ABSTRACT
Spurgeon had few confidantes and few close friends among his peers. The last chapter in Spurgeon's great career was a tragic one. On his fiftieth birthday in 1884 he had appeared at the very pinnacle of his chosen profession-admired, respected, the idol of thousands, a man whose word might influence elections and whose sermons work miracles. His physical infirmity, coupled with the emotional strain of the Downgrade Controversy, produced in Spurgeon a deep sense of melancholy. Spurgeon's final illness coincided with his struggle with the Baptist Union, and his opponents in the controversy frequently suggested that illness had warped his mind and embittered his outlook. His supporters, on the other hand, argued that the controversy aggravated his illness, and after his death, they were to cast him in the role of a "martyr for truth".
