Charles Simeon: A Life of Long Obedience
After a long and faithful life of preaching, teaching, and pastoring in Cambridge, England, Charles Simeon died on November 13, 1836. As he lay dying, a friend who visited him asked his thoughts as he lingered between time and eternity. Simeon responded only this: “I don’t think now; I am enjoying.”
Though they sound more like the words of a solitary mystic, they came from the lips of a pastor who poured out his life for others from the overflow of his love for Christ. As John 15:1-4 teaches us, abiding deeply in Jesus is the thing itself: fruit, even much fruit, is the inevitable outcome. Simeon knew both.
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The Beginning of Life in Christ
Simeon came to faith in Jesus while preparing for an obligatory Holy Communion service required of undergraduates at King’s College. He wrote:
On 29 January 1779, I came to college. On 2 February I understood that at division of term, I must attend the Lord’s Supper. The Provost absolutely required it. Conscience told me that, if I must go, I must repent and turn to God.
Charles Simeon, quoted in “Charles Simeon, Teacher,” Society of Archbishop Justus
The thought of receiving communion deeply troubled Simeon, but the writings of Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, fueled his faith. He read Wilson’s Instructions for the Lord’s Supper, in which he understood that worthy partaking in the Lord’s Supper happens only through repentance and faith:
Here was a quite different approach, which recognized that the law could not make one righteous, and that only the sacrifice of Christ, perceived by faith, could enable one to communicate worthily. … [Now, T]he experience of Holy Communion was one of peace and exhilaration, a new beginning of a Christian life whose influence is difficult to exaggerate.
Charles Simeon, quoted in The Church Pension Fund, Lesser Feasts and Fasts (New York, New York: Church Publishing Inc., 1998)
Difficult to exaggerate, indeed. Simeon was forever changed at the Lord’s Table. He made his communion on Easter Sunday, writing about the occasion,
From that hour peace flowed in rich abundance into my soul; and at the Lord’s Table in our Chapel I had the sweetest access to God through my blessed Savior.
Charles Simeon, quoted in Handley Moule, Charles Simeon: Pastor of a Generation (Great Britain: Christian Focus, 1997)
He said he was “enabled to see that all my sins were buried in my Redeemer’s grave.” And thus began Simeon’s life of faith. But what can we learn from the life and ministry with which God blessed him? Let’s explore six observations.
Six Observances
1. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
A priest of the Church of England, Charles Simeon lived from 1759 to 1836. He was educated at Eton and King’s College in Cambridge and then entered ordained ministry—all before age 23. His first charge as a priest would also be his last. For pastors, we see both the encouragement and the challenge of what Eugene Peterson famously called “the long obedience in the same direction.”
Simeon knew the truth and exhortation of Galatians 6:9: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.” Simeon labored as a pastor in one place for 54 years. When he began as curate-in-charge of Holy Trinity, the church was almost empty, and when he left, it was overflowing. But in between was a long, arduous row upstream.
Simeon’s long obedience is an open rebuke to a “career-driven” approach to vocational ministry. Simeon took a church he did not want and people who, for a long time, did not want him. If you are a pastor, perhaps you’ve ministered through seasons of incredibly distressing dysfunction and dissension in your parish, but have you ever had the churchwardens throw chairs out onto the church’s lawn so that the people who came to church had to sit or stand in the aisles?
Simeon did not beat the sheep into submission; he learned to be tender with them. One contemporary of Simeon’s said he was “totally free from that easy but fatal mistake of troubled pastors, the scolding accent.” He certainly did not get there by taking shortcuts, nor can we.
2. An Interwoven Devotion to Humility and Adoration
Throughout his ministry, Simeon remained committed to humble repentance and ardent adoration of Jesus. He saw them as an interwoven tapestry: depth of contrition leads to mountains of adoration. Simeon wrote:
There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease. By this I seek to be, not only humble and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually.
Charles Simeon, quoted in William Carus, Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon (London: J. Hatchard & Son, 1848)
In the Christian life, one of our greatest temptations is to credit ourselves with our own growth in holiness. Simeon conquered one of the greatest temptations in the veteran Christian life: the temptation to move from being a forgiven prodigal son to an arrogant elder brother (Luke 15:11-32). His ballast remained, and so he was safe.
3. The Role of Suffering
Simeon also knew the role of suffering and rebuke in the life of the Christian. He faces a decline in health from age 47 to 60, experiencing a debilitating loss of his voice, often being able to preach in nothing more than a whisper. He said that after preaching, he would feel “more like one dead than alive.” This continued until he took a trip to Scotland. As he reached the border, he experienced a miraculous healing. In his words, he was “almost as perceptibly revived in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord’s garment.”
How did he interpret this 13-year malady followed by immediate healing? In his words, he sensed the Lord’s purpose to him was this:
“I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labour; but that now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan.”
Charles Simeon, quoted in Handley Moule, Charles Simeon: Pastor of a Generation (Great Britain: Christian Focus, 1997)
In Simeon’s Christianity, there was room for the lovingly chastening work of God. The author of Hebrews admonishes us:
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.
Hebrews 12:5-6
4. The Role of Rebuke
And perhaps because he understood the Lord’s work this way, he could also receive a word of rebuke from others. One time, Simeon visited the home of a certain Mr. Hankinson. During the visit, Hankinson noticed how bad his temper was. Charles got mad at a particular servant who was stoking the fireplace. He burst out angrily again when the same servant put the wrong bridle on his horse.
Mr. Hankinson saw this and stuffed a letter in one of his bags, pretending to write it from the servant himself. He wrote in the letter that he could not understand “how a gentleman who preached and prayed so well should be in such passions about nothing, and wear no bridle upon his tongue.” The letter was signed “John Softly.”
How did Simeon respond? He sent two letters back. One to the servant himself and one to Mr. Hankinson. To the servant, he addressed a letter from “Charles Proud and Irritable,” saying, “I most cordially thank you, my dear friend, for your kind and seasonable reproof.” The second letter read: “I hope, my dearest brother, that when you find your soul nigh to God, you will remember one who so greatly needs all the help he can get.”
Like all saints worth imitating, Simeon knew the value of both suffering and rebuke in the believer’s life.
5. Quick to Keep the Bond of Peace & Charity
And yet, even with the weaknesses displayed above, Simeon knew the value of godly interpersonal communication. When he was criticized by a man named Edward Pearson, he wrote to him, saying:
“Persons who have the same general design, but differ in some particular modes of carrying it into execution, often stand more aloof from each other than they do from persons whose principles and conduct they entirely disapprove. Hence prejudice arises and a tendency to mutual crimination; whereas, if they occasionally conversed for half an hour with each other, they would soon rectify their mutual misapprehensions, and concur in aiding, rather than undermining, the efforts of each other for the public good.”
Charles Simeon, quoted in John Piper, “Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering”
In other words, the outcome is nearly always better when we choose to handle difficult conversations in person in the Body of Christ. We are more likely to understand one another and come to mutual agreement. In an age where communication has become incredibly depersonalized, it is easier to default to shooting off a thoughtless text or an email instead of having a difficult face-to-face conversation. However, Ephesians 4:2-3 admonishes us to bear “with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
6. Celibacy & Service in the Kingdom
Simeon’s life is an example of one who was called to the road less traveled. As our Lord teaches, “There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:12). Simeon saw himself as called not to listless singleness but to a life of celibacy.
There are, ultimately, only two viable tracks in the kingdom of God: Holy Matrimony and devoted celibacy. Both are fruitful tracks and opportunities for devoted service to Christ, and Simeon’s life is a reminder that lifelong celibacy is of great value to the kingdom. For his entire life, Simeon rented rooms at Cambridge as a Fellow of King’s College. He arranged all of his life toward an economy of means to maximize God’s glory.
Simeon’s Works
Over his ministry, Simeon raised up preachers and crafted preaching resources, including his 21-volume commentary on Scripture (Horae homileticae). He also became one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799 and the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) in 1809. Still, above all these accomplishments, he should have our admiration because he stayed in one place, pastoring as many as he could for as long as he could. His heritage now reaches the world.
Resources
Interested readers will find Pastor John Piper’s presentation on Charles Simeon’s life, “Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering,” very helpful. My article has drawn on many of his insights. Handley Moule’s book Charles Simeon: Pastor of a Generation is the go-to resource for a more in-depth look at his life. Additionally, some quotes have been drawn from William Carus’s Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon.
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