No one who has sat in the great London Tabernacle, with its six thousand
or more eager listeners, and heard Spurgeon preach, natural, brotherly,
earnest, and eloquent, can ever forget it. I have seen a whole
congregation moved to tears, as he talked of the relationship between
God and His children, from the words, "Abba, Father." To hear a man like
this, is always to ask the secret of his power. What was the childhood
and youth that ushered in this rare manhood? Did he have more talent,
more grace, more learning, than other men? He had no wealth, no superior
education, no fortuitous circumstances, yet his career has been a
remarkable one.
"He is a wonderful man," said Lord Shaftesbury, "full of zeal,
affection, faith; abounding in reputation and authority, and,
yet--perfectly humble, with the openness and simplicity of a child."
The _London Speaker_ calls him "one of those born orators of whom this
generation has seen only two,--himself and John Bright. Gifted with
splendid common-sense, with a genuine humor, with a large-hearted love
for his fellow-creatures." ...
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, Essex, England, June 19,
1834, the eldest of seventeen children. His father, the Rev. John
Spurgeon, was a pastor of the Independent or Congregational Church, a
genial, warm-hearted man, and of fine presence. His mother, a Miss
Jarvis, was a devoted Christian woman, esteemed for her good works
wherever she resided. The Rev. John Spurgeon tells this story of his
wife: "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.'"
It is related of her, after her brilliant son Charles had become a
Baptist; that she said to him, "I have often prayed that you might be
saved, but never that you should become a Baptist;" to which he
answered, with his accustomed humor, "The Lord has answered your prayer
with His usual bounty, and given you more than you asked."
Mrs. Spurgeon died May 18, 1888, having lived to see the wonderful
success of her son, and be thankful for it. Mr. Spurgeon was much
devoted to his mother, and her death brought on a severe attack of
illness.
When Charles was quite young he was carried to the house of his
grandfather, the Rev. James Spurgeon, who preached for fifty-four years
in the Independent Church in Stambourne. When more than eighty years old
he said, "I have not had one hour's unhappiness with my church since I
have been over it.... I will never give up so long as God inclines
people to come, and souls are saved."
He possessed the not unusual combination, a large family and a small
income, and therefore cultivated a few acres of ground, and kept a cow.
The latter died suddenly, and Mrs. Spurgeon was much worried over the
matter.
"James," she said, "how will God provide for the dear children now? What
shall we do for milk?"
"Mother, God has said that He will provide, and I believe that He could
send us fifty cows if He pleased," was the reply.
That very day in London, a committee were distributing funds to poor
ministers. The Rev. James Spurgeon had never asked aid, but all must
have known how meagre was the salary of a village pastor.
One of the committee remarked, "There is a Mr. Spurgeon down at
Stambourne, in Essex, who needs some help."
One person said he would give five pounds. Another said, "I will put
five pounds to it; I know him: he is a worthy man." Others added, till
there were twenty pounds subscribed and sent by letter.
When the letter reached the preacher's house, Mrs. Spurgeon hated to pay
the postage, ninepence. When it was opened she was greatly astonished to
find twenty pounds, about one hundred dollars. Her husband said, "Now
can't you trust God about a cow?"
The Rev. Mr. Spurgeon, dressed in his knee-breeches, buckled shoes, silk
stockings, and frilled shirts, must have been an interesting figure. He
died when he was eighty-eight years old.
At the home of this grandfather in his early years, Charles found
especial delight in reading Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Foxe's "Book
of Martyrs," and De Foe's "Robinson Crusoe."
He read the Scriptures at family prayer, and on one occasion persisted
in knowing what the "bottomless pit" in the Book of Revelation meant. If
it had no bottom, where did the people go to who dropped into it? These
were inconvenient questions to answer.
The Rev. Richard Knill visited the family, and was shown about the
garden by the young Charles. In the great yew-tree arbor the good man
knelt with the lad, and, with his arm about his neck, prayed for his
conversion. In the house, taking him on his knee, Mr. Knill said, "I do
not know how it is, but I feel a solemn presentiment that 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 commencing,--
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform!"
Years later the famous Charles Spurgeon preached in the pulpit of
Rowland Hill, in the largest Non-conformist Church in London, before the
Metropolitan Tabernacle was built, and read the hymn desired by Mr.
Knill.
Charles attended school in Colchester, to which town his family had
moved, and became well versed in Latin and mathematics. At an
Agricultural College at Maidstone he spent a year, and then went to
Newmarket, as an assistant in the school. After a year at the latter
place, he removed to Cambridge, to assist a former teacher, Mr. Henry
Leeding, in a school for young men. Here he taught, and carried on his
own studies as well.
In January, 1850, at the age of sixteen, young Spurgeon was converted in
Colchester. He had been for some time troubled at heart, and determined
to visit every place of worship in the town, to see if he could not find
help. "What I wanted to know," he says, "was, 'How can I get my sins
forgiven?' and they never told me that. I wanted to hear how a poor
sinner, under a sense of sin, might find peace with God; and when I went
I heard a sermon on, 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked,' which cut me
up worse, but did not say how I might escape. I went again another day,
and the text was something about the glories of the righteous; nothing
for poor me!...
"At last one snowy day--it snowed so much I could not go to the place I
had determined to go to, and I was obliged to stop on the road; and it
was a blessed stop to me--I found rather an obscure street, and turned
down a court, and there was a little chapel. I wanted to go somewhere,
but I did not know this place. It was the Primitive Methodist Chapel."
Spurgeon went in and sat down, waiting for the service to begin. "At
last," he says, "a very thin-looking man came into the pulpit, and
opened his Bible, and read these words, 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth.' Just setting his eyes upon me, as if he knew
all my heart, he said, 'Young man, you are in trouble.' Well, I was,
sure enough. Says he, 'You will never get out of it unless you look to
Christ.' And then, lifting up his hands, he cried out, as only a
Primitive Methodist could do, 'Look, look, look! It is only look,' said
he. I saw at once the way to salvation. Oh, how I did leap for joy at
that moment! I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice of
it; I was so possessed with that one thought."
While at Newmarket, young Spurgeon was immersed in the River Lark, at
Isleham Ferry, May 3, 1850, on his mother's birthday. He had read the
Scriptures for himself, and believed that they favored this method of
Baptism, rather than sprinkling. At first the youth of sixteen, in his
round jacket and broad white turn-down collar, felt timid at seeing the
crowds on either side of the river; but once in the water, his fears
left him, and he enjoyed great peace at heart.
Some years later, Spurgeon related a most suggestive incident. "I was a
member of the church at Newmarket," he said, "when I first joined the
church, and was afterwards transferred to the church at Cambridge, one
of the best in England. I attended for three Lord's Days at the
communion, and nobody spoke to me. I sat in a pew with a gentleman, and
when I got outside I said, 'My dear friend, how are you?'
"He said, 'You have the advantage of me; I don't know you.'
"I said, 'I don't think I have, for I don't know you. But when I came to
the Lord's table, and partook of the memories of His death, I thought
you were my brother, and I thought I would speak to you.'
"I was only sixteen years of age, and he said, 'Sweet simplicity!'
"Oh, is it true, sir?' I said. 'Is it true?'
"He said, 'It is; but I am glad you did not say this to any of the
deacons.'"
The stranger asked the lad home to supper, and they become good
friends.
At once young Spurgeon began the Christian work for which he has ever
been renowned. He revived a society for tract distribution. He talked in
the Sunday-school, and in the vestry of the Independent Chapel, where
many gathered to hear him.
Removing to the school in Cambridge, he joined the "Lay Preachers'
Association." He was asked to go to the village of Teversham, four miles
from Cambridge, to accompany a friend, for an evening service. On the
way, Spurgeon said, "I trust God will bless your labors to-night."
"My labors?" said the friend; "I never preached in my life; I never
thought of doing such a thing. I was asked to walk with _you_, and I
sincerely hope God will bless _you_ in _your_ preaching."
Spurgeon was astonished; as he says, "My inmost soul being all in a
tremble, as to what would happen." The youth of sixteen preached his
first sermon from the words, "Unto you, therefore, which believe he is
precious," and spoke to the edification of all present.
He was soon asked to go to Waterbeach, a small village, to supply the
pulpit. The chapel was a rude one, made out of a barn. In a few months
the membership rose from forty to nearly one hundred. The Rev. Mr.
Peters had been their pastor for twenty-two years, receiving five pounds
for each quarter of the year.
At this time, says one of the deacons, speaking of the young teacher.
"He looked so white, and I thought to myself, _he'll_ never be able to
preach. What a boy he is!... I could not make him out: and one day I
asked him wherever he got all the knowledge from that he put into his
sermons."
"'Oh,' said Spurgeon, 'I take a book, and I pull the good things out of
it by the hair of their heads.'"
The mayor of Cambridge one day asked Spurgeon if he had really told the
people at Waterbeach "that if a thief got into heaven, he would pick the
angels' pockets."
"Yes," replied Spurgeon, "I told them that if it were possible for an
ungodly man to go to heaven without having his nature changed, he would
be none the better for being there; and then, by way of illustration, I
said that were a thief to get in he would remain a thief still, and go
round the place picking the angels' pockets."
"But, my dear young friend, don't you know that the angels have no
pockets?"
"No, sir," answered the youthful preacher; but added, with ready wit,
"but I am glad to be assured of the fact from a gentleman who does know.
I will set it all right."
Being urged by his father and some others to take a college course, he
agreed to meet Dr. Angus, the tutor of Stepney College, now Regents
Park, at the house of Macmillan, the publisher, at Cambridge. Spurgeon
went at the time appointed, and was shown into a room, where he waited
for two hours for the tutor. Meantime, Dr. Angus had waited in another
room, each not having been informed of the presence of the other by the
servant; and, unable to wait longer, had taken the train for London. The
result was that Spurgeon never went to College. At Cambridge, on the
anniversary of the Sunday-school Union in 1853, Spurgeon, then nineteen,
was asked to make an address. Mr. Gould, a Baptist deacon, liked the
address so much, that he spoke of it to Mr. Thomas Olney, one of the
deacons in New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, which had been one of the
largest and richest of the Baptist churches in London. Mr. Gould thought
the Waterbeach youth might put new life into the deteriorating church.
Spurgeon was invited to London to preach a sermon in December, 1853.
Scarcely two hundred were in the chapel, which would seat twelve
hundred. He preached earnestly from the words, "Every good gift, and
every perfect gift, is from above." He was invited to come again for
three Sundays in January, and soon asked to preach six months on
probation.
He would not promise for more than three months. At the end of that time
the church had filled so rapidly, that he was called to the pastorate;
and before he was twenty, in 1854, was installed over the Baptist
Church, with a salary of £150 a year. He came, as he says, to the great
city of London, "a country lad," "wondering, praying, fearing, hoping,
believing, ... all alone, and yet not alone; expectant of Divine help,
and inwardly borne down by our sense of the need of it."
The church building soon became too small for the crowds which gathered
to hear him. He was caricatured in the newspapers, standing beside a
"polished" preacher, with his sermon on a velvet cushion. Spurgeon being
called "Brimstone and Treacle." Again he was placarded as a man selling
fly-paper, with judges, lords, and workingmen all sticking to his hat,
or buzzing around him. This was called, "Catch-em-alive-O!" He was
represented as "The Fast Train," his hair streaming in the wind, driving
the engine. He was again pictured as a gorilla. But Mr. Spurgeon kept on
preaching, and the interest deepened.
He has followed the dying words of the great Welsh Baptist minister,
Christmas Evans, who used to drive from town to town in his evangelistic
work, "Drive on! Drive on!"
"There is such a tendency," Spurgeon once said, "to pull up to refresh;
such a tendency to get out of the gig and say, 'What a wonderful horse!
Never saw a horse go over hill and down dale like this horse--the best
horse that ever was; real sound Methodist or Baptist horse.' Now,
brother, admire your horse as much as ever you like, but drive on!"
He worked day and night among his people when the cholera scourge came
in the first year of his London pastorate. Neither praise nor blame
deterred him in his work. His constant question of his deacons was, both
there and at Waterbeach, "Have you heard of anybody finding the Lord?"
One said, "I am sure there has been." "Oh," said Spurgeon, "I want to
know it, I want to see it;" and he would at once seek out the inquirer.
"I have had nothing else to preach," said Mr. Spurgeon, "but Christ
crucified. How many souls there are in heaven who have found their way
there through that preaching, how many there are still on earth, serving
the Master, it is not for me to tell; but whatever there has been of
success has been through the preaching of Christ in the sinner's stead."
The church building soon became too cramped; and while it was being
enlarged, from February to May, 1855, the congregation met in Exeter
Hall. As the Strand became blocked with people, a Music Hall in Surrey
Gardens was used, where ten thousand people gathered to hear him.
A serious accident soon occurred here through the cry of "Fire!" by
some malicious person; and in the eagerness to rush out, seven persons
were killed and twenty-eight removed to hospitals, badly injured. For
days Mr. Spurgeon was prostrated on account of the accident, and unable
to preach.
After this, services were held only in the morning, attended by the
Prime Minister, the nobility, and the poor. Large numbers were
converted. Thirty-five years after this time a Surrey Gardens Memorial
Hall was erected near this spot, at a cost of £3,000, as one of the many
mission-homes in connection with the Tabernacle work. This commemorates
the many conversions in these early days, before the Tabernacle was
built.
The "Greville Memoirs" thus describes the minister of twenty-three,
preaching to nine thousand people in the Music Hall. "He is certainly
very remarkable, and undeniably a fine character,--not remarkable in
person; in face resembling a smaller Macaulay; a very clear and powerful
voice, which was heard through the hall; a manner natural, impassioned,
and without affectation or extravagance; wonderful fluency and command
of language, abounding in illustration, and very often of a very
familiar kind, but without anything ridiculous or irreverent. He gave me
an impression of his earnestness and sincerity; speaking without book or
notes, yet his discourse was evidently very carefully prepared.... He
preached for about three-quarters of an hour, and, to judge by the use
of the handkerchiefs and the audible sobs, with great effect."
The corner-stone of the new Tabernacle was laid Aug. 16, 1859, by Sir
Samuel Morton Peto. The building was ready for occupancy in 1861. The
opening services lasted a month, the first service being a
prayer-meeting, held at seven o'clock on Monday morning, March 18. One
thousand persons were present.
The Tabernacle is one hundred and forty-six feet in length, and
eighty-one in width. There are five thousand five hundred sittings, and
many more can be accommodated. Besides the audience-room, there are
rooms for Sunday-schools, working-meetings, and the like. The cost was a
little over £31,000, all raised by voluntary effort. All denominations
gave, and all parts of the country responded. Mr. Spurgeon spoke in
Scotland, giving half the receipts to some needy pastorate, and
reserving half for his new church. The church building has always been
crowded, so that pewholders were admitted at the side doors by ticket.
For many years there have been over five thousand members in the church.
Mr. Spurgeon once said, "Somebody asked me how I got my congregation. I
never got it at all.... Why, my congregation got my congregation! I had
eighty, or scarcely a hundred, when I first preached. The next time I
had two hundred--every one who had heard me was saying to his neighbor,
'You must go and hear this young man.' Next meeting we had four hundred,
and in six weeks, eight hundred."
It was not enough for Mr. Spurgeon that crowds were flocking to hear him
preach; that in Scotland twenty thousand gathered at a time to listen to
him; that at the Crystal Palace, when he was but twenty-three, more than
twenty-three thousand people came together to hear him preach, Oct. 7,
1857, the day of national humiliation on account of the Indian mutiny.
Others had been converted, and he wanted them to preach the gospel.
They were for the most part poor, and could provide neither clothing nor
books for their term of study. He needed a Pastor's College.
It began with one student, and increased to several, cared for in a
minister's home, and supported by Mr. Spurgeon.
This incident is related by the Rev. James J. Ellis, of the first
student, Mr. T. W. Medhurst. He called upon Spurgeon, and said that he
feared he had made a mistake in entering the ministry.
"What do you mean?" asked Spurgeon.
"Well, I've been preaching for five or six months, and have not heard of
any conversions."
"You don't expect conversions every time you preach, do you?"
"No, I don't expect them every time," said Mr. Medhurst.
"Then be it unto you according to your faith," was the reply. "If you
expect great things from God, you'll get them; if you don't, you won't."
"The large sale of my sermons in America, together with my dear wife's
economy," writes Mr. Spurgeon, "enabled me to spend from £600 to £800 a
year in my own favorite work; but on a sudden--owing to my denunciations
of the then existing slavery in the States--my entire resources from
that 'Brook Cherith' were dried up. I paid as large sums as I could from
my own income, and resolved to spend all I had, and then take the
cessation of my means as a voice from the Lord to stay the effort; as I
am firmly persuaded that we ought, under no pretence, to go into debt."
This was Mr. Spurgeon's life-long rule. He once related this story of
his childhood. He wanted a slate-pencil, and had no money to buy it. So
he went to the shop of a Mrs. Dearson, who kept nuts, cakes, and tops,
and got trusted for one, the amount of debt being one farthing. His
father heard of it, and reprimanded him severely; told the young
Charles, "how a boy who would owe a farthing, might one day owe a
hundred pounds, and get into prison, and bring his family into
disgrace." The child cried bitterly, and hastened to pay the farthing.
Mr. Spurgeon said in later life, "Debt is so degrading, that if I owed a
man a penny, I would walk twenty miles, in the depth of winter, to pay
him, sooner than to feel that I was under an obligation.... Poverty is
hard, but debt is horrible.... Without debt, without care; out of debt,
out of danger; but owing and borrowing are bramble-bushes full of
thorns. If ever I borrow a spade of my neighbor, I never feel safe with
it for fear I should break it."
"I was reduced to the last pound," says Mr. Spurgeon, "when a letter
came from a banker in the city, informing me that a lady, whose name I
have never been able to discover, had deposited a sum of £200, to be
used for the education of young men for the ministry.... Some weeks
after, another £100 came in from the same bank, as I was informed, from
another hand.... A supper was given by my liberal publishers, Messrs.
Passmore & Alabaster, to celebrate the publishing of my five-hundredth
weekly sermon, at which £500 were raised and presented to the funds. The
college grew every month, and the number of the students rapidly
increased from one to forty."
A "weekly offering" was soon taken at the church for the Pastor's
College. This in the year 1869 amounted to £1,869. When "seasons of
straitness" came, as Spurgeon says, the "Lord always interposed." On one
occasion, £1,000 came from an unknown source.
Mr. G. Holden Pike says of these weekly offerings, "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 workingman.' When the whole mass was placed in a strong black
bag, I ventured to raise it for the sake of testing its weight.... 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."
A yearly supper was provided by Mr. Spurgeon, at which guests gave as
they were able or inclined. At this supper in 1891, £3,000 were
subscribed.
After a time the College buildings were erected near the Tabernacle
property. A lady gave £3,000 as a memorial to her husband; £2,000 were
left as a legacy by a reader of the sermons. The cost of the buildings,
£15,000, was paid as soon as the work was done.
The whole number added to the churches by these men educated at the
Pastor's College is, as nearly as can be ascertained, considerably over
one hundred thousand. Some of these men have gone to India, China, the
West Indies, Africa, Australia, among the Jews, and elsewhere.
The annual address of the President, Mr. Spurgeon, was eagerly looked
for. That given in 1891, "The Greatest Fight in the World," in defence
of the Inspiration of the Bible, has been translated into French,
German, Danish, and other languages.
In 1866 another important work was laid upon the busy preacher, whose
hands seemed already full. The widow of an Episcopal clergyman, Mrs.
Hillyard, was desirous of giving £20,000 to found an orphanage for boys.
She was personally unknown to Mr. Spurgeon, but had read his sermons,
and had great faith in his spirituality and sense.
Another lady, her husband having given her £500 on the twenty-fifth
anniversary of their marriage, made a present of it to the Orphanage.
One house was built with it, called "The Silver Wedding House." A
gentleman gave £600 for another house; an unknown donor £1,000 for two
other houses, and soon after £2,000 more.
In 1868 the Baptist churches of England gave Mr. Spurgeon £1,765 for the
Orphanage. One building is called "The Merchant's House;" another, "The
Workmen's House."
At the close of 1869, all the buildings or houses for the orphan boys
were completed in Stockwell, on the Clapham Road, free from debt, at a
cost of £10,200, Mrs. Hillyard's funds being used for endowment.
When the funds were low,--for Mr. Spurgeon says, "Our boys persist in
eating, and wearing out their clothes,"--money was raised by a bazaar,
by a _fête_ on his birthday, or in some other way.
The long row of attractive houses for boys did not fill Mr. Spurgeon's
heart; there must be similar homes for girls.
In September, 1879, Mr. Spurgeon writes, "Our friends know that we
bought a house and grounds called 'The Hawthorns,' for £4,000. This we
needed to pay for. For various reasons the payment of the purchase-money
for 'The Hawthorns' was delayed until July 30; and _on that very
morning_ we received a letter telling us that a gentleman had died, and
left £1,500 for the Girls' Orphanage, thus bringing up our total to
within a very small sum of the amount required. The whole £4,000 is now
secured, including this legacy, and the property is our own."
Not long after, the £11,000 necessary for the first block of buildings
was obtained.
In January, 1882, a great bazaar was held, which in three days netted
the sum of £2,000 for the Girls' Orphanage. In his opening speech at
this bazaar Mr. Spurgeon said, "We don't want to sell anything that is
not worth the money paid for it; for we think that such should not be
the case when the object is to benefit orphan children. When you leave
here, you need not be in the plight of the gentleman who was met by
footpads on his way home. 'Your money or your life!' demanded one of
them.
"'My dear fellow, I have not a farthing about me. Do you know where I
have been? I have been to a bazaar.'
"'Oh, if you've been to a bazaar, we should not think of taking any
money from you. We'll make a subscription all round, and give you
something to help you home.' That is a bazaar as it ought not to be."
About one thousand boys and girls are now in the Stockwell Orphanage,
the larger number of the children coming from Church of England
families. Some are also from Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist
families, as well as Baptist.
Mr. Spurgeon tells this story: "Sitting down in the Orphanage grounds,
upon one of the seats, we were talking with a brother trustee, when a
funny little fellow, we should think about eight years of age, left the
other boys who were playing around us, and came deliberately up to us.
He opened fire in this fashion, 'Please, Mister Spurgeon, I wants to
come and sit down on the seat between you two gentlemen.'
"'Come along, Bob and tell us what you want.'
"'Please, Mister Spurgeon, suppose there was a little boy who had no
father, who lived in an orphanage with a lot of other little boys who
had no fathers; and suppose those little boys had mothers and aunts who
_comed_ once a month and brought them apples and oranges, and gave them
pennies; and suppose this little boy had no mother and no aunt, and so
never came to bring him nice things; don't you think somebody ought to
give him a penny? 'Cause, Mister Spurgeon, _that's me_!'"
Bob received a sixpence from Mr. Spurgeon, and went away with face all
aglow.
The Orphanage covers four acres. Each house is complete in itself, and
has its own "mother." The boys dine in a common hall; the girls in their
respective houses. Both boys and girls assist in domestic duties. "The
children are not dressed in a uniform," says Mr. Spurgeon, "to mark them
as the recipients of charity."
In 1876 the Redpath Lecture Bureau of Boston asked Mr. Spurgeon to come
to America and lecture, they offering to pay him $1,000 in gold for each
lecture, and all expenses from England to America and return; but he
declined the offer. He did not care to lecture, and would not preach for
money.
On Wednesday evening, June 18, 1884, a remarkable jubilee service was
held in the Tabernacle on Mr. Spurgeon's fiftieth birthday. Among the
speakers was Mr. Spurgeon's father, the Rev. John Spurgeon; his
brother, the Rev. James A. Spurgeon, of whom Charles said, "If there is
a good man on the earth, I think it is my brother;" and the son of the
great preacher, young Charles Spurgeon, one of the twins, affectionately
called by the people, Charlie and Tommy. Both are ministers of the
gospel. D. L. Moody from America also made an earnest address.
On the following evening the good Earl of Shaftesbury presided, and
spoke with his wonted power. "Whatever Mr. Spurgeon is in private he is
in the pulpit," said the earl; "and what he is in the pulpit he is in
private. He is one and the same man in every aspect; and a kinder,
better, honester, nobler man never existed on the face of the earth."
Canon Basil Wilberforce, the son of the Bishop, the Rev. Dr. Newman
Hall, and others spoke. The Rev. Dr. O. P. Gifford presented an address
from the Baptist ministers of Boston and vicinity.
A Spurgeon Jubilee Fund of £45,000 was given at this time. Five years
previously a larger sum was given him, £3,000 of it being raised by a
bazaar; and a large part of this money was used for seventeen
almshouses, in which are the aged members of the Tabernacle. These are
near the Elephant and Castle Station.
Another important agency for Christian work in connection with the
Tabernacle is the Colportage Association, founded in 1866. The
colporteurs sell religious books, conduct temperance and open-air
meetings, distribute tracts, visit the sick, and are really home
missionaries. The yearly distribution is about a half million Bibles,
and as many, or more, books and periodicals.
Mr. Spurgeon loved to give away the Bible. He once said before the
British and Foreign Bible Society, "Somebody may say it is of very
little use to give away Bibles and Testaments. That is a very great
mistake. I have very seldom found it to be a labor in vain to give a
present of a Testament. I was greatly astonished about a month ago. A
cabman drove me home, and when I paid him his fare, he said, 'It is a
long time since I drove you last, sir.'
"'But,' said I, 'I do not recollect you!'
"'Well,' he said, 'I think it is fourteen years ago; but,' he added,
'perhaps you will know this Testament?' pulling one out of his pocket.
"'What,' I said, 'did I give you that?'
"'Oh, yes!' he said; 'and you spoke to me about my soul, and nobody had
done that before, and I have never forgotten it.'
"'What,' said I, 'haven't you worn it out?'
"'No,' he said, 'I would not wear it out; I have had it bound.'"
Besides this society, there are ten Bible classes in the Tabernacle; a
Loan Tract Society, for the distribution of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons in
the neighborhood, and another to spread them in country districts; a
Flower Mission, Maternal Society, Mothers' Meetings, Training Class for
workers, and the like. There are twenty-three mission stations in
connection with the Tabernacle, and twenty-seven Sunday-schools, with
over eight thousand scholars.
With all this work, Mr. Spurgeon was a voluminous writer, as well as
speaker. He published thirty-seven volumes of sermons, all of which have
had an immense circulation. These were regularly printed in many papers.
In Australia some of these were published and paid for as
advertisements, at a fabulous price, by a gentleman deeply interested in
doing good.
The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon wrote home to his father, from Australia, "I
received a visit, in Geelong, from a man who produced from his pocket a
torn and discolored copy of _The Australasian_, dated June, 1868, which
contained a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon, entitled, 'The Approachableness of
Jesus' (No. 809). To this sermon my visitor attributed his conversion.
"He lived alone, about twenty miles from Geelong, and had not entered a
place of worship more than four or five times in twenty years, and had
taken to drink, until delirium tremens seized upon him. When partially
recovered, with not a human being near, his eye lighted on the sermon in
the newspaper, which brought him to Jesus."
Mr. Pike says an admirer of Mr. Spurgeon gave away a quarter of a
million copies of these sermons. Many were elegantly bound, and
presented to the crowned heads of Europe. Others were sent to every
member of Parliament, and to all the students of Oxford and Cambridge.
Many of these sermons have been translated into German, French, Welsh,
Italian, Swedish, Danish, Russian, Spanish, Gaelic, Hungarian, Arabic,
Telegu, Hindustani, Syriac, and other languages.
These sermons have been scattered all over the world. At Bryher, one of
the Scilly Isles, with a population of one hundred and twenty persons,
Spurgeon's sermons are often read in the chapel. In Silesia and Russian
Poland, many asked about "Brother Spurgeon," and read his sermons. On
the Labrador coast they were read in a mission church Sunday after
Sunday.
In 1880 a Red Kaffir, living at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, wrote to
Mr. Spurgeon:--
"Dear Sir,--I don't know how to describe my joy and my feelings in this
present moment. We never did see each other face to face, but still
there is something between you and me which guided me to make these few
lines for you. 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....
"He said he bought it from a bookseller. I asked the name of the book,
and he said it was 'The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit;' and I went
straight to the shop and bought one. I have read a good bit of it. On my
reading it, I arrived on a place where Job said, 'Though he slay me, yet
will I trust in Him.'
"I am sure I can't tell how to describe the goodness you have done to
us, we black people of South Africa. We are black not only outside, even
inside; I wouldn't mind to be a black man only in color. It is a
terrible thing to be a black man from the soul to the skin; but still I
am very glad to say your sermons have done something good to me." ...
David Livingstone carried one of these sermons with him, No. 408,
entitled "Accidents not Punishments," in his last sad journey to Africa.
Yellow and travel-stained it was found by his daughter Mrs. Bruce in his
boxes after his death. He had written across the top, "_Very good._ D.
L."
His son Thomas writes his mother from Auckland, New Zealand, concerning
sermon No. 735, "Loving Advice for Anxious Seekers," copied into the
_Melbourne Argus_, "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
discolored and torn when he found it), and on his death-bed gave it to
the missionary as the only treasure he had to leave behind him."
In writing "The Treasury of David," seven volumes, Mr. Spurgeon spent a
considerable part of twenty years. "During the whole of that period,"
says the Rev. Robert Shindler, in his valuable life of Spurgeon, "Mr. J.
L. Keys, one of Mr. Spurgeon's secretaries, continued to search the
library of the British Museum, and other libraries, and to cull from
every available source everything worthy of quotation upon the book of
Psalms." Over one hundred and twenty thousand volumes have been sold.
Dr. Philip Schaff thought it "the most important homiletical and
practical work of the age on the Psalter."
Of Spurgeon's "Morning by Morning" and "Evening by Evening," for home
reading and devotions, over two hundred thousand copies have been sold.
"Commenting and Commentaries" was a work of great labor, showing his
students and others what to use. "If I can save a poor man," he wrote,
"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."
Twenty-seven volumes of the _Sword and Trowel_, Mr. Spurgeon's magazine,
have had an enormous circulation. This is also true of "Lectures to My
Students," abounding in sensible suggestions. To those about to become
ministers he says:--
"Avoid little debts, unpunctuality, gossiping, nicknaming, petty
quarrels, and all other of those little vices which fill the ointment
with flies....
"Even in your recreations, remember that you are ministers.... His
private life must ever keep good tune with his ministry, or his day will
soon set with him, and the sooner he retires the better; for his
continuance in his office will only dishonor the cause of God and ruin
himself."
Spurgeon urged private prayer upon his young men, and related this
incident from Father Faber: "A certain preacher, whose sermons converted
men by the scores, received a revelation from heaven that not one of the
conversions was owing to his talents or eloquence, but all to the
prayers of an illiterate lay brother, who sat on the pulpit steps,
pleading all the time for the success of the sermon."
The great John Knox used to say he "wondered how a Christian could lie
in his bed all night and not rise to pray."
Of public prayer, Spurgeon said, "Do not let your prayer be long.... 'He
prayed me into a good frame of mind,' George Whitefield once said of a
certain preacher, 'and if he had stopped there, it would have been very
well; but he prayed me out of it again by keeping on.'"
Of the sermon he said, "Preach Christ always and evermore. He is the
whole gospel.... Your pulpit preparations are your first business. A man
great at tea-drinkings, evening parties, and Sunday-school excursions is
generally little everywhere else.
"The sensible minister will be particularly gentle in argument," said
Spurgeon. "He should take care not to engross all the conversation," and
at the same time, "do not be a dummy."
"Have a good word to say to each and every member of the family,--the
big boys and the young ladies and the little girls and everybody. No one
knows what a smile and a hearty sentence may do. A man who is to do much
with men must love them, and feel at home with them. An individual who
has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker, and bury the
dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living."
"Be cool and confident. As Sydney Smith says, 'A great deal of talent is
lost to the world for want of a little courage.' ... When a speaker
feels, 'I am master of the situation,' he usually is so."
"If a man would speak without any present study, he must usually study
much." This Mr. Spurgeon exemplified in his own life. Dr. Theodore
Cuyler of New York wrote, after visiting Spurgeon at his home,
"Westwood," Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, "a rural paradise," as he says,
"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 arbor, where he entertained us with one of his racy talks,
which are as characteristic as his sermons....
"It was six o'clock on Saturday when we bade him 'Good-by,' and he
assured us that he had not yet selected even the texts 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.' ... 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."
Again he says, "To acquire the art of impromptu speech, one must
practise it. It was by slow degrees, as Burke says, that Charles Fox
became the most brilliant and powerful debater that ever lived. He
attributed his success to the resolution which he formed when very young
of speaking well or ill at least once every night. 'During five whole
seasons,' he used to say, 'I spoke every night but one, and I regret
only that I did not speak on that night too.' At first he may do so with
no other auditory than the chairs and books of his study."
Mr. Spurgeon's suggestions about voice, gesture, and throat are helpful.
"Think nothing little," he says, "by which you may be even a little more
useful. But, gentlemen, never degenerate in this business into pulpit
fops, who think gesture and voice to be everything.... When you have
done preaching, take care of your throat by _never wrapping it up
tightly_.... If any brother wants to die of influenza, let him wear a
warm scarf round his neck, and then one of these nights he will forget
it, and catch such a cold as will last him the rest of his natural life.
You seldom see a sailor wrap his neck up." Mr. Spurgeon used beef-tea,
strong with pepper, for his throat, or a little glass of Chili vinegar
and water.
"Beware of being actors! Never give earnest men the impression that you
do not mean what you say, and are mere professionals. To be burning at
the lips and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation....
"Away with gold rings and chains and jewellery! Why should the pulpit
become a goldsmith's shop?"
To gain and keep the attention, he says, "The first golden rule is,
always say something worth hearing.... Let the good matter which you
give them be very clearly arranged.... Be sure, moreover, to speak
plainly.... Do not make the introduction too long.... Be interested
yourself, and you will interest others.... Many ministers are more than
half asleep all through the sermon; indeed, they never were awake at any
time, and probably never will be unless a cannon should be fired off
near their ear.
"A very useful help in securing attention is a pause. Pull up short
every now and then, and the passengers on your coach will wake up....
The next best thing to the grace of God for a preacher is oxygen. Pray
that the windows of heaven may be opened, but begin by opening the
windows of your meeting-house.
"Be masters of your Bibles, brethren.... Having given precedence to the
inspired writings, neglect no field of knowledge.... Know nothing of
parties and cliques, but be the pastor of all the flock, and care for
all alike."
He urged them not to mind gossips, "who drink tea and talk vitriol;" and
"to opinions and remarks about yourself turn also, as a general rule,
the blind eye and the deaf ear."
Of Mr. Spurgeon's most popular books, "John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain
Advice for Plain People," and "John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of
His Plain Talk for Plain People," over four hundred and fifty thousand
volumes have been sold. These are full of helpful words in homely garb,
but most useful for rich and poor alike.
"Don't wait for helpers," he says. "Try those two old friends, your
strong arms.... Don't be whining about not having a fair start.... The
more you have to begin with, the less you will have at the end. Money
you earn yourself is much brighter and sweeter than any you get out of
dead men's bags.... As for the place you are cast in, don't find fault
with that. You need not be a horse because you were born in a stable....
A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it. If you give
all to back and board, there is nothing left for the savings bank. Fare
hard and work hard while you are young, and you have a chance of rest
when you are old.... No matter what comes in, if more goes out you will
always be poor.... Plod is the word. Every one must row with such oars
as he has.... Never be security for more than you are quite willing to
lose."
Spurgeon was an untiring worker. He had no respect for idleness. "Many
of our squires," he said, "have nothing to do but to part their hair in
the middle; and many of the London grandees, ladies and gentlemen both
alike, as I am told, have no better work than killing time.... The
greater these people are, the more their idleness is noticed, and the
more they ought to be ashamed of it.
"I don't say they ought to plough, but I do say that they ought to do
something for the state, besides being like the caterpillars on the
cabbage, eating up the good things; or like the butterflies, showing
themselves off, but making no honey....
"Let me drop on these Surrey Hills, worn out ... sooner than eat bread
and cheese and never earn it; better die an honorable death, than live a
good-for-nothing life.
"Rash vows are much better broken than kept. He who never changes,
never mends.... Learn to say 'No,' and it will be of more use to you
than to be able to read Latin.
"An open mouth shows an empty head. Still waters are the deepest, but
the shallowest brook brawls the most.... Beware of every one who swears;
he who would blaspheme his Maker would make no bones of lying or
stealing.... Commit all your secrets to no man ... seeing that men are
but men, and all men are frail."
In "John Ploughman's Pictures" he says, "He who cannot curb his temper
carries gunpowder in his bosom, and he is neither safe for himself nor
his neighbors.... Anger is a fire which cooks no victuals, and comforts
no households; it cuts and curses and kills, and no one knows what it
may lead to.... It takes a great deal out of a man to get in a towering
rage; it is almost as unhealthy as having a fit.... Shun a furious man
as you would a mad dog.... A man in a thorough passion is as sad a sight
as to see a neighbor's house on fire, and no water handy to put out the
flames." Mr. Spurgeon's books number about one hundred volumes.
Mr. Spurgeon was blest in his home-life. On Jan 8, 1856, he married
Susannah Thompson, daughter of Mr. Robert Thompson, of Falcon Square. He
was married in new Park Street Chapel, before the Tabernacle was built.
The church was full at the ceremony, while two thousand persons outside
were unable to enter.
Their twin sons, Charles and Thomas, their only children, have always
been a comfort to them. The wife has long been an invalid, but has been
enabled to do great good in her home and out of it.
Mr. Spurgeon once said of her, "My experience of my first wife, who
will, I hope, live to be my last, is much as follows: Matrimony came
from Paradise, and leads to it. I never was half so happy before I was a
married man as I am now.... I have no doubt that where there is much
love there will be much to love, and where love is scant, faults will be
plentiful. If there is only one good wife in England, I am the man who
put the ring on her finger, and long may she wear it. God bless the dear
soul! if she can put up _with_ me, she shall never be put down _by_ me."