Chapter Ten

Chapter 10.
The First Day of the Second Week At eleven o'clock, on Monday morning, February 8th, the precious burden from Menton was expected to arrive in London. The officers of the church and a few friends gathered at Victoria Station in good time; and as the appointed hour drew nigh, many of the public began to loiter about. A plain hearse and a few ordinary carriages were in waiting, and a very few minutes past the time the train from Newhaven drew slowly up to the platform. The coffin, which had crossed from Dieppe during the night, and, in answer to the prayers offered the previous evening, had arrived safely, had been taken from its outer case at Newhaven. There, and also at Lewes, informal meetings were held by the ministers of the town. As the beautiful olive-wood sarcophagus was quietly and reverently lifted into the vehicle, the crowd eagerly pressed forward to look at it. With bared heads, and, in many cases, with streaming eyes, the people stood, while the magnificent palm-branches, which had been sent by Mrs. Spurgeon all the way from the South of France, were placed above the coffin. Then, through the crowd, which now numbered thousands, the solemn procession passed on its way to the Pastors' College. The rain soon came down in torrents, and those who were weeping thought it meet that the English skies should weep, too, for him who had fallen in the fight. Along the route there were many who recognized the meaning of the hearse and palm-branches, and when the cortege turned into Temple Street, immediately at the back of the Tabernacle, there was a great hurrying to secure a place near the College gates. The beloved body was at once borne to the Common Room of the College; common, that is to say, in the sense of being open to all the students, but not "Common" even in that sense that day, and in any other sense common nevermore, since it was the first resting-place in England of the mortal body of the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The room had been beautifully prepared for the reception of the remains, plants of the palm species, and white arum lilies being placed in profusion around the room; and now there lay that most suggestive olive-wood casket, with the official black seals of the Vice-Consul and the Commissary of Police, which had been placed upon it at Menton, still clear: within it—ah! how the tears came—there was all that was mortal of the beloved Pastor, the honoured President, the revered friend; the "man greatly-beloved", who had the seal of God so clearly upon his forehead, that all owned the sanctity of his life.

Immediately there was held a short and simple service, attended only by the officers of the church and a few invited friends. The time was chiefly spent in prayer, bowing low before our God. Then a few of the students of the College were admitted to gaze upon the coffin, and pay homage to the memory of their leader. In the afternoon, another short service, specially for the members of the bereaved family, was held. Of the Tabernacle prayer-meeting, in the evening, little need be said, except that it was very largely attended, and was filled with a sense of God's presence. We turned away saying, "How awful is this place!" Dr. Pierson made a personal statement as to the remarkable leading of God with reference to his present sphere; and, after reading the Word of God, urged strongly that when God took away Moses, he always had a Joshua to lead his people; and it was now the attitude of the hour to wait expectantly on him, who never fails those who put their trust in him.

Several earnest prayers were offered for the remaining services of the week. It was desired of God that hundreds might be blessed by means of them, and special petition was made that the great throngs which would gather might be kept calm, and free from any accident. Hearty thanks were also rendered for all the streaks of light in the midst of the darkness, and for the last favour, in that the sacred dust of the dear Pastor had at length been safely brought to the scene of his many labours. Mr. Chamberlain sang the late Pastor's favourite solo, "Show me thy face": a prayer already abundantly answered in his case. As "devout men carried Stephen to his burial," it was appropriate that, towards ten o'clock at night, a band of the students of the Pastors' College should carry the sacred burden from the College to its place in the Tabernacle. They counted it an honour to be entrusted with the task; and some pews at the front having been removed, the lifeless clay was deposited in the great building, where the living voice had so often been heard in loving persuasion, and in outspoken defence of the truth.

Only those who have taken part in the arrangements for the memorial meetings which were to follow, can have any conception of the labours involved in carrying them so safely to a satisfactory issue. Everyone about the Tabernacle was busy from morning to night, and sometimes all night long. Each vied with the other in helping forward the necessary preliminaries. Until Monday night everything was spontaneous, and without much definite pre-arrangement; but the dimensions of the matter in hand required, for the future gatherings, the most careful judgment and the greatest precision. Nothing was lacking. Both the cool, clear head to plan, and the warm, eager hand to execute, were available; and events have proved the wisdom of the plans, and the completeness of the organization. Letters poured in literally by the thousand, demanding an answer. A most miscellaneous assortment of tickets had to be allotted; careful arrangements for the comfort and safety of the people had to be devised, and all the other necessary funeral fixtures had to be made. Now, when all is over, let it be said, to the praise of the presiding Spirit of God, that not one thing seems to have been forgotten; not a single accident has happened; not a jarring note has been heard. All those who shared in the services are greatly indebted to the earnest workers who so willingly and efficiently conceived and carried out the excellent arrangements.