Chapter Sixteen
Chapter 16.
The Funeral Service On Thursday morning, February 11th, 1892, commencing at 11 o'clock, the funeral service was held in the Tabernacle. Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., presided. The centre of the area was filled with the mourners and delegates, the other places being occupied by seat-holders.
Rev. William Williams, of Upton Chapel, announced the opening hymn: "Servant of God, well done," which, from its peculiar appropriateness, has been sung several times during the memorial services.
Mr. Harrald then offered a most tender and comprehensive prayer, in which, having given thanks for the rest and reward which had been given to "our beloved and Thy beloved", he very earnestly entreated, amid the fervent 'amens" of the congregation, that consolation and strength might be given to the bereaved wife, the aged father, the beloved brother, the dear sons, the sorrowing sisters, and all other relatives of the glorified Pastor. For the youthful grandchildren he besought a blessing, asking especially for the infant grandsons that, as they were descended from a long line of preachers, they, too, might, by the grace of God, be called to the ministry of the Word. The stricken Church, College, and Orphanage shared in the intercession, which included a request that, through the memorial services, many might be turned to the Lord; and that, by means of the printed sermons already published, and the others which shall yet be issued, a great multitude might be led to the feet of Christ. "Amen and amen" was the response from every heart, and from many lips, as Mr. Harrald closed with a devout ascription of praise to the triune Jehovah—"Unto the Father and the Son and the Spirit, the three-one God, be praises in the church above and the church below, throughout all ages, by Christ Jesus. Amen."
Rev. Archibald G. Brown, introduced by Dr. Pierson as "one of the early students of the College, one of the devoted Christian workers in this great city, and a personal friend of the pastor," in rising to read the Scriptures, said:
"How cheerfully many of us would have died if, by our death, that life could have been spared, God knows. It is willed otherwise. He has gone, and the unworthy are left. Let us now read from the word of God a few passages which we have been led to select as appropriate. May the Spirit of God own his own truth!
" 'So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord?
"The Holy Ghost evidently counted that to be Jehovah's servant is a higher honour than to be king of Jeshurun. Moses died there where his God took him; in his God's presence, in his God's arms, 'according to the word of the Lord,' or, as it may be rendered, 'at the mouth of the Lord.' The Jews have a saying that Moses died with a kiss from God's mouth.
"And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim nor his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face!
"There is the high honour of this man of God; there the secret of his power. It was in this that Moses stood unapproached and unrivalled. The Holy Ghost has declared that the grand distinction in his character was that he knew God intimately, and that God knew him face to face.
" 'Behold this day I am going the way of all the earth,' Joshua said. 'Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord?
"If it were possible for our departed Joshua to speak, I believe the words would be these: 'Serve my God, and your God in all sincerity.' Oh, that there might break from this assembled company of mourners, the same response that followed the word of Joshua, when the people said, 'God forbid that we should forsake the Lord'! As he, our President and Pastor, followed God, so may we follow hard after.
" 'Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face.'
"It is well when royalty acknowledges the worth of a faithful prophet in the land.
"'And said, O my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows: and he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it; and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward; and he opened it Then Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance.'
"The ruling passion with this man of God was strong in death "'And Elisha died and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and when the man was letdown, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet.'
"The influence of a prophet is not ended with his death. When good men die they yet speak, and life springs even from the sepulchre of the consecrated.
" 'And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' and others, 'And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.' But he died. 'And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.'
"Has the Book of God no word for those who are left? It may be said that it is the survivor who dies. Our leader, Moses, has gone into his rest. Our warrior, Joshua, has ended his fight. Our prophet has shot his last arrow.
"'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.'
"Our Pastor's word to us is, 'Let the worst come to the worst, the children of God should never give way to mistrust.' "'Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?'
" 'I was dumb: I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.'
"A saintly silence. Sometimes it is impossible to say anything that can do good, and one would not, for all the world, say a word which could do harm; we honour God best at these times by silence. Happy the experience which leads the soul to say, even looking at that coffin," 'It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.'
"'For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour that, whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing unto him.'
"The brightest light that can be thrown upon a scene of sorrow, is the light which comes from the promised return of our Lord and Master. Let us read concerning his glorious advent.
" 'For if we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent? or take precedence of 'them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord?
" 'And John's disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.'
"That is all we can do."
Rev. Robert Taylor, of Upper Norwood, announced the hymn, "which was the last our beloved friend gave out." We began to sing at the second verse—
"The King above in beauty, Without a veil is seen;
It were a well-spent journey Though ten deaths lay between."
Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., then made the funeral address before the assembly, as follows:—The giant cedar of Lebanon has fallen, and the crash of the downfall shakes the whole land, and echoes round the world. No vacancy so vast has been left in the church for, at least, a hundred years. The roots that held this cedar to the soil have spread so far and wide, that the desolation is incalculable. For a hundred years no such event as the death of Charles Haddon Spurgeon has startled and bereaved the Christian church.
I think it was 101 years ago when John Wesley died; in the year 1791. There is a very curious correspondence in the lives of the two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, and the lives of the two brothers, Charles and James Spurgeon; and they lie apart in history by this century. In each case the two brothers wrought together as right hand and left hand work together in mechanic arts. And it is but due to the surviving brother to say, that the general public has not altogether appreciated, as yet, the contribution that he made, in a very unselfish spirit, to the usefulness and the wide-reaching work of his departed brother. Standing in the background, while his brother stood in the foreground, he was an inspiration to his faith, an encouragement to his activity, and a constant co-operator in everything which he undertook. God bless him, and long may he survive to give his wisdom, his counsel, and his energy to the work which they jointly carried forward! The posthumous work of John Wesley was greater than the work he did during his life; as we look back over the century, we surround Mr. Wesley's name with much of the glory of the work carried on after his decease. The posthumous work of Charles Haddon Spurgeon no man can, at this day, estimate or conjecture.
We must, moreover, remember that Mr. Wesley, who was born in 1703, and converted in 1738, at the age of thirty-five, was privileged to live until the age of eighty-eight, dying in 1791; whereas Mr. Spurgeon, born in 1834, and converted at the age of sixteen, in the year 1850, has fallen asleep in Jesus before his fifty-eighth birthday had been reached. What that life would have wrought if thirty years more had been added to it, we can only imagine. And am I not, at least, justified in saying, especially in view of the comparatively brief term of this marvellous life, that there has been no life like it, in the church of God, in the century, and that, therefore, no vacancy so vast has been created by the withdrawal of any one of God's servants during that time? Men, generally, concede to Mr. Spurgeon genius in the intellectual sphere; but genius is a very vague and indefinite term. It usually stands for the creative faculty; but what is the creative faculty but the combination of observation, accumulation, classification, and application? In other words, is it not the using of all our powers, the gathering of facts and truths, their orderly, methodical arrangement, and their practical utilization in matters of personal, social, and public life?
I trust that we shall not, being dazzled by his genius, forget that he set us a glorious example of the power of systematic activity. It was no mere genius that produced three thousand sermons in the course of these years, and gave to the world thirty-seven annual volumes of weekly discourses. It was no mere genius that sent twenty-seven volumes of The Sword and the Trowel forth month by month. It was no mere genius that gave some one hundred volumes, larger and smaller, to the world, on all variety of topics connected with the gospel, the gospel ministry, and the Christian life. The Treasury of David, which itself might have stood, with its seven volumes, as the one colossal work of one man's life, and which is the most popular and useful commentary ever written on a single book of the Bible, attaining already a sale of 125,000 volumes, a larger sale than has ever been known for any commentary on a single book,—this work cost, I understand, twenty years of labour in the leisure hours of a most laborious pastorate. All this meant hard, constant, and conscientious work.
Some of us have wondered at the marvellous accumulations of Mr. Spurgeon's life-time. I trow that all this came not of any inherent endowment of genius. 'If the iron be blunt,' says Solomon, in the tenth chapter of Ecclesiastes and the tenth verse, 'If the iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength,'—a profound proverb. 'A whet is no let,' says the old maxim. The time that the mower occupies in giving edge and keenness to his scythe, is no lost time in his work. One needs less strength if he has a sharp weapon. Mr. Spurgeon so sharpened his mental faculty by diligent culture, that, if he lacked anything in native strength, he certainly lacked nothing in the efficiency of the weapons and the implements that he used.
We have all marvelled at the peculiar freshness, fulness, and forcefulness of the stream that he perpetually poured forth, in public utterances by pen as well as by tongue. If he himself should explain it, I am sure that he would tell us that the secret lay in two things. First, he kept filling up the cask; and, in the second place, he tapped the barrel, not at the top, but at the bottom; so that we always got from him a full and forceful stream. Nothing more surprised me in his intellectual life than the lavishness with which he bestowed it. He never seemed to fear self exhaustion; he gave with the same lavishness to one poor soul from among the least and lowest, as to the throng of the greatest and noblest on the grandest occasion. The reason was, not simply that he was endowed with transcendent intellectual genius, but that he knew where the fountain of the best thought, and the noblest emotions and affections, was evermore to be found: putting himself beneath that fountain, he was filled with the unsearchable riches of the Word of God, of the Spirit of God, and of the life of God. But though, perhaps, it is not quite so obvious, I believe that Mr. Spurgeon represented genius in the moral sphere, which is even more rare than genius in the intellectual sphere. I mean by genius in the moral sphere, just what our blessed Lord said when the disciples were contending who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Taking a little child, and placing him in their midst, he said, 'Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' Genius in the moral sphere, is the carrying forward of the characteristics of childhood into the period of manhood, and even of mature age. That is precisely what Charles Haddon Spurgeon did. He was always a little child in his own eyes and in his own spirit. In the last prayer I heard him offer, when I made a private visit to Beulah Hill, to see him once more before he left for Menton, he reminded me of young Zinzendorf, when, at five years of age, he used to toss his love-letters out of the window directed to his 'Dear Jesus.' Yes, he was a little child.
What is a childlike spirit? Did you ever undertake to analyze it? When we think of little children we think of three groups of graces. One group centres in truth, and embraces simplicity and sincerity; one group centres in love, and embraces gentleness and generosity; and one group centres in faith, and embraces confidence and compliance. Was he not in every one of those respects a man of a childlike spirit?
What rare simplicity! sine plicâ, without a fold: opened up like the Bible on his coffin; opened up so that all might read what was in his soul. What rare sincerity! sine cerâ, without wax: a possible reference to the Roman potters' habit of thrusting wax into the cavities of the vessel that they might conceal the flaws. Sincerity means that there is no attempt to conceal the flaws. The vessel can stand the searching and melting ray of the sunlight.
What rare love was his! what unspeakable gentleness! such as we think of in a wife or a mother. He seemed to me to represent all the masculine virtues and most of the feminine virtues too. He was as brave and courageous and aggressive as the most heroic man, but he was as gentle and tender, as sympathetic and compassionate, as the most beautiful womanly character. What generosity he displayed! The unique story of that generosity never has been written, and it never will be fully written, for the data are unknown except to the omniscient God. It was a life perpetually imparting, and one reason it closed so early was because the giving out was more rapid than the taking in. Let us not deceive ourselves: he gave himself for humanity, and that is perhaps the reason why we have him not today. He lost his life in serving.
How beautiful was his faith! What simple and sublime confidence in his Lord! unwavering, unaltering, unfaltering faith. I never saw such trust in any other human soul. It rebuked my own unbelief, and made my own scepticism seem a crime. More than anything else about him, it seemed to illustrate to me what a disciple could be who was in constant touch with God, and the circuit of whose invisible telegraphy with God never knew an interruption. Then what compliance, what obedience, there was with him! I remember that, on one great occasion, when the most tempting offers of a popular character were put before him, his simple and sublime answer was, "Gentlemen, these things do not affect me. The only thing of any consequence to me in this world is to do the will of God"
I want now to add a word about genius in the spiritual sphere; for there is such a thing, and he illustrated it. I mean, by genius in the spiritual sphere, what Paul speaks of in the sixth chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians: 'He that joined unto the Lord is one spirit.' That is genius in the spiritual sphere—the absolute oneness with God that comes from the merging of spiritual life, on the part of the believer, into the spiritual life of his Lord. I call the attention of my brethren here present, especially those in the ministry, to the fact that this is the last and grandest of all representations of the unity between a believer and Christ. That unity is illustrated from every department It is illustrated from the material realm, in the building, the lively stones of which are built into one symmetrical structure. It is illustrated from the vegetable realm, in the vine and the branches that interwrap their fibres. It is illustrated from the animal realm, in the sheep and the shepherd that are associated closely in flock and fold. It is illustrated from the human realm, in the body and its members which constitute one organism; and in the bride and the bridegroom, which form the closest union known among men. It is also illustrated from the family, with one father, one home, and one household; and from the state, community, or commonwealth, under one supreme head or sovereign. But all these are defective, though they are given to us in their entireness and combination, so that what one lacks the other may make up. We turn, therefore, to this last and grandest of all: 'He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.' You may disintegrate a building. You may separate branches from the vine. You may part sheep and shepherd. You may take members off the body. A bride may be divorced from her bridegroom; a family may be broken into fragments; and a state may be shattered by rebellion. But the spirit is indivisible, and he that is joined unto the Lord forms with the Lord one indivisible and immortal spirit. That is genius in the spiritual sphere, and that was the genius of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. From that indivisible unity sprang his faith. From that indivisible unity sprang his zeal. From that indivisible unity sprang his obedience. From that indivisible unity sprang his adherence to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. From that indivisible unity came his sympathy with souls as such, so that the soul of the least and lowest was in his eyes as valuable as the soul of a king on the throne. My friends, though there was much that was inimitable in this marvellous man, nevertheless there was much that he did and said, believed and lived, which challenges not only our admiration but our holy imitation. And now, as time forbids me to speak longer on this august occasion, I can only add that we have come together to bury the dead. Glad we are that those precious remains were not left to rest among the palms and olives by the shores of the Mediterranean; then only the noble and the affluent might have made their pilgrimage to his tomb. But we thank God that we are to lay these sacred ashes in our Norwood, where the common people who heard him gladly may wend their way to the place of his burial. You have no occasion to build him a monument, for his monument, more enduring than brass, is in the hearts of millions of the human race. You have no need to employ a gardener to keep his grave green, for the tears of widows and of orphans will moisten the sod. You have no occasion to see that flowers are planted round his sepulchre, for there will be fragrant blooms from all parts of the earth, which will be brought by pilgrim hands in the remembrance of untold blessings that came through his lips and pen; flowers that will be borne from all quarters to be set beside his place of rest. My brother, we shall never see another like unto thee. The eyes now closed in death, that twinkled like two stars in a dark firmament, and brought light and joy to many bereaved and saddened hearts, have lost their light for ever. The voice that spoke in tones so convincing and persuasive is hushed in death. The hand whose grasp uplifted many a fallen one, and gave new strength and encouragement to many a stricken one, will never again take our hands within its holy embrace. We bless God for thee, my brother. We are glad that heaven is made richer though we be made poorer; and by this bier we solemnly pledge ourselves that we will undertake, by God's grace, to follow thy blessed footsteps, even as thou didst follow thy blessed Lord!
Rev. Newman Hall, LL.B., at this point of the service, offered a most beautiful and touching prayer, in which adoration mingled with thanksgiving; and intercession with grief. "We mourn that the gift has been withdrawn, because we bless thee that the gift was ever bestowed," was a sentence which drew forth the hearts of the congregation; and a sobbing assent was given to this other, "We bless thee that his death is not premature, for thou knowest when thy servants are mature and fit for glory." The people now joined in singing a verse of a hymn which was a great favourite with the departed Pastor:—
"Knowing as I am known, How shall I love that word; And oft repeat before the throne, For ever with the Lord!"
Then the coffin was reverently carried by eight bearers to the hearse. As it slowly moved down the aisle, followed by the mourners, many of them choking down their sobs, a few of the boys from the Stockwell Orphanage sang the chorale.
"Thou art gone to the grave, But we will not deplore thee, Though sorrows and darkness Encompass the tomb; The Saviour has passed Through its portal before thee, And the lamp of his love Is thy guide through the gloom.
"Thou art gone to the grave;
We no longer behold thee, Nor tread the rough path Of the world by thy side; But the wide arms of mercy Are spread to enfold thee, And sinners may hope, Since the Sinless has died.
"Thou art gone to the grave, But 'twere wrong to deplore thee, For God was thy ransom, Thy guardian and guide;
He gave thee, he took thee, And he will restore thee; And death has no sting, Since the Saviour has died."
Thousands of handkerchiefs were raised to tearful eyes, that took a last loving look at the beautiful casket that contained all that was mortal of him to whom all owed so much. Thus the dear body left the Tabernacle for the last time.