ChaHes T^a ^^REACHER ^ Author ^hilanthro tihxaxy of Che trheolo^ical ^emmarjp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY TheEstate of Rockwell^ ^ Brank BX 649 5 .S7 ¥56 1886 Pike, G. Holden 1836- Charles Haddon Spurgeon CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. BIBLE CONQUESTS IN MANY LANDS. Striking Ex- periences of Distributors and Pioneers. Croivn 8vo, cloth, 3s. dd. " A most valuable repository of anecdote for the Sunday School teacher or public speaker on religious subjects. It is a rich store- house of illustrations." — Record. THE HEAVENLY WORLD. Views of the Future Life by Eminent Writers. Crown Svo, cloth, 3s. 6d. "A rich collection which will gladden thousands of hearts."— Sword and Trowel. "The selections exhibit all the excellencies which might be expected from authors whose reputation is so high. To the aged, the sick, the bereaved, or the sorrowful, the book will be peculiarly acceptable ; whilst the happy will be made happier by the glorious prospects to which it points." — Christian. London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. c;^^^"^--^^^:^'^ ^'^^k^--^ charLes haddon ^§xtnchctf giutj0r, aiiir |pMIanl&r0^ist» WIT/I ANECDOTAL REMINISCENCES. G. HOLDEN PIKE. AUTHOR OF "the ROMANCE OF THE STREETS, ETC. TORONTO: S. R. BRIGGS, TORONTO WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPOT, Corner of Yonge and Temperance Streets. \.All rights reserved,} Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. PREFACE. T HAVE endeavoured in this volume to tell the public what I thought they would like to know respecting Mr. Spurgeon and his work without unduly prying into the Pastor's private life. Ten years ago I published, through Messrs. James Clarke & Co., a brocJmre on this same subject, which found some acceptance ; and with my friends' permission I have reprinted a few pages from that little work, much of which is now out of date. In 1878 I also issued, through Messrs. Pass- more & Alabaster, " Seven Portraits, etc., with Reminiscences of Life at Waterbeach and London." I have also given some passages from that pamphlet, the main attraction of which, however, vi Preface. consists in the admirably executed frontispiece, which gives Mr. Spurgeon's portrait at seven different periods of his career. With the exceptions named, I have drawn my materials from all available sources ; and I have done my best to avoid errors, and all things beside which could in any way occasion annoyance- My one aim has been to please Mr. Spurgeon's wide circle of friends, and to advance the common cause in which the Pastor is engaged. G. H. P. London, October 1886. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE MR. SPURGEON'S early DAYS 3 CHAPTER II. REMINISCENCES OF WATERBEACH . . . .29 CHAPTER III. THE FIRST SUNDAYS IN LONDON . . . -57 CHAPTER IV. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 89 CHAPTER V. ANECDOTES, LETTERS, ANA, ETC 121 CHAPTER VI. SOME SPECIAL OCCASIONS 159 . CHAPTER VII. TWO THOUSAND PRINTED SERMONS . . . -195 viii Contents. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE THE preacher's REWARD — ANECDOTES ABOUT THE SERMONS 219 CHAPTER IX. MR. SPURGEON'S BOOKS 25 1 CHAPTER X. THE BOOK FUND 269 CHAPTER XI. REVIEWS IN "THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL" . 289 MR. SPURGEON' S EARLY DAYS. '' 1 will ask any sensible man, above all, any serious Christian here, whether there have not been certain times in his life when he could most distinctly see that indeed God did ' choose his inheritance for him ' ? . . . I do not know whether all of you can go with me here ; but I think you must in some instance or other be forced to see that God has indeed ordained your inherita^ice for you. If you cannot, I can. I can see a thousand chances, as men would call them, all working together like wheels in a great piece of machinery, to fix me just where I am ; and I can look back to a hundred places where, if one of those little wheels had run away — if one of those little atoms in the great whirlpool of my existence had started aside — I might have been anywhere but here, occupying a very different position. If you cannot say this, I know / can with emphasis, and can trace God's hand back to the period of my birth through every step I have taken ; I can feel that indeed God has allotted my inheritance for me. If any of you are so wilfully beclouded that you will not see the hand of God in your being, and will insist that all has been done by your will without Providence ; that you have been left to steer your own course across the ocean of existence ; and that you are where you are because your own hand guided the tiller, and your own arm directed the rudder, all I can say is, my own experience belies the fact, and the experience of many now in this place would rise in testimony against you, and say, ' Verily, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' — ' Man proposes, but God disposes ; ' and the God of heaven is not unoccupied, but is engaged in over-ruling, ordering, altering, working all things according to the good pleasure of His will." — The New Park Street Pulpit, i. 255. I. MR. SPURGEON'S EARLY DAYS. MANY hands have tried to do what I shall certainly not attempt in this volume — to write the life of Mr. Spurgeon. To accomplish such a task would be as impossible to-day as it will be in the future. No great man can be worthily preserved on paper — not even by the most perfect Boswellian mode of treatment ; and what the Pastor has been heard to threaten he will do, should he ever be approached by a first cousin of Johnson's biographer, may well intimidate the boldest member of that inquisitive tribe. I am not a Boswell ; I am not a bio- grapher. I shall not impertinently pry behind the scenes of private life to annoy a worthy family on the one hand, and to gratify a morbid public curiosity on the other hand. All that is purposed to be done is, to produce a series of sketches different from anything which has, as yet, been put together in a volume, and which shall be 4 Early Days. sufficiently true to life not to mislead outsiders, and not to shock the sensibilities of friends. In case any reader should need them for reference, I shall, in this opening chapter, put down a few commonplace facts such as are widely known and are everybody's property. Mr. Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, in Essex, on the 19th of June, 1834 ; and, as the world is fond of comparing the events in the life of one great man with those belonging to the course of another great man, it may be remarked that on that auspicious day Thomas Babington Macaulay '* crossed the frontier of Mysore." It was in that year, moreover, that the Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire. During several generations, the Spurgeons have been engaged in the Christian ministry. The Pastor's grandfather spent half a century among a flock at Stambourne, and this old worthy's son is a valued minister of the Inde- pendent denomination at the present time. One of the earliest custodians of the popular preacher was an affectionate maiden aunt, who, with others, could not fail to detect a precocious talent in her youthful charge. We have all heard how Richard Knill looked upon the boy with admiration, to express hopes in regard to the future which have not been disappointed. A Puritan Veteran, Some years ago the Rev. W. Osborne, who is now pastor of a flourishing Baptist Church at Eastbourne, supplied me with the following re- miniscence of the Rev. James Spurgeon of Stambourne : — The day preceding that on which he entered on college work in London, Mr. Osborne preached at Stambourne for old Mr. Spurgeon, who was then an octogenarian, and showed the strongest possible partiality for Dr. Watts's hymns. This deep-rooted prejudice on the part o{ the old gentleman was a trait in his character with which the neighbours and regular hearers were familiar ; but it was something of which the young preacher had never heard even the slightest whisper. Mr. Osborne arrived at Stambourne, he entered the chapel, to receive the first intimation of a coming disagreement when a member of the congregation expressed a hope that the hymns were selected, and that all were of Dr. Watts's composition. On turning to the book it was at once seen that the unlucky youth had missed his way in each selection, every hymn being the production of an unappreciated poet, for none would suit the old gentleman but those of Isaac Watts. Time was pressing, however, and the hymns were allowed to pass ; but as the service went on, the effects of the strange verses on the mind of the old pastor 6 Early Days. were striking, and calculated to create trepidation in the heart of an inexperienced preacher. Like a master in Israel the old man took a seat in the table-pew, and, as occasion required, he cast a searching glance towards the pulpit. When the first hymn was announced he signified his dis- approval by gravely shaking his head ; when the second was given out, with no improvement, he expressed his disgust by simply closing the book ; but when the third came, and was still by a for- bidden author, he raised his fist as though he would chastise the offender. At the conclusion of the service there was an explosion, not of wrath, but of pent-up feeling. " Young man ! " cried the aged pastor, with a genial twinkle of the eye, while he raised a stout stick to give emphasis to his words — " Young man ! if you do not want your brains knocked out, you umst sing Dr. Watts's hymns ! " If he was not actually terrified into compliance with these forcible demands, Mr. Osborne took particular care not to repeat in the afternoon the mistake of the morning. At this second service hymns by Dr. Watts were quietly introduced ; old Mr. Spurgeon according the preacher a nod of approval as soon as the first was announced. When the second and third hymns were such as could be commended, former chagrin gave place to extreme satisfaction. A CJiild Preacher. ' ' Right, sir, right ! " cried the pastor, after listening admiringly to a sermon on the fall of Jericho, " I am glad to see you can appreciate the best authors so quickly. Go now and get your ram's horn ready, like those men, and God may make you the means of hurling to the ground walls as strong and stubborn as those " — i.e., of Jericho. On the following day Mr. Osborne removed to London, joined the Pastors' College, and thus got his " ram's horn ready " for future service in a manner that won the approval of his honest, outspoken preceptor. It is generally understood that Mr. Spurgeon showed his ministerial proclivities almost as soon as he could walk and speak. His earliest recol- lections are of reading religious books ; and in childish days he would address an audience, corresponding in age to his own years, with more force than some adults can command in the pulpit. Very strong tendencies in a certain direction in childhood are always interesting ; they must have been doubly so in a case where the subject was endowed with one of the finest voices of which we have any example. Though thus piously brought up, he was not converted until he was sixteen, and the great change occurred at Colchester, in which town he purposed to visit one sanctuary after another in search of 8 Early Days. saving light. He turned into one of the humblest of chapels, and there heard a thin, pale man preach from the words, " Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." The manner in which the preacher cried, " Look ! Look ! LOOK ! " was peculiarly striking, and, what is better, relief came instantly, the simplicity of the Gospel being at once appreciated. The pulpit in which this memorable " Look " sermon was preached may now be seen at the Stockwell Orphanage. On a certain occasion, Mr. Spurgeon's father, in speaking of his family to Dr. Ford, of America, is reported to have remarked : — " I had been from home a great deal, trying to build up weak congregations, and felt that I was neglecting the religious training of my own children while I toiled for the good of others. I returned home with these feelings. I opened the door, and was surprised to find none of the children about the hall. Going quietly up the stairs, I heard my wife's voice. She was engaged in prayer with the children. I heard her pray for them one by one by name. She came to Charles, and specially prayed for him, for he was of high spirit and daring temper. I listened till she had ended her prayer, and I felt and said, ' Lord, I will go on with Thy work. The children will be cared for.' " Juvenile Literary Efjorts. Of his education after this date, little needs to be said. He plodded as a schoolboy at Colchester. He studied for a time at Maidstone, in an agricultural college of that town. He subsequently accepted an appointment in a school at Newmarket, the principal of which was a Baptist ; but I am not aware that this fact in any way accounts for the change of sentiment — the transition from Psedobaptist to Baptist views — which about this time occurred. That change was brought about by a close study of the Bible ; for Mr. Spurgeon's mind is of an inde- pendent cast, that would not brook the inter- ference of any lower authority than Scripture. Thus early his mind was activ'e, while his industry was great. A slight brochure of those days, called " Antichrist and her Brood," has never been published, although I believe that the MS. is still in the possession of the Rev. John Spurgeon. A poem called " The Fall of Jericho " was printed, and afterwards republished in the first number of TJie Sword and the Trowel. Before his conversion, and as a mere youth, Mr. Spurgeon was tempted to become an un- believer ; and while preaching at Exeter Hall, on Sunday evening, March 1 8th, 1855, he gave some vivid reminiscences of that unhappy time lo Early Days. e.g. — " There may be some one here to-night who has come without faith, a man of reason, a free- thinker. With him I have no argument at all. I profess not to stand here as a controversialist, but as a preacher of things that I know and feel. But I too have been like him. There was an evil hour when once I slipped the anchor of my faith ; I cut the cable of my belief ; I no longer moored myself hard by the coasts of revelation ; I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind ; I said to reason, ' Be thou my captain ; ' I said to my own brain, ' Be thou my rudder ; ' and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God it is all over now ; but I will tell you its brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean of free thought. I went on, and as I went the skies began to darken ; but to make up for that deficiency the waters were brilliant with coruscations of brilliancy. I saw sparks flying upwards that pleased me, and I thought, ' If this be free thought, it is a happy thing.' My thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered stars with both my hands. But anon, instead of these coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed on they gnashed their teeth and grinned upon me ; they seized the prow of my ship and dragged me on, while I, in part, gloried at the In the Realm of Unbelief. 1 1 rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I passed the old land- marks of my faith. As I hurried forward with an awful speed, I bef]^an to doubt my very existence ; I doubted if there were a world, I doubted if there were such a thing as myself. I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of unbelief. I went to the very bottom of the sea of infidelity. I doubted everything. But here the devil foiled himself ; for the very extrava- gance of the doubt proved its absurdity. Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there carnc a voice which said, ' And can this doubt be true ? ' At this very thought I awoke. I started from that death-dream, which God knows might have damned my soul, and ruined this my body, if I had not awoke. When I arose faith took the helm ; from that moment I doubted not. Faith steered me back ; faith cried, ' Away, away ! ' I cast my anchor on Calvary ; I lifted my eye to God ; and here I am alive, and out of hell. Therefore, I speak what I do know. I have sailed that perilous voyage ; I have come safe to land. Ask me again to be an infidel ! No ; I have tried it ; it was sv/eet at first, but bitter afterwards." I will now briefly allude to the pastor's first sermon, and then return to some other things 12 Early Days. which were providentially overruled to produce the best results in after days. On a certain day, between twenty and thirty years ago, two young men might have been seen walking out of Cambridge towards a village lying in the suburbs of that town, for the purpose of holding a cottage service. Neither of the two pedestrians had ever preached a sermon in his life ; but more singular was the fact that each marched forward along the green level lanes while harbouring the comfortable mistake that the other was the preacher for the day. They talked as they travelled, and, after a time, the younger ventured to intimate to his companion that he hoped the Lord would bless his — the companion's — labours. Those words as they fell appear to have produced something akin to an electric shock. " Oh, dear ! " cried the elder youth, eagerly, desirous of correcting an incon- venient error — " Oh, dear, I never preached in my life. I never thought of doing such a thing. ^ was asked to walk with you, and I sincerely hope God will bless yon in your preaching." " Nay," cried the younger, apparently growing nervous, " but I never preached, and I don't know that I could do anything of the sort." The elder had thrown off the burden ; the younger walked on, filled with fear and trembling. There was A Child Theologian. the cottage, there were the people assembled, and a sermon would have to be preached to them. The effort was made ; the younger of the two novices made that effort, succeeded beyond his expectations — and his name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. For years before this eventful day in his history he had shown himself to be of a strongly in- quisitive mind. Having once set his heart on knowing a thing, he would persevere until he came at the truth, nor would he allow his reasonable curiosity to be evaded either by the friendly " Pooh, pooh ! " or by sterner rebuke. In an autobiographical article, published more than ten years ago, we are supplied with some juvenile reminiscences far too characteristic to be over- looked. When as a child he was living with his grandfather, it w^as the custom for Charles Haddon to read the Scriptures at family worship, and on every occasion he was allowed the licence of asking any question he chose on the portion for the day. On a certain morning the incon- veniently-inquisitive reader came to the " bottom- less pit " of the Revelation, and immediately asked, " Grandpa, what can this mean t " " Pooh, pooh ! child, go on," replied the old man, regard- ing the question as too trivial to call for serious reply. To a child, however, every subject of 14 Early Days. interest is important; and in this instance Charles determined to read the same chapter morning after morning until a satisfactory explanation should be offered. "Well, dear, what is it that puzzles you ? " asked the grandfather, after he had heard about the Beast, the Mother of Harlots, etc., etc., etc., as often as he thought desirable, or perhaps profitable. The question was then put in a more definite form, " If the pit aforesaid had no bottom, where would all those people fall to who dropped out at its lower end t " The query was too deep to be answered at once ; it seems to have disturbed the gravity of the little circle, and to have been a sample of the " diffi- culties " that were propounded for elucidation at family worship. The late sainted Mr. Knill, of Chester, was a friend of the family in those early days, and he happened to be drawn in an extraordinary manner towards the child whose singularities were suffi- ciently marked to make him an object of more than ordinary interest. One fine morning Mr. Knill awoke his protege at an early hour, and for some time they walked together in the garden. They conversed about books and reading, and about the privilege of winning souls for Christ. Then they knelt together in the arbour, where the elder prayed for the younger, and did so in Mr. Kniirs Prophecy. i5 a manner that brought a blessing and left a life- long impression. Afterwards, in the midst of the family circle, Mr. Knill placed the child on his knee, and remarked, " I do not know how it is, but I feel a solemn presentiment this child will preach the Gospel to thousands, and God will bless him to many souls. So sure am I of this, that when my little man preaches in Rowland Hill's Chapel — as he will do one day — I should like him to promise me that he will give out the hymn beginning '* ' God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." " That rather striking prophecy was completely fulfilled ; but Mr. Spurgeon is of opinion that the words themselves were instrumental in bringing about their own fulfilment. The " first sermon " has been already men- tioned. When the ice was once broken, the neighbourhood of Cambridge was the scene of the young Christian's evangelistic efforts. On arriving at a village on an unpropitious wintry night he has found the chapel empty, and has, lantern in hand, gone round to the houses to collect a con- gregation. It is quite a mistake to suppose that he was not popular before coming to London ; for he was a favourite with the Cambridgeshire peasantry before he became so conspicuous a 1 6 Early Days, figure in the outer world and the leading member of his denomination. When stationed at Water- beach, his services began to be in excessive demand, and invitations to preach were cordially responded to. The more shrewd even among the common people must have perceived that one who was something more than a rising man was in their midst. In youth he did not altogether set his face against going to college, though in later life he has " a thousand times thanked the Lord very heartily for the strange providence which forced his steps into another and far better path." Truth to say, Mr. Spurgeon missed a collegiate training consequent on one of those singular mishaps which, at the time, are as annoying as they are unavoidable. While he was carrying all before him at Waterbeach his judicious seniors thought that the pastor would never become all he was capable of becoming unless he went to London and sat the prescribed number of times at the feet of a duly-qualified professor. This advice was listened to, and arrangements were made for a meeting of Dr. Angus on the one part and Mr. Spurgeon on the other part, the rendezvous appointed having been the house of the well-known publisher, Mr. Macmillan, of Cambridge. The young pastor arrived at the Early Plodding, ly time specified, was ushered into a drawing-room by the maid, and, after waiting for two hours, he rang the bell to learn the reason of the pro- tracted delay. In the meantime. Dr. Angus had arrived, had been shown into another room, but not being so well able to exemplify the virtue of patience as his younger friend, the learned doctor departed for London, doubtless wondering why young aspirants to the ministry were not more eager to seize fleeting opportunities. Thus the two sat in adjoining rooms until patience had " had her perfect work," neither suspecting that the other was near. What momentous con- sequences sometimes hang on small matters ! how much may occasionally depend on the remissness of a half-witted servant-maid ! Still, the Church would have gained nothing by C. H. Spurgeon's admission into Regent's Park College. Writing in 1881, Mr. Spurgeon thus referred to his own days of early plodding : — " My college course was after this fashion. I was for three years a Cambridge man, though I never entered the University. I could not have obtained a degree, because I was a Noncon- formist ; and, moreover, it was a better thing for me to pursue my studies under an admirable scholar and tender friend, and preach at the same time. I must have been a singular-looking youth 2 1 8 Early Days. on wet evenings. During the last year of my stay in Cambridge, when I had given up my office as usher, I was wont to sally forth every night in the week except Saturday, and walk three, five, or perhaps eight miles out and back again on my preaching work ; and when it rained I dressed myself in waterproof leggings and a mackintosh coat, and a hat with a waterproof covering, and I carried a dark lantern to show me the way across the fields. I had many adven- tures . . . but what I had gathered by my studies during the day I handed out to a company of villagers in the evening, and was greatly profited by the exercise. I always found it good to say my lesson when I had learned it. Children do so, and it is equally good for preachers, especially if they say their lesson by heart. In my young days I fear I said many odd things and made many blunders, but my audiences were not hyper- critical, and no newspaper writers dogged my heels ; and so I had a happy training-ground in which, by continual practice, I attained such a degree of ready speech as I now possess. There is no way of learning to preach which can be compared to preaching itself. If you want to swim you must get into the water, and if you at the first make a sorry exhibition, never mind, for it is by swimming as you can that you learn to Youthful Discipline. 19 swim as you should. Hence we ought to be lenient with beginners, for they will do better by-and-bye. If young speakers in Cambridge had been discouraged and silenced, I might not have found my way here, and, therefore, I hope I shall be the last to bring forth a wet blanket for any v/ho sincerely speak for Christ, however humble may be their endeavours. The fear of there being too many preachers is the last that will occur to me. I rejoice in that passage of the psalm, ' The Lord gave the word ; great was the company of those that published it.' Go forth, young man, and proclaim among the people of this vast city all the words of this life. Among these millions you will all be few enough. . . . Fill your baskets with living seed, and in due season bring them back laden with many sheaves. My heart is with you ; my soul rejoices in your suc- cesses ; and I look to the great Head of the Church, through your means, to gather in His blood-bought ones." Speaking at the laying of the first stone of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, August i6th, 1859, the Rev. John Spurgeon thus referred to his son's early days : — " I always thought my son did wrong in coming to London ; now you see that I was wrong. I always thought he was wrong in not going to 20 Early Days. college ; I tried three or four hours with him one night with a dear friend that loved him, but it was no use ; he said, ' No, I will never go to college, only in strict obedience to you as a father.' There I left the matter ; and I see that God has been with him, though I thought it was a wrong step in him to go to London. And I thought it was a wrong step for me to come here to-night ; but perhaps I may be mistaken again. I can tell you it is one of the happiest days of my life. I feel beyond myself when I think of the kindness that has been shown to him when but a youth. I ascribe it all to God's goodness and the earnest prayers of his people. He has been exposed to temptation from every source, and even now, my friends, he is not free from it. You have prayed for him, and God has sustained him. Oh ! let me entreat you to continue your prayers. Every one here to-night, go home and pray for your pastor. A meeting like this is enough to carry a man beyond himself and fill his heart with pride ; but the grace of God is all-sufficient. Several persons said to me — I do not know what their motive was — ' Your son will never last in London six months ; he has no education.' I said, ' You are terribly mistaken ; he has the best education that can possibly be had; God has been his teacher, and he has had A Fathers Reminiscences. 21 earthly teachers too.' I knew, as far as education went, he could manage London very well. Then they said his health would fail ; but it has not failed him yet. He has had enough to shake his constitution, it is true, but God has been very merciful to him. I think if there is one thing that would crown my happiness to-day, it would have been to see his grandfather here. I should have loved to see him here. He said, 'Boy, don't ask me to go, I am too old ; I am overcome with God's goodness and mercy to me.' He is always talking about him. Old people like to have something to talk about, so he always talks about his grandson. And next to that I should like, my dear friends, to have seen his mother here. I believe, under God's grace, his mother has been the means of leading him to Christ. You are well aware that I go and talk in the best manner I can to a few poor people on the Sabbath day, and God has blessed my labours. I thought, however, I ought not to go out on the Sabbath day, as God's people should train up their children in the best way they can ; I thought I was neg- lecting my children, and as I came home one evening about seven o'clock, and went upstairs, I heard the voice of a mother pleading for her boy Charles, and talking to him and the others, and pouring her heart out in prayer in such a 22 Early Days. way as I never did in my life, and as I never heard before. It is for the encouragement of mothers that I mention this, that you may pray for your children, for God is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God." Whilst taking a retrospect of a third of a century of work, we become conscious of feeling unwontedly curious about the youthful associa- tions of one whom we may pronounce to be the first preacher of this age without fear of contra- diction. What signs of unusual genius, of future distinction, were visible during youth } Who were his friends } where may we trace the foot- prints of his first travels as a preacher } Feeling more than ordinary interest in these minutiae, I some years ago asked a friend, whose fortune it was to reside near " Ouse's silent tide," if he would collect such ana as he could relating to Mr. Spurgeon's early days in that vicinity. I believe there are about a score of Houghtons in the British Empire ; but to myself the one interesting member of a numerous family is that Houghton which lies low and snug among the tall trees luxuriating on the banks of the broad, slow-rolling Ouse, midway between Huntingdon and St. Ives. It is not a spot whereon one would at first expect to find any religious memories of more than common interest ; but The Guest of Potto Brown. 2 ^o in this case appearances are, happily, deceptive. Near Houghton, Dr. Brooke, an able preacher, and father of the well-known Rev. Stopford Brooke, was for some time stationed. Here also laboured Mr. Edward Cressell, a minister of the Independent denomination, and whose ministra- tions were heartily appreciated by the homely village folk of the neighbourhood, and by lovers of good preaching farther away. Above all, it was at Houghton in his early days that Mr. Spurgeon became the guest of the eccentric Potto Brown, called by Elihu Burritt, in one of his books, "The Miller of Houghton." Mr. Brown was thoroughly eccentric, but he was still a kind- hearted man, who grew hot-house grapes for the sick poor, and who could commend the Wes- leyans for saving souls at a cheaper rate than was done by any other denomination. On this question, as well as on others, the youth and the veteran were far from being agreed, and consequently some lively discussions came off between the two which for smartness would not have disgraced the Literary Club in its palmiest days. I will now give what my Ouse-side friend says about Houghton, its famous miller, and the youthful preacher, C. H. Spurgeon : — " It has been with much interest that I have 24 Early Days. traced, by the aid of the memories of my acquaint- ances, the early teachings and appearance of one who has taken and maintained an honoured place in the vineyard of Jesus Christ, and one who has well borne the burden and heat of the day. A gentleman, whom I took to be a relative, informed me that he heard Mr. Spurgeon preach his first sermon when about fourteen years of age, and he then read, prayed, and expounded the Word, being attired in a round jacket and broad, turn- down collar, such as I remember to have seen in fashion at that period. " Mr. C. D. tells me that he remembers C. H. Spurgeon preaching at Somersham about twenty- six years ago, and when he would be about seventeen years of age. He was then wearing a round jacket and turn-down collar. He re- members the words of the text, though not their place — ' Fear not, thou worm Jacob.' The boyish voice of the preacher afforded a striking and impressive contrast to the tones of the aged minister who was accustomed to occupy the pulpit. " Mr. Spurgeon was then living at some place near Cambridge, and his mode of preaching afforded promise that he would become a power- ful and popular speaker. One old man, who was a Particular Baptist, and, I believe, difficult to Some Old People s Reminiscences, 25 please, went to hear him, and was careful to repeat the visit. " One old minister, for whom Mr. Spurgeon preached, was plagued with a bad wife, and she must needs go to America ; but with great patience the husband waited for her return, never fastening the door of the house nor suffering others to do so till she came back to him. " Mrs. J. A. remembers Mr. Spurgeon preach- ing at Houghton when quite a lad. She remem- bers the sermon was a very impressive one, and could it have been heard without seeing the boyish preacher, any one would have taken it to be the discourse of a staid and experienced Chris- tian. She believes this was one thing that led Mr. Potto Brown to look upon the youthful orator with less favour than he might otherwise have done, because he thought that the sermon could not have been his own composition. " Mrs. B. appears to me to have a more vivid recollection of the impression of what Mrs. J. A. felt at the time above stated. There was much conversation between the youthful preacher and Mr. Potto Brown, and evidently much contention, too ; for each would hold firmly to his own opinion. " Mrs. C. tells me that her husband, who was the schoolmaster at the time, was struck by the 26 Early Days, precocious talent of the young preacher, and with his general style of preaching." The above notes were collected for me by the late Edward Cressell, whose friendship I highly valued, and who, as pastor of the Congregational Church, Houghton, Hunts, was one of the best preachers in the neighbourhood. The informa- tion is now, I believe, regarded as common property by quidmincs in both the Old and the New World. In regard to Mr. Spurgeon and the late Potto Brown, the Pastor on one occasion himself referred to that memorable meeting — " How he shocked our Calvinistic propriety ! . . . We recollect his telling us that our preaching was very well for an apprentice boy, which was no doubt a correct estimate, but after he had spoken in that style one felt quite at home with him, and gave him a Roland for his Oliver without the slightest compunction. It was a battle royal, and both the old gentleman and the 'prentice boy grew sufficiently warm ; but no scars remained on either combatant. Mr. Brown walked with us to Huntingdon in loving conversation, and afterwards sent us Haldane's Life as a present." REMINISCENCES OF WATERBEACH. I. The Village and its Surroundings. II. Recollections of Mr. Spurgeon s Pastorate. "When I think upon the all but infinite mischief which may result from a mistake as to our vocation for the Christian pastorate, I feel overwhelmed with fear lest any of us should be slack in examining our credentials ; and I had rather that we stood too much in doubt, and examined too frequently, than that we should become cumberers of the ground. There are not lacking many exact methods by which a man may test his call to the ministry if he earnestly desires to do so. It is imperative upon him not to enter the ministry until he has made solemn quest and trial of himself as to this point. His own personal salvation being secure, he must investigate as to the further matter of his call to office ; the first is vital to himself as a Christian, the second equally vital to him as a pastor. As well be a professor without conversion, as a pastor without calling. In both cases there is a name and nothing more." — Lectures to My Students, i. 23. II. REMINISCENCES OF WATERBEACH. I. — The Village and its Surroundings. AS the village in which Mr. Spurgeon com- menced his pastoral career, Waterbeach seemed to be worthy of a special visit, so that when the opportunity occurred I undertook the journey. The parish lies about five miles north of Cambridge, the soil is remarkably rich, and on leaving the station the tourist will not fail to observe the tokens of more than average pros- perity everywhere manifest ; while the magnificent dome of sky presents that aspect of immensity which is particularly noticeable on great level areas such as the Cambridgeshire flats and the neigh- bouring fens. At the last census the population had been put down at sixteen hundred and nineteen, and one might despair of finding a more comfortable agricultural settlement. The in- habitants eat the fruits of their luxuriant marshes while sitting beneath their own vines and 30 Re7niniscences of Waterbeach. fig trees ; for, instead of belonging to one domineering autocrat, the land is divided into small proprietorships. The people are, conse- quently, as remarkable for their independence in religious matters as they are for their Liberalism in politics. They are an honest, hospitable folk, always ready to entertain a stranger, and while characterised by hereditary prejudices, know only of two hemispheres — Waterbeach and Mark Lane. Their prejudices are going one by one. The open sewer, for example, which formerly crossed and fumigated the village, has been covered over, though the older " Conservatives " battled bravely on behalf of a venerable institution ; and a smithy, black and begrimed, still defiling the middle of the " Green," was said to be already doomed. Nonconformity was everywhere in the ascendant, and the vicar, who was a decided Evangelical, appeared to lead the pleasantest existence possible by simply preaching the Gospel instead of fighting the sects. Were his procedure less judicious he would wage unequal war, and would, besides, risk changing present friends into ecclesiastical wasps. Fully to realise the anomaly, remember that we were just ten minutes' ride from the University, and that though Waterbeach Church attracted one of the best congregations in the vicinity, yet the parish, as I understood, con- A Congenial Sphere. 3^ tained only one large farmer, and a few small ones, who were Churchmen ; and then commend a vicar who, under such conditions, could command the loving esteem of every parishioner. Such being the character of Waterbeach, we cannot wonder that in his youth Mr. Spurgeon found the village to be a congenial sphere, that he did his share in confirming the Puritan-like faith and politics of the people, while his own character may have taken a colouring from his associations. In a strain which a certain critic judges to be worthy of "The Complete Letter Writer," he referred to his charge, at the age of nineteen, as a " little Garden of Eden," and only poverty obliged him to sever the tie of union. Had Mr. Spurgeon's ministry commenced in these times, instead of at the date it did, Waterbeach would, undoubtedly, have held its own a year or two longer, in spite of the call to London. The people are immensely proud of their old connection ; and still, in a manner, regarding their late pastor as one of themselves, always welcome him back into their midst with fervent enthusiasm. This regard would appear to be pretty general among high and low. At the best tables no guest would be allowed to speak words of detraction unchallenged ; and no one, who is nice as regards consequences. 32 Reviiniscences of Watei'beach. would impugn Spurgeon's orthodoxy or good nature among the peasants at any one of the village lounges. After alighting from the train, I had scarce advanced a hundred yards towards the village when it was my good fortune to encounter Mr. James Toller, of Winfold Farm. Mr. Toller is a pillar of the Nonconformist interest in Waterbeach, he is a liberal contributor to the institutions at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and Mr. Spurgeon himself has, more than once, been a guest at the worthy yeoman's house. One piece of luck — the word is used by the compilers of the Prayer-Book — was soon followed by another ; for the clouds, which had threatened rain, broke and lightened, so that we were even privileged to see Waterbeach in the autumn sunshine. After paying our respects at the manse of the Baptist pastor, and looking in at the village news-room, we find ourselves on that eminently interesting site — the scene of Mr. Spurgeon's first pastorate. The old thatched chapel has, however, disappeared — we feel a sort of selfish regret that it should be so — it has given place to a handsome and more commodious meeting- house, the corner-stones of which were respec- tively laid by Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Toller. A Water beack Deacon. ;^2) Still, the site is the same, and that is enough for our present purpose. On this very ground, a generation ago, many honest country folk assembled for worship who already began to wonder whereunto the thing would grow. The then boy-preacher not only edified and surprised the people who crowded the little chapel ; there were some hearers there who, though poor and unlettered, were yet sufficiently discerning to know that an uncommon genius was in their midst. " He astonished everybody at that time "^ " I inquired of an elderly deacon who well remem- bers every circumstance. " Of course he did ! " was the quick, curt reply. " How, then, did he preach } " " Why," continued the old man, look- ing straight at me, as though I ought to know all about it, " like a man a hundred years old in experience ! " That honest deacon afterwards visited London for the first time ; he went the countryman's usual round of inspection in the capital, saw the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and sat down as a guest of the pastor in his house at Clapham. On his return he tried to tell the people what he had really seen ; but memory grew confused. His unsophisticated mind seemed to retain but one thing, the lustre of which darkened everything else — " Mr. Spurgeon was very glad to see nie." 3 34 Reminiscences of Waterbeach. Winfold Farm covers an area of nearly six hundred acres, and the residence is a mile from the village. The proprietor of this fertile inheri- tance is Mr. Toller's eldest son, a young gentle- man who had then just come of age, and who resided with his father. In the opinion of Mr. Toller no man can be a landlord and tenant at the same time, and earn a competence — the shortest road to bankruptcy is over your own land as a gentleman farmer. There is more philosophy in this reasoning than a townsman can gainsay. The admirer of fine breeds will find enough of entertainment at Winfold Farm ; and by a little judicious selection from the bullocks in the straw-yard, and the sheep in the turnip-field, a very taking cattle-show might be put together — especially if the thing were supplemented with a few choice pigs, and with some more than admirable specimens of horse-flesh which would be available. But more akin to our subject is the acre of land which is annually set apart for the orphans of Stockwell, the produce of flour and potatoes being despatched to London every autumn. The best things on the estate are not deemed too good to bestow freely upon Mr. Spurgeon's Institutions ; to be but a friend of the pastor is to carry a passport Pre-Refo7'mation Relics. 35 to liberal entertainment. Only a day or two before, a well-known gentleman, then in repute at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, had been down to Winfold for the purpose of enjoying " a little sport." Provided with the most perfect of breech-loaders, he started forth to bang and blaze away his powder at a prodigal rate, though from morn to dusk he did not even ruffle the feathers of a single native bird. Any stray rambler at whom this amateur might have directly aimed would have risked no bodily harm, the general opinion, as Mr. Toller ex- plained, being that the marksman would not have hit the house had he levelled and fired with that intention. But still, ramblers abroad were seriously threatened by the stray shots which, for the time, whizzed hither and thither in wild irregularity. Such is the account Mr. Toller gave of his sporting guest, who, it scarce need be said, was not that ready marksman — but not with firearms — Mr. Spurgeon himself. A walk before dinner being proposed, Mr. Toller conducted my companion and myself to Denney Abbey Farm, the estate adjoining his own, the dwelling-house and outbuildings being the remains of a pre-Reformation monastery, of which Mr. Richard Toller was found to be the master. Everything here is weird and antiquated to a 36 Reminiscences of Waterbeack. degree which is sufficiently pleasing on a summer day, when the objects of interest can be seen and enjoyed ; but the effect is less pleasing when the shades of night are falling, and the winter wind, moaning around the tall, stout chimneys, seems to be Old Nature's funeral requiem over monks and nuns whose bones are thickly packed beneath the garden soil. It is as strange as true that owls, bats, and other night-birds find at Denney a con- genial retreat wherein to screech and croak away the midnight hour. When the business of the day is hushed, one might easily associate the clanking of a horse's halter chain with the creaking of a Templar's armour, as he would once have ridden from the courtyard to join the First Crusade ; or the pattering of a cat's feet on the garden-walk might remind one of those light-treading maidens whose lives were consecrated to God and St. Clare. But as we are not superstitious, and the sun is shining, let us deal with sober fact. In the year 1160, Robert Chamberlain, Earl of Richmond, became a monk at Ely, some ten miles distant, and being a man of enterprising piety, he gave an island in the surrounding mere for holy purposes. A cell for a few hardy brethren was accordingly erected ; but when repeated floods obliged them to remove they encamped on higher ground, bestowed by Aubrey Picot, at Denney. Denney Abbey. 2>7 After they had held the site for a few years, the Ely monks were superseded by those daring foes of Moslem infidels, the Knights Templars, to whose wealthy Order the manor of Waterbeach belonged. In the fourteenth century the society of Templars was abolished, when their forsaken cells were occupied by the nuns of St. Clare, twenty- five of whom resided here on an income of £\J2 a-year. After the dissolution of the religious houses, at the era of the Reformation, Denney passed from one owner to another ; and in the reign of Elizabeth the farm was rented, I believe, by Hobson, the carrier of Cambridge, the first master who let out hired horses, and in whose stables the familiar proverb " Hobson's choice " is known to have originated. It is not probable that the property has undergone any great changes during the last century. The dwelling-house is a portion of the original Church, founded in i 1 60, and rebuilt by the Countess of Pembroke in the reign of Edward III. Some of the outbuildings appear to have been removed, or to have gradually fallen into decay, though for several generations the ancient refectory has served as a convenient barn. When the convent was in its prime a double entrenchment encircled its towers, and instead of traversing the country on foot, or by horse, as in after years, the monks 3 8 Remmiscences of Waterbeach. plied their oars across the mere, which then spread its broad smooth surface between Denney and Ely. We now return to Winfold to dine and to rest away the afternoon. When at last we finally take leave of our friends, we are conscious of having been entertained in a worthy Old English style, and also of having spent an agreeable holiday, on ground which will still be visited by summer tourists for its own sake, and also on account of its happy association with the first pastorate of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. II. — Recollections of Mr. Spurgeon's Pastorate. Some time after the adventure just related I determined on paying a second visit to the scene of Mr. Spurgeon's first pastorate. It had been a wet night, and the damp, cold November morning was but the prelude to a soaking, tempestuous day, the wind and the rain having completed an alliance which was destined to hold good through another six-and-thirty hours. " Waterbeach must be a wet place," I remarked to the honest ostler who was driving through the High-street of the village, meanwhile eyeing some- Significance of the Name. 39 what despondingly the thick, leaden-coloured clouds which were unstintingly emptying their watery treasures over the flat, far-spreading country. "Yes, sir," replied the man, at once catching my meaning, '' it ain't called Waterbeach for nothing." On further enquiry it was readily found that the notion of the district never having been known to suffer to any considerable extent from drought was generally accepted. One authority was heard to venture the opinion that the weather never zvoidd clear up any more; while another gentleman, who had been a frequent visitor, declares that it always rains when he is there, go when he will. It may be all very well to ask, What's in a name 1 but cavil as we choose, Waterbeach is exceedingly suggestive, and our ancestors who framed the double word doubtless took into account the local characteristics of the country. Be this as it may, people naturally seem to associate the village with mists above and water below. It is not so very long since that a genius of a student, who was commissioned to " supply " the pulpit for a certain period, arrived on the ground provided with a complete oilskin outfit. Though the knowing might smile, '' Water- beach " was redolent of water ; and he showed the wit of a growing theologian by being pre- pared for contingencies. Without presuming to 40 Reminiscejices of Waterbeach. speak as an authority, either one way or the other, I may add to the testimony of others that, having visited Waterbeach twice within the space of two years, it rained more or less on each occasion. The object I had in view in visiting Waterbeach a second time was to see a veteran Baptist elder, named Robert Coe, who was a deacon of the church more than thirty years ago, when Mr. Spurgeon was pastor, and who then retained his honourable office. If Mr. Coe was not the beait ideal of a Nonconformist deacon, one's judgment must be awry ; for he was hardly less than this to an unprejudiced Londoner interested in the " lions " and folk-lore of Old Cambridgeshire. The elder and his wife were found to be thorough country people, of the old-fashioned type ; and while they were pious, thrifty, and well-to-do, they were so far animated by the predilections of a former generation that they were tempted to look askance on some of our valued modern contrivances. During the whole of their quiet, peaceful life they had not travelled any great distance from the family home ; and, truth to say, they had never become completely satisfied with railway locomo- tion. Waterbeach was their world ; and limited as the sphere might seem to natures of a more ambi- tious turn, Waterbeach had, under Providence, very A Veteran Deacon. 41 sufficiently supplied their simple wants. If any are disposed to doubt the happiness of such a lot, their scepticism would vanish after they had spent an hour at the veteran's fireside. Mr. Coe was a successful man because he had done well as regards both worlds ; and the restlessness of his eye w^as not the restlessness of discontent ; it was rather the habit of a keen observer who could see through a visitor at a glance. He not only knew all about what had happened at Waterbeach during one or two generations, but he was quite willing to be communicative. " Oh, what a sight of times he did try to get me to London," he remarked, passing his hand across his forehead and looking straight into the fire. "You mean Mr. Spurgeon .-* " " Yes," was the reply ; " and he said, ' If you will come I will present you with a new flagon, and it shall be engraved.' " It transpired that a common black wine-bottle had been used at the communion table of the chapel opposite ; and as such a practice could hardly be said to be either " decent " or " in order," the presentation of something better was suggested. The flagon was earned in due time, and I was privileged to hold the treasure in my hand, and to read the inscription, " Presented to the Baptist Church, Waterbeach, by C. II. Spurgeon, 1876." 42 Reminiscences of Water beach. The first visit of an elderly man to the metro- polis, after he has spent his life in the country, is a momentous event ; it is a very agitating piece of experience. The strangeness of everything very naturally engenders a timidity such as he has never felt before. His uneasiness begins when he finds himself seated in the " London Express," and when the train attains its highest speed he feels a disposition to stand and hold on by the windows. The excitement increases before he has " done " a tithe part of the round of wonders he is expected to see ; so that if at luncheon or dinner he is caught in the act of using sugar with potatoes, and salt with apple tart, the error is to be attributed to the exceptional nature of the surroundings. When Mr. Coe actually visited London he well survived a succession of shocks, until a life longing was realised as he stood, on a Sabbath morning, a unit in the great congrega- tion at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. " Robert, is that you } " said the Pastor at the close of the service, without attempting to disguise his surprise and delight ; " I thought I should never have succeeded, but you are here at last 1 " The visitor was entertained at Clapham ; he returned home delighted with London, and more content than ever with the quiet prosperity of Waterbeach. Mr. Coe will never misinterpret these revelations Burning of the Chapel. 43 of his private life. He perhaps remembered that his position in the world was an exceptional one ; for, as one of Mr. Spurgeon's first deacons, thousands of people in both hemispheres were interested in his antecedents. It appears that Mr. Spurgeon first went to Waterbeach in the fall of 1 851, and ministered to the church during two years without having any fixed residence in the village. He succeeded Mr. Peters, who preached to the people for twenty-two years, the stipend through that period having been £^ a quarter. This venerable man was still living at Cambridge when I visited the neighbourhood ; and on one occasion, at the chapel anniversary, he grew warmly enthusiastic while speaking about old times. On such occasions there appears to be only one drawback to act as a damper on the natives' satisfaction — the old meeting-house is no more. One day, during the hot, dry weather of 1 86 1, some careless person threw a quantity of hot ashes on a heap of litter hard by, and the result was that not only the chapel, but one or two other buildings, including an old workhouse, were totally consumed. " If it had not been burned the place would never have been pulled down," said Mr. Toller, who supplied the informa- tion, " for there were people there who venerated the very smoke," Mr. Spurgeon himself laid the 44 Reminiscences of Waterbeach. first stone of the present sanctuary, a few months after the catastrophe. Although it was then twenty-seven years ago, my friend, Mr. Coe, still vividly remembered the occasion of Mr. Spurgeon's first visit to Water- beach on an autumn Sunday in 1851, the young preacher having been commissioned to supply the pulpit by an association at Cambridge, which attended to the wants of neighbouring churches. " He sat on one side of the table-pew, and I on the other side," remarks the deacon, his face beaming with pleasure as he recalls the scene. " I shall never forget it. He looked so white, and I thought to myself he II never be able to preach — what a boy he is ! I despised his youth, you know, and thought all this while the congregation was singing. Then, when the hymn was over, he jumped up and began to read and expound the chapter about the scribes and pharisecs and lawyers, and as he went on about their garments, their phylacteries, and long prayers — I knew that he coidd preach. All along I was fully persuaded in my own mind that he would not remain long at Waterbeach. I could see that he was some- thing very great, and was evidently intended for a larger sphere. I could not make him out ; and one day I asked him wherever he got all the knowledge from that he put into the sermons. A Village Revival. 45 'Oh,' he said, 'I take a book, and I pull the good things out of it by the hair of their heads.' " Before its revival under Mr. Spurgeon's ministry the congregation at Waterbeach was very small, the chapel on ordinary occasions not being more than half filled ; but a new era of prosperity at once commenced. The empty seats were immediately taken, the aisles were invaded, the doors were surrounded by rustic crowds for whom there was no accommodation. One of Mr. Spurgeon's first deacons, a worthy of whom little is now to be learned, was named King, and for a time Mr. King was the Pastor's right-hand man. He has long since gone home to heaven. In those days the village bore an evil name on account of the drunkenness and profligacy which abounded ; now the inebriate appeared to be sobered, while transgressors of other sorts were awed into propriety. Because they could see that he was earnest and faithful, and had a kind heart, the most degraded of characters liked the new preacher, in spite of his terrible straight- forwardness in denouncing all kinds of evil. Mr. Coe remembered the sermons of those days ; and one especially — " How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ? " — with its terrific warnings and solemn appeals, could never be effaced from memory. According to our informant it was 4-6 Reminiscences of Waterbeach, truly wonderful how, thus early, Mr. Spurgeon thundered judgment against the sinner. After he had mellowed a little he seemed to grow milder ; but, taking him for all in all, the like had never been heard in Cambridgeshire before. Though a thorough Calvinist, whose doctrines some thought at times to be rather high, his views at the outset were substantially the same as those preached to-day at the Tabernacle. He was from the first as faithful to ministers as to ordinary people, telling those who preached nothing save Election, without ever warning the sinner, that he should not like to stand in their shoes. In the meantime, Deacon Coe was passing through one of the most enjoyable experiences of his life ; and his pleasure was only lessened by the consciousness that the sunshine could not last. If friends mentioned the matter to him, Deacon Coe would shake his head in his characteristic expressive manner, and remark, " He will not be here long. God has a great work for him to do somewhere. I don't know where, but he will not be here long." Probably this opinion was shared by others in the little community ; at all events, the people seem to have made much of their youthful pastor, and to have hotly competed among themselves for the honour of according Dining' out on Sundays. 47 him a genuine hospitality. So numerous were the invitations to dinner that he never, during his tenure of office, went twice to the same place, the poor as well as the rich being allowed to take their turn. Thus, at a certain village lived a quaint worthy who was not despised on account of his poverty, and an invitation to take refresh- ment was accepted. At dinner a large pudding was placed on the table, and after the host had taken about a quarter of the same on his own plate he pushed the dish across the table with, *' Now, friend, help yourself." One or two of the Pastor's adventures during these early interesting years may be narrated. Much pleasure has been experienced in recover- ing them, and they will serve as material for a future biography. At a certain date in the year 1852 Mr. Spurgeon was appointed to preach the anniversary sermons at a village chapel in the vicinity of Waterbeach, where the pastor was an octogenarian, a fine specimen of the old-fashioned school of dry, respectable, and orthodox ministers. The old gentleman adopted this course because he had heard of his young brother's popularity, although he had not seen his face, and he desired to attract a full congregation. When the preacher of the day arrived on the ground his extremely youthful 48 Reminiscences of Waterbeach, appearance created anything but a favourable impression on the white-headed pastor who had proclaimed the gospel in the neighbourhood during forty years. " How do you do, Mr. t I've come to preach your anniversary sermons," said the new comer, expecting the usual welcome. " Ugh ! " replied the other, looking up somewhat disconcerted, " I'm none the better for seeing youy Thinking that he was in a dilemma, and that the anniversary would be a failure, the old pastor rose, and, pacing the room, gave expression to his impatience. " Tut, tut ! a pretty kettle of fish ; boys going up and down the country preaching before their mother's milk is well out of their mouths." To the visitor all this naturally sounded like somewhat strong language, and he inwardly resolved that the veteran should hear of the matter in another place. In the meantime the crisis appeared to be all the more serious on account of the numbers of people who were flock- ing into the village from all directions. As the venerable pastor remarked, they were coming in carts, they were coming in chaises, and they were coming in buggies ; there would be an over- flowing congregation. From Mr. Spurgeon's standpoint there was nothing that could be done other than for him to do his best, and to look for the blessing of God : but this was so far from An Incredulous Veteran. 49 being satisfactory to the pastor that he went about the village still expressing his disgust at the idea of boys being sent abroad to preach. The chapel was crowded at the time of service ; but instead of yielding pleasure this fact seemed to make the occasion still more unlucky. At first the old pastor retired into the background, where he could not be seen. A hymn was sung, and the prayer was not quite what the judicious would have expected from a mere boy. Mr. Spurgeon read Proverbs xvi., and when he came to " A hoary head is a crown of glory," he showed that, Solomon or no Solomon, it was not always so. There were tongues in some hoary heads which could not be civil to the boy who came to preach. Rudeness gave no glory. Then reading further — if it be found in the way of rigJiteousness — he showed that Solomon was right after all, for unless this were the case a man might as well have red hair as white for a crown. When the sermon was over, the aged pastor, who had long since come forth from his hiding-place, walked up the pulpit stairs, opened the door, and as the boy- preacher descended he received a smart, playful slap on the loins, accompanied with the com- plimentary remark, " You are the sauciest dog that ever barked in a pulpit." Instead of com- plaining of his " supply," Mr. now went, first 4 50 Reminiscences of Waterbeach. to one and then another, expressing his wonder and deHght, seeing such an extraordinary youth had appeared in their midst. The above is an example of the mistakes that may be made by those who too readily despise a preacher's youth ; and, according to Deacon Coe, Mr. Spurgeon's trials in this respect were exceptionally heavy ; but neither in youth nor later on in life did he ever retaliate. There were "characters" to be found at Water- beach in those days, and among them was a man who, although he was worth some thousands of pounds, was at last buried in his own garden " to save expense." On a certain Sabbath morn- ing this individual placed seven shillings and sixpence in the Pastor's hand with some such remark as, " Please accept this ; you want a hat." On the following Sunday he brought an addi- tional half-crown. " What is this for ? " asked Mr. Spurgeon, surprised at receiving a supple- mental offering. Then came a singular confession — " Last week the Lord told me to give you ten shillings ; but I kept back half-a-crown, and there it is." The tradition in Waterbeach is, that a hat was purchased with this money. On a certain summer evening Mr. Spurgeon had engaged to preach at Teversham, which lies a short distance from Waterbeach ; but before he An Adventure in a Storm. 51 could reach his destination the sky darkened, and a severe thunder-storm burst over the country. While passing a cottage on the road a woman was observed to be alarmed and in sore distress on account of the tempest ; and not liking to pass on and leave a fellow-creature in trouble, Mr. Spurgeon entered the house, read a few verses, then prayed, and so comforted the woman while the storm continued. Having done this piece of service, he proceeded to Teversham to fulfil the engagement ; but found that the chapel was closed and dark, for people were not ex- pecting a sermon on account of the tempest. Mr. Spurgeon wore a waterproof coat, and on entering the village he divested himself of this, because the smooth surface seemed to reflect the vivid flashes of lightning in a way that might alarm the timid. He then went round from door to door, and told the people there would be a service, and advised them to assemble in the meeting-house. The summons was obeyed with alacrity, the sermon was preached, and when all was over the young pastor started on his home- ward walk to Cambridge, a distance of four miles. " A Wesleyan Minister," writing about twenty years ago, in speaking of Mr. Spurgeon's early days, remarks : " He removed from Newmarket to Cambridge in the capacity of usher to his old 52 Reminiscences of Water deack. friend and former tutor, Henry Leeding. Here both his earthly comforts and religious privileges were increased. He now began publicly to exhort, and united himself with a society called the Lay Preachers' Association, connected with the church in St. Andrew's Street, formerly under the pastorate of the illustrious Robert Hall. At a little village called Teversham, in a cottage some miles from Cambridge, he preached his first sermon, when only sixteen years of age. His preaching from the beginning was highly acceptable, and his sermons were illustrated by geography and astronomy . . . and, to his praise be it recorded, the common people heard him gladly. But he was pre-eminently liked by the members of a small church at a village called Waterbeach, who, perceiving this germ of un- common talents, invited him to become their pastor. And here, in a rude chapel made out of a barn, with a high pitched roof, he preached every Sabbath in the forenoon and afternoon. When requested to preach also in the evening, he modestly replied, " I cannot always preach three times, for I am not so strong as a man." It would have been a satisfaction to many who are now interested in taking a retrospect if the sermons of Mr. Spurgeon's earliest days had been preserved. There was a time when he himself Early Sermons, thought of presenting the public with a selection, for in 1857 he wrote : " I shall soon issue a v^olume of m}' earliest productions while pastor at Waterbeach, and would now bespeak for it a favourable reception." We are not aware that this publication ever appeared. Such are a few of the things associated with Waterbeach which I was enabled to recover through the kindness of friends on the spot and from others. The church was found to be in a flourishing condition, and the stipend of the pastor was probably double what it was in Mr. Spurgeon's time. To these, however, may be added the following, relating to these times, and told by Mr. Spurgeon himself in TJic Sparc Half Hour : — " Having to preach at one of the village stations of the Cambridge Lay Preachers' Association, I walked slowly in a meditative frame of mind over Midsummer Common to the little wooden bridge which leads to Chesterton, and in the midst of the common I was startled by what seemed a loud voice, but which may have been a singular illusion ; whichever it was, the impression was vivid to an intense degree : I seemed very dis- tinctly to hear the words, * Seekest thou great things for thyself .' Seek them not ! ' This led me to look at my position from another point of 54 Reminiscences of Waterheach. view, and to challenge my motives and Intentions. I remembered the poor but loving people to whom I ministered, and the souls which had been given me In my humble charge, and although at that time I anticipated obscurity and poverty as the result of the resolve, yet I did there and then solemnly renounce the offer of collegiate instruction, determining to abide for a season at least with my people, and to remain preaching the Word so long as I had strength to do It. Had It not been for those words, In all probability I had never been where and what I now am. I was conscientious In my obedience to the monition, and I have never seen cause to regret it. " Waiting upon the Lord for direction will never fail to afford us timely intimations of His will ; for though the ephod Is no more worn by a ministering priest, the Lord still guides His people by His wisdom, and orders all their paths in love ; and In times of perplexity, He makes them to hear a voice behind them, saying, ' This is the way, walk ye in It.' " THE FIRST SUNDAYS IN lONDON. "Before a //y great achievement, some measure of . . . depression is very usual. vSurveying tlie difficulties before us, our hearts sink within us. The sons of Anak stalk before us, and we are as grass- hoppers in our own sight in their presence. The cities of Canaan are walled up to heaven, and who are we that we should hope to capture them ? We are ready to cast down our weapons and take to our heels. Nineveh is a great city, and we would fiee unto Tarshish sooner than encounter its noisy crowds. Already we look for a ship which may bear us quietly away from the terrible scene, and only a dread of tempest restrains our recreant footsteps. Such was my experience when I first became a pastor in London. My success appalled me ; and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depth, out of which I uttered my miserere and found no room for a. gloria in excel sis. Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude ? I would betake me to my village obscurity, or emigrate to America, and find a solitary rest in the back woods where I might be sufficient for the things which would be demanded of me. ... I felt myself a mere child, and trembled as I heard the voice which said, ' Arise, and thresh the mountains, and make them as chaff.' " — Lectures to my Students, i. 173. III. THE FIRST SUNDAYS IN LONDON. TT /"HAT people call accident is frequently the ^ ' course of events as pre-ordained by God ; and the truth of this renaark was strikingly proved in the manner of Mr. Spurgeon's general rearing. The more carefully we look into the surrounding circumstances of his early life, the more clearly shall we see that all things were working together for good to equip the child and the youth for his arduous life-work that lay beyond. His parents, and the generation preceding them, were not only Christians of an old-fashioned type, they were professors who made no secret of their Puritanic sympathies. Even the prophet Samuel could hardly have enjoyed more tender nurture and careful training to fit him for future service in the Lord's house. The father was a preacher, so also was the grandfather ; and one of Mr. Spurgeon's earliest recollections belongs to his sitting on a hassock in the study of the latter, looking at the missionary pictures in TJie Evan- 58 The First Sitndays in London. gelical Magazine, not ever presuming to make a noise, lest grandfather should be interrupted in making his sermon, and thus be unable to preach, when no good would be done, and Charles would be the offender. On account of the uncompro- mising old-fashioned notions entertained by the family in religious matters, the opinion that the Pastor commenced work as a lame scholar may have gained currency. The truth is, that at a very early age his scholarship was not only far above the average, but very conspicuous to all who had eyes to discern. This happens to be a subject on which we can speak with authority ; for some time ago Mr. Spurgeon made some passing remarks relating to his former tutor, which were quite new and conclusive. During some years past the gentleman in question had resided in a southern suburb, unknown to his former scholar ; and, like some others of his profession, found the new Board-schools serious drawbacks to his day-school. He is, however, a thoroughly able teacher, who would be invaluable to anyone who should seek out and obtain the benefit of his instructions. This gentleman, who may be regarded as a thoroughly competent judge, held very clear and decided views in regard to the attainments of his quondam pupil. He was in a position to set those right who went about retail- Early Education. 59 ing the news that Spurgeon was no scholar ; for in point of fact, the said Spurgeon, as a mere youth, was one of the most competent scholars in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and one who could easily have taken a degree at the University without undergoing the process of cramming. While he spoke like a man who was reasonably proud of his former charge, the venerable tutor was not of the genus which can tolerate cross- examination or interviewings. Perhaps it never occurred to those who spread the report about Mr. Spurgeon being no scholar, that at the time of his first coming to London he was very competently earning a livelihood by his scholarship. In addition to the Waterbeach church he received a salary as usher in a school at Cambridge, and afterwards salary as tutor to a couple of youths in the same neighbourhood. Very few indeed of our Nonconformist students at seventeen could show the same amount of knowledge ; and his habits of reading, in pulling the best things out of books " by the hair of their heads," enabled him to rapidly increase his stores. It should also be generally known that Mr. Spurgeon was popular even as a boy ; for when in his turn he would address the Sunday-school at Newmarket, many members of the church 6o The First Sundays in London. would secrete themselves in any convenient hole or corner within earshot, and there eagerly listen to his earliest efforts. On the other hand, there were those among the Nonconformists of the town who, through being unable to see excellence in any form, supposed that the young preacher was not only not a genius, but decidedly below the average in every respect. When he first came to New Park Street Chapel there arose a great chatter among the Baptists of a certain important town. Said one leading elder to a brother officer of a similar calibre to himself, " They have invited Charley Spurgeon to London, and they are actually going to pay him ;^I50 a-year ! " A more curious misjudgment never came out of Essex ; and to add to its impressive- ness, the words were drawn out to unnatural length, as though the speaker's vocabulary were as elastic as his notions were modest. A good deal has been said at different times about Mr. Spurgeon's conversion ; and some in- genious endeavours have been made to trace the preacher of the sermon which was the means of bringing peace to his soul. All that is really known, however, about the preacher is, that he was a Primitive Methodist in Colchester, and a working man. The things spoken about were the end of all things ; the most unlikely people Mr. Spurgeons Conversion, 6i to be saved ; the most despairing ; the most sin- ful ; and then it was shown that salvation is not by works, but by faith — the soul must look at Christ, and do so in a way corresponding to the perception of natural objects by the natural eye. After hearing this sermon he experienced the peace of God which passes all understanding, and went forth in strength to begin his life-work. How Mr. Spurgeon first came to London is a question that has not always been correctly answered, and the causes which worked together to bring about the Pastor's removal to an enlarged sphere of labour are known only to a few persons. Let me narrate the circumstances as concisely as possible. There can be no doubt that Waterbeach was a very comfortable sphere of labour for a young man like Mr. Spurgeon. Though the people were homely they had warm hearts, and they cordially appreciated their pastor's energy and eloquence. It is not impossible that some among the good farmers and simple peasants who crowded the chapel may have reckoned on a life-long union. At any rate, it is unreasonable to suppose that everybody detected in their accomplished pastor the surprising talents that he really possessed. Others were more far-sighted ; they were happy ; their church flourished ; but, alas ! it was con- 62 The First Sundays in London. trary to the ordinary run of things for the great outside world — a selfish world, as it must have appeared to the Baptists of Waterbeach — to allow so unequal a union to exist for lack of a suitable opening being found elsewhere. The fact was, that an ancient church, and formerly a congregation of some importance in the capital, was in great straits for want of a pastor. Two centuries before, that church had been formed by a band of Puritan Baptists, the first pastor of whom we have any account being William Rider. The divines who afterwards successively held the pastorate, during a great number of years, were all men of power and celebrity : Benjamin Keach is still kept in re- membrance by his Metaphors ; Benjamin Stinton was equally worthy ; John Gill was a celebrated commentator ; John Rippon was the compiler of the hymn-book named after him ; Joseph Angus is a successful tutor and author of our own times ; James Smith was an uneducated genius of fervent piety. In the chequered history of this old church it has been a favourable omen for the pastor to be chosen at the age of nineteen. It was so with John Gill, and also with his suc- cessor, John Rippon, who were the only pastors during the unusually long period of one hundred and seventeen years. Mr. Spurgeon was of this A Youth of Nineteen. 63 same auspicious age of nineteen when some one carried word to the despairing deacons at New Park Street Chapel that there was a young man making some stir at Waterbeach, and it was just possible he might resuscitate their cause. The church at this date was slowly dying a natural death, and it was worth while to grasp at a straw if, thereby, the threatened death could be averted. It so happened that Mr. Olney, one of the deacons at New Park Street thirty-three years ago, was acquainted with a gentleman of the name of Gould, and on a certain occasion Mr. Gould's nephew happened to look in at a Baptist Chapel in Cambridge, at which a meeting was being held. On the platform were a couple of elderly ministers and a full-faced youth of more tender years. In due course the younger man made a speech, and, because he spoke as a Calvinist, what he said had the effect of highly displeasing those who considered that they were his elders and his betters. They had not even the good sense to keep their anger to themselves, but each had his say. One thought that Mr. Spurgeon should tarry at Jericho till his beard was grown ; the other wished to know why the young Baptist had left his few sheep in the wilderness ; he had surely come up to see the battle. A reply was made, and one which was 64 The First Stindays in London. very characteristic of the speaker at that time, but unfortunately this has not been recovered. In course of time the news spread that a young Baptist minister had been snubbed down in Cam- bridgeshire ; and, as the decHning church at New Park Street was then in want of a pastor, here was an opportunity to secure a promising man. " I wish you would send for him, I believe he would suit you," remarked the informant, and the deacon at once felt disposed to make the experi- ment recommended. Mr. Olney wrote at once to Mr. Spurgeon, who, however, manifested no particular anxiety to visit the great metropolis. When he first received the letter he thought a mistake had been made, and thus sent on the epistle to another pastor of the same nam,e ; but it was at once returned with the intimation — " It is not a mistake : you are the man intended." Still he was in no hurry to settle in London. Only a short time before, while walking near Chesterton, he had been startled by what seemed like a voice speaking, " Seekest thou great things for thyself.? seek them not ;" and this remarkable circumstance, which fixed the young preacher's determination not to enter Stepney College, may have checked the rising of any ambitious aspira- tions connected with a London settlement. At all events, he did not consent to preach at New An Unpromising Outlook. 65 Park Street Chapel until an application for him to do so had been repeatedly made ; and when at length he came forth from the seclusion of Cambridgeshire, he came in no very sanguine mood. Nor was this a matter for surprise. The Church at New Park Street was not so flourishing as it had been ; and in the estimation of out- siders, who were disposed to take a desponding view^ of the situation, nothing very far short of a miracle could save the cause from ultimate decay. There were deacons of piety and substance, and a congregation of a hundred or more ; but, not- withstanding, w^hat man of common prudence, or of common sense — especially at nineteen years of age — would be likely to hazard leading the for- lorn hope of filling twelve hundred empty seats, or of imparting life to a cause which was richer in illustrious memories than in present resources } But Mr. Spurgeon was invited, and, to the great delight of the church, he accepted the invitation. When he entered the vestry he asked which was Dr. Gill's chair, and on seating himself in that interesting relic he exclaimed, "He must needs go through Samaria." This showed the Calvin- istic tendencies of his mind, and also the de- sponding view he took of a London settlement. " I knew that I should be of no use to you," he added, " but you would have me come." 5 66 The First Sundays in London. On the Sabbath morning of Mr. Spurgeon's first preaching at New Park Street, only the average congregation was present, and many, when for the first time they cast their eyes on his youthful features, were not cheered. " What a boy ! " was the thought uppermost in the minds "of not a few judicious souls. His first text was James i. 1 7 : " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," etc. Was it to be expected that a boy could turn that valley of dry bones into a garden of the Lord } In the evening the congregation had very perceptibly increased, but even then it was only by degrees that the staid members gained con- fidence. When he turned to Revelation vii. and began to read, and then to expound, thoughts of misgiving arose in the hearts of some. What an absurd thing, mused one experienced Chris- tian who was present, for such a boy to turn to such a passage as that of the hundred and forty and four thousand, who were sealed unto ever- lasting life. He became reassured, however, as the preacher proceeded with his comments. Then came the text and the sermon : " They are without fault before the throne of God." It would be impossible to describe the emotions of the congregation as the discourse proceeded, and the preacher warmed with his subject. One An Original Style. 67 who was present assures us that the effect was amazing. Nearly all the members of the old church were at last raised from their condition of despondency ; although it is possible that some were present who could not all at once become reconciled to the preacher's bold depar- ture from pulpit conventionalities. From the first the commenting struck people as being even more extraordinary than the sermons. After the service was ended, the congregation were too excited to leave the chapel and go home. In all parts of the building they were seen in groups conversing about what they had heard, and of Mr. Spurgeon's eligibility for the pastorate. The deacons had to come forth from the vestry and promise that they would use their endeavours to secure the young preacher. I have also been informed that a church meeting was arranged for to be held as soon as possible, when an invitation to Mr. Spurgeon to accept the pastorate was adopted. The invitation was unanimous with the exception of one dissentient, an elderly deacon, who quietly left immediately after the pastor's settlement. One other reminiscence of that memorable day must be recorded. Mr. Thomas Olney, the senior deacon, and his wife Unity — whose name is kept in remembrance by one of the Orphanage houses 68 The First Sundays in London. at Stockwell — at that time resided at Croydon ; and, partly because she was an invalid, it was not Mrs. Olney's practice to attend New Park Street Chapel when no one save a " nobody " was to preach. On the occasion of Mr. Spurgeon's first coming Mrs. Olney did not undertake the journey from Croydon to Southwark, on account of what she judged to be very valid reasons. Who was the preacher for the day } Oh, nobody but a young man from Waterbeach, in Cam- bridgeshire — a little village, and the last place under the sun likely to have an attractive preacher for its pastor. When Mr. Olney returned home in the middle of the day his face beamed with pleasure, and the sparkle of his eye told that his heart was filled with gladness. At last when he spoke he said to his wife, *' We have such a wonderful young man come to preach to-day ; you must come to chapel to-night." The old lady went to New Park Street as desired, and the good impression produced on her mind was as deep as it was lasting. " He will do," she said, on her return to Croydon, and, with her own peculiar emphasis, " He will do." Was not Mrs. Olney right } In addition to the above we must not over- look the reminiscences which Mr. Spurgeon has himself given in The Szvord and the Trowel for A Mysterious Letter. 69 January 1879. The article is entitled *' Twenty- five Years Ago," and the following are its opening paragraphs, which directly refer to the first visit to London in the last days of 1853 • — " Twenty-five years ago we walked on a Sabbath morning, according to our wont, from Cambridge to the village of Waterbeach, in order to occupy the pulpit of the little Baptist Chapel. It was a country road, and there were four or five honest miles of it, which we usually measured each Sunday foot by foot, unless we happened to be met by a certain little pony and cart which came half way, but could not by any possibility venture further, because of the enormous expense which would have been incurred by driving through the toll-gate at Milton. That winter's morning we were all aglow with our walk, and ready for our pulpit exercises. Sitting down in the table-pew, a letter was passed to us bearing the postmark of London. It was an unusual missive, and was opened with curiosity. It contained an invita- tion to preach at New Park Street Chapel, South wark, the pulpit of which had formerly been occupied by Dr. Rippon, — the very Dr. Rippon whose hymn-book was then before us upon the table — the great Dr. Rippon, out of whose Selec- tion we were about to choose hymns for our worship. The late Dr. Rippon seemed to hover JO The First Sundays in London. over us as an immeasurably great man, the glory of whose name covered New Park Street Chapel and its pulpit with awe unspeakable. We quietly passed the letter across the table to the deacon who gave out the hymns, observing that there was some mistake, and that the letter must have been intended for a Mr. Spurgeon who preached somewhere down in Norfolk. He shook his head, and observed that he was afraid there was no mistake, as he always knew that his minister would be run away with by some large church or other, but that he was a little surprised that the Londoners should have heard of him quite so soon. ' Had it been Cottenham, or St. Ives, or Huntingdon,' said he, ' I should not have wondered at all ; but going to London is rather a great step from this little place.' He shook his head very gravely ; but the time was come for us to look out the hymns, and therefore the letter was put away, and, as far as we can remember, was for the day quite forgotten, even as a dead man out of mind. " On the following Monday an answer was sent to London, informing the deacon of the church at Park Street that he had fallen into an error in directing his letter to Waterbeach, for the Baptist minister of that village was very little more than nineteen years of age, and quite Adventtcres at a Boarding- House, 71 unqualified to occupy a London pulpit. In due time came another epistle, setting forth that the former letter had been written in perfect know- ledge of the young preacher's age, and had been intended for him, and him alone. The request of the former letter was repeated and pressed, a date mentioned for the journey to London, and the place appointed at which the preacher would find lodging. That invitation was accepted, and as the result thereof the boy preacher of the Fens took his post in London. " Twenty -jive years ago — and yet it seems but yesterday — we lodged for the night at a boarding- house in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, to which the worthy deacon directed us. As we wore a huge black satin stock, and used a blue handker- chief with white spots, the young gentlemen of that boarding-house marvelled • greatly at the youth from the country who had come up to preach in London, but who was evidently in the condition known as verdant green. They were mainly of the evangelical church persuasion, and seemed greatly tickled that the country lad should be a preacher. They did not propose to go and hear the youth, but they seemed to tacitly agree to encottrage him after their own fashion, and we were encouraged accordingly. What tales were narrated of the great divines of the metropolis, 72 The First Sundays in London. and their congregations ! One we remember had a thousand city men to hear him, another had his church filled with thoughtfid people, such as could hardly be matched all over England, while a third had an immense audience, almost entirely com- posed of the yotmg men of London, who were spell-bound by his eloquence. The study which these men underwent in composing their sermons, their herculean toils in keeping up their congre- gations, and the matchless oratory which they exhibited on all occasions, were duly rehearsed in our hearing, and when we were shown to bed in a cupboard over the front door, we were not in an advantageous condition for pleasant dreams. Park Street hospitality never sent the young minister to that far-away hired room again, but assuredly the Saturday evening in a London boarding-house was about the most depressing agency which could have been brought to bear upon our spirit. On the narrow bed we tossed in solitary misery, and found no pity. Pitiless was the grind of the cabs in the street, pitiless the recollection of the young city clerks whose grim propriety had gazed upon our rusticity with such amusement, pitiless the spare room which scarce afforded space to kneel, pitiless even the gas -lamps which seemed to wink at us as they flickered amid the December darkness. We had A Memorable London Walk, y2> no friend in all that city full of human beings, but we felt among strangers and foreigners, hoped to be helped through the scrape into which we had been brought, and to escape safely to the serene abodes of Cambridge and Waterbcach, which then seemed to be Eden itself. " Twenty-Jive years ago it was a clear, cold morning, and we wended our way along Holborn Hill towards Blackfriars and certain tortuous lanes and alleys at the foot of Southwark Bridge. Wondering, praying, fearing, hoping, believing, — we felt all alone and yet not alone. Expectant of Divine help, and inwardly borne down by our sense of the need of it, we traversed a dreary wilderness of brick to find the spot where our message must needs be delivered. One word rose to our lip many times, we scarce know why — ' He must needs go through Samaria.' The necessity of our Lord's journeying in a certain direction is no doubt repeated in His servants, and as our present journey was not of our seeking, and had been by no means pleasing so far as it had gone- — ^the one thought of a " needs be " for it seemed to overtop every other. At sight of Park Street Chapel we felt for a moment amazed at our own temerity, for it seemed to our eyes to be a large, ornate, and imposing structure, suggesting an audience wealthy and critical, and 74 The First Su7tdays in London. far removed from the humble folk to whom our ministry had been sweetness and light. It was early, so there were no persons entering, and when the set time was fully come there were no signs to support the suggestion raised by the exterior of the building, and we felt that by God's help we were not yet out of our depth, and were not likely to be with so small an audience. The Lord helped us very graciously, we had a happy Sabbath in the pulpit, and spent the intervals with warm-hearted friends ; and when at night we trudged back to the Queen Square narrow lodging we were not alone, and we no longer looked on Londoners as flinty-hearted barbarians. Our tone was altered, we wanted no pity of any- one, we did not care a penny for the young gentlemen lodgers and their miraculous ministers, nor for the grind of the cabs, nor for anything else under the sun. The lion had been looked at all round, and his majesty did not appear to be a tenth as majestic as when we had only heard his roar miles away." So far as I have been sufficiently fortunate to recover them, the incidents related are those which were associated with Mr. Spurgeon's first Sabbath-day's work in London in the fall of the year 1853. The congregations immediately increased until the chapel was densely thronged Daring Originality. 75 at every service ; and the building was then enlarged to accommodate some eighteen hundred people. The more they knew of their Pastor the more did the church and congregation learn to appreciate his public service and personal worth ; but it was otherwise with outsiders of the same denomination, who were either too undiscerning or too jealous to see and acknowledge the truth. There were many who were still partial to old-fashioned ways, and these had misgivings. Could they only get another Rippon all might yet be well — the tide of prosperity would return ; but what could be made of the bold Essex youth of nineteen, whose daring originality was shocking to people who had beheld the propriety reflected in the portraits of Gill and Rippon } It is an interesting question, What did the preacher appear like at this time ? The query is thus answered by an American quarterly for the year 1859: "He was unpractised in either the art of oratory or of preaching, his public efforts having consisted of addresses before Sunday-schools, and a very brief but successful pastorate over an obscure Baptist church at Waterbeach. In personal appearance he was not prepossessing ; in style he was plain, prac- tical, simple ; in manner, rude, bold, egotistical. 76 The First Sundays in London. approaching to the bigoted ; in theology, a deep-dyed Calvinist ; in church relations, an uncompromising Baptist. We could scarcely imagine a more unpromising list of qualifications, or rather disqualifications, for public favour." Such was the man, as viewed by a discrimi- nating judge at a distance ; what were his associations at home and his prospects in the metropolis } The chapel in New Park Street seated twelve hundred persons, and for some time past a sixth part of that number made an average congregation. The revival was, of course, immediate. The good souls who were present at the first scantily-attended service, and who, according to their nervous temperament, professed to be shocked or edified, carried the news of the altered aspect of affairs to others, and thus helped to bring together ever-increasing crowds. Ever after this day of small things the aforesaid good souls were sorely inconvenienced by having less elbow-room, and a more limited supply of pure air, than they had been accustomed to enjoy in olden time. The chapel became suddenly crowded as no other London chapel had ever been known to be — that is to say, the throng, which weekly filled aisles and pews, manifested a determined sort of eagerness to see and hear the preacher. This was the aspect of affairs in No Desire for" a London Settlement, yj London when the deacons said, " Come amongst us for six months." Waterbeach was, at least, a sufficient contrast to all this excitement and popularity for Mr. Spurgeon to call it, on his return, " this little Garden of Eden." He loved his people ; he experienced uncomfortable sensations in being called upon to leave them ; and, had not poverty denied him freedom of action, he would " have turned a deaf ear to any request to leave them." As, however, the little church was unable to afford him adequate support, he was impelled forward by necessity. The engagement at Water- beach could be terminated at any time by either party after the expiration of a three-months' notice ; but pastor and people were bound together in closer union than could ever have been effected by legal forms. At the outset, he showed no symptoms of being carried away by that amazing popularity which immediately confronted him. In a letter to Mr. Lowe, he commended the people on account of their prudence in allotting an ample term of proba- tion, while at the same time he declined to bind himself for longer than three months. If all progressed well, the engagement could easily be prolonged ; if otherwise, he " would only be a * supply ' — liable to a fortnight's dismissal or 78 The First Sttndays in London. resignation." The deacons at London said, " Come at once ; " those at VVaterbeach were quite averse to so sudden a termination of their connection, and in this respect carried their point. The regular pastorate of Mr. Spurgeon in London may be said to have begun on the 27th of April, 1854. He immediately achieved an unexampled popularity for one so young ; but neither pastor nor people could have had even a faint idea as to what lay before them in the future. As this is not a complete history, it will not be necessary to give a connected account of subse- quent events. These are told by Mr. Spurgeon himself in his book on the Tabernacle, and anything which is included in that volume is not likely to be news to readers of these pages. How the old chapel at New Park Street became crowded so as to warrant an adjournment to Exeter Hall, and subsequently to the Music Hall at the Royal Surrey Gardens, where an appalling accident saddened the church and prostrated the preacher, are things too well known to need recapitula- tion. In " The Treasury of David," under Psalm xci., there is a less-known reminiscence of the eventful first year in London, which is too characteristic to be omitted. The country, it will be remem- bered, was stricken with the fever engendered A Street Adventure. 79 by the Russian war, when the sickness referred to was raging : — "In the year 1854, when I had scarcely been in London twelve months, the neighbourhood in which I laboured was visited by Asiatic cholera, and my congregation suffered from its inroads. Family after family summoned me to the bedsides of the smitten, and almost every day I was called to visit the grave. I gave myself up with youth- ful ardour to the visitation of the sick, and was sent for from all corners of the district by persons of all ranks and religions. I became weary in body and sick at heart. My friends seemed fall- ing one by one, and I felt or fancied that I was sickening like those around me. A little more work and weeping would have laid me low among the rest. I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it. As God would have it, I was returning mourn- fully home from a funeral, when my curiosity led me to read a paper which was wafered up in a shoemaker's window in the Dover Road. It did not look like a trade announcement, nor was it ; for it bore in a good bold handwriting these words : — ' Because tJiou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, tJiy JiabitatioJi, tJiere shall no evil befall thcc, neitJier shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling! The effect upon 8o The First Sundays in Londofi. my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit ; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm. The Providence which moved the tradesman to place those verses in his window I gratefully acknow- ledge, and in the remembrance of its marvellous power I adore the Lord my God." That a special Providence watched over the youthful pastor during the trials of that first terrible summer in London, no one will doubt after reading of the above adventure. Only a man with a large admixture of heroism in his nature could have faced the ordeal to come off in the end a conqueror. When Mr. Spurgeon first settled in London in the spring of 1854, the news of his success soon reached the ears of quiet-living folks in every rural nook in England. Well do I re- member how his fame found its way into the secluded Somersetshire village where I was then residing, when of course the village politicians each formed an independent opinion. What a talk there was about his work, and about the daring originality of his manner of doing it ! The sermons were read with avidity ; for neither the young, who were ready to welcome something The News Reaches the Provinces. 8i new, nor the more elderly, who still venerated William Jay and John Angell James as models of pulpit propriety, had ever seen words put together in such a way before. When Macaulay first appeared in The Edinburgh Revieiv the question was, " Where did he get that style ? " and a similar query might have been started when the new preacher suddenly burst upon the world in 1854. In a certain instance a pastor went to one of his brethren who served a church four miles away, and, having mentioned the fact that he had read one of Mr. Spurgeon's latest sermons, he added, " but he can never keep on like this." The reference was to the prodigality of thought and to the number of illustrations diffused through- out the discourses ; and as the publication pro- ceeded the old worthy thought he had discovered a falling off, as he had predicted there would be. Persons of strong sense and penetrative judg- ment were enabled at once to see Mr. Spurgeon's worth, but weaker men required a longer time for their opinions to become settled. What was most surprising was the singular behaviour of one or two leading Baptist ministers in London, whose open hostility to the man who was manifestly raised up for a great work had the effect of making both themselves and their clique ridiculous. As it was with individuals, so was it with the 6 82 The First Stmdays in London. newspapers. The weaklings hesitated — they were neither supporters nor detractors of Mr. Spurgeon ; but stronger natures, such as the The Morning Advertiser, assumed a bold front, and gained con- siderable credit in the long run for the sagacity which enabled them to arrive at a common-sense decision. Though he differed on many doctrinal points from Mr. Spurgeon, the late Dr. Binney was able from the first to perceive the great talents of the young preacher. On a particular occasion, as I have learned, when he was visiting one of the Independent colleges for the purpose of giving a lecture to the students, the Weighhouse pastor happened to hear some disparaging re- marks concerning Mr. Spurgeon from certain of the students. The lecturer asked them to be quiet, to listen to what he himself had to say on the matter, and addressed them in such words as these : " I myself have enjoyed some amount of popularity; I have always been able to draw together a congregation ; but in the person of Mr. Spurgeon we see a young man, be he who he may, and come whence he will, who at twenty-four hours' notice can command a con- gregation of twenty thousand people. Now, I have never been able to do that, and I never knew of anyone else who could do it." Mr. Spurgeon What Dr. Binney Said. 83 could do greater things than Dr. Binney, or all the efforts of the students combined could do, and on that account there was wisdom in remaining quiet, and withholding railing words. One of the earliest sermons preached by Mr. Spurgeon in London was from the text, " Fear not, thou worm Jacob." It was a discourse of great power, and was one which seemed at once to establish the preacher's fame. It was, more- over, one of the series which were to have been probationary sermons ; but, in reality, it can hardly be said that Mr. Spurgeon ever preached any probationary sermons at all. His very first Sabbath day's work in the metropolis settled the matter of his unanimous call to the pastorate. I have heard it said by one of its oldest members that the church at New Park Street was as much prepared for the reception of Mr. Spurgeon by providence as Mr. Spurgeon was prepared for the position. The church was in a low condition, however ; and although there were two hundred members, no one knew where to find them. There was a good chapel, and there was a staff of well-to-do deacons to second the efforts of the pastor ; but had Mr. Spurgeon been an optimist the outlook would have been discourag- ing to the last degree. When he suddenly became popular in London, 84 The First Sundays in London. applications for Mr. Spurgeon's services began to pour in from the provinces. His days were, accordingly, days of travel and adventure, and his own words, spoken in 1855, give a more vivid picture of his experience at this time than any other description. Referring to a northern tour he said : " Many persons know that on my road home I was exposed to very imminent danger. I crossed the river Clyde in a ferry : the man who had the management of the boat had taken * a wee drap o' the cratur,' and was not able to manage it at all, and had put twenty-six persons into a boat that ought to have contained far less. I have been informed by one or two ladies that report was current that I was thrown into the water, and fished up by the hair of my head. Now, that was not so. We were simply in danger, but by a little management and expostu- lation, which was resented by oaths and curses, we came safe to land. Thanks to that God who both on sea and land cares for His people ! I had engaged to preach in Bradford, in Yorkshire. 1 first made a journey to Lake Windermere, round which I sailed, and greatly enjoyed the beauties of its scenery. I went to Bradford, and on Sabbath morning I found they had engaged the music-hall, which holds, they say, a thousand persons more than Exeter Hall. Instead of Advenhtres in the North. 85 being able to contain the crowds who came on Sunday, about as many had to go away as were accommodated. In the evening the streets presented a solid blockade of men and women. The place was crammed to excess, and I had scarcely room to walk about to deliver what I had to say to the people. ... I went to Stockton- on-Tees, and there again preached the word of God to a very numerous congregation. I journeyed on still further, to Edinburgh, and in Queen Street Hall, notwithstanding the most pouring rains, more crowds were assembled." Thus in one town after another great crowds were attracted, and on one occasion, in Glasgow, it was said that twenty thousand persons went away unable to obtain admission. It was not long before the crowds in front of New Park Street Chapel filled the street. Then Exeter Hall and Surrey Gardens' Hall were successively taken, but more because they afforded a larger sphere of usefulness than from any other reason. The profits from the services of the last- named place aided in some considerable degree the Tabernacle building fund. It is not gener- ally known that the Tabernacle very narrowly escaped being erected on leasehold land ; and that what would have been a real disaster was pre- vented by certain of the deacons refusing to sign 86 The First Sundays in London. the building contract on such conditions. The site was in possession of the Fishmongers' Company ; and Mr. Joynson, of St. Mary Cray, became a main instrument under providence in obtaining- the freehold. Thus, as we hope, The Metropolitan Tabernacle can remain until the end of time as a monument of the sanctified' genius and earnest life-work of C. H. Spurgeon. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. ' ' Our life has been mainly spent in direct religious teaching, and to that work we would dedicate our main strength ; but men need also to hear common every-day things spoken of in a religious manner, for to some of them this roundabout road is the only way to their hearts. Theology is dull reading to the unconverted ; but mixed with a stoiy, or set forth by a witty saying, they will drink in a great amount of religious truth and find no fault. They like their pills gilded, or at least sugar-coated, and if by that means they may be really benefited, who will grudge them the gilt or the sugar ? " — Preface to The Spare Half'Hour. IV. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. A^T^HAT others say about a man must be * ^ estimated according to the personal worth and sympathies of the speakers ; but what a man says about himself is sure, one way or the other, to be a revelation of character. While no one will defend egotism, it is possible for conceit or spurious humility to conceal itself in a reticence, foolish because studied and unnatural. He must be a shrewd judge both of himself and others who can constantly make capital of himself, while it is still evident that self is not mentioned for the sake of glorification. It must be evident to every observer that from the first Mr. Spurgeon has been to himself an exhaustless book of illustra- tion, many of the most telling things in his sermons and lectures being personal reminiscences. Anecdotes of childhood and of later age are con- tinually appearing, without any sign of the stock becoming exhausted. People are naturally interested in the childhood 90 Personal Reminiscences. of remarkable men ; and shrewd observers, like John Foster, are glad to recover, so far as recovery is possible, those early mind impressions which came and went like fleeting clouds in the fresh spring-time of life's opening days. Our first im- pressions of the world are for the most part lost ; but on this account we value more highly than we should the fragments which remain. If he had not himself narrated the fact, who could have supposed that Mr. Spurgeon was ever fascinated with the exciting sport of the hunting-field t Yet so it was ; the dogs, the horses, the horn-blowing, the riders in red coats, constituted a picturesque paraphernalia which had irresistible charms. Had we, as inquisitive well-wishers, enquired in those days what occupation Master Charles Haddon Spurgeon would prefer as a life profession, the reply would have come with smart readiness, " A huntsman ! a huntsman ! " Well may the man exclaim as he looks back on such childish pre- ferences, " A fine profession truly ! " but then there is the unvarnished fact, as a child he "always felt a natural taste for that sort of business." Whenever the hounds were descried, they were invariably followed at highest speed over fields, hedges, and ditches, regardless of hazard. The indulgence of this propensity once cost dear ; for, executing a market commission, the contents Predilections of CJiildhood. 91 of the basket — rice, mustard, etc. — were shaken together into " one awful mess." As anecdotes, such things are interesting contributions ; but as anecdotes merely they would never be told by Mr. Spurgeon. Everything must point a moral or serve as an illustration to clinch a religious truth. The childish predilection for field sports warns young men not to be too readily drawn into the Christian ministry by outward things, and thus resemble children who are captivated by the holiday trappings of sportsmen. The adven- ture likewise shows the value of a clear arrange- ment of ideas. Due care should be exercised so that good things are not heaped together " all in a muddle." It is obvious that " people will not drink your mustardy tea, nor will they enjoy muddled-up sermons, in which you cannot tell head from tail, because they have neither, but are like Mr. Bright's Skyc terrier, whose head and tail were both alike." Happy is the child to whom the season of school discipline comes with pleasures which are remembered with satisfaction in after life. Mr. Spurgeon met with good masters, and he drank in their teaching until he became himself a tutor \yith pupils taller than himself ; Colchester, Maid- stone, and Newmarket all being associated with those early days. In connection with Colchester 92 Pei'sonal Reminiscences. we once heard him relate this characteristic anecdote. On a certain very cold morning the tutor, without design, so arranged the class that the lower boys sat in proximity to the school stove, the comforting glow of which it was hardly worth while to surrender for the passing honours of priority. After he had asked sundry questions with unsatisfactory results, the schoolmaster sud- denly, as he thought, discovered in the genial fire the one cause of Master Spurgeon's unusual dul- ness. The order was accordingly instantly given to wheel round, the head, instead of the bottom, of the class being now placed nearest the stove. The effect was exactly what the sagacious leader expected ; for when warmth as well as honour could be gained by proficiency, a few correct answers presently reinstated Master Spurgeon in his former place near the fire at the head of the column A child in whose susceptible heart the Old Adam so far predominated that he was carried off his head by the fascination of hunting would not in the natural course of things appear to every- body as a subject likely to succeed in the pulpit. A dame who was '* as godly a Christian as ever breathed " thought that no good was ever likely to come of young Mr. Spurgeon's meddling with sacred things, and like a woman of conscience, if Advised not to Become a Preacher. 9. not of sense, she advised according to her light : she steadfastly dissuaded her young friend from assuming a calling for which it was so manifest that neither nature nor grace had fitted him. We cannot any of us afford to laugh at the judgment of this simple soul : for if it is hard to judge of a literary work in manuscript, how much more diffi- cult is it to say what a preacher in embryo will achieve. If there were those living in the Puritan age who would have burned the manuscript of TJie Pilgrims Progress to do God service, their descendants, in 1850, would act after the example of their fathers. The Fathers advised John Bunyan not to scandalise the church by printing a silly book ; the children, by shutting his mouth, would have made a tutor or a clerk of Mr. Spurgeon. In one case as in the other, a better judgment prevailed. It is, nevertheless, the Pastor's opinion that the young should show a deference to the counsel of their superiors in age and experience. The first sermon from the text, " Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious," was preached unexpectedly and without prepara- tion, and the work has ever since continued. Probably Mr. Spurgeon has preached a greater number of sermons than any other living pastor of the same age ; and hence we are prepared for the admission that, all along, he has been careful 94 Personal Reminiscences. of his throat. His advice to all public speakers is to discard once and for ever " horehound, ipecacuanha, or any of the ten thousand emollient compounds." His experience has taught him that for the voice there is nothing like astringents. When he removed from New Park Street to Exeter Hall he discovered that his voice was none too strong for a place so difficult to speak in ; but he found relief in Chili vinegar mixed with water, which he sipped occasionally during the service. He still finds a panacea in beef-tea " as strong with pepper as can be borne." A preacher of such varied experience will necessarily have met with various entertaining adventures in connection with the business of choosing a text ; and Mr. Spurgeon ingenuously confesses that he is " an odd man." While re- siding at Cambridge, in the days of his village preaching, he on one occasion vainly endeavoured to collect his thoughts for a sermon, which had to be given in the evening. Do what he would " the right text " could not be found. After remaining some time in a somewhat anxious condition he happened to walk to the window, when on the roof of a house opposite were seen a company of vindictive sparrows worrying a solitary canary, which had been unfortunate enough to escape from its cage. After looking for a few moments, Hearing v. Heavy Sunday Dinners. 95 the words of Jeremiah xii. 9 stole into his mind : " Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against me." " The text was sent to me," says the preacher, " and if the ravens did not bring it, certainly the sparrows did." Why do not the birds, or other agents in nature, more often than they do bring our teachers their texts ? Because all have not the eye to utilize what they see. After he had seen the sparrows and their victim, Mr. Spurgeon " walked off with the greatest possible composure ; . . . and preached upon the peculiar people and the persecutions of their enemies." While Mr. Spurgeon held the pastorate of Waterbeach the inconvenient, old-fashioned custom of holding three services on the Sabbath was still in vogue. This usage, now in a great measure obsolete, was one which a young pastor would not find reason to admire ; for, leaving out of the question the extra labour imposed, " roast beef and pudding lie heavy on the hearers' souls, and the preacher himself is deadened while digestion claims the mastery of the hour." On a certain Sabbath, during the happy days of youth, all went well at morning service, and at dinner the preacher ate sparingly, in order that he might wear well through the afternoon. The sermon had been thought out beforehand, without the aid of ink and 96 Personal Renimiscences. paper ; but in the hour of need, when the people were fast assembhng in the meeting-house, the train of ideas suddenly vanished, leaving a dark vacuum, which occasioned some commendable trepidation in the mind. The fact was related to the farmer in whose house the dinner had been served ; but not having to preach himself that hospitable worthy made light of the mischief. It is all very well for farmers to say, " Oh ! never mind, you will be sure to have a good word for us," and so on ; but such commonplaces are only cold comfort, and they do not point a way out of the difficulty. Just while the two were conversing a piece of wood, blazing and smoking, fell from the fire. Here was the missing link. " Here was a text, an illustration, and a leading thought as a nest-egg for more." The hearts of one or two were reached on that afternoon. The above are interesting examples of their kind ; but a more extraordinary instance of a change of text having taken place, and not through any mishap, once occurred in the chapel at New Park Street on a Sunday evening. The preliminary parts of the service passed off in the usual manner ; the Bible was opened at the text selected and pre- viously studied, when another passage hard by not only attracted attention, but seemed to spring up " like a lion from the thicket." The preacher Preaching in the Dark. 97 tells us that he was " in a strait betwixt two." In imagination he seemed to listen to a dispute between the rivals ; and when one pulled impor- tunately at his skirts the other answered, " No, no, you must preach from me." The new comer had its way, and the first and second heads were proceeded with while the third head had not yet suggested itself. Immediately after the second division was closed the gas went out, and as the chapel was crowded with people the danger was considerable. The people were providentially saved from panic by hearing Mr. Spurgeon's voice, and the assurance that he could speak to them as well in the dark as the light. Two persons were reached and converted on that evening. " I cast myself upon God," says the preacher, " and His arrangements quenched the light at the proper time for me." In his time Mr. Spurgeon has encountered many interesting specimens of the species called eccentric people. An uneducated genius in the pulpit has always something for the observant hearer in the pew. One of these persons referred to was a worthy who could found a sermon on such a text as " The night hawk, the owl, and the cuckoo." The text was, of course, ingeniously selected, but where were the divisions t Divisions } The birds had a head a-piece, and after wringing their necks 7 98 Personal Reminiscences. there they were. The hawk was a sly rogue, the owl was a drunkard who was most lively at night, the cuckoo was one who harped on the notes and sucked the eggs of others. And yet because the matter corresponded with the quaint instrument it " did not seem at all remarkable or odd." This man was a godly rustic who was great at spiritualizing ; and though long since laid in the grave his memory lives in " Lectures to my Students." Pastors should cultivate the art of conversation, they should be masters of the knack of turning to profitable account the thousand and one every-day incidents of ordinary life. This was illustrated by an adventure on Clapham Common some years ago. A common porter was pushing along a large truck, and in the middle of the commodious carriage lay a small parcel, perhaps looking more diminutive than it really was by contrast. " It looks odd to see so large a truck for so small a load," remarked Mr. Spurgeon. " Yes, sir, it is a very odd thing," quickly replied the man ; " but do you know I've met with an odder thing than that this blessed day. I've been about working and sweating all this 'ere blessed day, and till now I haven't met with a gentleman that looked as if he'd give me a pint of beer, till I saw you." What was the result of this deli- A Working Mans Wit. 99 cately-worded appeal we are not informed ; but the ready earnestness with which the man sought to turn the occasion to profit carried home a lesson such as the interrogator was not slow to learn. The opinion may be hazarded, however, that in this instance the natural acuteness of the im- portunate porter was overrated. From what we know of the working classes of London we dare affirm that there are hundreds who would have manifested a corresponding smartness, the wit and the repartee being second-hand, and thus common property. Working men often speak with great ease and drollery ; but then the witti- cisms thus admirably rendered may have existed for generations. Interested as we may be in all that we know about Mr. Spurgeon's habits of study, ministers and public speakers would do well to give some extra attention to what he says concerning his own efficiency in extempore speech, how he acquired and how he sustains the coveted art. The too common notion is that when a man does anything remarkably well he does it without taking trouble ; but the experience of real life dispels such an illusion. It is through incessant hard work alone that men succeed, and are able to maintain their prestige when they have worked their way to the front. This is strictly true of lOO Personal Reminiscences. Mr. Spurgeon ; for he has worked as hard as any man in England. In one sense, unfortu- nately, the position occupied by such a man is not without its drawbacks. The ceaseless pressure of work does not allow of the popular minister enjoying life like other people. Holidays are always scarce ; he may even be precluded from walking round his garden once in a week. He has a gift, and to maintain his standing the practice which is said to " make perfect " must be sustained. As regards the manner of working, Mr. Spurgeon thinks it unsafe for those who retain their powers unimpaired to indulge in sticks, crutches, or spectacles. The preacher above every man should be self-reliant, and keep his natural faculties bright with constant service. Mr. Spurgeon's experience proves that those who would excel as extempore preachers must trust to memory and not to notes. Only make your notes a few lines longer this Sunday, and soon you will " require them longer still." He goes further, and assures us that if there is an increased trust in the pre-arrangements of memory, it is naturally followed by '' a direct craving, and even an increased necessity for pre-composition." If the art of speaking well be encompassed with so many difficulties, which even a Spurgeon must A Workino' Man s Wit. loi overcome, the lessons of his experience speak to all. To a public speaker a liberal supply of fresh air is of vital importance, and this is especially the case with the Pastor of the Tabernacle. Occasionally, in the middle of a service, he will ask for more air, and he counsels all pastors not to be afraid of opening their chapel windows, because " the next best thing to the grace of God for a preacher is oxygen." He will not tolerate having comfort in breathing sacrificed to architec- ture ; and soon after settling at New Park Street the officials found out to their cost the predilec- tions of the Pastor. There was a window in the chapel whose iron bars would not allow of its being opened, and, after repeated suggestions had been vainly made that a glazier should take out the panes, they were one morning found to be broken. The Pastor suggested that a reward of £^ should be offered, and that the money should be eivcn as a testimonial to the offender ; and, although he never informed, he went so far as to confess that he had walked with the stick which let the oxygen into a stifling structure. A considerable weight of responsibility once devolved on those who kept Mr. Spurgeon's vestry-door, which after every service was sur- rounded with a goodly array of persons, one and I02 Personal Reminiscences. all having wants or whims to be satisfied. From time to time many " characters " appeared in the throng. Women with wild fancies, men with some chronic trouble weighing them down, or others who had visionary projects they would talk about to a sympathetic friend, might there have been encountered. Now and then the fire of insanity was to be detected in the eye of a new comer, and the arm of the sentinel deacon would be raised to hinder the ingress of a doubt- ful character. Among the more extraordinary specimens were found those who applied for admission to the Pastors' College. The college is Mr. Spurgeon's best-loved institution ; and it is generally known that candidates for the ministry may reckon on receiving patient atten- tion. There are, of course, bold pretenders who come forward to turn liberty into licence, and to take advantage of good nature. One such was a young man whose face " looked like the title-page to a whole volume of conceit and deceit." The man had enough assurance for a hundred adventurers, and because his case was so remarkable he wanted to be admitted at once. His private opinion was that his attainments were immense, and that no such application had ever been received before. He testified that he had thoroughly explored the field of ancient and Troubles of an Editor. 103 modern literature, while his preaching was ex- ceptionally eloquent. When his application was declined, this upstart retired with dignity, sup- posing that an " unusual genius " and a " gigantic mind " showed the cause of failure. Some references should be made to Mr. Spurgeon's editorial troubles, and to the offence which is necessarily given in some quarters through strict adherence to principle. All editors receive manuscripts of the most extraordinary description. A journalist once remarked that all persons suppose themselves to be competent writers, and the general experience of editors teaches that the assertion is not very wide of the truth. The absence of talent and education never damps the ardour of literary aspirants, whose sole ambition is to secure the honours of appearing in print. Who shall estimate the amazing amount of doggerel with which editors and publishers are still pestered ? The plague is a cross to bear, and shows signs of increase rather than of diminution. Although cacoetJies scribendi may be a prevalent and incurable disease, we believe that general readers have little conception of the extent to which it prevails. There appears to be no class without its writers, or without those who suppose themselves to be capable of handling the quill. I04 Personal Reminiscences. As an editor, Mr. Spurgeon's adventures are sure to be singular, proportionately with the eminence of his position. Because his name is known to everybody, the eccentric will not be wanting in endeavours to take him into their confidence. The poets are always a source of trouble ; for not only do the doggerel traffickers claim attention, a batch of rhymes was once received from one who claimed to be divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit ! Instead of being inspired, however, all the pieces bore the mark of imposture ; and did so because the editor's shelves could " show many poems as much superior to these pretended inspirations as angels are to blue-bottles." What fool is to be com- pared with your " inspired " fool } Mr, Spurgeon is very partial to open-air preaching, and in his lectures on that subject gives many interesting incidents from his own experience. His favourite pitch is the front of " a rising ground, or an open spot bounded at some little distance by a wall." Mr. Duncan's garden at Benmore is a favourite site — " a level sweep of lawn, backed by rising terraces, covered with fir-trees." He also tells us of " a grand cathedral " once provided for his accommodation in Oxfordshire. " The remains of it are still called Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and may be seen Ope7i Air Preaching. 105 near Minster Lovell, in the form of a quadrilateral of oaks. Originally it was the beau ideal of a preaching place, for it was a cleared spot in the thick forest of Wychwood, and was reached by roads cut through the dense underwood. I shall never forget those * alleys green,' and the verdant walls which shut them in. When you reached the inner temple it consisted of a large square, out of which the underwood and smaller trees had been cut away, while a sufficient number of young oaks had been left to rise to a consider- able height, and then overshadow us with their branches." He once preached in the time of haymaking from the appropriate text, " He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth," but during the sermon a storm of rain passed over the ground. His general advice to open-air preachers is all valuable. Certain trees arc to be avoided on account of their " rustling sound." The sun must not be directly in the speaker's face ; nor arc they to attempt to preach " against the wind." Such is a selection of personal reminiscences collected from his own works, which a future biographer of Mr. Spurgeon will be able to utilize. I could easily add other anecdotes which have not appeared in print ; but the insertion of these would unduly lengthen this chapter. I will, how- io6 Personal Reminiscences. ever, give one that comes from a trustworthy friend concerning an English judge, now dead, but who in his hfetime was very generally esteemed, and who was deacon of a congregation in London, a member of the Baptist denomination, and, therefore, well acquainted with Mr. Spurgeon. When out of court, or when in the ante-rooms, both the justice and his learned associates con- verse familiarly among themselves, so that on one occasion the Pastor of the Metropolitan Taber- nacle became the topic of the hour. Of course differences of opinion were freely expressed ; and it is possible the brilliant coterie were a little surprised on hearing from their friend the judge that they should have an opportunity of deciding for themselves the merits of the case, as he intended to invite all of them, and also Mr. Spurgeon, to a friendly dinner. "Do you mean it.'*" cried the lawyers, in expectant tones. " Yes." " Then agreed ! " The bargain being thus con- cluded, the worthy justice fulfilled to the letter his part of the contract. Mr. Spurgeon accepted the invitation, knowing nothing of the previous arrangements ; and, as Dr. Johnson would have said, the time passed well with some " good talk." When the judge and counsel next met in the robing room, the exceedingly hearty manner in which the latter expressed their thanks showed Among tJie Lawyers, 107 that they were not speaking in the dialect of mere compliment. Mr. Spurgeon was all that he was said to be, or even more ; and all con- fessed how well they had been entertained. The confession went even further ; they acknowledged that they had conspired together to test his knowledge by arranging beforehand a number of questions, and the answers received surpassed expectation. In point of fact, Mr. Spurgeon's table-talk is in itself good fare ; and hence we are well able to estimate the quality of the banquet which the lawyers enjoyed, and acknow- ledged with a bonhomie characteristic of their order when out of court. Indeed, this table-talk is too good to be lost, but there are difficulties in the way of its collection ; for, as I remarked at the outset, " what the Pastor has been heard to threaten he will do, should he ever be ap- proached by a first cousin of Johnson's biographer, may well intimidate the boldest member of that inquisitive tribe." On December ist, 1880, Mr. Spurgeon gave some reminiscences of his earlier days which may very properly close the present chapter : — * After thanking his people " from the bottom * The report of what the Pastor said on this interesting occasion is that which appeared at the time in The Christian World. io8 Personal Reminiscences. of his soul " for the hearty way in which they had ever worked with him, Mr. Spurgeon said he was afraid they were getting old together. Speaking for himself, however, he felt young about the head, but quite old down below. His life had been specially interesting, and he was not likely to grow tired of it. He verily believed that had he the power of a novelist he could produce a three-volume novel from the events of any one day of his life, so singularly had that life been crowded with interesting incidents. Indeed, if he were ever dull, it must be from something within, for he could not get gloomy from the outside. He had promised to tell them a few stories of things he could recollect ; and a face he saw before him reminded him of a visit he once paid to Tring. He was regarded as being too higJi for one chapel there, too low for another, but in a third he was permitted to preach. The pastor of this chapel was in receipt of only fifteen shillings a-week, and Mr. Spurgeon had some misgivings about drinking the poor man's tea. During the meal he noticed that his host wore a very shiny alpaca coat. At the close of the sermon Mr. Spurgeon said, addressing the congregation — " Now I have preached my best to you. ' Freely ye have received, freely give.' The minister of this place looks as if he wants The Woman in a Red Cloak. 109 a new suit of clothes. I will give half-a-sovereign, my friend down below will do the same, and plates will be held at the doors for your con- tributions." The effort was successful. After the service the poor pastor, addressing Mr. Spurgeon, observed that ever since he became a minister of Jesus Christ his Master always sent him his livery, and he was beginning to wonder where the next would come from. The same day and in the same place Mr. Spurgeon ad- dressed a gathering of children, and was subse- quently severely taken to task by some good men for telling the little ones that God heard his prayers before he was converted. The grave men gathered around, exclaiming that the prayers of a sinner were an abomination to the Lord. The victory was, however, won by an old woman in a red cloak. " What are you battling with this young man about 1 " she inquired, squeezing herself into the circle. " What do yoit know about the Scriptures ? You say God does not hear the prayers of unconverted people, why, have you never read that He heareth the young ravens when they cry .'' and there is no grace in them. If God hears the cry of the ravens, don't you think He will hear the cry of a man made in His own image!" The objectors suddenly vanished, and Mr. Spurgeon walked away with the old lady. I TO Personal Reminiscences. His earliest recollections, Mr. Spurgeon went on to say, gathered around his grandfather, who was for sixty-four years pastor of a congregation at Stambourne, in Essex, and at the age of eighty- eight was wont to rub his knee and complain that rheumatism was shortening his days. Mr. Spurgeon acknowledged that he owed a great deal to the teaching of his early youth. When a boy, and while staying at his grandfather's house, he met the Rev. Richard Knill, the missionary, who would take him into an arbour and pray with him. On one occasion Mr. Knill lifted him on to his knee, and said that he felt persuaded the child would grow up to preach the Gospel to more people than any man living, and that he would one day preach in Rowland Hill's Chapel. Mr, Knill gave him sixpence, in return for which he was to learn the hymn, " God moves in a mysterious way," and at the same time extracted the promise from little Spurgeon that he would have this hymn sung when he occupied Rowland Hill's pulpit. On coming to London the preacher was taken ill, and Mr. Spurgeon was asked to take the service in Surrey Chapel. He did so, and redeemed his promise by letting the congre- gation sing the hymn suggested by Mr. Knill. Strange things came about in the working of God's providence. It was through Mr. Knill Baptised in a River. 1 1 1 daring to preach in a theatre, that led Mr. Spurgeon to conduct services in the Surrey Music Hall. He became a Baptist through reading the New Testament, especially in the Greek, and was strengthened in his resolve by a perusal of the Church of England Catechism. He was baptised at the age of fifteen in a river. Two women, who were immersed at the same time, desired him to lead them into the water ; but he was such a timid, trembling creature that he needed all the strength he possessed for himself But his timidity was washed away. It floated down the river into the sea, and must have been devoured by the fishes, for he had never felt anything of the kind since. Baptism also loosed his tongue, and from that day it had never been quiet. When Mr. Spurgeon became pastor of the church of Waterbeach they held their baptisms in a neighbouring river. There was to be a baptism one day, and it was raining " cats and dogs." The service was to be undertaken by Mr. Elvin, a man of enormous size, who said he must decline, for if he got wet through there was not a waist- coat within forty miles that would fit him. One day when Mr. Elvin was preaching for Mr. Spurgeon at Park Street, an old lady put her head in at the door, and, perceiving Mr. Elvin, withdrew, remarking that "no good could 1 1 2 Personal Remmiscences. possibly come from a man who had so much of the flesh." Mr. Spurgeon went on to remark that he recollected most distinctly hearing Mr. Jay preach at Cambridge. The text was, " Ever let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ." And he remembered with what dignity he preached, and yet how simply. Ladies, Mr. Jay said, in the course of his sermon, were some- times charged with dressing too costly. He did not know much about it himself, but if they told him what their income was he would tell them how many yards of ribbon they could afford. His recollections of Mr. Jay were such as he would not like to lose. On another occasion he made a journey to Birmingham to hear John Angell James, for he was most anxious to be able to say that he had heard Jay and James. Mr. James's text was, " Ye are complete in Him." And what a delicious sermon it was! Years afterwards, on being in Mr. James's company, Mr. Spurgeon told him that he went all the way to Birmingham to hear him preach. On his mentioning the text, Mr. James replied, " Ah ! that was a Calvinistic sermon. You would get on with that, but you would not get on with me always." Dr. Brock, when dining with Mr. James on one occasion, asked him if he recollected preaching at a certain place for two Aitgell James and William Brock. 1 1 J hours. " I do," replied Mr. James, " but the clock did not indicate it." " No," said Dr. Brock ; " I was in the gallery, and stopped the clock when- ever I liked, and thus made you preach for two hours instead of three-quarters of an hour." At this Mr. James observed, " Mr. Brock, you always were at your fun, and I daresay you would do the same again." " But I wouldn't," retorted Dr. Brock, to the great surprise of Mr. James, who expected the Doctor would still be desirous of hearing a sermon from him extending over two hours at least. Dr. Brock's tone sug- gested pretty plainly that if he happened to be a listener again, he would rather make the hands travel unusually quick in the orthodox direction. When Mr. Spurgeon commenced preaching at Waterbeach he was sixteen years old. The people could do but very little for his support ; hence he also filled the post of an usher at Cambridge. After a time he gave the latter occupation up, and trusted to the generosity of his people, who raised about ^45 a-year for him. Out of this he paid twelve shillings a-week for two rooms, and his congregation did for him what he wished country congregations generally would do for their pastors. Whenever they went to Cambridge they carried him vegetables, and any quantity of loaves of bread, and at no time did any 8 114 Personal Re^niniscences. member of his flock kill a pig without his receiv- ing some portion of it. Once young Spurgeon was invited to preach for Mr. Sutton, who, on perceiving the youth for the first time on his arrival, exclaimed, " You can't preach. What is the world coming to 1 A parcel of boys preach- ing who have not got their mothers' milk out of their mouths ! " Mr. Sutton was a quaint old man, who, after being a shepherd of sheep for forty years, became shepherd of men for a similar period, and was wont to remark that his second flock " was a deal more sheepish than the first." Mr. Spurgeon went on to observe that his (Mr. Spurgeon's) acquaintance had been most varied and extensive. He had enjoyed the friendship of most of the noblest persons that had passed over the history of his own time. He just happened to have the least possible connection with Christ- mas Evans, having found his widow nearly starving, and it was his great joy to support her till she died. A friend, now gone, however, on hearing of it, insisted upon having shares in the pleasur- able undertaking. Mr. Spurgeon remarked that if he had not washed the feet of Christmas Evans, he had done what he could for any relic there was left of him. Then he enjoyed, too, the most intimate friend- ship of Daubigne, author of the " History of the Drs. Guthrie and Candlish. 1 1 5 Reformation," who once gave an address at the Tabernacle. Mr. Spurgeon also preached for Daubigne on the continent, and the same day occupied Calvin's old pulpit. In the evening he met two hundred of the greatest preachers of Switzerland, and before departing, one after the other kissed him on both cheeks. It was his pleasure to have the personal friendship of Mr. Sherman, also that of Dr. Hamilton, whom it was always a real joy to meet in his own home. Then he well knew glorious old Tom Guthrie. " What a man he was to be with ! " said Mr. Spurgeon. " And he could tell a story or two. When we were together we were happy." And Dr. Candlish it was his delight to be acquainted with. He well recollected addressing the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, and Dr. Candlish was all over the place — now in the gallery, now to the moderator's right, now to his left. Dr. Candlish was made of quicksilver, and, though his body was not very large, it seemed to partake of the quicksilver of his nature. Mr. Spurgeon regarded Candlish as one of the greatest men of modern times. And then he knew Arnot, and should not soon forget the good old man. " All honour to these men," added Mr. Spurgeon. " They did not come to England, but they did exceedingly well in Scotland, where they were 1 1 6 Personal Reminiscences. burning and shining lights." He owed much to the Scotch, for when his Tabernacle was being built, a considerable portion of the money came from the North. Whenever he went to Scotland — it was not " Blue-bonnets over the Border," but wide-awake over the Border — he came back loaded with money. He just passed over the skirts of the Claytons, and everybody who lived in Wal- worth recollected what gentlemen the Claytons were. Without a doubt they were the most gentlemanly race uf preachers that ever lived. Mr. Spurgeon did not lament that such dignified brethren had passed away, though they did good in their day. He had been told that souls were saved by the white bibs ministers wore. Then John Howard Hinton had a good word for him when very few had anything to say in his favour. He called in at the Tabernacle one day, and said to Mr. Olney, Mr. Spurgeon's senior deacon, " Take care of that young man ; he is an old Puritan bound in morocco." " But I maintain," added Mr. Spurgeon, " that I am bound in calf, for I belong to Essex." Then that good old Dr. Campbell, editor of the British Banner, was a very dear friend of his. Whenever he went to preach for Dr. Campbell he had always to take his wife and boys with him. When writing to invite them Dr. Campbell would say, "Our cat has had kittens Dr. Binney and Mr, Spurge on. 1 1 7 on purpose for the boys to play with." And the day before their arrival the good old man would be out buying toy horses and carts for the juvenile Spurgeons. This showed that while he was a stern man he stooped down to do a kindly action, and took a pleasure in delighting children. Dr. Binney once went to hear Mr. Spurgeon, and remarked of the sermon in the presence of some of the preacher's friends — " It is an insult to God and man. I never heard such a thing." Twenty years afterwards Dr. Binney visited the Pastors' College and related the incident, observing, "Well, you know, your minister has so much improved since those days. I denounced him then most heartily, and even refused to preach where he preached, but I very soon found out my mistake." "And the grand, great man," added Mr. Spurgeon, " was perhaps right in his first observation ! " After mentioning a few other incidents, Mr. Spurgeon brought his chat to a close, promising to resume it on a future occasion. When Dr. Binney took exception to the style of the young preacher, he was not so singular in his prejudices as some might now be disposed to think. In 185 1, when Mr. Spurgeon com- menced work, the world may not have been unprepared to greet something new — to condone some departure from the old and beaten ways ; 1 1 8 Personal Reminiscences. but it was hardly ready to welcome a preacher of such thorough originality, that he ignored time-honoured conventional pulpit fashions to follow methods of his own ; even his most un- compromising detractors did not attempt to deny that the preacher was original ; but the world did not find in such an admission a passport to its favour. This was partly accounted for by the fact, that in great measure people spoke and acted as their fathers had done before them. A Latinised rhetorical style was still regarded as eloquence ; and the " great " sermons of popular orators at important anniversaries were marvellous examples of painstaken elaboration. The suc- cess of Mr. Spurgeon meant a total change of fashion ; but the world does not change its ways at the bidding of a provincial youth without some growls and warm protests. Elderly people did not know that what they thought to be so proper was doomed to become obsolete ; and they could not be expected all at once to appre- hend that the youth whom they accused of so many improprieties was really a reformer, such as the pulpit and the world had long wanted. ANECDOTES, LETTERS, ANA, ETC. "Gentlemen of the press have an eye to the amusement of their readers, and make selections of all the remarkable anecdotes, or odd sayings, used by a speaker, and when these are separated from their surroundings the result is anything but satisfactory. No man's speeches or lectures should be judged of by an ordinary newspaper summary, which in any case is a mere sketch, and in many instances is a vile caricature." — Preface to Eccentric Preachers. V. ANECDOTES, LETTERS, AJVA, ETC. Truth versus Fiction. T IKE Rowland Hill and some other celebrated -* — ' preachers of wit and wisdom, Mr. Spurgeon has had many apocryphal stories told about him, and the manner in which these piquant fictions are circulated is well illustrated by the following letter, which the Pastor received in the year 1883:— " As I see that you are still occasionally put to the trouble of answering enquiries as to the truth of various anecdotes, etc., concerning yourself, I thought the following brief statement might interest you, or some of your numerous readers, if you think it well to publish it. About seventeen years ago I was for some time at a well-known health-resort on the south coast. At the table d'hote I sat next to a young married lady, who was, alas ! consumptive ; and of that temperament which is so common in such cases, tres spirituelley and very learned and 122 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. accomplished. You may be sure she never lacked auditors for her lively conversation. At dessert one day she was ' telling stories/ in the juvenile and literal sense of the phrase, about yourself. I let her go on for some time, until I thought the fun was getting a little too fast ; and then I said, ' I hope, Mrs. , you do not believe the stories you are detailing, because I assure you I heard nearly all of them in my childhood, before Mr. Spurgeon was born, and that most of them were then attributed to Rowland Hill — doubtless with equal lack of authenticity.' She looked me calmly in the face, with a very comical expression, and replied, ' Oh, Mr. , we never ask whether such stories are true ; it is quite sufficient if we find them amusing.' ' Well,' I said, ' so lo7ig as that is imderstood all round, by all means keep on.' The poor, brilliant, thoughtless woman, and her husband also, have many years since passed away ; but she has many, many suc- cessors, who are without her wit, and not quite so good-humouredly candid as to their practice. If only you can get it * understood all round,' that such folk really do not consider whether their ' anecdotes ' are true or not, it might save you some trouble." In reference to this, Mr. Spurgeon himself remarked : " This is quite true, but it is a pity that people should lie in jest. The lady A Ptdpit in a Garden. 123 was let off very easily. Our friend has touched the root of the matter. It is not malice, but the passion for amusement, which creates the trade in falsehood, which never seems to decline." Clapham and Westwood. The North British Daily Mail once remarked that those who have visited Mr. Spurgeon at his home in Nightingale Lane, from which he lately removed to Norwood, will recollect having seen in the pleasant garden the old pulpit stairs that were used at the great preacher's first London chapel — the old meeting-house in New Park Street, where he was preceded as pastor by a long line of worthy ministers — Dr. Gill, the learned Hebraist ; Dr. Rippon, the editor of the old Baptist Hymn- book ; Dr. Joseph Angus, the Bible Reviser, and Mr. Smith, of Cheltenham. When the chapel was sold Mr. Spurgeon removed the pulpit stairs to his garden, and fixed them to the trunk of a huge willow tree. " Here," says Mr. Spurgeon, " the observer can see those very rails down which we did not slide to illustrate backsliding, and he may be sure of that negative fact, because the story was told of us when the pulpit was fixed in the wall and the entrance was from behind ; and more than that, the same story was told of another preacher before we were born." Mr. Spurgeon 124 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. has not taken the stairs with him to his new home at Norwood. He has left them attached to the great willow in Nightingale Lane. " The purchaser of our former abode," he says, " will preserve the staircase quite as carefully as we have done, and we hope his children will for years ascend by them to the pleasant seats, where they may in the summer sit and enjoy themselves beneath the willow's shade." At Home at Westwood. Before leaving England for America, Dr. Theodore Cuyler visited Mr. Spurgeon at his new home near the Crystal Palace, and in a letter to the New York Evangelist describes his villa as " a rural Paradise." " The great preacher," writes Dr. Cuyler, " with a jovial countenance, came out of his door with both hands outstretched to give us welcome. Saturday afternoon is his holiday. For an hour he conducted us over his delightful grounds and through his garden and conservatory, and then to a rustic arbour, where he entertained us with one of his racy talks which are as cha- racteristic as his sermons Mr. Spurgeon's study is a charming apartment opening out on his lawn ; the view extends for twelve miles to Epsom Downs. His parlour, too, is lined with elegant volumes. He showed us with great glee a portfolio of Dr. Ciiyler at Westwood, 125 caricatures of himself ; and then, by way of con- trast, a series of translations of his sermons in various foreign tongues. His comely wife — for a long time a suffering invalid — presided at the table with grace and sweetness. Their twin sons have already entered the ministry, one in London and the other now in New Zealand. It was six o'clock on Saturday when we bade him ' good- bye,' and he assured us that he had not yet selected even the text for next day's discourses ! ' I shall go down in the garden presently,' said he, ' and arrange my morning discourse and choose a text for that in the evening : then to-morrow afternoon, before preaching, I will make an outline of the second one.' This has been his habit for many years ; he never composes a sentence in advance, and rarely spends over half-an-hour in laying out the plan of a sermon. Constant study fills his mental cask, and he has only to turn the spigot and draw." The Pastor at PlYxMOUTh. While at the Baptist Union Meetings at Plymouth in 1875, Mr. Spurgeon told the following anecdotes : — Unaired Drawing-rooDis. — I was at a minister's house the other day, and he said, looking at the drawing-room, " Well, you see this drawing-room 126 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. looks a little seedy." I said that I did not think it did. " Well," he said, " my wife has a Bible-class here every Sunday, and she generally gets it once in the week. In my study I always have a young men's Bible-class on a Sunday afternoon." Oh ! good friends, your houses were not meant to be half shut up as they are. When I call on some of my people, if they happen to be a little upper- crust, they put me up in the drawing-room in the winter even, when there has not been a fire there for three months, and I get the rheumatism, and I go out of the room saying to myself, " I wish to goodness those people would have a service there every week, for if they did that the room would be aired, and there would be an incidental blessing to me, and I do not doubt it would be so to them." The Rose of Sharon. — I met the other day a lady who had lost the sense of taste and the sense of smell ; I had never met with a person before in that condition. The sweetest fragrance of a rose was lost upon her nostril, and the choicest delicacies had not the slightest flavour to her. It was a painful loss, in some measure ; but, oh ! what a wretch a man must be who has lost the power of smelling the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon, and lost his taste so that he does not perceive any sweetness in the fruit which came A Story about a Dog. 127 down from heaven, even Jesus Christ. I feel in a pitying mood as I look at you that do not love Him. Oh, what perverted tastes you have got ! what strange judgments ! for you love this painted Jezebel of a world ; you love this witch of sinful pleasure ; but my Lord, who is altogether lovely, who puts the angels in amazement every time they get a gaze upon Him — you do not love. Oh ! what has happened to you } What strange madness has come over you } The Newfoundland Dog. — I read in the " Guide to Kingsbridge" a pretty story about the Start Bay villages, where the Newfoundland dogs are kept to go out to sea to fetch in a rope. The story is that one of these dogs saw a child in the water and swam in and brought the child out. He could do that, and as he laid the child down on the sand it was nearly dead, and he licked its face to try and bring it round ; and when he found that his licking would not revive it, he went up to a village, and he caught hold of people's coats, till at last he induced some to come down and by their care the little flame of life in the child, which was almost extinct, was made to burn up agam. As I read the story, I hoped to be something like that dog. I will go into the water after souls and try to bring them out ; and, if. I could, I would kiss them into life with 128 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc, loving words ; but as that is out of my power, I will go and tug the skirts of Jesus, and ask Him to come and give them life, and raise them up, and I do not doubt that He will do so. That was a dog's work. Christians, do something more than dogs can do, or, at least, attempt to do as well. God grant you may ; and though you cannot quicken them into life, you can bring Jesus to them, and He can give them life and strength that they may be saved. The Pozver of Kindness. — One day an old man shook me by the hand with a firm grasp, and he said, " Sir, one Sunday night you said, ' Every one of you do something to-night for Jesus such as you never did before.' Now," he said, " my son had been a great trouble to me. He was a very wicked youth indeed, and he had left me for some time, and he had brought himself to death's door by his ill habits. I had, therefore, given him enough to live upon ; but I thought to do nothing else. But that night," said he, " I went home and looked out of my larder the best things 1 had got, and I put them in a basket, and I sent them round to my son to tell him that I had forgiven him all, and that I had sent him a little something extra that night, and I meant to do it continually, and I hoped that he would get well. Now," said he, " 1 never could speak to him of religion till Early Letters, 129 I did that ; and the next morning I went round and we were able to converse about the things of God, and he died with a comfortable hope ; whereas, before, I had been afraid that he would die far from God." The two following letters were also printed for the first time about sixteen years ago in my History of the Tabernacle Church. Of course they have been copied by others, so remarkable are they when read in connection with what has since happened. *' No. 60. Park Street, Cambridge, '"'• January z^th, 1854. ** My dear Sir, — I cannot help feeling intense grati- fication at the unanimity of the Church at New Park Street, in relation to their invitation to me. Had I been uncomfortable in my present situation, I should have felt unmixed pleasure at the prospect Providence seems to open up before m.e ; but having a devoted and loving people, I feel I know not how. *' One thing I know, viz., that I must soon be severed from them by necessity, for they do not raise sufficient to maintain me in comfort. Had they done so, I should have turned a deaf ear to any request to leave them, at least for the present. But now my Heavenly Father drives me forth from this little Garden of Eden, and whilst I see that I must go out, I leave it with reluctance, and tremble to tread the unknown land before. *' When I first ventured to preach at Waterbeach, I only accepted an invitation for three months, on the 9 130 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. condition that, if in that time I should see good reason for leaving, or they, on their part, should wish for it, I should be at liberty to cease supplying, or they should have the same power to request me to do so before the expiration of the time. " Now with regard to a six months' invitation from you, I have no objection to the length of time, but rather approve of the prudence of the Church in wish- ing to have one so young as myself on an extended period of probation. " But I write after well weighing the matter, when I say positively that I cannot, I dare not, accept an unqualified invitation for so long a time. My objection is not to the length of the time of probation, but it ill becomes a youth to promise to preach to a London congregation so long until he knows them and they know him. I would engage to supply for three months of that time, and then, should the congregation fail or the Church disagree, I would reserve to myself liberty, without breach of engagement, to retire ; and you would, on your part, have the right to dismiss me without seeming to treat me ill. Should I see no reason for so doing, and the Church still retain their wish for me, I can remain the other three months, either with or without the formality of a further invita- tion ; but even during that time (the second three) I should not like to regard myself as a fixture, in case of ill success, but should only be a supply — liable to a fortnight's dismissal or resignation. ** Perhaps this is not business-like. I do not know, but this is the course I should prefer, if it would be agreeable to the Church. Enthusiasm and popularity are often the cracking of thorns and soon expire. I do not wish to be a hindrance if I cannot be a help. "With regard to coming at ojice, I think I must Early Letters. 131 not. I\Iy own deacons just hint that I ought to finish the quarter here, though by ought, they mean simply, * Pray do so if you can.' This would be too long a delay. I wish to help them until they can get supplies, which is only to be done with great difficulty, and as I have given you four Sabbaths, I hope you will allow me to give them four in return. I would give them the first and second Sabbath in February, and two more in a month or six weeks' time. I owe them much for their kindness, although they insist that the debt lies on their side. Some of them hope and almost pray that you may be tired in three months, so that I may be again sent back to them. " Thus, my dear Sir, I have honestly poured out my heart to you. You are too kind. You will excuse me if I err, for I wish to do right to you, to my people, and to all, as being not mine own, but bought with a price. *' I respect the honesty and boldness of the small minority, and only wonder that the number was not greater. I pray God that if He does not see fit that I should remain with you, the majority may be quite as much the other way at the end of six months, so that I may never divide you into parties. ** Pecuniary matters I am well satisfied with. And now one thing is due to every minister, and I pray you to remind the Church of it, viz., that in private, as well as public, they must all earnestly wrestle in prayer to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ that I may be sustained in the great work. '* I am, with the best wishes for your health, and the greatest respect, ** Yours truly, '*C. H. Spurgeon. "James Low, Esq." 132 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. "75, Dover Road, Borough, ''■April 2?>th, 1854. " To the Baptist Church of Christ worshippifig in New Part: Street, Southwarti. ''Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus, — I have received your unanimous invitation as contained in a resolution passed by you on the 19th inst., desiring me to accept the pastorate among you. " No lengthened reply is required ; there is but one answer to so loving and cordial an invitation, / accept it. " I have not been perplexed as to what my reply should be, for many things constrain me thus to answer. *' I sought not to come to you, for I was the minister of an obscure but affectionate people ; I never solicited advancement. The first note of invitation from your deacons came quite unlooked for, and I trembled at the idea of preaching in London ; I could not understand how it had come about, and even now I am filled with astonishment at the wondrous Providence. I would wish to give myself into the hands of our covenant God, whose wisdom directs all things : He shall choose for me, and so far as I can judge this is His choice. *' I feel it to be a high honour to be the pastor of a people who can mention glorious names as my pre- decessors, and I entreat of you to remember me in prayer that I may realise the responsibility of my trust. Remember my youth and inexperience, pray that these may not hinder my usefulness. I trust also that the remembrance of these will lead you to forgive mistakes I may make, or unguarded words I may utter. *' Blessed be the name of the Most High ! if He has called me to this office. He will support me in it, other- wise how should a child, a youth, have the presump- A Holiday^ 133 tion thus to attempt a work which filled the heart and hands of Jesus ? "Your kindness to me has been very great, and my heart is knit unto you. I fear not your steadfastness, I fear my own. The Gospel, I believe, enables me to venture great things, and by faith I venture this. " I ask your co-operation in every good work ; in visiting the sick, in bringing in enquirers, and in mutual edification. " Oh that I may be no injury to you, but a lasting benefit ! I have no more to say saving this, that if I have expressed myself in these few words in a manner unbecoming my youth and inexperience, you will not impute it to arrogance, but forgive my mistake. "And now, commending you to our covenant God, the Triune Jehovah, " I am, yours to serve in the Gospel, "C. H. Spurgeon." At Mentone. It is very probable that the majority of friends who regularly, or occasionally, attend the services at the Metropolitan Tabernacle are quite unable to appreciate what a holiday means to a man in Mr. Spurgeon's position. To superficial observers the great chapel may seem to be little more than a popular preaching-station, which, indeed, it was represented to be some years ago by a well- known clergyman, now a bishop — a centre of evangelical teaching, of which neighbouring churches scarce knew the existence when the 134 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. doors were closed and the gas was out. If this were all, the strain on the Pastor would neverthe- less still be very heavy ; for even a genius in his work cannot preach three sermons a week of a high standard of excellence without being sub- jected to a wear and tear such as does not enter into the experience of more humble workers. As most persons know, however, the offices in the rear and beneath the Tabernacle are the head- quarters of a large number of philanthropic agencies, some of which are of considerable magnitude, while all, in a greater or lesser degree, demand the Pastor's oversight. In the colportage department, in the general secretary's room, and elsewhere on the chapel premises, a goodly number of persons are regularly employed ; while at Westwood, two busy assistants, on either side of the large table in the study, have all that they can do to clear up each day's work as it comes. It is thus hardly to be wondered at that com- menting and general literary work should appear to go only slowly forward to those who for years patiently waited for the concluding volume of TJie Treasury of David. In Mr. Spurgeon's case there is supposed to be some connection between excessive suffering from rheumatism and too much work ; but if this is so, the invalid is probably paying the penalty exacted Menione and Holidays. 135 by the indiscretions of former days. That the ailment is hereditary we are well aware ; for the Puritan grandfather, who died at Stambourne in 1866, was wont to declare, when verging on ninety years of age, that rheumatism would certainly shorten his days. Still, all the suffering which has afflicted the family since Job Spurgeon lay as a prisoner in Chelmsford gaol for con- science' sake in the time of Charles II. can hardly have amounted to what the Pastor of the Metro- politan Tabernacle has endured in twenty years ; and probably the seeds of a good deal of this pain and weakness were sown when the youthful orator travelled up and down the country preaching a dozen sermons a week ; when, besides the usual inconveniences of the road, such as hasty meals and having to study in express trains, he incurred the more alarming risk of damp beds. It would seem that these well-meant indiscretions of the past are now causing some inconvenience. As a holiday resort during our English winter and so-called boreal spring, Mentone has many charms ; but perhaps all the encomiums passed upon the picturesque Mediterranean nook have not been verified by the majority who have sought benefit from its sunshine and sea breezes. The climate, enjoyable as it must be when lemon-trees blossom in mid-winter, and flies sport in the 136 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. sunshine, has not done so much for Mr. Spurgeon as was at first fondly anticipated by those who thought that the rheum might possibly be expelled from the system by genial climatic influences. The fact is, however, that even Mentone is not a perfect sanatorium : " Indeed," says Dr. Benet, " I question whether in the South of Europe, in winter, it is not as difficult to keep free from rheumatic pains as it is in the north." He then goes on to tell how the painful malady exists in all southern climes, including even the Sahara Desert, adding that "the Bedouin Arabs, with the thermometer at 80° or 90° in the daytime, swathe themselves up in woollen garments and woollen cloaks, for rheumatism is their enemy as well as ours." It is plain that, in Mr. Spurgeon's case, a more moderated strain on the mental faculties would effect far more than change of climate. Social life in a small holiday community like that of Mentone has its sombre aspects, on account of the number of invalids who arrive, never to return to their homes. French con- sumptives succumb before winter has well begun ; and though they sometimes linger longer, the English who are afflicted in a similar manner surely follow one by one. These losses cast a shade over the whole of the foreign settlement, spring in tJie Sunny South. 137 because, as Dr. Benet says, " the departed have endeared themselves to the survivors ; they have lived amongst them, they have shared their joys, their sorrows, their exile feeling." The advent of the magnificent southern spring in March may do something towards exhilarating the more ordinary visitors, however ; for it is there that the sun asserts a power which no temporary return of winter will challenge, when in the vales, and on the heights alike, wild flowers blossom with a beauty and a profusion which astonish those who look upon the classic shores of the Mediterranean for the first time. In this favoured region, and on the verge of such a spring as the ancient classic poets praised in their verse, Mr. Spurgeon will secure that rest and quiet which will do more for him than medicine or the physician's art. His own people have sometimes requested that he will remain away for an extended period, and while so doing they also give a guarantee that all will do their best to keep the varied machinery at home in good working order. On some occasions the subscriptions have shown a tendency to fall off when the Pastor has been away, and this has in some measure marred his pleasure, if it has not actually retarded his recovery. If friends near and far away really desire to contribute to 138 Anecdotes y LetUrs, Ana, etc. Mr. Spurgeon's holiday, they will ever do so most effectively by keeping the Orphanage, the College, the Colportage, and other agencies well supplied while he is away. The mill is now in all its parts so large an affair, that more grist than ever is needed to keep it going ; and when symptoms of falling off betray themselves, none suffer so keenly as the chief overseer himself, on whom the responsibility mainly rests of keeping up the supplies. On Going to America. He always set his face against going to America; but during the summer of 1876 the subject was revived by the appearance of a paragraph in TJie Boston Globe to the effect that the much-talked-about visit to the United States was really coming off. On seeing this notice the managers of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau wrote one more application thus : — " Boston, Mass., June 22nd, 1876. " Dear Sir, — Is the above paragraph true ? We have tried so long and so hard for many years to secure you that we thought it impossible, and long since gave up all hope. We are the exclusive agents of all the leading lecturers in America. We will give you 1,000 dollars in gold for every lecture you deliver in America, and pay all your expenses to and. from your home, and place you under the most popular auspices in the country. Will you come ? " /;/ Scotland. 139 To this invitation Mr. Spurgeon returned the following reply : "Clapham, London, England, July 6th. "Gentlemen, — I cannot imagine how such a para- graph should appear in your papers, except by deliberate invention of a hard-up editor, for I never had any idea of leaving home for America for some time to come. As I said to you before, if I could come, I am not a lecturer, nor would I receive money for preaching." "A Holiday (.?)." After the first Sunday in August 1876 he visited Scotland, accompanied by his two sons, for the purpose of enjoying some yachting among the Western Islands or Hebrides. He was for the time being the guest of Mr. Duncan of Benmore. On the Sunday after his arrival he preached at Scone, in the open air, to five thou- sand persons, seats being provided for the ladies. In consequence of these services the neighbouring sanctuaries were closed. In the morning sermon he spoke of the hatred which separated sects between whom there were but few points of difference, and he warned the Scotch to take care that this was not the case with them. Even a microscope could not discover any material difference between certain of the sects. In the evenino- he said he would talk in a more familiar 140 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. strain. He directly addressed those who had heard more sermons than they could count. They had listened to waggon-loads, they were smoked in sermons, and yet were still unconverted. Some people at the Tabernacle, though very few, had heard the Gospel for twenty years and were not caught yet, and it was to be feared they never would be. They were like india-rubber — no matter how often you depressed it, the substance returned to its original form. On the following Sabbath he preached again at Kileret to many thousands, who assembled on the hill-side which overlooks the Firth of Clyde. On this occasion the northerners appear to have been surprised at the extraordinary power and clearness of his magnificent voice. Concerning this so-called " holiday," he sent a brief note to a gentleman at Glasgow, and addressed from Carlisle on his way home : — *' Dear Friend, — I have returned to England. I had eleven clear week-days in Scotland, and was asked to preach more than fifty times. That when I came for rest — and in a Christian country, too ! * A merciful man,' etc. God speed you. — Yours truly, C. H. Spurgeon." In Scotland in 1878. The visit to the North was this year deferred through various causes, and when the trip was In the Highlands, 141 actually undertaken he was so worried to preach that he did not derive the good from the change he might otherwise have done. A correspondent of Tlie Baptist thus wrote respecting this visit :— ** Mr. Spurgeon arrived in the Bay of Rothesay, on Saturday, the 27th July, in Mr. Duncan's fine yacht. The celebrated preacher sailed from Oban to Camp- belltown, passing the Mull of Kintyre. Sailing from Campbelltown, he passed round a considerable part of the Island of Arran. The scenery along Arran is most delightful. He passed through the far-famed Kyles of Bute. The Kyles narrow and broaden, and narrow and broaden again. The whole atmosphere is of arcadian seclusion. Tighnabruaich nestles down below the hills, the houses rising a little from the shore only to be half hidden in the surrounding foliage. The very narrowness of the water and the consequent closeness of the land on either side are themselves portions of the fascinations exercised by the place. Here the scenery is of the most charming description. The waterway is so narrow that you can see the land on either side distinctly, and even count the number of the hills. Leaving the Kyles, Rothesay, the charming capital of Bute, is reached, noted for its aquarium. Arrived in Rothesay Bay, Mr. Spurgeon landed for a drive in the island, when, coming down a declivity, the horse in the machine ran away, and great danger was apprehended ; but, fortunately, a gentleman caught the frightened animal by the head and held it till the party got safely out. There is a neat Baptist Chapel at Adbeg, Rothesay, ever pleasant and ever popular with visitors. The Baptist Chapel here is usually crowded in summer. Mr. Crabbe, one of Mr. Spurgeon's former 142 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. students, officiates in the said chapel. With much acceptance Mr. Spurgeon worshipped there in the morning. The chapel was crowded, many failing to get admittance. ** Mr. Spurgeon preached in front of the Rothesay Academy in the evening. He stood upon the top of the porch of the mansion of Provost Orkney, and there preached to the assembled thousands, attracted by the fame of the preacher, from Luke xiii. 10-17. There were present at least fifteen thousand. Behind us, in front of the Academy, there was a great crowd of most attentive listeners. Before us, onwards to the preacher, there was a dense mass of interested hearers. Towards our right hand, the side of the hill, on the summit of which towers the Rothesay Museum, was lined with hundreds on hundreds of hearers. The vast audience being thus seated on a natural amphitheatre, the preacher had full command of his hearers. These had come from all parts of Bute, from Largs, Millpont, and Dunoon, not a few having crossed the firth in yachts and small boats. The weather was delightful. The congregation began to assemble between three and four o'clock p.m., and before six every available seat on the sward was occupied, whilst those who arrived later had to content themselves with standing in the road leading up to the Academy. " Mr. Spurgeon said : * Oh that my blessed Master would look around this throng this night and find out those who are bowed down in spirit and almost in de- spair ! He or she who thought himself or herself most likely to be passed by, and so obscure and undeserving of Christ's regard, was most likely to obtain the blessing. Some Christians,' said the preacher, * seem to think that it is a sin to be joyful. They are always crying out : Oh, this is a waste and howling wilderness ! Then, they Preaching to the Scotch. 143 ought not to howl, but ought to rejoice. Timothy Rogers, who was twenty-six years a prey to melancholy, came, after all, out into the full clear light of Gospel grace. The preacher recollected a young woman who, he believed, was an excellent Christian, who yet thought and said, " I am an awful hypocrite, and I do not love the Saviour at all ! " '' Will you put your name to that ? " said Mr. Spurgeon. The horror upon her face was delightful to see, and she exclaimed, "I will be torn in pieces first." Some ministers,' he said, ' preached in such a way that people were made gloomy and very sad at heart. He wished hearers to follow the practice of the man who got bad milk. "I don't care, now," said the man, " whether there is bad milk or not, because I keep a cow of my own." Thus, when people found that the teaching of the pulpit did not give them com- fort, they should take to the reading of their Bibles more than they had ever done before. In that way they could keep a cow of their own, and they would not need to care whether the milk was good or bad. There are some Christians,' he said, ' who always remind us of a person who walks into the class when his face is dirty, instead of washing it with water.' Referring to the Liberator at His work, the preacher said, ' The way of salvation consists of two steps — the first is out of our- selves, and the second is into Christ. None but Jesus — that is the Gospel. Christ,' he said, 'performed this miracle on the poor, bowed-down woman out of common humanity ; another motive was that of special property, and a third was a peculiar antagonism to the devil.' Mr. Spurgeon, as is usual with him, preached with great power, and exhibited the glorious Gospel of the blessed Lord with remarkable earnestness and clearness." The reference to the accident in the above 144 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. needs supplementing, the fact being that Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Duncan, and those who were in the carriage had the narrowest possible escape from a violent death. Their deliverance was entirely providential. It appears, from what I learned of the affair, that it is a custom in the north, with certain drivers, to allow their horses to rush down long steep hills at a head- long pace. While driving Mr. Duncan and his guests, as stated above, the coachman on coming to a declivity allowed the horses to proceed in the customary merry fashion ; but not approving of that mode of travelling, Mr. Spurgeon, on their safe arrival at the foot of the hill, expressed a desire that a more English-like manner of driving might be practised. " Oh," said the man, " We always go like that here." He knew more about driving than all the preachers in the world, and was determined to act in accordance with his knowledge. Soon they came to another hill, and to the discomfiture of the travellers, they at once found themselves descending at express speed. Then the harness broke, the man lost all control over the horses, which presented the appearance of frightened runaways. There was a prospect of being knocked to pieces, and Mr. Spurgeon confessed that his thoughts were directed to that subject ; and the people at the roadside looked A Providential Escape. 145 with terror on the spectacle. At the bottom was a zigzag road, protected by a slight fence, and beyond this a precipice ; but the party were delivered when the horses, instead of going straight forward to destruction, as nineteen horses out of twenty would have done, turned into another road, which was an incline. Unable to keep on at that rate up the hill, they moderated their speed ; and when danger had passed the friend may have come to the rescue, but not before. He said that he never travelled so rapidly in his life, except in an express train. On the 5 th of August, the first Monday even- ing prayer-meeting, after his return from the north, a crowded congregation assembled at the Tabernacle, doubtless expecting to hear some- thing about their Pastor's adventures in the North. He said he had been lately in many lone places in Scotland, far removed from the haunts of men. He had gone there to seek a restoration of health. He had obtained, in a measure, what he sought, but, owing to the numbers of persons who visited him out of a kindly feeling, even in these remote parts, he had scarcely known what solitude was, and had consequently not derived that amount of benefit, in a bodily sense, which he otherwise would have done. He had been on many fishing excursions, and from them had learned many 10 146 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. lessons. In that College — the one attached to the Tabernacle — they were all fishermen, but he could wish that many of the fishermen there had a little more catching bait about them than they seemed to possess. They must get the fish about them by some means or another before they were caught, and to that end a harmless pleasantry was a capital bait. Sometimes he had been blamed for giving vent to witticisms, but in his own mind he had done well by so doing, because people came to hear him, and when they did so many were caught. The fact was, it was a good catching bait. Mr. Spurgeon then proceeded to say that if persons went to fish either for fish or for human souls, they must not be fools, for if they were they would be like him when, a few days ago near Rothesay, he threw his lines into the water, and instead of watching them, turned away and allowed the fish to take off the bait without so much as being pricked by the hook. The Sunday-school was a grand place to use catching bait, but they must not allow the young fry to suck off the bait unless they bolted the hook of the Gospel. If the teachers of religion never got a bite, they should not go to sleep, but should bait their hooks afresh, and try different waters. They then might get some to bolt the bait, hook and all, just in the same way as the cod did. An Adventure in a Crowd, i^y Those were the sort of fellows he liked — the nibblers were scarcely any good. In conclusion he gave a description of the scenery of Scotland, and expressed his thanks for the hospitality he had received. One or two amusing things happened in con- nection with his visit to Scotland this year. A correspondent thus referred to these northern services : — " Mr. Spurgeon preached at Pollokshaws, near Glasgow, on the ist of August. Long before the hour fixed for the beginning of the service the place of worship was besieged by crowds of people anxious to get admission, and as it was altogether impracticable to allow others than ticket-holders to pass into the place of meeting, thousands who would willingly have paid to get inside were turned away disappointed. An amusing incident is reported as having occurred at the gates, where a policeman or two and several stalwart office-bearers acted in the capacity of sentries and collected the passports. Mr. Spurgeon, having elbowed his way through the crowd as far as the gate, was asked to show and deliver his ticket ; but not being a ticket-holder the great preacher was peremptorily told to " cut his stick." Happily some persons who recognised the familiar face, greatly amused at the comical situation, 148 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. nudged the policeman's elbow, and he immediately gave way. The crowds who had gone in the hope of getting admission without tickets and were excluded were addressed in the Greenbank Public Park by Mr. Spurgeon, jun. Though Mr. Spurgeon's fame as a preacher went before him like the light and radiancy of the bearded comet, his preaching at Rothesay, and we have no doubt at Pollokshaws, has exceeded expectation." Another incident in connection with this excur- sion may be mentioned. Such was the pressure of the crowd that the beadle was lost sight of at the time for commencing service, and there was no one to show Mr. Spurgeon to the pulpit in accordance with the Scotch polite usage. A member of Session, however, mounted the pulpit steps, and called out in a stentorian voice that the beadle was "wanted immediately." This incident created some merriment among even a people not remarkable for their witty propensities. At a field-meeting with his students at Clapham, both before and after dinner, Mr. Spurgeon him- self told some further incidents of this journey. Among other things he was privileged to hear a sermon in Gaelic, and rather wearying of listening to what he could not understand, he whispered something to a Highland gentleman, who replied, " If ye pull his coat tail he'll soon have done." A Distinguished Privilege. 149 By some means the sermon came to an end some- what sooner than the preacher intended ; and it then transpired that he had got with the prodigal son into the far country without having had time to get him back again. Mr, Spurgeon particu- larly noticed the repetition of one word which sounded like agath, but on mentioning this he was told that it signified and. After his escape from accident he was especially glad to return to the yacht. After all, he thought the sea the only really safe place. For example, you ran no risk there of being killed by a pantile. On one of the days while he was in Scotland he dined with a leading family — a gentleman, I believe, who held a distinguished position in con- nection with the city of Glasgow. At dinner the Pastor, assuming a very grave face, asked this friend, " Mr. , are you aware that your office entitles you to go without charge through any toll-gate in England } " Mr. smiled, and though not previously aware of the privilege attached to his office, quite appreciated the honour. Was it really so indeed ? When his curiosity was a little further stimulated Mr. Spurgeon, to prevent any misapprehension, added, " Yes, you are entitled to walk through, but if you take a horse you must pay." In the field, at the students' meeting, also, he told 150 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. this anecdote of Scotland : — When I was in Arran, quite recently, I heard of a minister who preached in a certain church, and at the close of the service was strongly urged to promise for a future supply, the collection after his sermon having been un- usually large. " Dear me ! " said the minister, with becoming pride, " what might your ordinary col- lection amount to ? " " Last Sunday it was two- pence halfpenny." " What is it to-day, then } " asked the other, expecting to hear a large sum. " Eightpence halfpenny," was the reply. " Woe is me!" said the other, " for I gave sixpence of it myself." Under the Law of Works. I was once riding on an omnibus between London and Edmonton, when a very self-righteous methodist began to lament the laxity of the English people in regard to their non-observance of the Sabbath. At last he referred to the con- duct of Mr. Spurgeon as especially reprehensible, for Mr. Spurgeon rode to chapel in a brougham. " Why don't he keep the Sabbath > I do," said the man sternly, almost fiercely, and in that self- satisfied tone common to his class. I forget what answer I made ; but this objection to the Pastor's riding to chapel was not new. Some busy Pharisee once had the temerity to write to '' Fat Iter'' Olney and His Successors. 151 Clapham on this very question, and received in reply a notification that the horse which ran in the Sunday carriage was in reaHty so far a Jew that he kept his Sabbath on Saturday. To make sure of this being true, I mentioned the cir- cumstance to Mr. Spurgeon, when I found it was all right ; his horse lived under the law of works and not of grace, and hence was not allowed to work on the seventh day. He usually kept two horses, and the fodder for these animals was supplied gratis by Deacon Murrell, " the gate- keeper " at the Tabernacle. " How many horses may I keep, Murrell.?" — i.e., "how many will yoit keep for me?" — once asked the Pastor. "Twenty," said the good-natured deacon, and meant w^hat he said. Tabernacle Deacons. The above will remind some of the readers of this book that Mr. Spurgeon has from the first been peculiarly favoured in his deacons. They have assuredly been a kind-hearted set of men, forward in advancing Christian work, and many of them have been specially adapted for some kind of special service. Those who remember the familiar form of " Father " Olney in the past, will know that he left behind him many fragrant memories ; and he was favoured by having sons who followed 152 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc, in his footsteps, while his grandson, the founder of the Haddon Hall Mission, is one of the bene- factors of Bermondsey. In regard to serving tables, was there ever one who excelled in that department more than Mr. W. Murrell, who yearly, during Conference week, superintends the daily feeding of hundreds of ministers, besides having to provide the grand supper, at which from six to eight hundred subscribers to the College Funds sit down ? Deacon Murrell volunteered to see after the gates at the Tabernacle, and some other duties associated with that unenviable office. In all weathers his not by any means slender form might be seen, his coat closely buttoned, and his hands hidden deep down in the recesses of his side pockets. It was difficult to prevent some of the ordinary servants from accepting bribes, but woe to the deluded applicant who, in mistake, offered a gratuity to this counterpart of Bunyan's Mr. Greatheart ! Once he was severely provoked by an obstinate man who refused to come out of a seat of which he had taken wrongful posses- sion. At last, being unable to control his temper any longer, Mr. Murrell cried out to the offender, " If you go there I'll EAT you ! " putting such a terrible emphasis on the threat that the man looked up, startled if not seriously alarmed. Ail Open Air Festival. 153 After the service the gentleman complained to the Pastor that a very big man had threatened to eat him in the gallery. " What now, Murrell — have you been threatening to eat a man ? " was subsequently asked of his friend and horse-keeper by Mr. Spurgeon. " Well," replied the deacon, " I did say so ; he would not get out of the seat, and I did not know what else to say." A Summer Festival. Formerly it was Mr. Spurgeon's custom to hold some outdoor services on the farm of Mr. Abraham, at Minster Lovell, in Oxfordshire. In reference to one of these festivals The Baptist remarked : — " The interest which his visits have awakened is not confined to the immediate locality, for his audience is drawn from the country round within a radius of five- and-twenty miles. The narrow lanes which converge to the centre of attraction can only be compared to the roads which lie between London and Epsom on a Derby Day. The bicycle and the barouche, the peram- bulator and the postchaise, the two-wheeled tumbril and the four-horse coach, indicate the extremes between which the graduated contrivances for locomotion are pressed into the service of bearing their living freights. Hundreds had to avail themselves of the marrow-bone stage. Some who left home in the early morning to be in time scarcely succeeded in completing the return journey on the same day. That such enthusiasm was manifested to hear the Gospel is an evidence that the 154 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. clergy have not a spiritual monopoly in perhaps the most ritualistic county in the kingdom. ** The services are held under a clump of trees near the spot where the Ringwood Oak stood for many years as a grand relic of the once famous Wych\?ood Forest. Very little of the forest now remains, most of the land being under cultivation. Mr. Abraham, who farms some 600 acres, makes a capital host, and to him is due the successful arrangements which make the annual visit of Mr, Spurgeon so pleasant to all concerned. His daughters vie with one another in attending upon the guests, who dine in relays at the well-furnished table of the house, while his sons are very busy in making arrangements for stabling the horses. Little groups were to be seen under the grateful shade of the oaks at luncheon, preparatory to the first service, which was held at half-past two o'clock. The scene is one of the most picturesque conceivable. From the house may be seen, in the valley of the Windrush, the ruins of the castellated mansion of the Lovells, made famous by the tragic incident in the song of ' The Mistletoe Bough.' On the slope of the nearest hill rising above the river is the scattered village founded by Feargus O'Connor for a working man's settlement, every house having its garden capable of yielding sufficient to maintain a moderate family in comfort. In the distance the Chilterns form the sky-line, the White Horse at Wantage and the Farringdon Clump being conspicuous objects. *' When Mr. Spurgeon ascended the waggon to com- mence the afternoon service, there must have been at least 1,500 people present. The singing was hearty if not highly artistic, and during the prayer the Wesleyan brethren betrayed their presence by the responses which they could not restrain. The preacher was at An Open Air Festival. 155 his best, and the subject chosen, ' I will be as the dew unto Israel,' furnished abundant scope for illustration by metaphors which appealed to the bucolic mind. Tea was provided in a large marquee, and, as the various parties were refreshed, they wandered in companies over the pleasure-grounds which surround the house. It required a very slight effort of the imagination to picture the Feast of Tabernacles, when the faithful assembled to tell of the goodness and mercy of God, and to sing praises unto the Most High. Such an opportunity for Christian intercourse is of incalculable value to those Christians who, in out-of-the-way places, receive but slight help in their combat with sin and labour for the Lord, and many must have returned nerved to fresh resolution, or aroused by a new enthusiasm to witness for Christ in their own sphere of life and service ! ** As the time for evening service drew on, Mr. Charles- worth and several of the ministers present extemporised a meeting, the speakers being allowed five minutes each. The crowd, swollen now to upwards of 2,000, settled down to the principal service of the day. The evening was calm, and the westering sun threw around the scene a weird charm, as the lengthening shadows of the trees contrasted with the strangely-blended hues which make a July sunset so beautiful. The air seemed to hold a solemn stillness, and there was nothing to break the spell. We never witnessed an open-air service before when everything so conspired to favour the preacher. At times the deep hush of the rapt audience was literally awe-inspiring. It is no exaggera- tion to say that a wave of spiritual emotion broke over the assembly, few hearts, if any, being insensible to its influence. From the first sentence in the prayer which commenced the service to the last words of the bene- 156 Anecdotes, Letters, Ana, etc. diction with which it closed, the preacher had the audience in his grip. Never did he enforce his ministry of reconciliation with more earnest appeals, nor move an audience by more tender pleadings. As the assembly broke up we heard more than one minister exclaim, ' We shall hear of this service again.' " SOME SPECIAL OCCASIONS *' Still, a minister, wherever he is, is a minister, and should recollect that he is on duty. A policeman or a soldier may be off duty, but a minister never is. Even in our recreations we should still pursue the great object of our lives ; for we are called to be diligent in season and out of season. There is no position in which we may be placed but the Lord may come with the question, ' What doest thou here, Elijah ? ' and we ought to be able at once to answer, ' I have something to do for Thee even here, and I am trying to do it.' The bow, of course, must be at times unstrung or else it will lose its elasticity ; but there is no need to cut the string. ... A minister should be like a certain chamber which I saw at Beaulieu, in the New Forest, in which a cobweb is never seen. It is a large lumber-room, and is never swept ; yet no spider ever defiles it with the emblems of neglect. It is roofed with chestnut, and for some reason, I know not what, spiders will not come near that wood by the year together. The same thing was mentioned to me in the corridors of Winchester school : I was told, ' No spiders ever come here.' Our minds should be equally clear of idle habits," — Lectures to my Students, i. 181-2. VI. SOME SPECIAL OCCASIONS. A View from the Deacons' Seats. I ^HERE are several ways of passing into -■- the Metropolitan Tabernacle ; and these are tolerably familiar to country visitors, as well as to knowing Londoners. It is also generally acknow- ledged that London crowds are dangerous, unless carefully managed by suitable regulations. If a crowd be regularly attracted to one building, and each individual be visibly anxious to secure a good place, not hesitating to use hands and elbows in working towards the front, the specified regulations must include locked gates, as well as carefully-guarded side-entrances, which are only available for ticket-holders. The regular attendant at the Metropolitan Tabernacle has necessarily to have his seat reserved, otherwise he would find himself an unequal competitor with the casual hearer, especially if the said casual hearer happened to be an early riser on Sunday morning. Thus i6o Some Special Occasions. there are three ways of going to hear Mr. Spurgeon. We may be one of the favoured few — few, com- paratively, when the irregular hearers number so large a proportion of the weekly congregation — who, as seat-holders, walk directly into the building, while the impatient crowd of the court is kept at bay by doors securely bolted and barred. Secondly, should we not rank among pew-holders, and still feel painfully conscious of not possessing strength, either of muscle or of nerve, to hold our own in the column besieging the entrance, we take care to provide ourselves with an early admission ticket, entitling us to the right of waiting in one of the aisles before the doors are opened. In this position a visitor may very profitably exercise the virtue of patience while occupying a standpoint whence he watches the thousands who comfortably sit at ease in the pews, and calculates as to the chances of securing a seat. Should we, however, belong to neither of the classes described, our ingress into the great building will, perforce, become a more interesting, though, possibly, a less pleasant process. We shall take up our position under the portico " early ; " we shall learn that minutes may be long or short according to the circumstances of the situation. Then comes relief in a sudden, exciting manner. A SiLiiday Moyning Scene. i6i Bolts shoot backward, and the apparently electri- fied crowd, as if in response to a preconcerted signal, move forward en masse ; for, once inside the chapel, all regulations are summed up in one — First come first served. On a certain Sabbath morning I dispensed with each of the methods above specified of entering that institution of modern London, the Metro- politan Tabernacle. By special favour I occupied a seat on the platform behind the preacher. These seats are twelve in number, forming a double row. They are padded, are lined with crimson velvet, and have arms somewhat after the manner of a first-class railway carriage. Without question they are luxurious in all their appointments ; but then they are for the deacons. A deaconship at the Tabernacle is no sinecure, and the occupiers of these seats are known to be worthy of the accommodation they receive. Suppose it is half-past ten a.m., or thereabouts when I am politely ushered into my " deacon's seat," and commence to study the extraordinary scene. It is spring-time — the sun is high in the heavens ; but within the building the gas is burning, while the view is partially interrupted by a misty atmosphere in sympathy with the slight fog without doors. The immense area, which, to a stranger, might appear to be already nearly 1 1 1 62 Some Special Occasions. filled, must undergo the process of filling till it is packed. The movements of the people can only be compared with the motion of a swarm of insects, not, however, eager and impatient like the crowd outside ; for the new arrivals are merely taking up their regularly-appointed places. Onward move the great hands of the giant clock overhead, until they point to 10.40, when we witness a transformation scene both lively and extensive. Hitherto the " regulars " and " irre- gulars " had leisurely entered by side-doors, with the comfortable consciousness of being privileged persons ; but now all the main front entrances are opened at once, and in pour the broad living streams, to occupy, to the last inch, the standing- room of what appears to be an already overcrowded building. Look this way or that way, or take a general view, and it will be hard to distinguish between aisles and pews. The new comers are manifestly a little excited in their anxiety to find seats ; and yet the bustle is not altogether like any other bustle which is witnessed in public buildings. The coughing, talking, and feet- shuffling produce a compound sound peculiar to the Tabernacle ; and this is instantly hushed when Mr. Spurgeon appears on the platform. When the first word of the service is uttered, CJiaracteristics of the Crowd. 1 6 o the multitude of faces are all turned in one direction — towards the preacher. Those who occupy seats in proximity to Mr. Spurgeon's table may perhaps have observed that the tones of his voice seem to be nicely adapted to the requirements of those who are near, as well as to those who are farther away. To persons sitting near they are never unpleasantly loud ; to those in the remotest corner they are loud enough, while they are never indistinct. Not that so vast a concourse can be addressed, even by d. man of the greatest lung-power, without a strong effort, though in this instance the strain is barely observed even by those who listen immediately beneath the clock. As seen from the deacon's standpoint, it is also interesting to note how the leviathan congregation allows itself to be managed. It is subject to certain influences as if it were one great being instead of six thousand atoms. It has its recognised coughing times ; by way of acknowledging a touch of humour, it smiles like one vast creature which is particularly sensitive. Then it sings "faster" or "slower," according to directions, and is in all respects most admirably managed. While reading the concluding verse of " Rock of Ages " the Pastor is visibly affected, just as, a few minutes before, he seemxcd to catch and 164 Some Special Occasions, diffuse the spirit of " that wonderful Gospel chapter," Isaiah Iv. Anon, the quiet earnestness of the sermon seems to extend its influence throughout the entire space of the building, until the rapt attention of the crowd, as they listen to exposition and appeal based on the words, " Without money and zvithoiU price" is found to kindle feelings akin to actual awe. To handle what are called commonplace or hackneyed texts in a manner strikingly original is the forte of a great man ; the ability to do this with consum- mate art is characteristic of the genius of Mr. Spurgeon. It is very common for preachers who stand up before large assemblies to fix their eye on a particular individual ; a spectator who views the scene from the deacons' seats at the Metropolitan Tabernacle is extremely liable to find himself doing the same odd kind of thing. There are " characters " enough in the spacious area, if one can only single them out and read their faces. There sits a man in one of the middle aisles of the area ; he is middle-aged, full-faced, and altogether in his tout ensemble resembles one who makes some pretension to self-culture. Though he uses no pencil and note-book, his brains are, probably, busily at work taking down what he sees. Let us suppose him to be the representa- ''Characters'' at the Tabernacle. 165 tive of some slumberless daily newspaper, which will be sure to place the public in possession of ample information shou4d anything special in the morning's proceedings attract his attention. Single out another, and perhaps you will not be far wide of the mark if you set him down to be a 'cute Yankee editor on the look-out for something piquant about the Britishers wherewith to regale his readers in some obscure corner of the American continent. Do you think it pos- sible you may be mistaken } Look again, and ask yourself if the worthy fellow's features and wearing apparel, when put together, do not spell Jonathan as completely as can ever be done by eight letters } A fair sprinkling of country pastors are sure to be present. Fix your eye on a Baptist, and he will be found in a genial humour ; for when so vast an assembly gathers in a Baptist Chapel he thinks, with some show of reason, that his principles are in the ascendant. Select an Independent, and you will judge from his looks that he has not much to complain about ; for, after all, this same preacher has wonderfully stimulated the cause of Noncon- formity. Besides these, members of the Esta- blishment, of various grades, must be on a level with the rest of the world, and to accomplish this and complete their education they must 1 66 Some Special Occasions. needs go to " hear Spurgeon." If the Angh'can be an Evangelical, he will be abundantly edified ; he will go away regretting that the Pastor is not Archbishop of Canterbury. Should he side with the Ritualists, he will look pitiful and ill at ease — he may even sit with the scowl of contempt playing about his eyes. Should he be of the Broad school, he will be sufficiently charitable to take things as they come. As I view the spacious area from my velvet-lined deacon's pew, I know that the Tabernacle is a common meeting-ground for all the characters mentioned, as well as for many others who might be included in the category. But it is now time to confess that when we sit in the deacons' seats we occupy a comfort- able pew, but, while doing so, sacrifice much that would be cheaply purchased by a hard bench with a deal back. When heard from behind, Mr. Spurgeon is heard to disadvantage. He is not a preacher who should be listened to with a pillar interrupting the view, nor with closed eyes. His features speak as well as his tongue, and this part of tlie sermon was almost entirely missed while I kept company with the deacons on the platform. As viewed from the ordinary pews, these portly church officers appear to be so luxuriously accommodated, and to be in A ''Heavy'' Collection. 167 themselves such models of decorum, that dozens of times have they been envied both on account of their state and their station. Let the truth henceforth be known — that, like men of self-denial, they are content to forego much for the sake of their office. A word may be added relative to the Weekly Offering collection. The boxes used at the morn- ing service were brought into one of the vestries after the crowd had dispersed. How high a figure the total reached nobody knew, for, as Sunday is a day of rest, the money would not be counted until the following morning. Gold, silver, and copper pieces, together with little packets neatly tied with thread, made up the motley heap. One miniature parcel enclosed fifteen shillings from " A Working Man." When the whole mass was placed in a strong black bag, I ventured to raise it for the sake of testing its weight. " It's pretty heavy," remarked an affable deacon, who appeared to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the establishment. I anticipated that the parcel would not be found to be a bag of feathers. It was certainly the " heaviest " collection I had ever set eyes upon, for it was as much as one could conveniently raise from the table with one arm. 1 68 Some Special Occasions. At a Whitsuntide Festival. " Are you going with Mr. Spurgeon, sir ? " politely asked an active carriage attendant on the de- parture platform of the Great Eastern Railway terminus in London a few minutes before the starting of the midday Cambridge express-train. The man was evidently a shrewd reader of cha- racter, or he would not so happily have hit on the truth at first guess, or have drawn so correct an inference from my mien, appearance, and tourist- ^^Z' -^ gave the honest fellow an answer in the affirmative, secured a comfortable corner-seat, and in a few minutes the train was travelling at a rapid speed through Tottenham marshes, our destination being Willingham, in Cambridge- shire. On our arrival at Cambridge soon after one, it is clearly manifest that Mr. Spurgeon is expected, and a railway official acquaints us with the fact that large numbers of persons have gone forward by the early trains. After a brief delay we are again in motion, and this time we are on the Wisbeach branch, and at each small station even the porters are on the qui vive. At any rate, one of these worthies, who had probably heard a false rumour that the preacher of the day was not coming, shouted in a kind of suppressed tone of A Rttral Fete. 169 triumph, " There he is ! " just as our train drew up alongside the platform. We arrive at Long Stanton shortly after two, from whence we drive to Willingham through a rich flat country, the air having been made delightfully cool by the storms of the day before. Throughout the route numbers of country people, dressed in holiday attire, scru- tinise the carriage which carries the Pastor with keen curiosity ; while in the village proper a considerable crowd has assembled. Of course business in general is suspended ; banners enliven the street ; householders appear to be keeping open house, though provision for a thousand, more or less, is served in a farmyard and barn hard by. In a word, the village is eti fete, and that un- answerable authority, " the oldest inhabitant " of Willingham, is well aware that the doings now in progress surpass everything which has come within the range of his experience. Willingham is situated in the midst of a purely agricultural district, and is some two miles away from the Long Stanton station. The living is a good one ; the parish covers an area of five thousand acres ; and in Puritan times, under its godly rector, Mr. Bradshaw, the village was remarkable for its piety. In those days, there were " fourscore-and-ten praying families " resi- dent in the parish ; and a portion of these, with 170 Some Special Occasions. Mr. Bradshaw, the ejected rector, appear to have been the founders of the Nonconformist interest which has flourished in WilHngham from that time to this. The place has its pleasant memories, and the WilHngham of to-day presents us with some of the most favourable aspects of English village life. It acknowledges no great land- owner for its sole lord. Small proprietorships are the rule, and the lords of these, comfortably housed in their villa or cottage freeholds, look as though they knew how to enjoy the privileges of freedom. If an Englishman's house is his castle, there are many lords and castles at Willingham. The gardens in the rear of the houses are not the least extraordinary feature of the village, and they completely verify all I have heard in praise of Cambridgeshire horticulture. The gardens are commonly found to be of great length, and they are usually planted with favourite fruit-bearing trees. I was given to understand that in ground attached to the houses of this small place there are not less than fifty acres of gooseberry-bushes in a luxuriant state of cul- tivation. The advertisements announced that Mr. Spurgeon would preach the first of his two sermons at three o'clock ; and, as that hour drew near, the people who had hitherto thronged the village street Pt eacJiing f7'ovi a Waggon. 1 7 1 adjourned to an adjacent meadow, there to com- pose a compact multitude, A spacious marquee had been erected ; but, ample as its area may have appeared to the contractors, it was ludicrously small when measured against the space required ; and hence to speak from a waggon on the green- sward seemed to be the only possible arrangement that could be reasonably made. Having, with considerable difficulty, threaded his way through the throng, the preacher ascended the "pulpit," and found himself in the centre of a sea of upturned faces ; and, confessing an inability to speak from the back of his head, he notifies in which direction he will chiefly look. The text is taken from I Cor. XV. 10 : "By the grace of God I am what I am ; " and the sermon, with its fervent deli- neations and soul-stirring appeals, was admirably adapted to produce a lasting effect on the mixed multitude of hearers. The purport of the sermon was — everybody had some ailment ; but Christ was *' the mighty doctor of grace." At the conclusion of this service, the people returned to the village to drink tea, which was not difficult to obtain, as everybody still appeared to be keeping open house, and provision for a hungry multitude was made at the farmstead before mentioned. Mr. Spurgeon and a select number of friends drank tea together in one of the long, 172 Some Special Occasions. secluded gardens for which VVillingham is or should be renowned. At the evening service the sermon was preceded by a characteristic address from Mr. William Olney, one of the most active of the deacons at the Tabernacle. When Mr. Spurgeon again stood forward, he was greeted as before by the upturned faces of persons who still drank in his words with unabated eagerness. The text was taken from the dying words of King David to his son Solomon, " If thou seek Him, He shall be found of thee." All that David said was good ; but the last words of such a father to such a son as Solomon were especially solemn. I. They represented our greatest want — they needed their God. n. David told Solomon how his great need might be supplied — " If thou seek Him." Lastly, the text had a finger — TJioii. The preacher went on to show that while the young had a text all to themselves, the old needed not to be discouraged. Some calculations had been made to show that people are seldom converted after forty-five, and as they grow older the chances that they will ever become partakers of saving grace proportionately diminished. In the opinion of Mr. Spurgeon such notions were as ridiculous as they were unscriptural, and statistics A Striking Evening Scene. 173 were frequently little else than a means of telling lies by figures. The evening scene was one to be remembered. Parts of the surrounding district had only lately been visited by storms ; but during the delivery of the sermon the peace of a summer evening settled over Willingham. A soft breeze carried the sweet scents of the fresh blossoming country on its bosom ; birds were merrily singing in the trees and hedges ; while the setting sun on one side of the horizon, and the rising moon on the other side, seemed to be looking each other in the face while they supplied the preacher with materials for illustration. The spectacle was very striking as a scene of rural peace and enjoy- ment. The powerful voice of Mr. Spurgeon rung out loud and clear, reaching to the utmost limit of the crowd. Individuals representative of various classes of sinners were singled out, reasoned with, and appealed to, the text in each instance being driven home to the heart and conscience — " If thou seek Him, He shall be found of thee." Thus further proof was given, if that were needed, of the hold which Mr. Spurgeon still retains on every class. I inquired of a Cam- bridgeshire peasant what he thought of the sermon. " Oh ! " replied the poor fellow, " it was lovely ; I wish he had kept on all night." 174 Some Special Occasions. With the Students. Probably a good many people who once thought otherwise are coming round to the conclusion that " Spurgeon's students " are an institution called into existence by the requirements of the modern Church. While there will be differences of opinion in regard to the young fellows' general fitness for an arduous calling, the majority of judges will concede that they are men of enter- prise, who can battle with difficulties and bear hardship. They have many traits which mark their individuality, and they strive to do credit to the common cause, and to be worthy of their schoolmasters. If you will, you may count these young men too daring, too energetic, or too assuming ; but while the field is the world, and the world remains what it is, there will be plenty of others who will think that there is room both for the workers and their singularities. It is well known that there are persons, sensitive and not too charitable, who affect to look down on the Tabernacle collegians as innovators or interlopers, or perhaps even as trespassers, who monopolise spheres which common fairness would reserve for better people. To be criticised is a privilege as well as a penalty ; for without critics public men would not know their own weaknesses. As The Pastors College. 175 regards the " students " in question, we should in justice remember that a very large percentage of those who settle in London make their own spheres. Another large proportion, who remove to the Colonies and to the United States, cease to be in anybody's way — so far as England is concerned. Mr. Spurgeon never disguises the fact that the College is his best-beloved Institution. He well knows that his system may have its weak points, but that is only saying it is human. In spite of real or imaginary shortcomings, the College is nurtured as a powerful evangelistic agency. It has even been hinted that he expects, or at least hopes to see, a successor to himself come forth from the classes. Such a genius has not yet arisen ; to expect his advent may perhaps savour of enthusiasm. The president is a man of faith ; there is time enough yet. Founded and presided over by so shrewd a judge of human nature and of human motives, this College differs from the ordinary run of theo- logical seminaries. The aim of the tutors is very clearly defined. They do not despise learning, but still wish to turn out preachers rather than scholars, and to accomplish their purpose they cannot complain of any want of material. Every candidate is well aware that he will have to pass 176 Some Special Occasions. a searching examination, and that the aim of the examiners will be to discover his aptitude for work — the quaHty of the human metal — instead of being guided in their decision by what he already knows. The judges put down piety at a higher value than Greek and Latin ; and they believe that love for mankind is better than a mathematical brain. Come what will, the appli- cant, if he be a man of common sense, is thoroughly assured that he will be judged on his own merits. He needs no friend at court to advance his interests, the recommendation of his pastor being merely a certificate of character. Nothing can be more unprejudiced than this method of election. Even if it were true, which it is not, that it chiefly attracts the plebeian element, even that would be preferable to being spoken of as a pretentious Nonconformist college reserved almost exclusively for those who can help themselves. Having survived his probation, the " student " feels that he is a unit in a society which exists to promote the conversion of mankind ; and while his interests are not separate from those of his denomination, he will throughout life retain a feeling of clannishness. It is well that it is so, for his difficulties and discouragements are of no common order. Go whither he will, he must Men to be Judged by their Works, 1 7 7 resist the opposition of prejudice — a prejudice founded on the poor fellow's supposed lack of good breeding and early advantages. It is sur- prising how long and correct peoples' memories are when they have to do with things they might gracefully forget. " Spurgeon's student " is ofter found to be a suffering victim of this persecuting retentiveness. People remember — and if they do not really know they suspect — that he was originally intended for some trade, that he was actually apprenticed, and that he would even now be working at a bench had he not, through some mischance, found his way into college. They do not stop to ask themselves whether similar things might not apply to numbers of other ministers who have passed through other seminaries. Provided only that a college can boast of a certain kind of prestige, the inmates are looked upon as scholars and gentlemen, who have been directed into their proper avocation. Let us not disparage one class at the expense of another, but give both their due, because neither class can afford to throw stones at the other. In common fairness we are bound to judge of men by their works. The cultured man will find his proper sphere, and between him and the more humble, though perhaps not less useful, evangelist, there need be no rivalry. Minis- terial successes should be measured by conver- 12 178 Some Special Occasions. sions, not by the literary quality of the sermons preached ; and so that men are brought in from the bondage of sin into the liberty of Christ, it is hardly worth while to dispute about the polish of the instruments. Who, on looking at an elegant cabinet, asks if the artificer had five fingers on each hand, if he was legally apprenticed, and if the tools used were those of approved makers ? The carving is there, and we give the workman his due. If we look at their work from all sides in this spirit, we shall find that " Spurgeon's students " have more than earned their salt. They have established a large number of new churches ; they have reclaimed thousands of people who might never have been hauled in from ruin by the kid-gloved hands of a more " regular " agency. They are trained to endure hardship and toil. In a sense, they are un- doubtedly innovators ; at times, perhaps, they are somewhat too bold and outspoken ; but still some of them have become sufficiently distinguished to rank among the chief apostles of Bristol, Rawdon, or even Regent's Park — those classic retreats for well-to-do aspirants and gentlemen's sons. The ordinary " Spurgeon's student " has many characteristics which bespeak his training and ruling taste. Perhaps he would be a gainer were he to rub off some of his idiosyncrasies ; but sHch What the College has Done, 179 as cling naturally to him are best left alone. With rare exceptions, he never affects the fine gentleman ; he does not proclaim his profession through the tailor ; with his black tie and felt hat he apparently cultivates a nonchala^ice in dress not readily understood in a fashionable age, when ecclesiastical exquisites need not despair of shining as centre attractions in West End draw- ing-rooms. Thus it happens that the " student's" friends say he has no sham about him ; that he wishes to pass simply for what he is — an evan- gelist ; or if settled, a plain pastor. His severer critics say he is an enthusiast, an imitator of the manners and tones of one man, and that his sermons are declamation. In summing up the evidence of these opposite witnesses, remember that man naturally imitates ; that it is well-nigh impossible for classes to come into daily contact with one master mind and not contract a few of his mannerisms. To the young men concerned I would say, Strive against a natural propensity which will provoke ridicule and loss of power. To be peculiar is not necessarily to be weak, though if he try to be peculiar it is a sure sign that the man is naturally a weak man. What has the College done t According to the last returns, 722 have been educated, and there are 547 of these who still labour as pastors, i8o Some Special Occasions. missionaries, or evangelists. There are twenty- one without pastorates ; forty-seven pastors and seven students have died ; nine are permanently invalided ; while seventy-five names have been removed from the roll, not in all cases " from causes which imply any dishonour," as many are working in other denominations. There are 66,835 members attached to the Churches of the Pastors' College Association. Christmas Day at the Orphanage. The Christmas morning to which particular allusion is now made was hailed by the inmates of the Stockwell Orphanage with all the enthu- siasm that had characterised former years ; how, indeed, could it be otherwise, when the day dawned with promises of feasting and merry- making quite after the heart of Young England, who has found a home in that well-known Insti- tution ? While the weather was cold, foggy, and muddy, the aspect of the dining-room presented a cheerful contrast to the reigning gloom without. The ample area was decorated with flags, ever- greens, and mottoes, until it partially resembled a baronial hall of olden times, and numbers of visitors were found passing a holiday hour in inspecting the preparations. Callers and TJie Orphanage Kitchen. i8i stragglers, who dine late, and who are desirous of seeing all they can before dinner, may find a sight worth looking at on Christmas Day at Stockwell — something to educate the heart as well as feed the mind ; and should they leave a donation behind them, the remembrance of what they have done will make music in their souls when they themselves sit down to the feast. So, at any rate, would good George Herbert have said, and George Herbert was right. Soon after noon a carriage is heard rattling into the grounds, and this, together with the cheers of the boys, is an intimation that Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon have arrived. Before dinner is laid on the tables a Board-meeting may have to be held ; and while more serious business is in progress, fresh loungers are coming in to show their interest in the arrangements. The kitchen appears to possess extraordinary attractions, and well may this be so ; for vast as is the quantity of food to be prepared, the admirable apparatus at the command of the cooks sits easily beneath its burden, and even seems to make light of it. After some further unavoidable delay, the boys and girls are marshalled, shortly before two, to be marched into their places, when dinner is served. Substantial joints of roast beef follow 1 82 Some Special Occasions. one another from the kitchen, each fresh arrival being handed over to an amateur carver at a side-table. In the meantime, Mr. Spurgeon re- minds the boys of the gratitude they owe to God for sending them friends who, in their kindness of heart, have provided so rich an abundance of good fare. The youngsters quite appreciate their President's remarks, and show that they under- stand their obligations by the hearty cheers which shake the building, a fair proportion of the noise being made in honour of the gentlemen who presented the boxes of plums and the new shillings. Other cheers follow, for standing in the room are certain tried friends of the Institu- tion who merit the boys' affection, and this is especially true of the President, who is hailed with deafening acclamations as the orphans' best earthly friend. At length the noise is succeeded by a calm ; grace is sung. " And now, my boys," says Mr. Spurgeon, " I hope you will heartily enjoy yourselves." The beef, which is the best that the London market can supply, is speedily disposed of; and next comes a proces- sion of plum-puddings borne by a regiment of "old boys," who are now out in the world making headway on their own account. After the puddings have shared the fate of the beef, there succeeds a still greater pleasure — each orphan is Concerning the Orphanage. 183 allowed to retire, and to carry with him to the playground his box of plums, the sweet orange, and the new shilling. When well enough to do so, and when in Eneland, it has been Mr. Spurgeon's custom to dine with the working staff of the Orphanage on Christmas Day. The last time that he did so was in 1885, when he was accompanied by Mrs. Spurgeon ; and he had then not been since 1 88 1. In the last report of the Institution Mr. Spurgeon thus refers to the work in pro- gress : — " Let those who have aided us in any manner only look in upon the Institution at Stockwell, and the sight will well repay them. What a beautiful square of buildings ! What a noble open space in the centre! Then see the boys and girls. Nobody ever said that they looked miserable : it would be too transparent a false- hood. Did you ever see more happy faces in all the world } These bear no brand of pauperdom, and wear no trace of being crushed down by hard workhouse discipline. Many a father has felt that if he were suddenly taken away he could desire no better shelter for his children. One minister expressed that sentiment at one of our meetings, and within two years he had fallen asleep, and two of his boys were with us. These dear 184 Some Special Occasions. children, often the descendants of sickly fathers, are, as a rule, in splendid condition ; in fact, the average of health is far above that which is common in the best families. While they are with us they receive a good solid education, and are surrounded with gracious influences ; and when they go from us, as a rule, they succeed in life, and become useful and honourable members of society. We have received the highest testi- mony from practical men as to the result pro- duced by the Stockwell Orphanage training. Thus, instead of pining in poverty, and either dying of want or growing up in ignorance, the children are carefully housed and prayerfully trained, and rise into manhood to be an honour to their homes and a benefit to society. Mean- while, their widowed mothers have been succoured, delivered from hopeless want, and encouraged to bring up the rest of their charge. Friends, we are partners in a very blessed enterprise. Our Lord approves of it. His people delight in it, and even men of the world have nothing to say against it. This work for orphans is one of the best aids to the Gospel : it stops the mouth of adversaries. It is fit that the preacher of free grace should be able to point to his five hundred fatherless ones, and say, ' See the fruit of the doctrines of grace.' Those who are saved by Home Life of the Orphans. 185 faith alone are yet zealous to maintain good works. To them also, ' pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.' " Our experience confirms us in the practice of The Separate Home System. We have not huge wards, nor vast barracks, but houses and families after the fashion of ordinary society. The loss of home and parental influence is a calamity to a child, and the wisest course is to minimise the loss as far as possible by keeping up the family form. Covering an area of nearly four acres, in one of the healthiest suburbs of London, the Orphanage is admirably adapted for its purpose. Each home is complete in itself, and each family has its own * mother.' The boys dine in one common hall according to families ; the girls' meals are all prepared in their respective houses ; and it is a rule that both boys and girls assist in all the domestic duties of the establish- ment. Family worship is conducted in each department morning and evening, and the children learn the text for the day from Mr. Spurgeon's Almanack. The terrace on the left-hand side of the quadrangle, with the schools over the centre block, is designed for two hundred and fifty boys, and the terrace on the right for an equal number 1 86 Some Special Occasions. of girls. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and in countless ways the excellence of the home system shows itself to those who observe its working. " Under our system careful supervision of each child is possible, and the best sanitary, moral, and religious conditions are secured. Though we cannot change human nature, nor make even good children perfect, we can do better for them in family groups than if we had them in great masses, and packed them away in grosses, like steel pens. Individual character comes out better in small groups than in large regiments. "The Institution is Unsectarian : the question of the denominational connection of the parents has no influence with the Committee in considering" an application. No child is prejudiced as a candidate by the creed of his parents. Why should he be } In a matter of pure philanthropy, sectarian preferences should have no weight ; although the characters of the parents and their usefulness in the Church of God constitute in some cases a plea for a more speedy reception of their little ones ; yet if Christian principles were lacking in the father the child should not be punished on that account ; on the contrary, there may be all the greater need that the little one should come under religious training. Home Life of the Orphans. 187 " The supreme desire of the Committee of Management is that the children shall be instructed in the truths of our common Christianity, renewed in spirit by the Holy Ghost, and brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are more concerned that the children should become disciples of Christ than devotees of a sect ; and for this we will both pray and labour. . . . " The Institution is OPEN TO All CLASSES OF THE Community. No one section of society has the preference. In considering the claims of an orphan, the station in life occupied by the parents has small influence in the counsels of the Com- mittee. To secure the admission of a destitute father- less child, No Patronage is Required, and No Purchase of Votes. The most helpless and deserving are selected by a Committee, who give the first place to the greatest need. " The children are Not Dressed in a Uniform to mark them as the recipients of charity. We cannot endure this common piece of folly. " In the arrangements of the Schools our object IS to impart a plain but thorough ENGLISH education, in order to fit the boys for commercial pursuits. In addition to the ordinary subjects, they are 1 88 Some Special Occasions. taught elementary science, drawing, shorthand, and vocal music. As the boys attain the age for leaving, little or no difificulty is experienced in finding employers who are willing to receive them. Many of the old boys are now occupying good positions in large houses of business, three of them are pastors of churches, and two have resigned first-rate appointments to labour in connection with the Salvation Army. It is a joy to us to know that many others are engaged in works of usefulness, while a far larger number are members of the Christian Church. " For the girls a plain solid education is attempted in the Schools, and thorough domestic training in the Homes. The Trustees will be glad to give special training where there are special capacities, and as openings occur for female talent they will be glad to have girls able to enter them. The special vocation of the girls must be left to their friends to determine on leaving : our usual plan is to ensure that, as far as possible, they shall be thoroughly fitted for domestic service in good families ; but we are anxious to be guided by the providence of God, and the opportunities which offer themselves. No doubt the better the education, if it be of a really practical kind, the better is the child's chance in life," Home Life of the Orphans. 189 Summary of Admissions. London 1^1 Country 358 Wales 17 Scotland I Ireland ...... 2 Isle of Wight .... 4 Total 1,099. Parentage of the Children Mechanics . 261 Shopkeepers and Salesmen . Manufacturers and Tradesmen . 171 . 161 Labourers, Porters, and Carmen . • 159 Warehousemen and Clerks • 117 Mariners and Watermen . 38 Ministers and Missionaries . • 2iZ Commercial Travellers . 21 Farmers and Florists 21 Railway Employes Cab Proprietors and Coachmen Schoolmasters and Teachers . . 19 . 18 • 17 Policemen and Custom House Officers 13 Commission Agents Accountants . II II Postmen and Sorters 8 Surgeons and Dentists 6 Journalists Solicitors 5 4 Soldiers 2 Fireman I Architect I Gentleman • I Toial 1,099. 190 Some Special Occasions. Religious Profession of Parents. Church of England Baptist . Congregational Wesleyan Presbyterian . Roman Catholic 429 264 121 lOI 22 3 Brethren 4 Moravian I Bible Christian 2 Society of Friends 1 Not specified . • 151 Total 1,099. The head master is the Rev. V. J. Charles- worth, and the working staff have all along, by their efficiency and sympathy, earned the often- expressed gratitude of the President. The Colporteurs. The Colportage Association is also an evan- gelistic agency the influence of which extends into many of the most out-of-the-way corners of the country. When health permitted it has been usual for Mr. Spurgeon to address the men, many of whom visit London in May of each year. The agents are hard-working fellows, and besides selling books, they visit the people in their houses, and even preach the Gospel in places where otherwise the Gospel would hardly be heard. ''Sell the Books r 191 There are now seventy-six agents employed, and seven book agents ; and in the last year these sold pure literature to the amount of ;^9,52 5, representing a distribution of 457,527 Bibles and books, besides 320,504 periodicals. Mr. Spur- geon, in common with all who are acquainted with it, are of opinion that this work should be extended, and that Christian people should mani- fest more interest in the colporteurs' operations. Certainly, its importance is second to no other Christian work, and in proportion as the good done is understood and appreciated, people will extend to such a genuine Home Mission their cordial support. On the last occasion that he addressed the men in May, 1885, Mr. Spurgeon remarked that while there were old faces present that he was glad to see again, there were also some new hands, to all of whom he wished prosperity. It was hoped that the first would not become weary, and that the younger men would find themselves in happy spheres. Though many had found it otherwise, the past year had been a good time for colporteurs : the sales had not declined, and the higher success achieved had encouraged them all. Though he was not going to preach on the text " Sell the books," that was the first thing a colporteur had to do. They 192 So7ne Special Occasions, might be good men in other respects, but they did not excel as colporteurs if they did not push the sales. It was just the same with students in the college ; they had first of all to be good preachers. Thus the main object of their calling must not be missed. Yankee book-agents had the reputation of being terrible fellows : they would never leave a house without an order, even though it might be an order to get off the premises ; and one of the fraternity was said to have so much " cheek," that when struck by lightning in the face — his strongest point — the fluid glanced off to kill an animal some yards away. In a sense, this " cheek " was a good thing, although they would not do much without perseverance. They wanted men to sell books to people who thought that they did not want to buy them. They had no reason to be ashamed of their wares, which were good to sell and good to buy. It was then shown that a colporteur would be judged of in a district by his usefulness. As they loved their Master, therefore, let them abound in all good works to His glory, forasmuch as their labour was not in vain in the Lord. The Rev. W. Corden Jones, at the Depository, Temple Street, Newington, S.E., supplies all particulars on application. TTVO THOUSAND PRINTED SERMONS. 13 "Our ministry is a testimony that no new theology is needed to stir the masses and save souls ; we defy all the negative theologians in England to give such proof of their ministry as we can. If we must be fools in glorying, we do, we must boast that the old doctrines are victo- rious, and that the Lord, the Spirit, has most signally honoured them. We do not cite the overwhelming and ever increasing multitudes who listen to us, as a proof in this matter, but, we do and will glory, in the power of the Gospel, in that it has brought so many to the cross of Christ, and raised so many from the dunghill. In every place where the old Gospel has been proclaimed it has had its trophies from the worst of men, and we are no exceptions to the rule. The slain of the Lord have been many. His arrows have found out the hearts of His enemies ; many have been overthrown by His Spirit, and have been ultimately brought to find life and healing in the blood of Jesus. The best evi- dences of the truth of our holy religion, are to be found in the marvellous effects it produces. Drunl^ards, harlots, swearers, thieves, liars, and such like, when reclaimed and regenerated, are the jewels in the crown of the truth ; of such we must say in confidence, ' What hath God wrought ? ' " — Preface to Vol. II. of The New Park Street Ptdpit. VII. TWO THOUSAND PRINTED SERMONS. /^^ONCERNING their weekly publication, and ^— ^ concerning individual sermons, many re- markable things are told. Some on special topics have commanded a very extensive sale, the one on Baptismal Regeneration leading the way. When this was first published, it was feared that the circulation would be disastrously affected, but the number of subscribers actually increased. The history of these sermons would constitute a unique chapter in the annals of the church. Some years ago, an ardent admirer of Mr. Spurgeon gave away, at his own charge, a quarter of a million copies. He had volumes elegantly bound for presentation to the crowned heads of Europe. He also had books, contain- ing a dozen in each, sent to every member of both Houses of Parliament, and to all the students of Oxford and Cambridge. More singular still was their circulation " as advertisements in the Australian papers ; one gentleman spending week 196 Tiuo Thottsand Printed Sermons. by week a sum which we scarcely dare to mention, lest it should not be believed." In a sense, Mr. Spurgeon is a preacher to the whole Protestant world ; and if any doubt this remarkable fact, let them note what he himself says about the general diffusion of these pulpit discourses : — " In America the sale of the edition published there was extremely large, and I believe that it still continues ; but dozens of religious papers appropriate the sermons bodily, and, therefore, it is quite impossible to say where they go, or, rather, where they do not go. Of translations, the Dutch have been most plentiful, making large volumes. An edition of two volumes of selected sermons has been circulated in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, among the Dutch settlers of that region. In German there are three noble volumes, besides many smaller ones. German publishers, with the exception of Mr. Oncken, of Hamburg, seldom have the courtesy to send the author a copy ; and I have picked up in divers places sermons bearing date from Baden, Basle, Carlsruhe, Ludwigsburg, and so on. How many, therefore, may have been sold in Germany I am unable to compute. In French several neat volumes have appeared ; in Welsh and Italian one volume each. In Sweden a handsome edition in four volumes has been largely circulated, and the Various Traits I at ions. 197 translator informed me of the conversion of some of noble and even royal birth through their perusal. Besides these, there are single sermons in Spanish, Gaelic, Danish, Russ, Maori, Telugu, and some other tongues, and permission has been sought and gladly given for the production of a volume in the language of Hungary." Did literature represent his sole profession, the fruits of Mr. Spurgeon's pen could not be ex- pected to be more abundant than they are, even though the sermons be left out of the category. Authorship is to him a pleasure as well as a duty ; and he evidently values literary power as a sacred trust to be accounted for hereafter. At the present date Mr. Spurgeon has published not far short of two thousand separate sermons in the regular weekly series, besides hundreds of others, so that the position he occupies as a popular preacher is not only extraordinary, but absolutely unique. There are volumes of sermons which have commanded, and still continue to command, a large sale ; there is not, however, another instance on record of a pastor's utterances attracting tens of thousands of purchasers through a third of a century. If we examine the quality of the earliest numbers of the series we shall see 198 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. abundant reason for their instant popularity. By many, whose judgment is worthy of respect, these earhest productions are thought to be quite equal to anything which has followed. The glow of sanctified genius is on every page ; and the volumes are pervaded by the warm zeal and freshness of youth which are irresistible. Indeed, I have been told by a gentleman who heard the Pastor of the Tabernacle on the first day of his preaching in London, and who hears him still, that Mr. Spurgeon has never improved, nor has he ever grown in the sense that others grow — he was sent forth complete at first, just as Minerva was never a child, but sprang at once fully armed from the head of Jupiter. Though not prepared to acquiesce in such a judgment without some qualification, I think it is well to record it as a characteristic of a prevalent opinion. The pastor of a Nonconformist church might also be quoted, who considers that the earlier sermons are even superior to those of to-day. Hence there was every prospect of the under- taking proving a commercial success when Mr. Joseph Passmore, at the close of the year 1854, proposed to the Pastor that a discourse should be issued regularly every week ; for long prior to his preaching days the idea had come uninvited into the mind of Mr. Spurgeon himself, that he would " Much Fear and Trembling.'' 199 " one day preach sermons which would be printed." It would appear that some time elapsed before the preacher even thoroughly believed in his own popularity. The sermons had sold in an un- paralleled manner as occasional publications ; but when a shrewd, far-seeing publisher asked if the publication should be advanced into a weekly institution, the answer in the affirmative was given "with much fear and trembling." In the preface to the first volume of the published discourses, dated January 1856, the remark occurs : " Little can be said in praise of these sermons, and nothing can be said against them more bitter than has been already spoken." The author also declares that he is " invulnerable either to criticism or abuse." The admission is then conceded that a departure has been ventured on " from the usual mode of preaching." An answer is also given to the question. What is Calvinism ? It is not a slavish adherence to the views of one man ; the word is rather a brief and convenient one to express " that salvation is by grace alone." There are things in the book which may provoke a smile, but what of them } The preacher " is not quite sure about a smile being a sin, and, at any rate, he thinks it less crime to cause a momentary laughter than a half hour's profound slumber." 200 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. A little more than a year after Mr. Spurgeon's settlement at New Park Street a scheme was set on foot for the enlargement of the chapel, which was ultimately carried out at a cost of ;^2,ooo. On the last Sabbath of January 1855 a collection was made for this object. The text was, " Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests." The inferences at the close were, " I am king, I will give as a king giveth unto a king." A priest, if he sacrificed, was not to give a maimed lamb or a blemished bullock. " Excuse my pressing this subject," the preacher continued. " I want to get this chapel enlarged ; we are all agreed about it ; we are all rowing in one boat. I have set my mind on ^50, and I must and will have it to-day if possible. I hope you won't disappoint me." As a result of this appeal the people at once placed £^0 in the plates held at the doors, and elevenpence halfpenny over. On the 8th of July, 1855, while preaching at New Park Street from the words of the Psalmist, " He shall choose our inheritance for us," Mr. Spurgeon referred to the delights of hearing a sermon, which had for so long been denied to himself He sometimes felt that he should occasionally like to sit down to the feast in God's house, and not always be a serving-man. " I am sure I should be glad to hear a sermon ; it is a Seeino^ a Sermon at Bristol. 201 long time since I heard one ; but when I do attend one it always tires me — I want to be improving on it." His sermons were now being published regularly ; he was preaching incessantly in the week, so that the opportunities for hearing were necessarily almost nil. At this time he had not long completed his twentieth year. According to his own confession, however, Mr. Spurgeon this year saw and heard something striking at Bristol. After coming away from George Muller's Orphan House, he said, " I never heard such a sermon in my life as I saw there." When asked to address the children, he replied, " I could not speak a word for the life of me." He then received a lesson touching the power of faith which bore abundant fruit ; and in connection with this theme we have some first hints respecting the Metropolitan Tabernacle. " I sometimes think we will try the power of faith here," he told his people on the first Sabbath evening in November, " and see if we could not get sufficient funds whereby to erect a place to hold the people that crowd to hear the Word of God. We may have a tabernacle of faith as well as an orphan- house of faith." The first volume of the sermons was reprinted in America, and at once attained a circulation of twenty thousand copies. This year, 1855, the 202 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. second of his ministry in London, he called " a year of miracles " in a sermon preached on December 30th ; and among other causes for gratitude was the fact that two hundred and ten persons were added to the church, while others were coming in. On the 6th of January, 1856, at New Park Street, he referred to his conversion, which had taken place exactly six years previously, and at that hour of the day. " Seeking rest and finding none," he said, " I stepped within the house of God, and sat there, afraid to look upward, lest I should be utterly cut off, and lest His fierce wrath should consume me. The minister rose in his pulpit, and as I have done this morning, read this text — * Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else.' I looked that moment ; the grace of faith was vouchsafed to me in the selfsame instant." * Shortly after, or on the lOth of February, he preached on behalf of the Baptist Fund, an insti- tution founded in London for the relief of poor ministers in 17 17. Some of the illustrations of poverty were as sad as they were striking. Some ministers, when they ascended the pulpit stairs, ■^ As remarked elsewhere, the pulpit in which this sermon was preached is to be seen at the Stockwell Orphanage. The Music- Hall Accident. 203 had to be careful lest they tore their worn-out coats. The case of a preacher without means was also mentioned, a man who walked twenty miles and preached two sermons, and received from the deacons a shilling for his services. Another walked eight miles, found no one to give him a dinner, preached three sermons, and was rewarded with half-a-crown. The claims of the Baptist Fund were strongly advocated. On the first Sabbath of the November following, Mr. Spurgeon preached at New Park Street for the first time after the fatal accident at the Surrey Gardens. He said that he almost regretted having undertaken to preach, scarcely feeling equal to the task. The text was Philippians ii. 9-1 1 : " Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name," etc. This text, and the occasion of its being chosen, became more than ever interesting when we are further acquainted with the circumstances of the case. Thus at the Pastors' College Conference, held in April 1879, he mentioned a fact in con- nection with the accident at the Surrey Gardens Music-Hail which is not generally known. He said that the effect on his mind was such that he was nearly imbecile for a fortnight. The newspapers wrote as though he were responsible for the death 204 Two ThoMsand Printed Sermons. of the unfortunate people, and the slanders were almost more than he could bear. Such, too, was the agitation of his mind, joined to the assaults of Satan, that he seemed to lose the desire for prayer and for reading the Scriptures. He went away into the country ; and he related how relief came in an instant while walking in the garden of the house where he was staying. The words, " God hath given him a name," etc., flashed into his mind, and he seeing at once that all must be right, whatever the enemy might suggest, his joy was immediately as unspeakably great as his grief had previously been. He even went down on his knees on the gravel to give thanks. After a storm of trial and persecution, the preface to the volume of sermons for 1857 strikes a more cheerful note. The preacher speaks of the winter being past and the spring-time of renewed vigour and peace having come. " The congregations during the year have been immense and enthusiastic," he says. " Our church meetings have been joyous occasions, for we have heard marvellous stories of profligates reclaimed, drunk- ards converted, and desponding souls delivered." He now realised that in the hands of God he was far more than the mere pastor of a church ; he seems to have felt that he was an evangelist raised up for a special work. Hence " the sermons A Sermon at the Crystal Palace. 205 preached at the music-hall are intended to arrest the attention of the careless, and alarm the con- sciences of the hardened. The reader will not, therefore, find in them that fulness and depth of doctrine which he may desire." It may be noted that on the 7th of October in this year Mr. Spurgeon preached at the Crystal Palace, Syden- ham, to a congregation of twenty-four thousand people, the occasion " being the day appointed by Proclamation for a Solemn Fast, Humiliation, and Prayer before Almighty God : in order to obtain Pardon of our Sins, and for imploring His Blessing and Assistance on our Arms for the Restoration of Tranquillity in India." The flow of success continued throughout the year 1858. The best results continued to arise from the reading of the sermons. " In lonely places there are churches of Christ whose only ministry is found in these pages, save when a passing evangelist is led to open his mouth among them," we are told. In rooms in the crowded haunts of poverty these are read to hundreds who could scarcely understand any language more refined ; while at races and fairs, and even at pilgrimages of the Romish church, these have been used by earnest brethren as a means of obtaining an audience in the open air." During this year the circulation of the sermons at home 2o6 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. and abroad was more than sustained. No less than a hundred and fifty thousand volumes had already been sold in the United States ; in Australia more than one edition was printed, while translations appeared in several of the European languages, besides one in Welsh. In the meantime the weekly issue in London was as popular as ever. Two providential deliverances occurred this year, which many will still remember. On Wednesday, the /th of April, Mr. Spurgeon preached at Halifax, when, in consequence of a fall of snow and severe wintry weather, he did not anticipate meeting a very extensive congre- gation. A temporary building was erected, however, and from five to six thousand persons were found assembled. In the afternoon all went well ; but in the evening a gallery planned to hold two thousand people suddenly gave way after the service, when two persons were injured. " Now had this happened any earlier, not only must many have been injured," said Mr. Spurgeon to his congregation at the Surrey Gardens, " but there are a thousand chances to one, as we say, that a panic must necessarily have ensued, similar to that which we still remember and deplore as having occurred in this place. Had such a thing occurred, and had I been the unhappy preacher Sickness of the Preacher, 207 on the occasion, I feel certain that I should never have been able to occupy the pulpit again. Such was the effect of the first calamity that I marvel that I ever survived." Six months later, or on the morning of October 1 0th, he appeared at the great music-hall, after having experienced in the week " excruciating pain and continual sickness." After this he was laid aside, and the next published number of the weekly sermon was one preached at Exeter Hall more than two years before. Though so old, the preacher prayed that the utterances might " bud afresh and bring forth fruit, even as old corn, after having been entombed in Egyptian sepulchres for centuries, will often germinate again and yield an abundant crop." For three weeks the issue of old sermons continued, and a letter from the Pastor appears in each. In one he refers to the timbers in his frail barque having been made to creak ; in another he speaks of the memorable panic of two years before. On the 7th of November he again occupied the pulpit. In the course of the year 1859 several sermons were preached which were made wonderfully useful in awakening the careless. They continued to command a very extensive sale in America, and not only in a separate form but in the news- papers. Thus " in the midst of a mass of frivolity 2o8 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. and romance the weekly sermon stands like an ambassador in bonds, hopeful, nevertheless, that its free voice may overcome the discordant cries which try to drown its utterance." On the 13 th of March in this year, at the Surrey Gardens, Mr. Spurgeon referred to the opening of his ministry, and again preached from his first text : " It is about eight years since, as a lad of sixteen, I stood up for the first time in my life to preach the Gospel in a cottage to a handful of poor people who had come together for worship. I felt my own inability to preach, but I ventured to take this text, 'Unto you there- fore which believe. He is precious. ' " Nos. 268, 269, and 270 of The New Park Street Pulpit are filled with an account of " the ceremony of laying the first stone of the new Tabernacle," which ceremony was performed by Sir S. M. Peto on the i6th of August. Many honoured brethren who graced that occasion by their presence have since gone home to heaven. There were two meetings, one on the ground in the afternoon, and one at Rea's Repository in the evening. " In the bottle which is to be placed under the stone we have put no money," remarked the Pastor, " for one good reason — we have none to spare. We have not put news- papers, because, albeit we admire and love the Building the Tabernacle. 209 liberty of the press, yet that is not so immediately concerned in this edifice. The articles placed under the stone are simply these : the Bible, the Word of God — we put that as the foundation of the church. Upon this rock doth Christ build the ministration of His truth. We know of nothing else as our standard. Together with this we have put the old Baptist Confession of Faith which was signed in the olden times by Benjamin Keach, whose name is in this book. We put also the declaration of the deacons, which you have just heard read, printed on parchment. There is also an edition of Dr. Rippon's Hymn-Book printed just before he died ; and then, in the last place, there is a programme of this day's proceedings." One of the speakers present at the evening meeting was Judge Payne, who, as a matter of course, composed a tailpiece, besides indulmno- •*■ o fc> in some sensible wit. '' Now what does C. H. S. mean > " he asked, glancing at one of the decora- tions. ''Why, it means, first, Charles Haddon Spurgeon ; but / do not mean that. C. H. S. means a Clear Headed Speaker, who is Clever at Handling Subjects in a Cheerful Hearted Style. He is a Captain of the Hosts of Surrey ; he is a Cold Hating Spirit; he has Chapel Heating Skill; he is a Catholic Humbug Smasher ; he is a Care- Hushing Soother; he is a Child Helping 14 2IO Two Thousand Printed Sermons. Strengthencr ; he is a Christ Honouring Soldier; and he is Christ's Honoured ServantT At this meeting one of the most interesting speeches of the evening was made by the Pastor's father, the Rev. John Spurgeon, who also gave some reminiscences of his son's youthful days given elsewhere. In i860 Mr. Spurgeon felt the pressure of having to sustain a weekly publication. " No man can well conceive what a drain it is upon a preacher to have his sermons constantly printed," he remarked ; " he can scarcely hope to avoid repetition, and will be constantly in danger of running dry." Having preached for the last time at the Surrey Gardens on the iith of December, 1859, he adds, "This sixth year saw us sorrow- fully removing from the Surrey Music-Hail to a far less convenient spot." Individual sermons are mentioned which had been abundantly useful in the conversion of sinners, while the translation of the discourses into Swedish had very greatly increased the circulation. The morning service was now conducted in Exeter Hall until the 3rd of June, when Mr. Spurgeon departed for the Continent on a brief tour. During his absence several sermons preached at New Park Street on Sabbath evenings appeared in the weekly issue. He appeared again at opening of the Tabernacle. 2 1 1 Exeter Hall on the 29th of July; and on Tuesday, the 2 1st of August, gave an account of his con- tinental tour to a large audience in the unfinished Tabernacle. The year 1861 saw the presentation made of two hundred thousand copies of the Sermons to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The dis- courses still continued to be published in numbers of American newspapers, while they were read from village pulpits in our own country. This was the year of the opening of the Tabernacle, and the preliminary services extended through a month. The first prayer-meeting was held at seven o'clock a.m., on Monday, the i 8th of March; and on the afternoon of the Monday following Mr. Spurgeon preached his first sermon in the building, the text being Acts v. 42 : "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ." In the volume of sermons for this year there are three which are not by Mr. Spurgeon, the preachers having been Messrs. Brock, Stowell Brown, and Octavius Winslow. On the afternoon and in the evening of April i ith, meetings were held for the Exposition of the Doctrines of Grace. After an introductory address by Mr. Spurgeon the following subjects were very ably handled by successive speakers. Election : Mr. J. Bloomfield. 212 Tzvo Thousand Printed Sermons. Human Depravity : Mr. Evan Probert. Partictdar Redemption : Mr. J. A. Spurgeon. Effectual Call- ing : Mr. James Smith. The Final Preservation of the Saints : Mr. W. O'Neill. On the follow- ing evening Mr. Henry Vincent gave an oration in the chapel on Nonconformity^ and this also appears in the volume of sermons. In 1862 a friend scattered " a large number of sermons in the colleges and towns of Ireland. Working with great discretion, he sowed the seed so rapidly in each place that, before the foul bird, the Popish priest, could hasten to stop him, the work was done." On the 30th of January Mr. Spurgeon preached on the Hartley Colliery Accident, from the words of Job. xiv. 14, " If a man die, shall he live again ? " The evening was wet and cold ; but the people nevertheless mustered in force, and the sum of ^120 was collected for the relief fund. On the 9th of November he also preached on behalf of the distress in Lancashire. In consequence of the abolition of the duty on paper, the sermons commenced appearing in large type in the opening of 1862. The last of the small type series has a mourning border, having been preached on the occasion of the death of the good Prince Consort. During the year 1863 a mention is made of A Memorable Controversy. 213 the friends who send texts for the Pastor to handle. "This we cannot engage to do," he says. " Our habit has been to look to the Lord for our guidance, and when a text comes with power to our soul we preach from it without hesitation ; but as we dare not select our own themes, so neither can we receive those suggested to us, unless our Master sends them upon our heart." The following year was the era of the great Baptismal Regeneration controversy, and the fact is mentioned that at the close of the year the sermons on the question of baptism had reached a circulation of 300,000. The principal discourse was preached on the 5th of June ; and the con- troversy awakened may still be estimated by the scores of pamphlets which were published on both sides. Before this storm had subsided the Pastor dropped " The Reverend " as a ministerial title. It appears for the last time on the sermon number 587, and preached on August 28th. In the following week, and ever since, the name is printed simply, C. H. Spurgeon. In the preface to the Sermons for 1865 it is said that the " weekly circulation has during the past year been fully maintained," " while proofs of usefulness are as numerous and encouraging as ever." With January of this year commenced The Sword and tJie Trowel, which at once did 214 Two Thousand Printed Sermons. great service to the cause nearest the Editor's heart. Towards the end of the year there ap- peared a notice of a bazaar to be held in the Tabernacle, the proceeds to be devoted to the work of chapel building in London. " From the success already achieved," said Mr. Spurgeon, " I am encouraged to attempt yet greater things, and to seek the erection, during the year 1866, of several new buildings." Just at this time a pamphlet, which has long since been forgotten, occasioned the Pastor some annoyance. He was compelled to give notice that he had not written the brochure, and that he was shocked at the manner in which a professed minister of the Gospel had employed his name to give weight to prophecies which were ridiculous ravings. With the close of his twelfth volume in 1866 the preacher rejoiced in the thought that he was still teaching the same Old Gospel with which he had commenced. " Our twelve volumes, like the sons of Jacob, can say, ' we are all one man's sons, we are true men.' In fundamentals we remain like the oak, rooted to the same soil, although in circumstantials here and there a branch spreads itself otherwise than it did ten years ago. Growth there should be, but not wanton change." Now we begin to see the first notice of the Colportage Association, Persons disposed to aid the new Mr. Spurgeoji and the Quakers. 215 scheme were reminded of the " sellers of trinkets," who ages ago on the Continent carried the Bible in their packs as " the best of jewels " ; and of the pedlars who in the seventeenth century carried the best books of the Puritans throughout Eng- land. It was at this time also that Mr. Spurgeon appeared for the first time among the Quakers. " Our belief was, and still is," he said, " that it is the bounden duty of the Society of Friends in these perilous times to renew more distinctly their testimony against formalism, ritualism, and un- spiritual worship in its many forms, and we hoped that a respectful brotherly admonition might be accepted by them and owned of God." On the 6th of November he addressed a gathering of twelve hundred Friends at their head-quarters in Bishopsgate, feeling at the time much physical pain, and weighed down with a sense of responsi- bility. After six years' wear and tear, the Tabernacle was renovated in the spring of 1867, and Mr. Spurgeon preached to vast congregations in the Islington Agricultural Hall, on five consecutive Sabbath mornings. The volume of sermons for 1867 was the last which contained a preface ; and as the succeeding volumes come more within the recollection of readers than those noticed, there is no need to continue these jottings. The circula- 2 1 6 Tzuo Thottsa7id Printed Sermons, tion is still maintained, and the crowds attracted to the Tabernacle show no signs of diminution. As Mr. Spurgeon is only fifty-two, it may be supposed that, according to the ordinary course of nature, he has much of the best part of life before him. Let friends far and near unite to pray that physical strength may be granted to the preacher who has been chosen of God for the accomplish- ment of great things, and whose enforced inactivity is a real loss to the church. THE PREACHER'S REWARD —ANECDOTES ABOUT THE SERMONS. " What is the crown of a church ? Well, some churches have one crown, and some another. I have heard of a church whose crown was its organ — the biggest organ, the finest organ ever played, and the choir the most wonderful choir that ever was. Everybody in the district said, ' Now if you want to go to a place where you will have fine music that is the spot. ' Our musical friends may wear that crown if they please. I will never pluck at it or decry it ; I feel no temptation in that direction. I have heard of others whose crown has been their intellect. There are very few people indeed, not as many people by one- tenth as there are sittings, but then they are such a select people, the elite, the thoughtful and intelligent ! The ministry is such that only one in a hundred can possibly understand what is said, and the one in the hundred who does understand it, is therefore a most remarkable person. That is their crown. Again I say I will not filch it. What- ever there may be that is desirable about it, the brother who wears it, shall wear it all his days for me. I have heard of other crowns ; amongst the rest, that of being ' a most respectable church.' All the people are respectable. The minister of course is respectable. I believe he is ' Reverend,' or, 'Very Reverend,' and everybody and thing about him is to the last degree ' respectable.' Fustian jackets and cotton gowns are warned off by the surpassing dignity of everything in and around the place. As for a working man, such a creature is never seen on the premises, and could not be supposed to be ; and if he were to come he would say, ' The preacher preaches double Dutch or Greek, or some- thing of the sort ; he would not hear language he could understand. This is not a very brilliant crown— this crown of respectability : it certainly never flashed ambition into my soul. But our crown under God has been this, — the poor have the Gospel preached unto them, souls are saved, and Christ is glorified." — Memorial of Silver Weddi)ig Testi- monial, pp. 23, 24. VIII. THE PREACHER' S REWARD— ANECDOTES ABOUT THE SERMONS. /"^NE of the peculiarities of the preaching of ^-^ Whitefield was the large number of persons who would be convicted of sin under one sermon ; but in the case of Mr. Spurgeon we have to take into account the world-wide audience which, through the printed sermons, he is always ad- dressing. With his matchless voice, the great preacher of the last century may have been able to deliver his message to some twenty or thirty thousand persons ; but that was a small number indeed when compared with the hundreds of thousands in the Old and the New World, and at the antipodes, who, as may be said, make up Mr. Spurgeon's regular congregation. Then, in ad- dition to the English-speaking race, the sermons are also being read in many foreign languages into which they have been translated. The position occupied by the preacher is thus quite unique, nothing like it ever having been known 2 20 The Preacher s Reward. before. During some years past instances of use- fulness of the printed sermons, under the head of " Personal Notes," have appeared in The Sword and the Trozvel, and from these we borrow our illustrations for the present chapter. We suppose that the examples of enemies tamed have been many ; but one striking instance of this kind- was that of a gentleman who was greatly prejudiced against Mr. Spurgeon, and dissenters generally, until he visited the Metro- politan Tabernacle, which visit was brought about in a somewhat remarkable manner. " Some time after my conversion I came to London," says the son of this gentleman. " A few weeks later my father was up for a few days, and wishing to see me, I proposed Sunday morning as my only convenient time, and the Metropolitan Tabernacle as a midway meeting-place. I so arranged that we met there just as the crowds were flocking into the building. As I guessed would be the case, seeing such crowds pressing in, my father could not resist the temptation to follow." The result was that he was greatly affected by the sermon — " Deep calleth unto deep," No. 865 — and from being an enemy of the preacher the astonished hearer was changed into one of Mr. Spurgeon's most steadfast friends. " I am thank- ful to testify," added his son, " that what light Giving Joy to the Poor, 2 2 1 and peace he had came through the Metropolitan Tabernacle sermons." On one occasion a thank-ofifering of ;^5, which came to the College funds, is connected with the welcome story of the conversion of a prodigal. The father of the young man in question derived some consolation from a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on the Prodigal Son, and he sent a request that the youth might be prayed for at the ordinary Monday evening prayer-meeting. The prayer was answered, the young man became a changed character ; and the joy of the father found vent in the giving of the thank-offering mentioned. Probably it is a great joy to the Pastor to know that his discourses are frequently a source of great joy to the very poor among his flock. A friend who visits in a certain village of Middlesex tells of an old needlewoman who could not attend public worship regularly. At the best she was not able to earn more than a sorry pittance ; but nevertheless, when on a Saturday night she would find herself with no more than threepence to last until Monday, she would still spare a penny for the weekly sermon, after buying what bread and tea she could obtain for two- pence. What kind of satisfaction she found in the perusal of the weekly numbers was seen in her confession, to the effect that when she got 2 22 The Preacher s Reward. into the cream of the sermon she would not change places with the Queen herself. She was often so interested that she would even forget to eat her bread ; but at the same time her solicitude for others was so great, that when the numbers accumulated she went abroad to distribute them, so that others might share the blessing with herself. When the Hants Congregational Union met at Bournemouth in 1881, a deacon who was present enlivened the proceedings by narrating the following : " About seven years since a poor woman had saved up a few pounds of money and was going into the town of Christchurch to purchase some things. By some means she lost her purse, which contained a five-pound note, one pound in gold, and some fourteen shillings in silver. She was much distressed at her loss, and had some hand-bills circulated offering a reward for the restoration of her property. A person found the purse and appropriated the whole of its contents, and nothing has been heard of the affair until a fortnight since, when a gentle- man went to the printer of the handbill and asked if he could remember the incident. On looking over his file he saw the bill, and the whole of the circumstances came to his mind. The gentleman then said, ' You must ask me no A Dying YozUk. 22 o questions, but the purse will be restored.' A few days afterwards the identical purse, with the amount of money lost, and £^ for interest, was sent to the rightful owner. TJic cause ivhicJi brought this about was readmg Spurgeon s Sennonsl^ There was a youth who died in 1881 who had always been an invalid ; and who just before his death settled his little money accounts, appor- tioning ^40 to Mr. Spurgeon's work. " As you will suppose," wrote a relative to the Pastor in September 1881, "he has been for some time taking an interest in your work for Christ, and one of the greatest enjoyments of his life was the hearing you preach one Sunday last spring. He has read your sermons, etc., for a long time, and distributed them among our poor neighbours. His life has been one of much suffering, chiefly from asthma; but now consumption is carrying him off, and he is lying in the most peaceful, tranquil state, waiting the Master's call." The sufferer said he should value a word from Mr. Spurgeon ; but although the Pastor wrote by return of post his interesting correspondent died before the letter could reach him. Among the converts from Ritualism a case occurred of a young man who yielded to the seductions of that Romanising sect after he had been educated as a nonconformist. He became a 2 24 T^^^^ Preachers Reward. thorough AngHcan, he even went to confession to his vicar ; but when disease set in and showed him that he must shortly leave the present world, he found that the specious doctrines of his new friends would not do, and probably he had never very sincerely believed in them. Of course he had heard of Mr. Spurgeon ; and having expressed a desire to see some of his works, the wish was very readily complied with, and the invalid then found what he wanted. A Christian friend also con- versed with him, until at last the young man showed the possession of a triumphant faith, and so he died. A friend who happened to be travelling through Nottingham was asked to visit a dying woman at a public-house ; but instead of wanting any in- struction or consolation, the woman was found to be rejoicing in Christ ; and on being asked how she had found such peace, she showed a piece of torn newspaper containing a passage from one of Mr. Spurgeon's Sermons, and which had come with a parcel from Australia. " Talk about the hidden life of the good seed ! " remarked the friend referred to. " Think of that sermon preached in London, conveyed to America, an extract reprinted in a newspaper there, that paper sent to Australia, part then torn off (as we should say accidentally), the parcel dispatched to Novel Mode of Dist7'ibtUion. 225 England, and, after all its wanderings, conveys the message of salvation to the woman's soul. God's Word shall not return to Him void." An evangelist to whom the sermons were supplied gratuitously by a friend thus shows how the numbers may be widely distributed in a country district: "I know a baker in Norfolk, and to him I send some to distribute among the poor families to whom he delivers his bread, as he goes through the village with his cart. In the same way, by post and other means, to other individuals, as to so many centres, getting them to lend them from house to house amongst their neighbours. I make a few sermons reach a wide circle, chiefly among those who else would never see them. Nor has this been without results, as I have from time to time intimated. Scores have felt in a measure what one woman experienced from reading one ; it gave her so much comfort that she told me she had read it a hundred times, and that with undiminished pleasure, and wore it in her bosom until she tore it to tatters." Of the manner in which the sermons are read by the clergy, and also used by them to good purpose, is shown by Mrs. Spurgeon in her work on the Book Fund ; but of course many other examples might be given. Thus, in one instance, a certain evangelical clergyman, who was quite as 15 2 26 The Preachers Reward. useful as he was popular, accidentally left his bag at a country railway-station in Kent. The rail- way authorities looked into the bag, as they are accustomed to do, in order to discover, if possible, some trace of ownership ; but on this occasion no revelation was forthcoming beyond what could be given by a number of marked and otherwise well-used copies of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons. In due time a telegram arrived to ask the station- master to kindly forward the bag to its reverend owner, who possibly would have continued his useful labours with more difficulty had the bag been irrecoverably lost. Our friends in the North have ever regarded Mr. Spurgeon as one of their most favourite divines ; and thus I will now give some facts illustrative of the work of the sermons in Scotland. In 1 88 1 a certain fisherman sent to the Pastor a very pleasantly-told account of his conversion : " I remember a colporteur coming to my mother's house, and he asked me if I would buy a book," our northern friend remarks. " ' Yes,' says I, ' if you have got any ballads, that is, Scotch songs.' So he says to me, ' If you give me a piece of fish I will give you something that will do you more good than ballads.' I saw he desired my good, so I gave him half a codfish, and he gave me one of your sermons. The text was, * Look unto A Highland Community. 227 Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God and there is none else.' (" Sovereignty and Salvation," No. 60.) While reading that sermon the blessed Spirit of God enlightened my understanding, and I saw Jesus set before me as my Saviour. Blessed hour ! Happy day ! Jesus washed my sins away." On one occasion a certain pastor lost himself in one of the Highland glens ; he found the natives to be a kindly race, and although they had little notion of either Lord Beaconsfield or Mr. Gladstone, they were extremely familiar with the name of Spurgeon. " They had a sort of knowledge of that name, for they read your sermons, and fetched a lot out to show me that they did so," remarked the pastor referred to. " I assure you," he adds, " I never saw any man's works with such signs of use upon them. There was no kirk in the glen, so on Sundays they got together and had a service, the scholar of the place reading the sermon." One aged pilgrim declared he would ^o to Glasgow on his hands and knees to see the preacher ; and though hardly competent to walk as many yards without effort, as it was miles to the commercial metropolis, the light in his eye bespoke his intense earnestness. On the little island called the Skerries Rock there is a lighthouse, and, including the keepers of 2 28 The Preacher s Reward. this, there were in all sixteen individuals in the place ; and having no church they can go to, they are accustomed to conduct a service for themselves on the Lord's Day. "Thus," says The Free Church Monthly for December 1882, "the words to which thousands in London listen every week, and which are read in every corner of the world, are feeding and comforting the sixteen inhabitants of a lonely rock, beaten by the fierce waters that surge in the Pentland Firth." While staying at a certain health-resort, a kind- hearted friend laid a number of the sermons on the table of the coffee-room at the hotel ; but while many were pleased to have an opportunity of reading the numbers, there was a certain " stiff aged churchman " who protested against the in- troduction of " the works of a man who cursed our church." Then a Christian lady came to the help of the Quakeress, telling how both she and her husband prized the sermons highly, and how useful they had been in a district at Aberdeen. In that city there had dwelt a soldier " whose hardened, wretched condition baffled all the Christian labours bestowed upon him, until she lent him 'Only Trust Him' (No. 1635)," when that became instrumental in his conversion. Then *' Jesus Only " (No. 924) had proved equally useful in the case of a Romanist, a most miserable Softoiing of an " Old Rebel y 229 being, who till that moment was placing her dependence in confession and penance. The transformation of both of these was described as having been really remarkable. Still more striking, however, was the change which came over the venerable churchman after the lady who had given these instances had departed. He even allowed his Quaker friend to read to him the sermons which had proved so useful, and re- marked, " The venom is passing away. I feel it going. I shall buy those sermons and send them to my Broad Church son, and I hope they will do him and his wife good, and that he will preach them in his church." The gentleman went even so far as to confess that the discourses had " softened an old rebel." This is a memorable instance of the power of the Word. When he was in Scotland in the summer of 1883, Mr. Spurgeon heard of many instances of usefulness through the sermons, especially in lonely Highland districts. " In one far-away village in the north," it is remarked, " the little country shop is opened on Saturdays expressly for the sale of the sermons ; and what the customers want is so clearly understood, that often not a word is spoken by either buyer or seller, but the people walk in, put down the penny, and march off with the sermon that is to be their Sabbath 2^o The Preac/ie^^'s Reward. o feast. In a Convalescent Home every Sabbath evening during the winter the matron reads one of the sermons to the inmates, who appear to be very grateful for them." Not very long ago, or in 1884, one of Mr. Spurgeon's evangelists gave a very telling anec- dote : " A woman in Scotland who was determined, as far as possible, not to have anything to do with religion, threw her Bible, and all the tracts she could find in her house, into the fire. One of the tracts fell down out of the flames, so she picked it up and thrust it in again. A second time it slipped down, and once more she put it back. Again her evil intention was frustrated, but the next time she was more successful, though even then only half of it was consumed. Taking up the portion that fell out of the fire she exclaimed, * Surely the devil is in that tract, for it won't burn ! ' Her curiosity was excited ; she began to read it, and it was the means of her conversion. The ' tract ' was one of the sermons published in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Verily, that ser- mon, and the woman too, were saved, yet so as by fire!' The above instances sufficiently testify to the popularity of the sermons in Scotland ; but accord- ing to the witness of a certain Methodist minister, who wrote in 1880, the discourses are equally The Sermons in Ulster. 231 valued in some parts of Ireland. " Many a time these few years I have wondered whether you know that you are preaching in unnumbered pulpits every Lord's Day, in many cases word for word as reported in your volumes," remarks this friend in a letter to Mr. Spurgeon. " You are aware, 1 suppose, that the weekly sermon is read by two- thirds of the Protestants in Ulster t In some cases ten families join in taking it, and lend it from one to another." After this we need not wonder that the Protestants of Ulster should regard Mr. Spurgeon as their adviser-in-general, even on political matters ; and that they should have asked his opinion in regard to Home Rule when they were threatened with Mr. Gladstone's innovations. We believe it was a Welsh dame who remarked, that if he only wanted one of his eyes Mr. Spurgeon would be worthy to come after Christmas Evans; but be that as it may, the preacher's utterances are as well calculated to be useful in Wales as else- where. In one instance, at least, the good which a couple of young men derived from the reading of the sermons did not end with themselves. They were encouraged to begin a Sabbath-school, and having commenced in two cottages with five scholars, they soon wanted more room, and they progressed until at length they were enabled to 232 The Preacher s Reward. put up a building in which between two and three hundred children could be taught at once. Beyond this, they took care to circulate more than eighty copies of the sermons every week. At Bryher, which is one of the Scilly Isles, the hundred and twenty persons who make up the population have a chapel as well as a church for their accommodation ; and when service is held in the one place the custom is for the other to be closed. In 1880, when the intelligence was re- ceived, it was a usual thing for the sexton and clerk of the church to read one of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons in the chapel, and then to give out Wesley's Hymns for the little congregation to sing, when the Anglican establishment was closed. The circulation of the sermons in the United States is very large, for not only are separate volumes issued, the newspapers appropriate each weekly issue as their own, so that the general diffusion is more widespread than can very readily be realized. It is quite possible that the readers are even more numerous in the United States than they are in the United Kingdom. It will be remembered by many that some years ago an enterprising American undertook to telegraph each Sunday morning sermon across the Atlantic, in order that the readers in more than one Readers in the United States. 233 American city might read on Monday morning what was spoken at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on the day before. A letter received by Mr. Spurgeon in 1880 shows how his utterances may convey comfort as well as instruction into the most out-of-the- way corners of the American continent. " Several weeks ago I lay ill, far away from London, in the wilds of Florida," remarks the writer. " Weak and faint-hearted, I lay pondering on the strange providence of the Master, when one of your ser- mons was placed in my hands. The refreshing shower revived me and gave me fresh hope and courage, and I rose from my sick couch to strive still more earnestly to gain access to the hearts of those by whom I am surrounded, and to-day, in a small class that I have formed out here in the wilderness, the Lord made His presence felt, and blessed us w^ith an awakening that I have never seen here before, and tears of repentance were shed by many. I am so full of joy and gratitude to God that I felt, indeed I longed, to let you know that your influence as an instrument had even reached this place." Thus, the influence seems to reach to the very ends of the earth, and the personal testimony of one friend is frequently outdone by that of another. Thus, in 1881, a pastor in Tennessee 234 ^^^^ Preacke7^'s Reward. made this confession : " Nine years ago I was a wild young man, but I was converted through reading one of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, and I am now the minister of a large and influential church. The Lord's name be magnified ! " The tidings which come from the Far West are no less cheering. Writing to Mr. Spurgeon in 1882, a correspondent in Minnesota said : — " You will be pleased to hear that in this Western country, and in this village of six hundred inhabi- tants, Mr. Spurgeon's books are much valued. I have seen them in several houses here. In the Wesleyan minister's a volume or two of sermons. In another house Morning By Morning, In another, that of an old saint. The Saint and His Saviour^ which he esteems as very precious, saying, with emphatic tone, when he speaks of it, ' This is Mr. Spurgeon's first book, and he has written many since, but never one to surpass this,' though the dear old man has not read a tithe of Mr. Spurgeon's publications." In 1884, the editor of a paper published in New York, in which Mr. Spurgeon's sermons are regularly issued, sent word to England that he had recently heard of several remarkable cases in which desperately wicked characters had abandoned their ways through reading the Pastor's discourses. Particular reference is made to an exceptionally M7\ Spu7'geon and President Garfield. 235 wicked character : " One aged reprobate, sixty years old, died last week, whose last two years were in startling contrast to all his past life. The transformation was the wonder of the neigh- bourhood for its completeness. From being a public terror he became a public blessing, as gentle and as kind as a woman. He was delivered from drunkenness, profanity, unchastity, and blood- shedding." On his death-bed this man desired that Mr. Spurgeon might be told of the grateful change which his sermons had been instrumental in effecting. In 1882 the widow of the murdered President Garfield wrote to Mr. Spurgeon : " It is a choice treasure from my storehouse of beautiful memories that I sat beside General Garfield in the Metro- politan Tabernacle one bright summer Sunday morning (August 4th, 1867), and listened to your voice. I have this morning re-read from his journal the account of that day. A sentence from it may interest you. After describing very fully his impressions of the great audience, of the preacher, and of the sermon, he closes thus : — ' God bless Spurgeon ! He is helping to work out the problem of religious and civil freedom for England in a way that he knows not of.' " In 1880 a young Scotchman, who died of anincurable disease in the General Hospital at 236 The Preacher s Reward. Montreal, gave a fine testimony to the influence of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons ; and a Christian friend who visited him in his last illness sent an account of the case to one of the journals of the city : — "The one and only matter of his reading, next to the Bible, was Charles H. Spurgeon's sermons : of these he never tired. Biographies of eminent Scotchmen like Norman Macleod and William Arnot were taken to him, but as he put them aside he would say, ' Spurgeon is always the same, but always satisfying, for he makes you forget himself, as he holds up Him who is fairer than the children of men.' " The preacher's works find ready acceptance in Canada, where the Pastors' College has a separate Asso- ciation. To come back to the Continent of Europe, we find that the sermons even have readers among the fishermen of the Mediterranean. A lady tells of an adventure which happened in 1883, and which shows in what sense this is true. While staying at Cette, on the French coast, she went out with a party in a boat on the sea, but in consequence of an adverse gale the craft would have been driven out until their lives would have been endangered had not an Italian fisherman in a sailing-boat gone to the rescue. Subsequently, the fisherman called at the hotel accompanied The Sermons in Switzerland, 2;^'/ by his uncle ; and the latter explained that, although they were Roman Catholics, he had the New Testament in French and English as well as in his own language — and he was a reader of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons. Many of the so-called Reformed Churches in Switzerland need a second reformation, and this might well be brought about by a wider diffusion of Mr. Spurgeon's works among the people. In 1 88 1, a young lady who applied for baptism to a Baptist minister in England gave a brief account of her history, and showed that she was a repre- sentative example of the wants of the country. Here is her testimony : — " My parents were members of the Protestant Established Church in Switzerland ; but though I attended the ordinan- cies, and observed the ceremonies, I always felt that I was a hypocrite, for I never believed in them, but desired something which I could never get in the Church. When I came to England I read a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon which did me good. John PlougJnnans Talk, though funny, was made a great blessing to me. I then bought his sermons, and read them, and I am now happy to say that I am trusting in Jesus. When I return home I shall distribute these sermons, which have been so blessed to me." Thus the reading of the discourses tends to the multiplication of dis- 238 The Preacher s Reward. tributors, so that the good influence never ceases to extend. Perhaps, on the whole, the Gospel is preached more fully in Denmark than in the once favoured and beautiful land where the Reformation found a refuge ; but even in the picturesque and out-of- the-way corners of Northern Europe Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, translated into the vernacular, are doing good service. By way of illustration take this characteristic note which a worthy Dane sent to the preacher in 1 880 : — " Through twelve of your sermons, which are translated into Danish, I and my household have this winter been acquainted with your Christian announcement, and we thank you for every clearing and edifying word. We seceded from the Established Church a year ago, because we have so evidently seen the tragical conse- quences of the connection between the Church and the State, and we could not possibly act contrary to the conviction forced upon us by the New Testament, viz., the incorrectness of the infant baptism." The denomination which Mr. Spurgeon represents has obtained a very respectable foot- ing in Denmark ; for although the population is under two millions, who for the most part are Lutherans, the Baptists are able to muster be- tween three and four thousand members. The vast empire of Russia, needing the In the Interior of Russia. 239 Scriptures in a great number of languages, is no small world in itself. Early in this century, when the Bible Society began its great mission, the pious Emperor Alexander was a leading patron of the work ; and although religion was checked in its progress during the ascendency of Nicolas, there has since been a revival of activity, the circulation of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons being also one of the signs of the times. Writing in 1881 to Mr. Spurgeon, a minister stationed at St. Petersburg says : " By your sermons, etc., you are having a part in the great work of spreading Christ's kingdom both in St. Petersburg and in the interior. You are well known amonc: the priests, who seem to get hold of your translated sermons, and, strange to say, I know cases in which the Censor has readily given consent for your works to be translated when he has been reluctant respecting many." Another friend in the Russian capital made it his business to cir- culate as many of the translated copies as he could procure, the priests apparently being the most eager recipients. Another friend in Russia, who wrote in 1880, says : " I came to this country about twenty-four years ago, and have been about in various parts of the interior ever since. . . I have a wife and eig-ht children. A few weeks ago I explained to them 240 The Preacher s Reward, the meaning of the Orphanage, and appealed to their feehngs ; the result was that I was authorised to go to their savings-bank and take out three roubles forty kopecks as the children's contribution. We have now made up the sum to fifty-five roubles, which will be forwarded to you from St. Petersburg by a cheque." In the more remote parts of the Czar's vast empire Mr. Spurgeon's works are not only known, but are promoting the spiritual enlightenment of the people in a way no less striking than gratify- ing. Writing to the Pastor from Warschaw in 1882, Mr. F. H. Newton, of the German Baptist Mission, thus refers to his adventures : " I have during the last few weeks been visiting a number of our Baptist Churches in Silesia and Russian Poland ; and I think you will be interested to hear of their activity and Christian faith. In almost every town and village one of the first enquiries put to me is, And Jiozv is Brother Spurgeon ? In many of the outlying stations, where no stated missionary can be sustained, your printed sermons are regularly made use of: and I am sure you will be thankful to our one Master to learn that here in Poland, and elsewhere, many of the Church members attribute their first religious awakening to hearing some of those sermons read. In the meetings which I have conducted in various towns Readers in Labrador. 241 during this tour, I have frequently taken the opportunity of referring to the work of God which you are carrying on in London and elsewhere ; and I have thought it only right to tell you of the warm and frequent salutations that are entrusted to me for yourself from our poor and out-of- the-way Baptist brethren in these parts. They especially rejoice to learn that your sons are also preaching the Word, and are particularly inter- ested in the Book Fund established by Frau Spurgeon." Labrador is an interesting country, not only on account of its brief charming summers and terrible winters. The people are mainly Roman Catholics, one reason being that a mission of that sect is maintained in the country. In 1884 ^ New York paper contained this piece of intelligence : — " All last winter, in the little mission on the Labrador coast, Mr. Spurgeon's sermons were read in the Mission Church, Sunday by Sunday, by the lady teachers, who were left by themselves for eight months, through the failing health of the devoted missionary who laboured there for many years. These simple services on the Sunday and weekday evenings, when these sermons were the staple of the teaching given, were greatly blessed by God. Many sailors came from the ships anchored off the coast, and, with the resident 16 242 The Preacher s Reward. fishermen, eagerly listened to the Word of Life, and not only were their hearts cheered and comforted, but some were brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus." One distributor of the sermons among the natives of the Falkland Islands found that they were very thankfully received; and in 1880 a somewhat remarkable letter was received from a Red Kaffir, who resided at Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Being full of joy and peace, the man explained how the transformation had been effected : " One day as I was going to my daily work I met a friend of mine in the street. We spoke about the Word of God, and he asked me whether I had ever seen one of Mr. Spurgeon's books. I said, ' What Mr. Spurgeon is that — one of the Independent ministers in London } ' and I said, ' No, I never saw such a book in my life.' He said he bought it from the bookseller. I asked the name of the book, and he said it was The Metropolitan Tabeiniacle Pulpit, and I went straight to the shop and bought one. I have read a good bit of it. ... I am sure I can't tell how to describe the goodness you have done to us, the black people of South Africa. We are not black only outside, even inside ; I wouldn't mind to be a black man only in colour. It is a terrible thing to be a black man from the soul A7t Encouraging Relic. 24; to the skin ; but still I am very glad to say your sermons have done something good to me." Two missionaries labouring in Greece once testified to Mr. Spurgeon : " Your sermons are to us like rain upon a dry land. We have no church to attend, and no friends to associate with." Similar testimony in regard to the great assistance received from the printed sermons comes from South Australia. In 1881 Pastor Thomas Spurgeon, of Auckland, enclosed a piece of TJie Melbourne Argus ^ which contained the sermon No. 735 — "Loving Advice for Anxious Seekers," with this explanation, addressed to his mother : " This scrap of newspaper has been given to me by a town missionary here, who regards it as a very precious relic. It came to him from a man who died in the hospital, and bequeathed it to his visitor as a great treasure. The man found it on the floor of a hut in Australia, and was brought by its perusal to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. He kept it carefully while he lived (for it was dis- coloured and torn when he found it), and on his death-bed he gave it to the missionary as the only treasure he had to leave behind him. I thought dear father might like to have it in his book ; if not, send it back to me, that I may return it to its owner, who says he often feels 244 T^^^ Preacher s Reward, encouraged by glancing at it. It was his desire, however, that I should send it home, that the dear preacher might be encouraged." There was a certain Christian gentleman who had some of the sermons inserted in the Aus- tralian newspapers, himself paying the heavy cost. The above may have been one of these insertions. Another instance was that of a shepherd, who read a sermon in one of the journals while look- ing after his sheep, and the truth reached his heart. After his conversion he asked a clergy- man, who was holding services at a gold-field, to give him Christian work ; and after beginning as a Sunday-school teacher, he went on till he became himself a preacher to gold-diggers. As it is on the mainland, so is it in the islands of the Australasian world. The wife of a pastor in Tasmania once said, in a letter to her father : " If Mr. Spurgeon knew how his sermons are appreciated in our southern forests, where no preachers have been for years until my dear husband went to them, and how many cases of conversion he met with through the reading of them, he would be amazed, and rejoice with un- speakable joy." The sermons are also read in India, many educated natives, including even some Brahmans, finding great pleasure in the persual. Having A Bra/unan on '' jDr. Spitrgeony 245 had presented to him No. 1500 of TJie Metro- politan Tabernacle Pulpit^ a Brahman B.A. of Madras University wrote this critique on the discourse, and sent it to a friend : " The few minutes I have been reading these sermons daily were spent very agreeably. I always considered Dr. Spurgeon the best orator. I see even the best can improve ; as Dr. Spurgeon excels all orators, so his 1500th sermon excels all his other sermons. I doubt very much whether he himself can deliver such another sermon, but that is going too far. I envy those that hear personally Dr. Spurgeon preach." In another instance a Christian lady lent a volume of the sermons to a Mahometan, and some time after was rewarded by receiving the following note : " Your sermon book has, indeed, converted me to Christianity. I do believe in Christ our Lord, and so long as my belief in Him is firmly rooted, I do not care what I may be called in the outer world. Mr. Spurgeon appears to be an extraordinary man." No one who properly apprehends the situation can doubt that, in proportion as the Gospel extends in our vast Indian empire, the circulation of these sermons will also extend. The sermons are also found on the sea ; and many during a season of enforced leisure find in 246 The Preacher s Reward. them the truth that reaches the heart. Not very- long ago Mr. A. G. Brown told his people this story of a conversion through reading while on the ocean : — " There came to me here one day a grand- looking fellow. I had not to ask whether he did business on the water, for the sea-breeze had kissed his brow so often that it had left its mark there. I said, ' Where did you find the Lord t ' In a moment he answered, ''Latitude 25, Longi- tude 54.' I confess that rather puzzled me. I had heard of people finding Jesus Christ in these galleries, and down these aisles, and in all sorts of places, but here was something quite different. ' Latitude 25, Longitude 54 ! What do you mean 1 ' He said, ' I was sitting on deck, and out of a bundle of papers before me I pulled one of Spurgeon's sermons. I began to read it. As I read it I saw the truth, and I received Jesus in my heart. I jumped off the coil of ropes saved. I thought if I were on shore I would know where I was saved, and why should I not know on the sea } And so I took my latitude and longitude.' " The sermons thus reach all classes ; and not only are they instrumental in the conversion of sinners, large numbers of Christian people are by their perusal built up in the faith. The A Striking Testimony. 247 audience addressed week by week is truly a world-wide one. At the outset of his career in London, and while preaching at New Park Street Chapel on October 7th, 1855, Mr. Spurgeon himself referred to the extended influence he was even then beginning to exercise on the world through the press, e.g. : — " Oh to think that we may write and print books which shall reach poor sinners' hearts ! The other day my soul was gladdened exceed- ingly by an invitation from a pious woman to go and see her. She told me she had been ten years on her bed, and had not been able to stir from it. ' Nine years,' she said, ' I was dark* and blind, and unthinking ; but my husband brought me one of your sermons. I read it, and God blessed it to the opening of my eyes. He converted my soul with it. And now — all glory to Him — I love His name ! Each Sabbath morning,' she said, ' I wait for your sermon. I live on it all the week, as marrow and fatness to my spirit.' Ah ! thought I, there is some- thing to cheer the printers, and all of us who labour in that good work. One good brother wrote to me this week, ' Brother Spurgeon, keep your courage up. You are known in multitudes of households of England, and you are loved too ; 248 The Preacher s Reward. though we cannot hear you, or see your living form, yet throughout our villages your sermons are scattered. And I know of cases of conversion from them, more than I can tell you.' Another friend mentioned to me an instance of a clergy- man of the Church of England, a canon of a Cathedral, who frequently preaches the sermons on the Sabbath — whether in the Cathedral or not I cannot say, but I hope he does. Oh ! who can tell when these things are printed what hearts they may reach, what good they may effect 1 Words that I spoke three weeks ago eyes are now perusing, while tears are gushing from them as they read ! Glory be to God most high ! " The sermons have become one of the institu- tions of the church in both the Old and the New World. What should also be universally known is, that the preacher has virtually ministered to his church and congregation for nothing ; that is to say, the income received has all been given away in furtherance of the Lord's work in many departments. MR. SPURGEON'S BOOKS. ' ' It may be added that though the comments were the work of my heahh, the rest of the volume is the product of my sickness. When protracted illness and weakness laid me aside from daily preaching, I resorted to my pen as an available means of doing good. I would have preached had I been able, but as my Master denied me the privilege of thus serving Him, I gladly availed myself of the other method of bearing testimony for His name." — The Treasury of David, Preface to Vol. I. " I prepared these figures and metaphors that they may serve as feathers for arrows, arrows of Gospel truth which I pray may be made sharp in the hearts of the King's enemies." — Feathers for Arrozvs. "I have somewhat indulged the mirthful vein, but ever with so serious a purpose that I ask no forgiveness. Those who see a virtue in dulness have full permission to condemn, for a sufficient number will approve." — John Ploiighvians Pictures. IX. MR. SPURGEON'S BOOKS. OOON after he came to London Mr. Spurgeon *^ appeared before the world as an author ; and each successive year has so added to his works in this department that, inclusive of the magazine, nearly a hundred volumes have been sent out. If the reader will accept the paradox, Mr. Spurgeon has never written sermons, although during twenty years his sermons have been to him an exercise in writing. In one of those autobiographical articles with which he sometimes enriches the pages of TJlc Sword and the Trowel, he says : " The earlier sermons, owing to my constant wanderings abroad, received scarcely any revision, and consequently they abound in colloquialisms and other offences, very venial in extempore dis- course, but scarcely tolerable in print ; the latter specimens are more carefully corrected, and the work of revision has been a very useful exercise to me, supplying, in great measure, that training in correct language which is obtained by those 252 Mr. Spurgeoii s Books, who write their productions before they deliver them. The labour has been far greater than some suppose, and has usually occupied the best hours of Monday, and involved the burning of no inconsiderable portion of midnight oil. Feeling that I had a constituency well deserving my best efforts, I have never grudged the hours, though often the brain has been wearied, and the pleasure has hardened into a task." After reading the above explanation we well understand how tongue and pen have worked together to redound to the advantage of both. As a young man Mr. Spurgeon did not enter- tain very enlarged views concerning the dignity of authorship, and his expectations in regard to the profits of a writer were of a very modest kind. He commenced by committing a mistake for which he paid dear. The copyright of TJie Saint and His Saviour which would have been cheap at ;^ 1 ,000, was sold for a twentieth part of that sum ; and the small honorarium was never supplemented by the fortunate publishers. That mistake has not been repeated ; and his literary works have, since that day, been sufficiently varied and numerous to represent the fruits of a busy literary life quite apart from the regular issue of the sermons. Hence it appears that a pheno- menon is now seen in the printing and publishing A Hard- Working Author. 25 world which it would be hard to parallel — exten- sive printing works in one part of the city, and a publishing house in another quarter, are in the main supplied with grist from the study of one man, and that man a Baptist minister, preaching what many call *' narrow theology." Yet they who class the sermons among " narrow " produc- tions will not forget that they are sown over a broader field than is the case with the discourses of any other preacher. Though Mr. Spurgeon is continually suffering from the effects of over-work, the public is still exacting in its demands ; and to judge by the editions issued, readers eagerly welcome each successive offspring of the author's diligent appli- cation. Though John Ploitghman is the Pastor's most popular character, The Treasury of David is his magnum opus. In the first he writes like one who can do taskwork well ; amid the green pastures and quiet waters of the Psalms he explores a congenial land where every advance reveals new beauties, and where labour yields a sweet reward. The Treasury of David, just completed in seven octavo volumes, has the virtue of being- the production of a writer who has been in love with the Psalms from his youth ; and, indeed, this enthusiasm for the subject was necessary, for the 2 54 ^^- Spu7^geons Books. work has been only completed after more than twenty years of arduous labour. The exposition bespeaks its author throughout ; it abounds in that epigrammatic wisdom which is a sure mark of original genius. Commentaries of olden times — Manton's " long-metre edition of Psalm cxix.'' being a well-known example — rather alarmed than attracted inquisitive readers ; but after tasting of Mr. Spurgeon's fare, a self-indulgent literary epicure might desire to come again. The book, with its ample store of illustrations, gathered from the entire field of literature, ought to have enter- tained Dr. Johnson on a journey even better than Cocker's Arithmetic. While it is a rich storehouse for the use of professional men, another, seeking relaxation from the wear and tear of commerce, might make the book a companion on a summer holiday. What is it but the triumph of genius when studies, hitherto supposed to be only suitable for ministers and collegians, are made attractive to general readers ? Here and there a metrical version of a favourite psalm is inserted to make an agreeable variation. In another place scientific infidels are described as men who " will not touch Him [Christ] with the finger of faith ; but they will pluck at Him with the finger of malice." Sentences which would serve as proverbs might be plentifully gathered. *' The Treasury of David!' 255 It is also interesting to take note of the skill with which the illustrations are selected. Take the following on the opening verse of Psalm xcviii. : — " A clergyman in the county of Tyrone had for some weeks observed a little ragged boy come every Sunday and place himself in the centre of the aisle, directly opposite the pulpit, where he seemed exceedingly attentive to the services. He was desirous of knowing who the child was, and for this purpose hastened out after the sermon several times, but never could see him, as he vanished the moment service was over, and no one knew whence he came or anything about him. At length the boy was missed from his usual situation in the church for some weeks. At this time a man called on the minister, and told him a person very ill was desirous of seeing him ; but added, ' I am really ashamed to ask you to go so far ; but it is a child of mine, and he refuses to have any one but you. He is altogether an extraordinary boy, and talks a great deal about things that I do not understand.' The clergyman promised to go, and went, though the rain poured down in torrents, and he had six miles of rugged mountain country to pass. On arriving where he was directed, he saw a most wretched cabin indeed and the man he had seen in the morning was 256 Mr. Spurgeon s Books. waiting at the door. He was shown in, and found the inside of the hovel as miserable as the outside. In a corner, on a little straw, he beheld a person stretched out, whoni he recognised as the little boy who had so regularly attended his church. As he approached the wretched bed the child raised himself up, and stretching forth his arms said, ' His own right hand and His holy ai'vi hath gotten Him the victory,' and immediately he expired." The work on the Psalms entailed enormous labour, not merely as a commentary, but on account of the vast array of illustrative passages which have been gathered from the great field of the world's literature ; and it must at least be a great consolation to Mr. Spurgeon and his assist- ants to see how thoroughly their work has been appreciated by the public. At the time of writing, about 107,000 volumes have been sent out, and this is of course a number far beyond the circulation that any commentary on a single book of the Bible has ever before commanded. To persevere in a task through more than twenty years, when the labour increases in difficulty as it proceeds, is an example of industry not often encountered ; but this is what Mr. Spurgeon has done while completing his Treasury of David. The ancient classics of Greece and Italy A Many-sided Genius, 257 have been read for any dust of gold they might contain ; so also have the Christian Fathers, the English classics, and others, to mention the names of which would only tend to the bewilderment of the unlearned reader. But Mr. Spurgeon is more than a commentator, he is a many-sided genius, — that is, he can work to advantage in various departments, and excel in all. In TJie Treasmy of David he is the ripe theologian ; in the character of John PlougJi- man he talks philosophy such as the common people like to hear because they can understand ; in his History of the Tabernacle he is a pains- taking historian ; in Lectures to My Students he is a more lively college professor than any other member of that honourable fraternity with whom I am acquainted. It is worth a substantial entrance fee to listen to one of these Friday afternoon orations ; but those who cannot hear should read the book. In old times, when books were scarce, and good teachers scarcer, a clever University lecturer would attract auditors from foreign climes, who in after life were wont to boast of early privileges. It is really surprising to think how the old schoolmen killed time, and wasted their energies in battling about barren topics, or in establishing their finely- spun theories. The popular mediaeval professor, 17 258 Mr. Spurgeon s Books. with his host of determined disciples, was hardly a less formidable opponent than we should now find in a confident general who knew that regiments of veterans were ready to give effect to his orders. The shock of controversy often troubled the outside world ; but whether the Realists or the Idealists held the field mattered little to the vulgar crowd. Was it ever authori- tatively decided whether a thousand angels could, or could not dance upon the point of a finely- sharpened needle ? Philosophy was a dead letter, because men worshipped intellect and learning for their own sake, without caring anything about the elevation of the benighted population. Students spent their strength for nought, losing their way in the mazes of casuistry, until nothing short of the mighty awakening of the Reformation sufficed to break their fatal dream. Had Mr. Spurgeon flourished in mediaeval days he would have been renowned as a man of valour, the Achilles of a school, and even now he is scarcely less than this. No college professor ever before gave lectures precisely similar to " Lectures to My Students." The book is weighty and piquant, serious as well as sparkling ; many of its philosophical saws gain force from their settings of humour. In every sense it is a popular reading- book ; one not too light for grave scholars, nor of The College Lectures. 259 that solid dryness which repels those who read for amusement. Every page is racy, the wit is free from ill-nature, and throughout there is a cha- racteristic striving after practical results. Pretty things are never said for their own sake ; the smallest apophthegm is aimed at a high mark which is seldom missed. As college homilies these lectures were not delivered with that pro- fessional frown which might seem to give weight to their matter and dignity to the lecturer ; they were rather spoken with easy grace, and as we read we seem to be looking on a beaming coun- tenance which of itself may teach what is worth even more than a college lesson. " Our reverend tutor, Mr. Rogers, compares my Friday work to the sharpening of the pin," we are told ; " the fashioning of the head, the straightening, the laying on of the metal, and the polishing, have been done during the week, and then the process concludes with an effort to give point and sharp- ness. To succeed in this the lecturer must not be dull himself, nor demand any great effort from his audience. I am as much at home with my young brethren as in the bosom of my family, and, therefore, speak without restraint." Mr. Spurgeon lets his readers know who the young aspirants are that constitute the Pastors' College, and also who they are not. To those who 26o Mr. Spurge on s Books. assert that he has set up a clerical factory, he replies that he is rather a " parson killer." He is ever doing work similar to " the duty which fell to the lot of Cromwell's Triers." He does not want men who are striving to do the best they can for themselves in this world, and applications are declined which come from those whose " main object is an ambitious desire to shine among men." Self-conceited geniuses are always kindly directed elsewhere. Nor is it believed that the students are generally characterised by " great feebleness of mind," because applicants betraying a mental weakness which is likely to be carried away by any kind of doctrine are counselled to " keep in the rear ranks," in company with other knights of " the kid-gloved order." Another too numerous class, who are not welcomed into the College, are " dis- tinguished by enormous vehemence and zeal, and a conspicuous absence of brains ; brethren who would talk for ever and ever upon nothing, who would stamp and thump the Bible, and get nothing out of it at all ; earnest, awfully earnest, mountains in labour of the most painful kind; but nothing comes of it all, not even the ridi- ciUus vms. There are zealots abroad who are not capable of conceiving or uttering five consecutive thoughts, whose capacity is most narrow, and their conceit most broad ; and these can hammer, and Eccentric Shidents, 261 bawl, and rave, and tear, and rage, but the noise all arises from the hollowness of the drum." Of others the name is legion, whose natural defects would render them ludicrous in the eyes of a congre- gation. One applicant " had a sort of rotary action of the jaw," says Mr. Spurgeon. " I could not have looked at him while preaching without laughter, if all the gold of Tarshish had been my reward." Men who base their "call" on a hedged - up way are not encouraged, because " a man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do right well either as a grocer, or a lawyer, or any- thing else. A really valuable minister would have excelled at anything." Mr. Self-conceit cannot always see reason when his offer of self-sacrifice is declined. " Do you mean to say that because I have an unusual genius," asked one, in warm indignation, " and have produced in myself a gigantic mind, such as is rarely seen, I am refused admittance into your College.'*" Perhaps no volume sold for half-a-crown ever cost an author more trouble than Coiiunenting and Covinientaries. The student is directed to nearly fifteen hundred works, treating of separate parts of the Bible, or of the whole book. Like Lord Bacon, Mr. Spurgeon must see fruit come of his labour, or he is not satisfied. Such books are not written for money, nor for fame, for the 262 Mr. Spurgeon s Books. sake of aiding those who have little money to spend in literature ; e.g. : — " Here, however, is the difficulty ; students do not find it easy to choose which works to buy, and their slender stores are often wasted on books of a comparatively worthless kind. If I can save a poor man from spending his money for that which is not bread, or, by directing a brother to a good book, may enable him to dig deeper into the mines of truth, I shall be well repaid. For this purpose I have toiled, and read much, and passed under review some three or four thousand volumes. From these I have compiled my catalogue, reject- ing many, yet making a very varied selection. Though I have carefully used such judgment as I possess, I have, doubtless, made many errors ; I shall, certainly, find very few who will agree with me in all my criticisms, and some persons may be angry with my remarks. . . . He who finds fault will do well to execute the work in a better style ; only let him remember that he will have my heifer to plough with, and therefore ought, in all reason, to excel me." It is taken for granted that persons who pur- chase the book value the assistance of Biblical expositors. " Of course you are not such wise- acres as to think you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and On Com7nentaries. 263 learned men, who have laboured before you in the field of exposition," the students are told. " If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and, like a little coterie who . think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility." His opinions on the leading commentators are not those of a man who has not taken the trouble to read their works for himself. " First among the mighty for general usefulness, we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, MATTHEW HENRY. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, sug- gestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, super- abundant in reflections. ... It is the poor man's commentary, the old Christian's companion, suitable to everybody, instructive to all. . . . Every minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through once at least. I should recommend you to get through it in the next twelve months after you leave college. Begin at the beginning, and resolve that you will traverse the goodly land from Dan to Beersheba. You will acquire a vast store of sermons if you read with your note-book close at hand ; and as for thoughts, they will swarm around you like twitter- 264 Mr. Spurgeons Books. ing swallows around an old gable towards the close of autumn." John Calvin is " a prince among men." Matthew Poole " is a very prudent and judicious commentator." Trapp is recommended " to men of discernment." Gill is a " master cinder-sifter among the Targums, the Talmuds, the Mishna, and the Gemara. ... I have placed next to Gill in my library Adam Clarke; but as I have no desire to have my rest broken by wars among the authors, I have placed Doddridge between them. If the spirits of the two worthies could descend to the earth in the same mood in which they departed, no house would be able to hold them." He goes on to say that the first money received for services in London was exchanged for Scott's Commentary ; but " for a minister's use Scott is mere milk-and-water." The MctropolittDi Taba-nacle and Its Work would have been a work of more surpassing interest had the author done what he thinks he could not be expected to do — had he turned his " pages into an autobiography." Mr. Spurgeon will not, however, portray himself. He prefers to see himself as others see him. Jolin PlongJimaii s Talk and Pictures- are Mr. Spurgeon's most popular books, if we judge of popularity by the fact that 450,000 copies of the Popular Works. 265 two volumes have been sold. Then come Mor7i- ing by Morning and Evening by Evejiing^ the circulation of the one having reached 100,000, and the other 75,000. Feathers for Arrows and Illnstratio7is and Meditations are illustrative manuals. Flashes of Thought, Spiirgeons Gems, and Gleanings Among the Sheaves are choice passages selected by other hands from an ample field. Types and Emblems, Trumpet Calls to Christian Energy, The Present Truth, Storm Signals, and Farm Sermons are supplementary volumes of discourses printed in crown octavo- form. There are several others I have not mentioned which command wide popularity. The shilling series extends to eleven volumes. All of Grace shows the plan of salvation ; while The Clue of the Maze is an antidote to the specious unbelief of the times. Nor ought TJie Interpreter ; or, Scripture for Family Worship, with its running comments and hymns, to be overlooked. As a handsome quarto volume, this book is frequently purchased for a wedding present. The Pastor's printed books, including The Sword arid the Trowel, thus comprise nearly one hundred volumes ; and form in themselves such a comprehensive library as was never before pro- vided by one man. In the meantime, the work of translating the 2 66 Mr. Spurgeon s Books. Pastor's works into European and even Oriental languages still goes on. Mr. Spurgeon's own portion of TJie Treasury of David is now being rendered into Arabic, while All of Grace is being rendered into German. THE BOOK FUND. " The room is small, and very poorly furnished, a tiny fire burns in the grate, for it is mid-winter ; but beyond this, there is an absence ot all the suitable surroundings of a minister's study, and you can count the books upon your fingers. The pastor sits there with bowed head, and weary body, after a day of heavy work, and, shall I tell it? of very scanty sustenance. A deep sense of responsibility is upon him, and he feels the weight of souls on his heart ; but in addition to this, special cares just now press upon him heavily ; troubles of church and building matters, questions as to ways and means, fightings without, and fears within, which vex and grieve him sorely. . . . Weary and faint, he is very, very poor, and almost overwhelmed by the difficulties of the way, he turns to the fire with his open Bible on his knee and sighs. Oh ! such a sigh. Will the angels hear it, I wonder, and come and minister to him, as they used to do to their sorrowful Lord ? Perhaps so, but his Heavenly Father has also prepared an earthly solace, and the answer to his cry is even now at the door. The bell rings, and a large parcel is left ' For the Pastor,' and is taken at once to his room. In a moment he knows that relief has come, he knows the superscription, and divines the contents ; in his joy he almost caresses the package ; then, with trembling fingers, he cuts the string, and spreads the treasures out before the Lord. Yes, literally ' before the Lord, ' for now you see him kneeling by the side of the open parcel, thanking and blessing God for such opportune mercy, for such streams in the desert, such blossoming roses in the wilderness,"— T^^^ Years oj my Life in the Service of the Book Funa, 327-8. X. THE BOOK FUND. A S a benefactor of poor ministers who are ^ unable to buy necessary books, Mrs. Spurgeon has won a wide reputation ; and the beneficent work carried on is all the more remarkable because, in past years more especially, it was accomplished in spite of pain and weakness such as would have disabled anyone who could not have exemplified the heroism or endurance which sometimes seems to be peculiar to Christian women. The book distribution, which commenced in 1875, was origin- ally undertaken on a very small scale ; and at first no one suspected that the giving away of a hundred copies of Mr. Spurgeon's Lectures would lead to the development of a comprehensive enterprise which would extend its influence not only through- out the British Isles, but also to the colonies. In her recently published work, Ten Years of my Life in the Service of the Book Fund, Mrs. Spurgeon thus explains how the enterprise origi- nated, which, through the goodness of God, has 270 The Book Fund. often proved a solace as well as a labour to the person chiefly concerned : — "It was in the summer of the year 1875 that my dear husband completed and published the first volume of his Lectures to My Students. Reading one of the proof copies, I became so enamoured of the book that when the dear author asked, ' Well, how do you like it ? ' I answered with a full heart, ' I wish I could place it in the hands of every minister in England.' ' Then why not do so ? Jww much zvill yoiL give ? ' said my very practical spouse. . . . Then comes the wonderful part : I found the money ready and waiting ! Upstairs in a little drawer were some carefully-hoarded crown-pieces, which, owing to some foolish fancy, I had been gathering for years whenever chance threw one in my way ; these I now counted out, and found they made a sum exactly sufficient to pay for one hundred copies of the work ! If a twinge of regret at parting from my cherished but unwieldy favourites passed over me, it was gone in an instant, and then they were given, freely and thankfully, to the Lord, and in that moment, though I knew it not, the Book Fund was inaugurated." Since that auspicious day the general distri- bution has not fallen very far short of 90,000 volumes, while the recipients have numbered Its Thorough Catholicity. 271 considerably over 12,000 indigent pastors, who certainly cannot purchase an adequate supply of books if they are not freely supplied to them. Can we estimate the encouragement thus afforded to men who are often wearied and cast down through difficulties and perplexities which are aggravated, if not actually created, by poverty ? Very naturally, perhaps, some persons have supposed that the Book Fund is for Baptists exclusively; but writing in the early part of 1880 in her own pleasant style, Mrs. Spurgeon de- scribed the thorough catholicity of her work : " A day or two since the good Earl of Shaftes- bury paid us a visit, and on leaving he said to me, ' Well, how does the Baptist book-giving prosper.?' 'Thank you, my lord,' I replied, * the Book Fund prospers grandly, all the more that it is not a Baptist book-giving, but is free to all the Lord's ministering servants.' If the venerable Earl could have seen my day-book he would have found full confirmation of this assertion, for glancing down the long columns of recipients' names, one cannot but be struck with the constant repetition of the distinguishing titles of Church, Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc., and the comparatively infrequent recurrence of the word Baptist in the list. Thus, in these first four months of the year, I have already on 272 The Book Fund. my books the names of nearly four hundred ministers, who during that period have received grants from my Fund, and of this number just onc-fota'th are ' mine own people.' I am delighted to see that the longer record bears the names of fifty Church of England clergymen, and I believe I am justified in anticipating glorious results from the distribution among them of sound and scriptural doctrine. And if in some cases appre- ciation should lead to appropriation, and from many a stately pulpit in the land the Gospel should sound forth full and free through the sermons first delivered in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, shall aught but joy and thankfulness fill our hearts t ' I confess,' wrote a vicar to me, ' that though I do not preach your husband's sermons bodily^ I yet so assimiliate them into my own discourses that they are of the utmost value and blessing to me.' " Of the general need of the work among ministers of all denominations there can hardly be two opinions. I was privileged to assist in the preparation of the first annual Report of the Fund for 1876, and I then described the need of the enterprise in these words : — ' The position of Nonconformist pastors in sparsely inhabited country districts is extremely difficult, and ought to command the sympathy Pitiful Examples of Poverty. 273 and help of all their brethren. On account of their position appearances have to be studied, and much of their scanty means must thus be ex- pended. Even their rustic audiences would hardly bear to see the pastor in a smock frock and his children barefooted." The above applies in general terms to the need existing for more books in the studies of our poorer pastors ; and that the case is not put too strongly is proved by the fact that the individual examples brought to light by Mrs. Spurgeon more than prove what is said. Thus, for example, in 1 88c, three representative cases were given of the destitution which exists in the households of three pastors of the Baptist denomination. " No. I. is a hard-working, painstaking pastor, preaching five times a week, holding large Bible- classes, writing, itinerating, and in every way doing his best for the people of his charge ; he is married, has three children, and accepts and manages to exist upon a meagre pittance of sixty-five pounds per annum, supplemented by a new year's gift, which usually comes to about ten or twelve pounds. . . . " No. II. is in a still sadder plight. For twenty years his salary as a village pastor has never exceeded sixty pounds per annum, and, to use his own words, ' // Juis often been ten, and sometimes 18 2 74 ^^^^ Book Fund. fifteen, pounds below that sum! This, with a wife afflicted for thirty years with complicated internal maladies, seeking aid from many physicians, and being nothing bettered but rather the worse, added to other domestic trials, and many deaths in the family, is enough, one would think, to crush all preaching out of a man ! ' Few,' he says, ' save our Heavenly Father, know the privations and struggles which we have endured these twenty years.' . . . " No. III. stands apart upon a pinnacle of special and exceptional sadness. . . . The husband is weak and ill from the lingering effects of a bronchial attack which prostrated him two years since, a young child is in a delicate and critical condition, the wife, though in fast-failing health has just become the mother of their tivelfth child, all living save one, and tJic last five are under five years of age ! Their income from all sources, salary, small business, and gifts from friends included . . . fifty-five pounds a year ! Can respectable poverty know a lower depth than this } " The cases of poverty in one denomination are quite in keeping with those found in another ; and we have to bear in mind that in consequence of agricultural depression and other causes the people are suffering as well as the pastors. Thus, Exceptionally Hard Times, 275 one who has to maintain a wife and children on a little over one hundred pounds a year bears emphatic testimony to what may now be witnessed in the country. " He says he never before wit- nessed so much poverty and distress in his district ; yet, at the same time, he speaks with holy enthu- siasm of the trust in God and resignation to His will manifested by the suffering people. ' It is no easy work,' he writes, ' to live in a place like this, where one sees ' trouble ' written on every face. I could not go into the houses of my people, and see shoeless feet and empty cupboards, without doing something to help them. Many must have gone to the poor-house, or have died without medical aid, if I had not paid the cost.' " What a commentary is such action as this on the words " Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble." There are no helpers of the poor like those who are poor themselves. The strongest testimony to the value of the work is seen in the letters of the pastors them- selves who receive the books. In a manner that ordinary persons can hardly understand, the parcels of books have carried gladness into many a beclouded home, while they have stimu- lated many a flagging ministry. " When I wrote for the fifth volume of Mr. 276 The Book F^tnd. Spurgeon's Treasury of David^^ wrote a Con- gregational minister in 1880, "I felt that you would place me under an obligation of lively gratitude by acceding to my request ; but when, instead of one volume, I am the fortunate recipient of seven, and all of them of great interest and utility, to congratulate myself and express my thanks to you in a measure proportioned to your bounty, is a task more easily undertaken than adequately performed. ..." Another pastor of the same denomination, also writing in 1880, says : "Accept my warmest thanks for the books, and also for the kind thoughtfulness which arranged for their reception on Saturday. Having been worried and worked over-much this week, and feeling very far from well, I was in a state of physical exhaustion and mental depression, which by no means augured well for to-morrow, when your parcel arrived. The very sight of it did me good, and when I opened it and discovered its precious contents I cannot tell you how many degrees better I felt at once." The clergy of the Establishment, including even many of the High Church school, have received gifts ; and from the acknowledgments, written in their own characteristic way, we see something of the poverty which abounds in the Clergymen Apply for Books. 277 Anglican communion on the one hand, while there is superabundant wealth on the other. A curate in the north wrote : " I felt on the arrival of your parcel as if I must be so un- ministerial as to jump for joy. ... As the volumes lie before me on my table, my heart is full, and words can but feebly express with what pleasure I subscribe myself," etc. In 1 88 1 we find that Mrs. Spurgeon had to entertain an exceptionally large number of applica- tions from the pastors of the Established Church ; and the cry for books coming from that quarter was responded to with a liberality quite in keep- ing with the character of the Fund, but which none the less on that account surprised the recipients. " In some cases it may be quite pos- sible that the volumes are sought for the scarcely admitted purpose of wholesale appropriation, but what then 1 " remarks Mrs. Spurgeon. '' Not- withstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached, and we therein do rejoice, and will rejoice. How many a young curate, with small ability but gracious spirit, might serve his Master well, and feed the flock of God with more convenient food, were he to cast aside his own manuscript, and preach boldly and bodily a sermon from the Tabernacle Pulpit. I am told this is very often done, and I can but 278 The Book Fttnd. say, May God bless the doing of it." As regards the business of appropriation, we find that one parish " supply " preached Mr. Spurgeon's ser- mons for nine Sabbaths in the parish church, greatly to the delight and edification of the parishioners. Nor did the good man adopt what some will think to have been his singular pro- cedure without good reason ; for he frankly confessed, " Mr. Spurgeon's sermons are the only ones which can be really understood either by myself or the congregation." At first sight it might seem somewhat anoma- lous when High Church and Ritualistic clergy- men send in their applications for books ; but Mrs. Spurgeon, nevertheless, regards the pheno- menon with satisfaction, because, as a certain member of the Church declared, the Baptist Pastor's works more accurately represent the doctrines of the Thirty-nine Articles than much of what is preached in many of the churches. One of the "Advanced" school in the Midlands, who received a grant, had a vicar who had de- nounced Baptists as " abominable Dissenters " ; but the great man was not above writing a recom- mendation to the Book Fund on behalf of his curate. " Tell Mr. Spurgeon I shall highly value his Treasury and Sermons^ and hope to reap rnuch benefit frorn his Lectitres to Letters from Ritualists, 279 Students " remarked the curate. " I never write, without a prayer for God's guidance and blessing, and I shall study these books, looking for the Divine enlightenment. I send you a view of my church — it holds about seven hundred people, and to-morrow I hope to assist in five services and preach twice." Another, who also confessed that he was "what is called a Ritualist," said on receiving his books, " I shall point to this present as an instance of kind Christian sympathy under- lying considerable difference of religious opinions." He then went on to rejoice that those who really loved their Lord had so much in common not- withstanding outward distinctions. Among those clergymen who have written about their adventures with Mr. Spurgeon's ser- mons, however, the writer of the following should perhaps rank first in point of interest : — " Having heard that you kindly assist poor ministers with books, permit me to state that I am an ordained priest of the Church of England ; and though prevented by age from holding any permanent curacy, I am engaged at a stipend of £})0 per annum in two villages, and have to go some distance on Sundays, in different directions, for morning and evening service. On the second Sunday in Lent this year (1881), I was reading a te^t, when suddenly I remembered the Three 28o The Book Fund. Thens (Isaiah vi. i-8), by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, and gave it as a morning discourse at . I was afterwards asked by a district visitor what induced me to select so singular a text, and another hearer said she had never listened to anything like it before, while the majority of the people were so pleased, that during the nine Sundays I was there the church was full every afternoon." Such are the recipients of the Fund at home ; but in some instances the books find their way to the Colonies and to French pastors on the Conti- nent One of the latter in writing to Mrs. Spurgeon said : " Now, more than ever, Protestant pastors have a great work to do in France. The people are tired of the clergy, while, on the other hand, infidels are trying to make way, and they boast of their science, comparing it with the too-well- known ignorance of the Romish priests." Since the Reformation won its triumphs, partly through the evangelical books which were vended by the col- porteurs, who can help wishing that the second reformation, which alone can save the country from imminent peril, may be advanced by the Book Fund distribution } The words of cheer and of appreciation which come from the Colonies are similar to those which are so plentiful at home. " I need not say how Pastors in France. 281 the volumes will be prized and valued for their intrinsic merit," says one in Canada on the receipt of a grant, " the inspiration they will supply, the food they will give to mind and heart, and also for the sake of the author, whose dear and beloved form I see outlined before my mind's eye every day, and whose ringing voice I fancy I can hear across the three thousand miles of ocean. God grant that I may be able to catch more and more of that high-souled, consecrated enthusiasm which breathes through his writings like the fresh breeze of morning." But although the distribution of books is the chief thing to be undertaken by Mrs. Spurgeon, she has extended her supplies to the wives and children of poor Pastors by means of the Pastors' Aid Fund. A small affair when compared with the other and main department of the work, the Aid Fund has still relieved a large number of the most deserving cases of pastors, their wives and child- ren, whose chief cross in life is extreme poverty. Not only money, but clothes are given, so that all the members of a family are found rejoicing together. Thus, as one recipient writes : " We are all very pleased with the share we have in the contents of the parcel. This is something for wife, children, and myself, and everything is so suitable and 282 The Book Fund. helpful. I scarcely know how I shall feel when I get on the nice warm clothes, and my wife says she will look as she once did, in her new dress." Writing of this friend in 188 1 Mrs. Spurgeon herself says : " He has been battling this long time with no small tempest of adversity and sorrow." The preacher himself added, " I feel the load removed which has burdened me so long, I see my precious books saved from dispersion, I see the faces of my wife and children lit up with joy, I seem to hear the congratulations of those comrades in the con- flict who have always stood by me." Scores of cases might be quoted to show the need of the work, and every one is representative of a need which is no less urgent than widespread. Thus one pastor's wife, who is called by Mrs. Spurgeon " One of the bravest little women I know," wrote in 1881 : "I have been so very unwell all the winter, that our expenses have been unusually heavy, and I had put nothing by for the little boy's advent, so when he came we had no money in the house, and having to take our salary little by little, times being so bad with the people, we hardly ever seem to possess any." Quite in keeping with this is the confession Home Poverty. 283 of an Essex pastor, who about the same time wrote : " We never were so straitened as now ; m}' income fell off last year more than twenty- five per cent., and I assure you we have wanted the common necessaries of life, and I have come to my last pair of trousers. When I put the note into my wife's hand, she burst into tears, em- braced me, and said, ' What a mercy God has raised up friends to be so kind and good to us ! ' " When we ask. Who are they who help this work } we find that they are as cosmopolitan as those who receive the benefit. In the early days of the enterprise the growth of the Fund was supposed to keep pace with a certain lemon-tree in the greenhouse at Clapham. It will be re- membered how the Fund was commenced by the surrender of certain crown pieces which had been carefully saved ; and this example of self-sacrifice became so contagious that on a spring day in 1 88 I Mrs. Spurgeon wrote : " Four crown pieces, labelled ' Silver-blossoms for the dear lemon-tree,' were sent to-day by a beloved friend to cheer my heart and help forward my work." Of course the sender had a confession to make — ** I have had them a long time lying by ; for my dear departed mother used to save them as a little present for me, and I never before could part 284 The Book Fund, with them ; but when I read how you began your good work, I felt I must devote them to the Lord in the same way, and they come to you in love and prayer." On June i6th, 1880, this letter arrived: "Please find enclosed a post-office order for £2 \s. 6