isaiah 40:31 · Sermon No. 1756
The Death of Christ
Isaiah 53:10 · Sermon No. 173
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
John 14:1 · Sermon No. 730
Accidents, Not Punishments
Luke 13:1-5 · Sermon No. 408
More Than Conquerors
Romans 8:37 · Sermon No. 751
Jacob and Esau
Romans 9:15 · Sermon No. 239
How to create your own sermon notes from any Charles Spurgeon sermon
You already have the text, so the workflow here is about compression rather than capture. Expect twenty minutes for a sermon you actually want to keep:
Get the sermon text
Find the sermon by its text or its number in one of the published volumes. Note the volume and sermon number at the top of your page. Victorian sermons are often titled in ways that do not describe their content, so the reference matters more than the title.
Or transcribe an audio reading
If you are working from a recorded reading, upload the audio and get the text in minutes, first sermon free. This is also the fastest route if you are studying a modern sermon preached on a Spurgeon text and want the two side by side.
Transcribe an audio readingRecover the divisions
Run the text through the free outline generator. Spurgeon almost always announced numbered divisions near the start, so the recovered outline should map closely to what he preached. If it does not, you are probably looking at a revised or abridged edition.
Generate sermon notes freeTranslate the Victorian phrasing
Rewrite each division in plain modern English underneath his wording. Keep both. The nineteenth century phrasing is often the reason a point feels obscure, and the rewrite is what makes it usable in a class or a small group.
Quote freely, and say where it is from
Because the text is public domain you may reproduce it at length without permission. Citing the sermon number and volume anyway is good practice and lets anyone check you.
The Victorian Divisions Method
Text, Divisions, Imagery, Address
Nineteenth century sermon architecture is formal and consistent, and once you can see it the sermons stop feeling long. Four sections on one page:
The verse, usually short, sometimes only a clause. Write it out in full and note what he says the words mean before he does anything else with them.
His numbered heads, in his own wording, in order. He states them near the beginning and returns to them explicitly. Two to four is typical.
The extended metaphors, which are the most distinctive feature of the writing. One line each, with the doctrine it carries. This is where a Victorian sermon does its emotional work.
The closing section, where he turns and speaks to particular groups in turn: the believer, the doubting, the unconverted. Note who he addresses and what he asks of each. Modern sermons rarely do this and it is easy to skim past.
Tip: Read the Address section first, then the sermon. Knowing who he is aiming at makes the earlier divisions read as preparation rather than as digression, and the sermon becomes far shorter than it looked.
Study tips for Charles Spurgeon's preaching
Use the freedom the public domain gives you
You can print a sermon for a class, put an excerpt in a bulletin, or read a paragraph aloud without asking anyone. Very little sermon material is this unrestricted, and it makes Spurgeon an unusually practical choice for group study.
Watch how he gets from any text to Christ
He is widely quoted as saying he made a beeline from every text to the cross. The exact wording is often disputed but the habit is plainly visible in the sermons. Tracking the route he takes from an obscure verse is a genuine education in preaching.
Note the length and the reason for it
These sermons were preached to congregations who expected an hour and were then read at home during the week. Reading one in two sittings, as its first audience effectively did, is a fairer test of it than skimming it on a phone.
Frequently asked questions
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Transcribe any sermon free
Spurgeon's words survive because someone wrote them down every week. Do the same for your own pulpit. Your first sermon is free, no credit card to start, then $19/month for unlimited sermons.
Start transcribing freeThen turn the transcript into notes with the free sermon outline generator.
Want the bigger picture on Charles Spurgeon's ministry and most notable messages? See our Charles Spurgeon sermon archive guide in the Famous Sermons library.
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