1870's C. H. SPURGEON. Original Manuscript Preaching Notes on Isaiah 61:3. Beauty for Ashes.

A very scarce piece of Spurgeonalia. When Spurgeon first began preaching, he wrote his sermons out in a nearly complete manuscript. By the 1860's, he had moved to more full notes than manuscript. By the 1870's he was down to a single or double-sided sheet or notecard.  In light of his heavy speaking and pastoral demands, he found it more important to invest, as he said, in preparing the preacher than that which was to be preached. So he read voraciously, studied extensively, and prayed. By his own account, this process was forced on him because of the demands of his preaching schedule rather than by choice. Spurgeon often preached 5 times per week or more. It was simply impossible to prepare full MSs for each event. The original, pulpit-used sermon notes of Spurgeon are among the most desirable pieces of Spurgeonalia extant. We have handled a handful over the last 30 years. During the same time, we have probably handled close to 100 letters, and thousands of sermon revision pages, whic