Chapter 96: Illness In Paris

Chapter 96.
Illness In Paris

Holiday at Menton—Taken ill at Paris on the way Home—Return to the Tabernacle—The Conference of 1877—Baptist Union Meetings—Liberation Society.

On the 22nd of January, 1877, he started for Menton in good spirits. He benefited by the rest and change after staying in his winter retreat for about six weeks, when the sudden transition from a warm to a cold climate brought on a rheumatic relapse and confined him an invalid at Paris for some days. His place at the Tabernacle on Sunday, the 11th of March, was occupied by the present Dr. Clifford in the morning, and by Mr. J. A. Spurgeon in the evening. The following letter from him was read:—

"Hotel Meurice, Friday.

"To my dear Church and People.

"My Dearly Beloved Brethren,—You will share in the bitter disappointment which has befallen me, and will sorrow in my sorrow. I never felt better than when I left Menton, where I had really rested and gained refreshment. I hoped to be with you in bodily, mental, and spiritual vigour. On the first day of leaving my warm retreat a fierce wind and sharp frost chilled me to the bone. I travelled home in great pain until I reached this city, and now since Sunday I have been unable to move. Rheumatic pains seemed to paralyse the muscles, and I cannot stand. This is not what I looked for, and is unutterably painful to me. Away from wife and home, I have had to spend sleepless nights in fierce anguish; but I desire publicly to express my gratitude to my heavenly Father for it all. I cannot see any good in it, nor perceive the love that ordained it; but I am sure my Lord has done for me the best and kindest thing possible, and so I would say, and do say, Bless the Lord, O my soul.

"This will soon be over, and I shall be among you in answer to your loving prayers. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.

"C.H. Spurgeon" On the 18th of March I again attended at the Tabernacle, and found that he had reached home on the Wednesday preceding, having stayed a night at Boulogne. After a night's rest he rose considerably refreshed on the Thursday; but on Friday he was the subject of a relapse, and, being visited by his deacons, he received them in his bedroom. On Saturday he was better, and able to come downstairs. When he entered the vestry on Sunday before the service he was warmly greeted by a number of friends, the deacons being of the number. What seemed to please him best was the good news that the services had been well sustained during his absence. The gratitude of his heart found expression in an article in the magazine for April: "A Church We Know of." There was one occurrence, however, which was an occasion of pain. Mrs. Pasfield, the wife of an old servant at the Tabernacle, had died on the previous Friday, while making ready for a tea-meeting. Though a very humble servant of the establishment, his personal happiness was as much studied as though he had occupied the highest station. Mr. Spurgeon's opinion of his staff of helpers was that they were the best the world could supply, and a man who thinks thus, and acts according to his belief, is not in danger of being badly served.

Before the service commenced Mr. W. Olney walked to the front of the platform and called on the congregation to sing the Doxology as the recipients of special mercies. The sermon was founded on 2Th 3:16. The Conference this year opened on the 9th of April. At the meeting in Mr. A. G. Brown's chapel in the evening the President spoke for three-quarters of an hour with all his accustomed force. He said they were attracted to the East like the wise men; and while the East was the better for having Mr. Brown, he hoped Mr. Brown was also all the better for being there. He well illustrated how a change of ministers might be beneficial by an anecdote of a shepherd having asked of another shepherd, "Lend us a bark of your dog." In a variety of ways he showed the blessedness of Christian service; and they who, through being immersed in business, were unable to do all they wished were privileged to do the thing by deputy. They were not to do as Douglas Jerrold did when asked to help a friend in distress. "How much does he want now?" he inquired. "Oh, a four and two noughts will do," was the answer. "Then," said Jerrold, "put me down for one of the noughts." On the following morning, Tuesday, the 10th of April, he gave his address from the chair as President of the Conference. In a very impressive manner he read the opening chapter of the Book of Joshua, and related that during his stay at Menton Mrs. Spurgeon had had the 9th verse painted around the top of his bedroom, so that a portion always caught his eye. He confessed that he had frequently derived encouragement from that passage.

Before beginning his address he related a curious incident which he did not wish to have published in the papers. That morning he had received a letter directed to "C. H. Spurgeon, Esq.," and as such it appeared at first sight to be something more extraordinary than usual. He went on to say that some time previously he was applied to by a half-witted man who was in concern on account of his soul. Mr. Spurgeon was delighted, and, while speaking words of encouragement, said he had always wished to see Jesus Christ save an idiot, and now he should be gratified. But the poor fellow was filled with despair—body and all had been ruined by sin—he was too far gone. No, no, he must come along; he would get well again in mind and body when Jesus Christ took him in hand; and so it had really proved. The strange letter was one of good news; the man had recovered, or was recovering, in mind and body as the pastor predicted, and he maintained that the letter was a token for good. The address on present-day evils was in his happiest style; but as it can be read entire elsewhere I shall not attempt to give an abstract. In the evening, at the Stockwell Orphanage, he continued in a happy mood In regard to open-air preaching, he hoped they would be sufficiently prudent to obey the police. Still, he liked to hear of some of their number being locked up through excessive zeal in the service. At another time he advised them to keep record-books of various cases of conversion, after the manner of surgeons. A book of "Sketches" named was the kind of thing referred to, though he scarcely liked that particular work. Above all, the facts should be stated without being over-coloured, as their American brethren were apt to do. In one or two short speeches he gave much good advice, and he was particularly interested in one anecdote told respecting one of the pastors: "About the first criticism passed on this young pastor was that 'that young fellow from Spurgeon's was introducing the apple of discord into the parish.' But soon he got loved and honoured by the people for his work's sake, and actually the squire next invited him to the Hall, and the brother took advantage of it and went, and was asked to go and look at the 'dawgs,' and though he understood nothing about dogs, he ventured to express his opinion that it was the best litter of pups he had seen, and thereupon secured £5 to put his chapel in order." A larger party than usual assembled this year to partake of the annual supper, the sum collected being £2,200. Three members of Parliament and a number of influential friends were present, and Mr. Spurgeon made reference by name to two of them who, with the late Mr. George Moore, presented him with the bust which adorns the Conference Hall. On the next night the annual public meeting was held in the chapel, and on the morning following he preached before the Conference from "Feed my sheep." At one of the meetings of this Conference he told of an application which he had received from the editor of a certain great monthly Review to figure in his pages. Not being fascinated with the proposal, an objection was raised, when the editor became importunate. His journal was of the broad, open council class, in which each writer could say just what he pleased; and he finished up by suggesting that Mr. Spurgeon should provide them a good article on Calvinism—"Say what you like, you know." Still the pastor hesitated by remarking that he had his own way of publishing what he was able to write. He would not lend his name to sell other people's rubbish; he did not care to row in the same boat with "a lot of demented lepers," who, according to the editor, were very able people, though they might not see eye to eye with the pastor of the Tabernacle. At one of the meetings he had something to say about disagreeable Christians and our duty to love them if possible. He had himself from time to time loved some of the most crabbed and hateful people on earth, and had done so until the said people would have suffered anything rather than do him an injury. According to custom, he gave an illustration. A certain man who was once associated with the Tabernacle was famous for his extraordinary sourness and shortness of temper, and yet he was undoubtedly a subject of Divine grace. Well, after this brother died it was discovered that a piece of bone was pressing on the brain; and when one and then another heard of this, they said, "Ah, if I had only known of that piece of bone! "He was subject, beyond control, to constant irritation, and had people known of the affliction, the poor fellow would have met with more charity and fewer harsh judgments. At the Baptist Missionary' Meeting in Exeter Hall this year Spurgeon made a good speech—not one of his happiest efforts, but still an oration abounding in earnestness, and sparkling with characteristic personal allusions. I give a brief extract:—

"The way to value yourselves, to value the church—by productiveness. Do you produce anything for Christ? I was startled when I came through Marseilles, and they were putting a fire in my chamber one day for my rheumatism. I saw the man putting something in the fireplace, and I asked him to let me look at it. It was what I thought—vine-branches. If a vine-branch bear no fruit it is good for nothing. You cannot make it into the smallest useful article. Shall a man even hang a pot upon the fire thereby? It is good for nothing but to be burned if it be not fruitful. A fruitless merchant or a fruitless professor of science may have some sort of use, but a fruitless Christian is good for nothing. 'Men gather them, and they are cast into the fire, and they are burned.'" On the 4th of May he spoke at a great and enthusiastic meeting on the Disestablishment of the State Church, held at the Tabernacle as the annual meeting of the Liberation Society, Mr. Jacob Bright being in the chair. It should be remembered that this was not the only effort he made on that eventful Wednesday. In the morning he gave an address to business men on "The Claims of God," at the Friends' Meeting House in Bishopsgate Street, an occasion when Mr. John Bright, M.P., occupied a seat in the body of the chapel. The day before he had preached at Regent's Park Chapel, when a testimonial of £1,000 was presented to Dr. Landels.

Mr. J. T. Brown, of Northampton, succeeded Dr. Landels as President of the Baptist Union; and at the session at Bloomsbury Chapel Mr. Spurgeon had spoken to a resolution of thanks to the retiring President. Many kind things of a personal nature were said; and then it was added, "I hope the doctor has for ever extinguished the idea that we are ever going to cease as a Christian community, or lower our standards, or be absorbed. I hope our brethren will for ever be convinced themselves, and that all outside the brotherhood will be convinced also, that we are going to stand to our guns to the very last; and until the day when infant baptism shall cease and believers' baptism be universally practised, which we believe is coming on, we shall remain a body of baptised believers, vindicating that point which is thought by some to be so small, because we all believe that a great deal of other truth crystallises round about it."