Doctrine

Spurgeon did not attack Arminianism because he believed those errors meant that a person holding them could not be a Christian; he did not believe any such thing. Indeed he held that a man may be an evangelical Arminian, like John Wesley or John Fletcher of Madeley, and live 'far above the ordinary level of common Christians,; he knew that a man may be earnest for election and 'be as proud as Lucifer', while other Christians may live humble and useful lives who do not see these truths: 'Far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians with her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views.' In other words Spurgion saw - what we need to see - that a distinction must be drawn between errors and persons. All that are within the circle of Christ's love must be within the circle of our love, and to contend for doctrine in a manner which ignores this truth is a rending of the unity of that Church which is His Body. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon p. 65