traces the main lines of Spurgeon's spiritual thought in connection with the three great controversies in his ministry—the first was his stand against the diluted gospel fashionable in the London to which the young preacher came in the 1850's; the second, the famous 'Baptismal Regeneration' debate of 1864; lastly, the lacerating down-Grade controversy of 1887-1891 when Spurgeon sought to awaken Christians to the danger of the Church 'being buried beneath the boiling mud-showers of modern heresy.'

The book brings a greater appreciation of the importance of doctrine in Spurgeon's approach to the pulpit. He was not just a princely preacher with masterful oratory skills and insight into how to communicate the truths of Scripture, but was also a strong Calvinist and believer in the importance of doctrine in the edification of the saints. After Spurgeon's passing, Murray documents how the Metropolitan Tabernacle itself succumbed to the very evangelization techniques, fueled by Arminian tendencies, which Spurgeon himself opposed. The book introduces the reader to aspects of Spurgeon which are not as often encountered in his more popular works. (According to Murray, some of Spurgeon's references to Arminianism have been removed from the text of select sermons in the Kelvedon edition without warning of abridgement [p. 55, note 65].)