Chapter 94: The Baptist Union At Plymouth
Chapter 94.
The Baptist Union At Plymouth
Six Hundred Ministers and Delegates at Plymouth—Illness of Mrs. Spurgeon—The Augmentation Fund—Bazaar at Reading—Letter on the Annuity Fund—At Brighton—Christmas at the Orphanage—London Baptist Association—Open-Air Preachers—Maze Pond—With the Baptist Fundees—Tutors and Students—A Spelling-Bee—Interest in Ragged-Schools.
The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland held its autumnal session at Plymouth in 1875, when nearly six hundred visitors, being ministers, delegates, etc., were entertained by friends belonging to local congregations. Dr. Alexander Maclaren was president. Mr. Spurgeon gave one of his greatest sermons in the Guildhall on Tuesday afternoon, October 5, from "The Angels hastened Lot." The picture of Lot in Sodom and his deliverance was vividly drawn; but probably the passage which most affected the congregation was that in which occurred the reference to those who had died in the year:—
"This year an angel has been among us that may well hasten us; it is the angel of death. I will not try to mention those names of goodly fellowship. They have been names of men removed from us to swell the ranks of the triumphant. I have stood astonished—I should think you have, my brethren—as the shots have been flying right and left among us. We have felt almost like the squadron at the charge of Balaklava, the saddles have been emptied so far around us. If we do not serve our Master, and this does not make us do it, nothing will. If this next year be not the best that the Baptist churches ever had, it ought to be, for the Lord has spoken to us with His voice, once, twice, thrice, and then again.... The days are very short just now; our fathers had long summer days, but some of us will only have short winter days. Let us get done. Look at the fields. Oh, how white they are! How much they need reaping, and how few reapers there are; and they get fewer, and some of them are fainting already. I hear them say, 'I must lie down awhile.' We have some grand reapers among us that reap mighty sheaves, who cannot do more, and they are fainting. Come, brothers, let us do all we can, then; let us help them, and let it never be said of us, whether we are in a little village or a large town, that we failed even for a moment in this great harvest-field. I see another angel that ought to hasten us. I will not try to picture him, but I can see him, with these very eyes. He is lifting the trumpet to his lips; it almost touches his lip, and when it does you will hear the blast that time shall be no more—'Awake, ye dead, and come to judgment.' The days of mercy to the sinners will be over, and the days of reckoning for us, the ambassadors of Christ, will have come. If that angel does not hasten you, then are you loiterers indeed!"
Some of Spurgeon's greatest efforts seem to have been made when the surrounding circumstances were such as would have excused him from preaching at all. He would give a sermon in a style which quite prevented the congregation from supposing that he was in pain; and on this great occasion at Plymouth his domestic trials were of a most distressing kind, as the following, by one who was present at Plymouth, will show:—
"Mr. Spurgeon's references to the many Baptist ministers in the prime of life whose careers had during the past year been suddenly cut short by death told powerfully on many present who had numbered these dead among their intimate friends; and the tenderest emotions of the congregation were evoked when, at the close of the address, the Rev. J. Aldis besought for Mr. Spurgeon the sympathy and prayers of the congregation. In coming to Plymouth he had left behind him in London a dearly-loved but greatly-suffering wife, whose long-continued and most painful affliction would have caused deep sorrow and anxiety to an even less affectionate husband than he who had just spoken. Her condition was now eminently critical, but from her dying bed she had that day telegraphed to her husband not to return home, but to go forward with his work at Plymouth. For this noble and self-denying wife and for her anxious husband, Mr. Aldis then offered a few touching words of prayer, to which there was a hearty and general response."
Happily the fears entertained were not realised; for shortly afterwards the invalid was reported to be decidedly better, and out of immediate danger. The meetings altogether seem to have been full of life and interest. In the course of a stirring speech on Wednesday, October 6, Mr. Spurgeon made some references to the Augmentation Fund:—
"I am afraid I am rather worldly. I calculate very much a man's love to Christ by the quantity of money he is willing to give in proportion to what he has got, and up to the present moment I have never found a test more available. It generally comes to the correct thing in the long run, for I find that the great talker and even the wonderful gusher does not last nearly as long as the person who gives the two mites that make a farthing, being all her living. The money matter somehow puts metal into grace—and makes it last all the longer.... We want to create a public opinion upon this matter. Mr. Maclaren has created it this morning, I believe. There are some members of our churches who pay more to black their shoes than to support their ministers. I am certain there are many farmers who pay more for their licence to shoot than they ever subscribed per annum to listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is really to me scandalous that we should have to subscribe to this society, since in some cases there is no necessity whatever that the pastor should receive any aid. The system of pew-rents has been the death of us on account of fixing a shilling a quarter—a shilling a quarter! Two sermons every Sabbath-day—give them the week-days in—a halfpenny a sermon! Brethren, I am astonished at you that your sermons are not worth more than that. I do not hear you, but those people who do should be able to appreciate you, and show what the value of your discourses must be." At an evangelistic meeting at King Street Wesleyan Chapel the address on "There go the ships" was given. This was full of striking and searching passages. At the great meeting in the Guildhall on the evening of Thursday, October 7, Spurgeon delivered one of his most characteristic speeches, the subject being, "A Church all Alive." How he continued still to draw illustrations from his own varied experience, and even from the men of his own College, may be seen from what follows:—
"I was preaching some time ago in a certain chapel, and I knew that everything was dull and dead, and when I went down into the vestry I saw two gentlemen standing one against the other. When I got inside, I said, 'Are you the deacons here?' They said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Ah! I thought you were the pillars of the church. Brethren,' I said, 'the cause of God does not prosper here, does it?' They said 'No.' I said, 'Do you know that I think the reason why it does not prosper is within half a mile of both of you?' and there I left it. And I believe that often the reason why churches do not prosper will be found in the fact that there is not enough life. A man can be alive, but what a different thing he is when he gets all alive! Now, look at me trying to address you in this steady, solemn way. Now look at my friend Cuff, who spoke just now, tearing about at the rate he did. Why, there was enough life in my brother Cuff's little finger to last some of us a month. I should like to see a church worked up into a fury of Divine life." In the interest which his visit to the West excited it once more became evident that the preacher's popularity was unique. When other men of eminence were announced for special occasions the interest they excited was sectional; in the case of Spurgeon it appeared to be universal. It was so at Plymouth, and it was so in all other great centres of population. Thus it was said at this time:—
"The coming of Mr. Spurgeon to any city, town, or village, either in England, Wales, or Scotland, is an event which moves the entire population, Church and Nonconforming, rich and poor, churchgoing and non-churchgoing. In such a city as Manchester, the 'upper ten' talk of it on 'Change, while down to the cabmen and the shoeblacks it is the theme of conversation. And Mr. Spurgeon's audiences are everywhere of the most composite character. The nobility come incog. to hear him, and the poorest waifs from the slums are attracted to listen to his voice. No other preacher of the age wields such a power; and it may be questioned whether anyone else has ever done it in these Islands save John Knox in Scotland and Christmas Evans in Wales." In the week following the Plymouth meetings a great bazaar, which realised £115, was held at Reading, and Mr. Spurgeon preached in the town. In the course of his remarks at the opening of the bazaar, he said that he came to London for £40 a year; and though he had had many opportunities of enriching himself he had not done so, and when he died the world would see how disinterestedly he had lived for God and His people. He added that he had then in trust for various charitable objects money, houses, and lands of the value of £120,000. Before he died he hoped to see the Orphanage established on a sound foundation, so that it might stand alone. He did not like endowments for religious foundations, but it was different in the case of charities. The success of this bazaar was cheerful news to the friends who gathered in large numbers at the Stockwell Orphanage on October 22, when Mr. Spurgeon gave an account of the Thames from Westminster to Oxford as he had himself seen the river a few weeks previously. He thought that this excursion, which had been taken with several friends, was as beautiful as any in the world, the Thames excelling even the Rhine in loveliness.
During this same week he opened the new mission-house, Ragged-and Sunday-schools in Richmond Street, Walworth, which his assistant, Mr. J. T. Dunn, had founded and still superintended. The cost was nearly £900, and the new premises stood close to the site of the old building, the lease of which had expired. As this was regarded as an outpost of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the pastor gave £150 to the fund for the new building, and promised £50 additional if the whole sum was at once subscribed. His interest in the annuity fund for aged ministers was shown at this time in the following letter to the editor of The Baptist:—
"Dear Sir,—At the close of the Plymouth meetings I suggested to our friends, Sir S. M. Peto and Mr. E. S. Robinson, of Bristol, that we should at once propose to raise a capital for the annuity fund, and that our constituency should be asked to give so much a year for five years. I said I would give £100 for the first year, and do the same for four years if God prospered me. This proviso I am compelled to put in, for perhaps it may not be in my power to pay, since I have no property to draw upon. Mr. Robinson at once said that he would give £500 either at once or in instalments. It seems to me that if all our wealthier brethren will come up to the mark nobly, and at once, we might very speedily have £20,000 promised. This would be a good corner-stone, and others would in after years build thereon.
"I do not intend to give the amount I mentioned to a poor little fund of skeleton dimensions and haggard appearance; the offer is made cheerfully, but on the condition that others do the same. Surely we have forty men to whom it would be pleasure to do as much; and if not, those who could give twice or ten times the sum must make a point of seeing the £20,000 raised.
"A like amount ought then to be forthcoming from one universal collection from all the churches in the Union on some one set day. I do not mean annually, but once for all. This taken up with spirit by all would be an occasion for special joyful consecration, and the amounts given might go up to pay the sums expected from ministers. What a blessing it would be to all our poorer brethren to have themselves made free of the Society from the commencement. This would so endear the fund to the whole denomination that free contributions would come in spontaneously, and legacies would be left.
"As soon as the basis is laid down an earnest pamphlet should be scattered 'thick as leaves in Vallombrosa,' the trumpet-call should sound forth from the papers, magazines, and pulpits, and as one man we ought to arise and put away from our Israel the reproach of neglecting age and widowhood.
"I may be too fast, but if so, I will wait till the rear-guard come up.—Yours heartily, "C. H. Spurgeon.
"Nightingale Lane, Clapham, October 23, 1875."
Just about this time a visit was paid to Brighton, a sermon being preached in the afternoon at Clifton Road Church, and in the evening in the Dome. The Sussex Daily News appears to have given a verbatim report of the evening discourse, the text of which was 1Ch 28:9 : "If thou seek him, he will be found of thee." The mayor, the ex-mayor, several Russian gentlemen, and other distinguished persons were present. It was on this occasion that a famous passage specially addressed to old people was given; I believe it was Dr. Doddridge who made the calculation to which the great preacher took exception:—
"While I speak to the young I should also like to hold up the finger to the old people present. I would say to the old man of seventy or eighty, 'If thou seek him, he will be found of thee.' I read the other day a statement which I often hear, but which I never believe—a statement made by a minister to his people, that if persons were not converted before they were forty they were never likely to be. And then some statistics were given. It is very easy to lie in figures—easier to lie in figures, perhaps, than in any other way. I never believe in statistics, or in statements based upon statistics, at any rate, But this thing I will say: my Lord and Master never sent me to preach to sinners only under forty. I know of nothing in the Gospel like it. Which text talks about people being converted who are not more than forty-five? What I find is that I have to preach the Gospel to those who are old as I would to those who are young, to those who are only ten or a dozen. 'Go and preach the Gospel to every creature' is the Divine command; to Methuselah if he was alive on the face of the earth. Besides, the statement is not true. The brother who makes such an assertion is probably a small minister with a small congregation, who does not preach so that old people care to listen to him. But some of us who extend over a broad area have come to a different conclusion. I stand up here and say that 1 have received as new converts in church fellowship as many persons of one age as of another. Only understand that this must be taken proportionately—there are not so many persons of old age as of young. But in proportion I have baptised as many people of eighty as I have children of twelve—and I have had hundreds of children of twelve brought to the Cross. I speak without the slightest exaggeration as to numbers—I have had tens of people of eighty, and that is the same number if you look at the proportionate age of those who exist on the face of the earth. There is nothing in the Word of God to allow any man to make anything like a speciality of denunciation against persons of any age." On Friday, November 5, the friends of the College filled the Tabernacle to hear an account of the year's work, and also to be entertained with the pastor's description of his trip up the Thames. It was mentioned by the way that the range taken by the College was becoming extremely wide, as they were receiving applications from Canada, the United States, and the Continent of Europe. A Portuguese had just left, and an application had come from Central Russia.
Soon after this, or early in November, he went to Menton, and it was understood that he derived great benefit from the change. At the Christmas festival of the Stockwell Orphanage he referred in a general way to the good that was being done by the institution, reminding the working staff that for aught they knew to the contrary they might be educating a Knibb. Hence they were not living for nothing, as was the case of those who laboured only to amass wealth or heap together the fool's pence. He observed in a jocular way that the time might even come when the "old boys" would endow the Orphanage, and then both the President and the Master might also receive pensions from the same source. He spoke well of the "old boys," thinking them very likely people to make way in the world—people with heads on their shoulders, and heads that were put on the right way. It was also hinted that these might perhaps find the money wherewith to found an orphanage for girls. Then he related the well-known anecdotes of George Herbert assisting a carter whose load had broken down, and of the old Scotsman who spent his days in recutting the tombstones of the Covenanters until it grew into a popular belief that the inscriptions of Scotland's godly sons never became obscured. When Herbert was reproached for be-meaning himself, he said that the memory of what he had done would be music in his soul at midnight. That was to be imitated, so that our memories also might remain green for ever.
After dinner the presents were distributed. The rule was for each to choose what he or she would best like for a present, the cost having been chiefly met by the pastor himself, who would write his autograph in the books. This year Christmas Day happened to fall on a Saturday, so that at about four o'clock Mr. Spurgeon drove away to his study in Nightingale Lane, to get some food together, as he expressed it, for his "chickens" on the morrow. The Watch Night service of this year fully equalled in interest any previous meeting of the kind. The late meeting was preceded by one for prayer, and the 1,500 persons who were in the chapel at ten o'clock were reinforced by others, so that by eleven o'clock the great building was densely crowded. The prayer, brief comments, and sermon of twenty minutes were all well suited to the occasion. The preacher told a somewhat touching little story which was intended to illustrate the justice and tenderness of God:—
"I knew a minister who once threatened his boy that if he repeated an offence he would visit him with such a punishment that he would remember it if he lived for a hundred years. He regretted the rash threat; but when his boy was detected in the forbidden act he called him aside for prayer, and then told him he must proceed to inflict the threatened punishment. He bade him follow him to the corner of a corn-field, beyond the reach of hearing. The trembling culprit obeyed, and conjectured every conceivable form of punishment it was possible his father might inflict. Arrived at the chosen spot, the father bade him kneel, and then with two stalks of wheat lightly brushed his cheek. 'There,' said he, 'I have kept my word; you will never forget that punishment.' And he never has; for that boy was my own father, and he repeated the story to me only a few days ago." The London Baptist Association assembled at the Tabernacle on Tuesday, January 11, 1876, and in the evening Mr. Spurgeon made an earnest appeal to the churches on behalf of London, his remarks being founded on Num 13:30 : "Let us go up at once, and possess it," etc. He showed that if the city was to be won, there must be action; the action must be on their part; the action must be immediate; there must be a real doing of the work, and they must work believingly. Under the last head he said:—
"We have plenty of strength, and perhaps a little to spare. The work of the conversion of London would be impossible indeed if we had no more than our own strength; but if we have the help of God we need not despair, for if it were the conversion of as many worlds as stud the heavens at night it would be an easy thing for God. Do you think we get near enough to this Divine energy? Alas! it is here too often that we do not remember God! I wish that to-night something would happen to make us think more of the debt of obligation under which we are laid to the Master, and to feel His love in all its power. Then He would put such strength into you that from this moment your weakness would become irresistible. The Church would not want for men if she only believed in God; nor for money, though we are a poor people—perhaps one of the poorest of the denominations. If you have got truth in your knowledge, and grace in your experience, and a warm heart in your bosom, then you have got the major, and the minor will come by-and-by. Some may say we are ignorant and poor. Yes; we are a long row of noughts. Our brother Wigner is a large nought, and Mr. Brown is a nought, and I am a nought; but put a one before them! The noughts themselves are the means of developing the possibilities of the one. Up, then, and let not your hands be slack in the day of battle." The seventy-five members added at the opening of the year made a total of over 4,800 names on the roll of membership at the Tabernacle. Next to this increase of his own church Mr. Spurgeon was interested in the progress of the London Baptist Association. He thus gave a sermon at the Downs Chapel, Clapton, on January 25, 1876, on the Superiority of Christ to the Temple (St. Mat 12:6), and at the evening meeting was able to rejoice with others over the extinction of the debt. He remarked that he always liked to see a chapel debt buried, especially when the last joint of the tail disappeared, for then they could dance on its grave. When the tail had not been quite buried, a debt had risen again; but the debt there would have no resurrection. It was well to call in neighbours and friends to rejoice with them over the debt which was found but was now lost. He trusted that the church might grow as fast as a mushroom and be as strong as an oak. The collections were given to the building fund of the Shoreditch Tabernacle, representing the great home mission work of Mr. Cuff and his friends. On behalf of this work a poor man in the Isle of Wight had sent Mr. Spurgeon a crown-piece with a hole punched in it, and a ribbon put through the hole; and this he now handed to Mr. Cuff, hoping that someone might like to give £5 for such a curiosity. At the prayer-meeting on the last night of January a large number of open-air preachers and Christian workers assembled at the Tabernacle, Mr. John Macgregor (Rob Roy) being in the chair. Mr. Spurgeon referred to the title Reverend, and showed that the terms clergy and laity were not what he believed in. Nobody had ordained him, and nobody ever should. He claimed for open-air preaching a long pedigree, going back to the time of Adam, and having the countenance of Christ Himself. He gave some good advice, especially when he showed how not to preach:—
"He had known preachers whose manners were simply execrable, and he had seen men on that platform whose assumed attitudes had tickled him. Some men, for instance, always displayed their fists when they were preaching 'Come unto Me,' leading one to suppose that it was a black eye they had to give. Some must go sawing and chopping the air like a soldier on the top of an adjacent chimney, showing the way of the wind. Others put their hands behind them under their coats, and looked like birds with tails. They might laugh, but let them remember that others had laughed at their practices thus referred to. He might not have hit their peculiar foible, but he pressed upon them the importance of avoiding such apparently trivial things, as they were sufficient to mar their work. They should stand like Paul stood at Athens, and as graceful as Nature would have them stand; so might it be with their physical mannerisms. Further, let them not fall into imitations." On January 30 the old Maze Pond Chapel was used for the last time by the congregation, and at their meeting in January the following was read:—
"Resolved by the Church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle: Being informed that our sister church at Maze Pond is now holding a final service in their ancient house of prayer; in the church in the Tabernacle, we seize the opportunity to salute our brethren, and to congratulate them upon the long and cheering history which it has pleased the Lord to accord them. Bound to us by near ties of consanguinity as a church, which was once a part of the same congregation, we would express our interest in the future welfare of the church, our regard and Christian love for the pastor, officers, and church members, and our prayer that in the movement on which they have now entered they may be under the Divine direction, may sustain no loss or injury, and may prosper in years to come. May the presence of the Lord abide with you all in the power of His Spirit is our fervent prayer. To the Triune God, the covenant God of Israel, we earnestly commend you. Asking an interest in your daily prayers,—Yours for the whole church, "C. H. Spurgeon "James A. Spurgeon—Pastors.
"Resolved also, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded at once by our trusty brother and elder, Hillier, with our Christian salutations." On the 7th of March he dined with the Baptist Fundees at the Guildhall Tavern. Three years before, as has been shown, he had sat down with his brethren in the same place, when he occupied the chair. This time, however, he sent a note to say that he should not be able to attend in consequence of a bazaar engagement at the Agricultural Hall. It was therefore a pleasant surprise when at ten minutes after four he entered the room "to see the lions fed," as he observed by way of apology while walking to a seat. For some time he spoke about an accident that had occurred at the Stockwell Orphanage, and which but for a special providence might have culminated in a disastrous fire. In a speech immediately afterwards on the work of the Fund he showed that there was great poverty abroad among rural pastors; and letters received in connection with Mrs. Spurgeon's book distribution were often of too harrowing a nature for publication. He withdrew before the close of the proceedings; and something occurred at the door of the room which, though unobserved by the general company, was too characteristic to be left unmentioned. A friend stood near whose son and heir had just been born. Suddenly a £5 note was thrust into this person's hand—a gift to the little boy, which was to be duly invested on the child's behalf in the Post Office Savings Bank. On Friday, March 17, I attended a reunion of tutors and students which took place at the Pastors' College, men from Regent's Park and the Training Institute in the Bow Road being present. Dr. Angus, in the course of a forcible speech, showed how great a need there was of boldness in preachers, characterising that quality as forgetfulness of self. He held that a preacher ought to preach all the Calvinism and all the Arminianism to be found in the Bible, leaving the difficulties to be reconciled by the senior deacon when he got home.
Remarking, "If that is a little talk, what must a regular lecture be like?" Mr. Spurgeon proceeded to give an address. Though the noblest of callings, he thought the preacher's was the most difficult, and that it was easier to be a minister of State than a minister of the Gospel. A useful minister necessarily needed to be a well-furnished man; but as literary culture tended to drain the heart, there was need for much praying together. They had to beware of being stiff and unapproachable. From what he added, however, it seemed that there was really some improvement in the times. At all events, the old-fashioned race of stiff ministers had died out with the white-choker era. J. A. Spurgeon, the late Mr. Birrell, and the late venerable George Rogers were all present. The first of these broached a theory that no one ever preached long sermons until Paul did so, and the young man was taken up dead. Mr. Rogers, who would not have been himself if he had not said something quaint and witty, declared that he felt like a black sheep among a washed flock.
Spelling-bees were now in fashion, and on Friday evening, March 24, Spurgeon presided at one of these competitions between boys of the Orphanage and those of the Tabernacle school. That spelling was not universally understood, he remarked, was evident from the people who commenced a letter with "Deer Cur," and to whom Nightingale Lane was a puzzle. He told of a boy in the Highlands who read the newspaper with the same twang as he did the Bible, and his grandmother had boxed his ears for reading the newspaper "in that holy way." He insisted that the Scriptures should be read in the best possible way—i.e., the most natural. He went on to speak of the numbers of people who could not write. "Great people write illegibly," he remarked. "Let them be greater and write better." He then related an anecdote about an Irish mayor who once sent a note of which no single word could be deciphered. Mr. Spurgeon cut the supposed name and address from this missive and put it in the post with the intimation that it had not been read. Strange to say, the letter reached the hands of its writer. In a few days another letter arrived from the same quarter, this time written quite legibly, and containing the request that Mr. Spurgeon would preach in a certain place. The great preacher complied with the request. He dined with the mayor referred to, and at table his worship was candid enough to confess that he really wrote two hands—one that he could not read himself, and one that was quite illegible to other people. In the spelling competition the Tabernacle day-school boys were the winners.
It was at this time that he published his book on Commenting—a work which involved a vast amount of labour as well as of expense. Between three and four thousand volumes were looked through, and from these a selection is made, and their characteristics are pointed out to the student. Of this production one critic wrote:—
"Those who might suppose that the catalogue is a dry production will find on turning to it that it is the very reverse, for the compiler has lighted it up with a delicious vein of pleasantry. Indeed, many of his shrewdest observations are put in a mirth-provoking form. Of Dr. Cumming, for example, he remarks that he is usually preaching the Gospel when he is not prophesying, and he congratulates the prophet of Crown Court on the facility with which 'he puts other men's thoughts into pleasing language.' Some other contemporary divines will find edifying observations about themselves which may do them good. Veracity is stamped on the whole performance, and we are amazed at the obviously vast extent of Mr. Spurgeon's reading, and the soundness which pervades the most of his judgments. He is just a little too hard, perhaps, on our German brethren."
I could give many proofs of Mr. Spurgeon's interest in ragged-school work. Mr. John Kirk, Secretary of the Ragged School Union, 37, Norfolk Street, Strand, supplies the following:—
"From the earliest days of Mr. Spurgeon's coming to London he recognised the value and importance of ragged schools; hence he was ever ready to render service to the cause, and in his death the Ragged School Union and every ragged-school worker lost a true and sympathetic friend.
"His undoubted fondness for children and deep pity for the poor and suffering led him to see in this service on behalf of neglected children the most effective and kindly means of reaching the lapsed masses. As has been already stated, his career as a preacher began with addresses to children—poor children in a Sunday-school—and to the last he always sought to stimulate and stir others to similar effort. The result of this sympathy may be seen in the fact that not a few of our ragged-schools in South London owe their existence and maintenance to the members of the Metropolitan Tabernacle; while it is not too much to say that scarce a school or mission fails to number amongst its workers some representatives of the great church over which he so long presided.
"Moreover, in any difficulty we were ever able to reckon freely on Mr. Spurgeon's warm sympathy, wise counsel, and ready aid. The great leader of the ragged-school enterprise, the late Earl of Shaftesbury, was for many years, and indeed until his death, on terms of closest friendship with Mr. Spurgeon, and between the two there was at all times the frankest interchange of views in matters relating to the movement which both had so deeply at heart. Similarly the Council of the Ragged School Union might always rely on the Metropolitan Tabernacle pastor in any emergency or unforeseen difficulty which might arise. Full often have I gone frankly to him at some such crisis, and never have I failed to obtain the word of counsel required or the practical help desiderated.
"It was for many years his custom to call together annually—generally in the week of prayer for ragged- and Sunday-schools—the Sunday-school teachers associated with the Tabernacle who were privileged to listen to wise and helpful words. On several occasions the workers of ragged-schools were also specially invited, and representatives were asked to take part in the proceedings and give some information as to the movement. At such times teachers and workers, superintendents and secretaries, assembled from all parts of London. At the anniversary tea Mr. Spurgeon was in the habit of joining the company and making himself thoroughly and happily at home amongst them. On the last occasion of this kind, friends mustered so numerously that he found it inconvenient, if not impossible, to have a chat with each. He solved the difficulty by saying in his happy way, 'Let us have a meeting. Here you are, Mr. Kirk; lead off, and others will follow.' The result was a pleasant and profitable conference, closed with some improvised words from the pastor himself. The last address delivered by Mr. Spurgeon on such an occasion was, in spite of his evident weakness, marked by much geniality and that strong and genuine reality so characteristic of him we have lost.
"Personally, I shall never forget Mr. Spurgeon's hearty and brotherly kindness on all occasions when I had to ask his aid in any matter. It was indeed like going to see a friend, and he had the knack of making one feel as if one were bestowing a favour rather than receiving one. When I was about to visit America, I received from Mr. Spurgeon a letter of introduction which, like the magic wand, seemed to open doors wherever I went on the other side of the sea. I close with a brief quotation from 'In His Name,' the organ of the Ragged School Union—penned while the great loss was still fresh:—
"'As ardent admirers of the great man who has gone to his rest and reward, and as labourers who still continue in the field of ragged-school work, our teachers, while thanking God for such a one as Mr. Spurgeon, will rejoice that "he, being dead, yet speaketh." Such words as we have quoted will live, and they will stimulate friends to support the work which Mr. Spurgeon loved. We shall miss our departed friend's cheery smile and forcible addresses at some of our meetings in the future; but we shall still praise God that we knew him, that he understood and aided us, and that our workers were encouraged by his words just at the time when such good cheer was most needed.'"