[From the same]
I was greatly delighted with Spurgeon, especially with his conduct of
public worship. The congregational singing has often been described, and
is as good as can well be conceived. Spurgeon is an excellent reader of
Scripture, and remarkably impressive in reading hymns, and the prayers
were quite what they ought to have been. The sermon was hardly up to his
average in freshness, but was exceedingly well delivered, without
affectation or apparent effort, but with singular earnestness, and
directness. The whole thing--house, congregation, order, worship,
preaching, was as nearly up to my ideal as I ever expect to see in this
life. Of course Spurgeon has his faults and deficiencies, but he is a
wonderful man. Then he preaches the real gospel, and God blesses him.
After the services concluded, I went to a room in the rear to present my
letter, and was cordially received. Somebody must tell Mrs. V---- that I
"thought of her" repeatedly during the sermon, and "gave her love" to
Spurgeon, and he said such a message encouraged him. (I made quite a
little story of it, and the gentlemen in the room were apparently much
interested, not to say amused.)
We went straight towards St. Paul's, where Liddon has been preaching
every Sunday afternoon in September, and there would be difficulty in
getting a good seat. We lunched at the Cathedral Hotel, hard by, and
then stood three-quarters of an hour at the door of St. Paul's,
waiting for it to open. Meantime a good crowd had collected behind us,
and there was a tremendous rush when the door opened, to get chairs
near the preaching stand. The crowd looked immense in the vast
cathedral, and yet there were not half as many as were quietly seated
in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. There everybody could hear, and here, in the
grand and beautiful show-place, Mr. Liddon was tearing his throat in
the vain attempt to be heard by all. The grand choral service was all
Chinese to me.