Chapter 9: Mr. Spurgeon As A Local Preacher

Chapter 9.
Mr. Spurgeon As A Local Preacher

Close of the first half of the Nineteenth Century—The Great Exhibition—Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Leeding—Papal Aggression: "Antichrist and her Brood"—The Prospects of the Boy-Preacher—A great Acquisition to the Lay Preachers' Association—Perseverance in the Work of Preaching—Reminiscences of surviving Friends at Cambridge—The "Miller of Houghton" and Mr. Spurgeon—Mr. James A. Spurgeon's Recollections.

The close of the first half of the nineteenth century was a period of more than ordinary interest in our national history; and it was particularly so in the life of the great man whose course we have followed to the opening of his seventeenth year. Those who are old enough to look back upon the closing days of the year 1850 will remember that the outlook in general seemed to promise many things which were destined never to be realised. In Hyde Park an army of workmen were engaged in erecting the vast, fairy-like palace of glass for the Great Exhibition, which it was fondly hoped would introduce or commemorate the opening of the new era of universal brotherhood. Sanguine persons entertained the most extravagant hopes of the general civilising influence which this unique industrial and artistic show would exercise over the nations of the world. Patriots thought that the golden age was at length beginning. The period of devastating and exhausting wars was now to be followed by the era of universal peace, so far as civilised nations were concerned. Social reformers also saw in the Great Exhibition a promise of better things for the future than had ever been known. Even Christian missionaries saw in the wonderful festival to be celebrated in London that which would prepare the way for the progress of the Gospel. If people of all colours and of all nations were brought together, the lesson they would learn would be that all would benefit by all working with heart and soul for the common good of the world.

Young Mr. Spurgeon and his faithful friend and tutor would be interested in these things, and they would talk about them; they would each give an independent opinion on the outlook, and speculate in reference to the good times coming, which many were predicting with such excess of confidence. As ardent Evangelicals, we may confidently assume that neither of these friends was carried away with over-sanguine feelings in regard to the opening prospect. Art, science, and industries were good things in their way; the welfare of the nation demanded that they should be promoted by every legitimate means; but they could never be expected to bring about a reformation which the Gospel alone could effect. We have some conclusive evidence that at or about the time in question Mr. Spurgeon manifested lively interest in events which were happening, but matters pertaining to religion evidently affected him more than politics or even social reforms. Thus, the year 1850 was the period of what is known in history as the Papal Aggression. When the Pope mapped out this country into bishoprics and appointed his representatives to take possession of them, the public mind became violently agitated, and popular sentiment found expression in Parliament, an Act being passed attaching certain penalties to the assumption of episcopal titles without royal warrant. In addition to what was given in the daily and weekly journals, there was the abundant supply of books and essays usual at such a crisis. Mr. Spurgeon was, of course, an enthusiast on the Protestant side, as well became his notable ancestry. It was in hope of winning the prize offered by a member of the Morley family at Nottingham for an essay on Popery that he penned his still un-printed work on "Antichrist and her Brood." This work is consequently a memento of the Papal Aggression and of the extraordinary excitement it caused in the middle of this century. But to turn to more personal matters, we can imagine that there would be a little more excitement in the quiet home of Mr. Leeding, the Cambridge schoolmaster, when his youthful pupil-assistant returned to tell how he had been caught by guile, and had been obliged to preach a sermon against his will. Mr. Leeding would probably offer his congratulations. He also saw in his young friend the future popular preacher, as was the case with Richard Knill; for the tutor was shrewd enough to see that Mr. Spurgeon possessed gifts far above the average, while his acquirements were likewise beyond his years. Mr. Leeding was well aware that he had in his house a youth who could with ease have passed an examination at the University, had not all the colleges been closed against him as a Nonconformist. The tutor seems to have been a man who knew when and how to encourage an aspirant. Apart from the ordinary routine of daily work, there was much in Sunday-school teaching, in the writing of essays, etc., and in the giving of addresses in cottages, to develop and draw out latent powers.

Even as a teacher in the Sunday-school, who occasionally spoke to the children collectively, the addresses of Mr. Spurgeon had attracted some notice; but when he had began to preach he found the work grow upon him. "Bishop" Vinter and the other "gentlemen at Cambridge" must soon have perceived that, in securing the services of such a volunteer, they had made an acquisition which would in no small measure redound to the credit of the Lay Preachers' Association.

It might truly have been said that he had been led by a way that he knew not from the days of early childhood till the days of youth, when his powers were developing, and the way in which he would have to go was opening before him and being made plain. The past had been an experience which would inspire gratitude; for step by step he had advanced in a providential manner till the service he loved best promised to become his life-work. Then the enthusiasm he already began to show as a preacher was in itself an augury of success. Now that he had made a beginning, he not only found peculiar pleasure in his work, he was an examplar, as regarded zeal and perseverance in face of any discouragement or difficulty, to all the other members of the Lay Preachers' Association. Wind and rain, which often enough came in company to discommode foot-passengers across those Cambridgeshire flats, never sufficed to drive his good humour away or to cool his ardour as an evangelist. Even the villagers he preached to must have caught something of the fervour which characterised this youthful Apollos; for if, on arriving at a village on a stormy evening, the weather threatened to keep his congregation within doors, he would call at their houses to remind them that a sermon was about to be given. Protected with waterproof coverings, and having a stout stick and a lantern, this representative of the Cambridge Lay Preachers' Association would appear in one village after another; and long years after, when the boy-evangelist had developed into the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, there were many who fondly remembered these early days of small things.

Some years ago, in 1875, my friend the late Edward Cressell, who was then pastor of the Congregational Church at Houghton, Huntingdonshire, gathered for me some things relative to this period of Mr. Spurgeon's career, which show how appropriately he was called the boy-preacher. One gentleman told Mr. Cressell that he had been present at a service at Somersham, conducted by Mr. Spurgeon, twenty-six years before, when, as a lad in his seventeenth year, the preacher wore a jacket and broad, turned-down collar. The text on that occasion was, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob" (Isa 41:14). The chapel was one at which an aged minister officiated, and the contrast between the tones of the venerable pastor and the voice of the youthful orator is said to have been striking. There were people about who plainly saw that the itinerant, boy though he might be, was introducing new methods into the pulpit, and that he had about him the promise of a powerful, original preacher. One old man, a Calvinistic Baptist, who was not easily suited by ordinary ministers, having heard Mr. Spurgeon, soon contrived to hear him again and again.

One lady remembered to have heard Mr. Spurgeon in the Congregational Chapel at Houghton when the youthful preacher was the guest of the late Mr. Potto Brown—an occasion of which the great preacher retained very vivid recollections till the end of his days. The discourse he then gave was calculated to make a deep impression; but it was not such as anybody would have expected to hear from a preacher who had the appearance of a boarding-school lad; it was rather such a sermon as a divine of ripe experience might have given. Under the circumstances it was hardly to be wondered at that the "Miller of Houghton," as Mr. Brown was called, should have looked upon his guest as a pretender content to appear in borrowed plumes. The schoolmaster of the village was also greatly impressed with the uncommon power of the preacher. It is to be regretted that many more things of this kind were not gathered while the opportunity offered. Those who remember these earliest services of Mr. Spurgeon in the villages around Cambridge some forty years ago are now themselves rapidly passing away.

Speaking as President of the Pastors' College Evangelical Association on May 5, 1892, Mr. James A. Spurgeon gave an interesting account of his brother's early days. The family home at Colchester, he said, was as godly a household as could be met with in a Christian land, the mother, Mrs. John Spurgeon, being the starting-point of all goodness. In one "Life" the amusing statement was made that Charles Spurgeon was sent to Stambourne at the age of eighteen months because he was "one of seventeen"; but as he was the first-born, that was hardly consistent with fact. He returned to his parents' roof when between five and six years old, and after that went only during holiday time. The household at Stambourne was also of the most godly sort, old Mr. James Spurgeon being an earnest preacher of the Gospel, with a magnificent voice. He is still well remembered; and the President of the Association made the confession that his first notion of a joke was derived from his grandfather. One day, when a number of friends were congregated together, someone said, "Mr. Spurgeon, how much do you weigh?" "Well, that depends on where you take me," replied the veteran preacher; "in the balances I should be found wanting, but in the pulpit they say I am heavy enough." At first that explanation was hardly apprehended by the child listener, but presently he was found laughing in company with more elderly people. Thus, while such an uncompromising Puritan, both as regards his theological belief and his habits generally, the old pastor could indulge in fun after the manner of his more distinguished grandson in after days.

Mr. James Spurgeon also remembers his grandmother, the wife of the Stambourne pastor. She was remarkable for her good-nature to children. On one occasion when he visited Stambourne as a delicate boy, Master James was to have no pastry, a maternal order which somewhat disconcerted the good grandmother, who appears not to have been herself unless children could enjoy themselves. The old lady would not let it appear that she directly disobeyed orders from Colchester; but she whispered to her grandson the information that in a certain cupboard a plentiful supply of tarts could be found, and left him to help himself. He soon discovered that a mistake had been made, and learned that a mother's restraint was better than a grandmother's indulgence.

According to Mr. James Spurgeon, his brother got much good at Stambourne, but he was nevertheless chiefly indebted to the good influence of the home at Colchester. It is thought to be a wonderful thing that Mr. John Spurgeon was able to give his sons so good an education as he did. They had the best that could be given them, and the school-books, which are still treasured, are evidences of the thoroughness with which the work was done. While the younger brother kept rabbits and so on, the elder kept to his books. He had a mind "as capacious as a barn," and he began to be a tutor as far back as could be remembered. He also made such progress as few could have equalled, and perhaps none surpassed.

Mr. James Spurgeon further remembers when his brother began to preach; for the younger usually drove the elder in the family pony-chaise to the appointed preaching-stations. The Spurgeons' home at Colchester was a rendezvous for preachers, where rest and refreshments were to be had. While delivering some of his earliest discourses, Charles was regarded as a wonderful preacher by his brother; a rare kind of unction attended his sermons, and the impressions made on the country people were as deep as ever was the case afterwards in the town. He was a marvellous example of a preacher leaping at a bound full-grown into the pulpit; and though in after years there might be more depth and spirituality, there was not more genius. There was more of God's Word and its meaning at a later date; but his earliest recollections of his brother were, Mr. James Spurgeon said, the brightest and the best. He remembers his going to Waterbeach, the impression made, and the wonder there was in the Colchester household. He was a God-made and God-sent man—he was sent to the age; and his memory was one of unalloyed joy and happiness.