Chapter 18: mr. Spurgeon And The Strict Baptists

Chapter 18.
Mr. Spurgeon And The Strict Baptists

Interest of Friends at Cambridge—Mr. George Apthorpe—Mr. T. W. Medhurst's Recollections—Mr. Spurgeon's First Platform Speech in London—Further Accounts of the Cholera—Death of Mr. Josiah Denham—Mr. Spurgeon's Address at the Grave-side—The Strict Calvinistic Baptists—James Wells—Charles Waters Banks—Questions as to the Character of Mr. Spurgeon's Teaching—Extracts from Early Sermons—"A very Questionable Personage"—The New Park Street Pastor portrayed.

The friends at Cambridge continued to feel the keenest interest in the progress of the young preacher who had gone out from their midst. When he took charge of the congregation at Waterbeach the fact had been duly recorded in the church records; and when he set out for London he was followed by the prayers and good wishes of many friends. The day before he finally left Cambridge he told Mr. George Apthorpe of his plans for the future, and added that he did not intend to study harder in London than he had done in the country. By that he simply meant that there would be no mere showing off in the metropolis; and that the needs of Londoners being identical with those of country people, he would continue to do as he had done—to preach the Gospel to the best of his ability, still looking for Divine help in the service. As one of the earliest friends of the great preacher, Mr. Apthorpe has many sunny memories of him, and he treasures many letters which he received from time to time. It is a singular fact that when the publication of the New Park Street discourses began in London, the booksellers of the University town did not deign to traffic in them. For a long time such readers as desired to possess the numbers had to make their purchases at the grocery establishment of Mr. Apthorpe, who naturally felt more than ordinary satisfaction in thus acting as the Cambridge publisher of his former companion in the St. Andrew's Street Sunday-school. In course of time the booksellers included Spurgeon's sermons in their ordinary stock; and when it was no longer unfashionable to read such productions many purchasers were found for them.

There are still a few persons remaining who have vivid recollections of what took place in 1854. Among these is Mr. T. W. Medhurst, now settled in the pastorate at Cardiff, who believes that he was privileged to hear Mr. Spurgeon's first platform speech in London. On a certain day in the early part of the year in question, and even before Mr. Spurgeon was actually chosen pastor of New Park Street, an anniversary meeting of the Sunday-school at Maze Pond Chapel was held, Mr. Spurgeon being among the speakers. Then Mr. Medhurst saw and heard his future friend for the first time. Sufficient impression was made for the questions to go round, "Who is he?" "Where does he hail from?" And the answer came from those who did not know very much about the matter, "He is a young man from Waterbeach, who is supplying at New Park Street not far away."

"Before he was really elected to the pastorate of the church in New Park Street, I heard him make what was probably his first platform speech in London, at Maze Pond, the occasion being the annual meeting of the Sunday-school. The grandfather of Mr. Archibald G. Brown was in the chair; so you see the relationship of the two churches, originally one, had promise of continuity. No doubt Mr. William Olney introduced him to us, and knew he would help the cause. What a stripling he then was! What an impression he made! It was then that he related the difficulty he felt when a child as to how the apple got through the narrow neck of the bottle, and then the application, 'Oh then you must put it in while it is a little one.' And again at about the same period he preached a sermon in the same chapel one Sunday afternoon for one of the societies, when my mother pronounced judgment on him and said, 'He will be a second Whitefield!' The minister of Maze Pond, the Rev. John Aldis, at once foresaw for him a very distinguished career, and was the first amongst the London ministers who took him by the hand, and Mr. Spurgeon never forgot it. For he was not so generally well received by his brethren. As to what was said, that is better forgotten, for nearly all of them came round to him at last. But at a devotional meeting, where Mr. Spurgeon had been invited to be present, a London pastor prayed for our 'young friend who had so much to learn, and so much to unlearn.' The narrator of this told me, however, that it did not at all affect him, nor did he betray the least feeling of annoyance. The importance of a united diaconate was never made more palpable than in Mr. Spurgeon's settlement at New Park Street. They were mostly men of middle age, and with much experience of the exigencies of church life. Had it been otherwise, how different might have been the pastor's career! 'Tis true there was one opponent who would not give in to the last, and his attitude necessitated the services being continued in the old place even after the Tabernacle was built, and it was not till his death that the building could be disposed of."

Some references have already been made to the alarming prospect in the summer of 1854, occasioned by war and pestilence. Writing on this same subject early in the autumn, Mr. Spurgeon's early London friend, the late Charles Waters Banks, draws a dark picture of the surroundings of a South London pastor, although there was the cheering fact of an abundant harvest:—"The scenes around us have been of the most solemn character. We could not walk the streets but we saw the doctors driving hither and thither—hearses, mourning coaches, and funeral processions, at almost every turn; and the unhappy tidings constantly coming of one and another suddenly removed from this world of sorrow and of sin. These are indeed heart-aching days for the fallen sons of men; our faces have turned pale; our spirits have trembled."

Mr. Banks himself suffered from an attack of cholera; and when here and there a friend died the national trouble seemed to come home to the individual heart. Among those who died suddenly was one of the first of the steadfast friends who stood by Mr. Spurgeon on his first coming to London—Mr. Josiah Denham, of Unicorn Yard Chapel, who had greatly profited by his ministrations at New Park Street. Mr. Denham was, in life, a great benefactor of the poor, although little was known of what he did among them. He died on September 1, and the funeral took place on the 5th at Nunhead Cemetery. Several ministers took part in the funeral services, but the most interesting feature was the eloquent address at the grave-side by Mr. Spurgeon. This has long since been forgotten, and will now be read with new interest. It was as follows:—

"Sleep on, my brother, sleep on; for so He giveth His beloved sleep! Though thy bed be dark and cold, thou shalt not be alone; for thy dust is guarded by angels. Though thou art covered by the earth, thou shalt hear the trump of the archangel; thou shalt throw aside thy cerements, and in an incorruptible body thou shalt awake from thy long sleep. Oh, my friends, let us die with him; for to the believer death is the consummation of life; it is the close of the conflict; the sheathing of the sword. Sleep on, my brother, sleep on! The battle is fought, and thy work is done!

"But dost thou sleep? Doth thy spirit slumber? Nay! nay! Thy body sleeps, but thou art far away from that cold clay. Methinks I hear thy voice beyond the clear sky. Methought I heard thee! Tea, thou art there, my brother—thou art there! Thy voice comes down to me like sweet music. I hear thee say, 'I have washed my robe, and made it white in the blood of the Lamb.'

"Oh, can I weep for thee? Dare I wish thee to return? No, thou glorified one! I shall come to thee, but I cannot wish thee back again. Yet I must weep for thee; as of old the weeping" Jeremiah penned the lamentations over a slain Josiah, so would I mourn over thee, my brother! A Josiah indeed! Could benevolence have kept thee alive, thou hadst not died. Could religion have warded off the death-shaft, thou wouldst not lie there. But these avail not to avert the hour of death. With all thy loveliness and kindness thou wast a mortal, and mortals must die. Oh, tenderly beloved of thy wife, she could not save thee from the tomb! Nor can the mingled tears of sons, and brethren, and friends, restore thy form to life. But the word of the Omnipotent shall do it. The voice of Jesus shall arouse thy sleeping body. As a sinner thou hast died; but, accepted in the Beloved, thou shalt live.

"Oh, thou hast no righteousness of thy own; but thou hast an infinitely better one. He who loved thee with an everlasting love has clothed thee in a spotless robe of righteousness, and through His merits thou art received within the pearly gates. Farewell, my brother, till the resurrection morning!

"Now, my fellow-mourners, there is much to mitigate your woe; much to cause you joy; the dark cloud has a silver lining: 'Ye sorrow not as those without hope.' Follow the track which he pursued—the footsteps of Jesus—and may you, an unbroken circle, meet around the throne." When Mr. Spurgeon settled in London there was one other preacher on the south side of the Thames who had an extensive following, and whose chapel, better known as the Surrey Tabernacle, was thronged at every service. I refer to the late James Wells, a pulpit genius of great powers, who, notwithstanding some prejudices, and an impetuosity which led him to make some mistakes, is still remembered as a chief apostle of the nineteenth century by members of his denomination. He was a Strict Calvinistic Baptist, he was regarded as being more extreme in his views than the pastor of To this "Veritas" replied a month later:—"In regard to Mr. Spurgeon, I am not sufficiently acquainted with his line of doctrine to make any particular comment upon his amalgamation with this or the other sect. But in reference to Mr. Wells, whose views of truth I love and cherish, I must confess it as my honest opinion, that I cannot see why his preaching the Gospel of God's free grace to Wesleyans should prompt us to believe any better things of them than has been represented. Neither do I see it mitigates his principles, or renders him in fault as an ambassador of the living God. He is by no Scripture authority commanded to contract his labours, or limit them among any one class."

New Park Street; but at the outset of Mr. Spurgeon's London career, it seems to have been a question with many whether he would not eventually cast in his lot with this body. How he fraternised with them is seen by his friendship with Mr. Charles Waters Banks, by his visits to Unicorn Yard Chapel, by his taking part in the funeral of Mr. Denham, and by the assistance soon afterwards given to The Christian Cabinet weekly paper, which had a Strict Baptist for its editor. Thus it happened that Mr. Spurgeon's early critics viewed him from two separate standpoints, one being that of the extreme Calvinists, to some of whom the young preacher was a mere legalist adventurer; the other, that of those who were in the via media of Baxter, if they were not Arminians outright, and to these Mr. Spurgeon's talk about the predestination of sovereign grace was distasteful. Mention has been made of the way in which other London ministers held aloof from the New Park Street pastor—the chief exceptions being Dr. Alexander Fletcher, and Paxton Hood; it may now prove interesting for the reader to learn how he was regarded by the more pronounced Calvinists. The fact of Mr. Spurgeon's amazing success was candidly admitted. "But then very solemn questions arise," said the monthly organ of the Strict party. These "solemn questions" turned out to be of a very searching kind, as, for example, "What is he doing? Whose servant is he? What proof does he give that, instrumentally, his is a heart-searching, a Christ-exalting, a truth-unfolding, a sinner-converting, a Church-feeding, a soul-saving ministry?" In starting such questions, and in endeavouring to give what he wished to be accepted as an impartial answer to them, the editor of the magazine referred to had to write with excessive caution, well knowing that his constituency was divided in opinion in regard to Mr. Spurgeon's claims to be recognised as a duly qualified preacher of the Gospel. The editor himself was favourably disposed towards Mr. Spurgeon; but knowing that his individual testimony would go but a very little way with his hard-headed subscribers if unsupported by the opinions of others, he was glad to be able to show that believers as sound in the faith as himself saw some good—at all events a promise of good—in the youth from Waterbeach. One genial comrade wrote to him in this reassuring strain:—

"I went last night to hear Mr. Spurgeon at Park Street, and after much squeezing got into a seat. It appeared to me that a very great number, after ineffectual attempts to gain ingress, went away again without being able to hear him. He preached from these words: 'He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' And, much to my satisfaction, he delivered a short, pithy, and, to me, powerful epitome of the grand and fundamental doctrines of the Bible; powerfully proving, under the head concerning Christ's satisfaction, that if but one of His elect body, the Church, could possibly be missing at last, He could not be satisfied.

"God has wonderfully gifted this stripling; he has a powerful voice; an easy and abundant flow of matter. In fact, from the impression I was under, upon the whole, I could not help concluding that this young man is destined of the Lord to be a very useful and laborious servant of Christ. He speaks as one having authority, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees of our day. There are some of my friends who regard his youth as an obstacle to their well receiving him; but, surely, God is able to work by means of a David or a Timothy as effectually as by more aged and experienced instruments; and a very few years' time will remove this objection. To all appearance, however, a course of very great usefulness is laid out for this youthful champion; and if he does somewhat closely—but not too closely—insist upon fruits corresponding with a profession of the Gospel, we must not call this legality, when we know him to be sound in the main; indeed, I think this is what the acknowledged ministers of truth, in our time, have long neglected to enforce."

Having explained in what a Divine call to the Christian ministry consists, the editor thought he saw in Spurgeon evidences of having received such a call. In youth he had been preserved from straying into paths of vicious worldliness, and in that respect showed a favourable contrast to many others who had become acceptable preachers of the Word. Mr. Spurgeon was believed to be "as great a lover of free grace and of real Calvinism as any man;" but he was discouraged by those who were too bigoted to accept the truth unless it were expressed in a certain style of phraseology. The Moderates, on the other hand, bit their tongues with rage at what they called his higher doctrines. The most effective way of testing the preacher was to appeal to his teaching, however. Extracts were given from the eloquent discourse on the harvest, while a number of sentences were selected from a powerful sermon on "The Testimony of Christ, and the Christian's Inwrought Evidence of the Truth of that Testimony." As these passages will show how Mr. Spurgeon's utterances at this time commended him to the more charitable of the Strict section, and also how surprising his knowledge of theology was for his years, they may be given in this place:—

"When Christ spake, He always spake directly from Himself. All the rest spake that which they had received from God. They had to tarry till the winged cherub brought the live coal, they had to gird on the ephod and the curious girdle with its Urim and Thummin; they must stand listening till the voice saith, 'Son of man, I have a message for thee.' They were but instruments blown by the breath of God, and giving sounds only at His pleasure; but Christ was a fountain of living water—He opened His mouth and the truth gushed forth, and it all came directly from Himself. In this, as a faithful witness, He was superior to every other."

It was then shown that the testimony of Christ was uniform, and that could not be said of any other teacher.

"Look at Noah, he was a very good testifier to the truth, except once, when he was intoxicated; he was a sorry testifier to the truth then. David was a testifier to the truth; but he sinned against God and put Uriah to death. The same might be said of Isaac; and if you go through the whole list of holy men you will find some fault in them, and we shall be obliged to say they were very good testifiers certainly, but their testimony is not uniform. There is a plague-spot which sin has left upon them all; there was something to show that man is nothing but an earthen vessel after all. But Christ's testimony was uniform. There never was a time when He contradicted Himself; there never was an instance in which it could be said, 'What you have said you now contradict.'" When the Strict Calvinistic critic comes to examine what Mr. Spurgeon had to say about the testimony of Christ in the believer's own experience, he has to confess to being "a little disappointed," for the subject was "hardly touched." It might be that he was keeping the subject back for some special occasion; but in any case, he was urged to be faithful—"Oh, thou valiant little pastor of Park Street! for Christ's sake, and for the sake of poor, tried, and tempted souls, we pray thee hold not back from us a full and faithful declaration of God's gracious dealings with thine own soul!" At the same time, it was not to be supposed that the young preacher never referred to himself: he had done so in a taking way, and probably a promise of better things to come was discerned, e.g.:—

"Oh, beloved, that is the best confirmation of Gospel truths which every Christian carries about with him. I lore Butler's 'Analogy'; it is a very powerful book. I love Paley's 'Evidences.' But I never need them myself for my own use. I do not want any proof that the Bible is true. Why? Because it is confirmed in me. There is a witness which dwells in me which makes me bid defiance to all infidelity, so that I can say—

"'Should all the forms that men devise Assault my soul with treacherous art, I'll call them vanity and lies, And bind the Gospel to my heart.'

I do not care to read books opposed to the Bible; I never want to wade through mire for the sake of washing myself afterwards. When I am asked to read an heretical book, I think of good John Newton. Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, said to him, 'Have you read my "Key to the Romans"?' 'I have turned it over,' said Newton. 'You have turned it over!' said the Doctor. 'And is this the treatment a book must meet with which has cost me so many years' hard study? You ought to have read it carefully, and weighed deliberately what comes forward on so serious a subject!' 'Hold!' said Newton, 'you have cut me out employment for a life as long as Methuselah's. My life is too short to be spent in contradictions of my religion. If the first page tells me the man is undermining truths, it is enough for me. If I find the first mouthful of a joint tainted, I do not want to eat it through to be convinced I ought to send it away.' Having the truth confirmed in us, we can laugh all arguments to scorn; we are plated in a sheet of mail when we have the witness within us of God's truth. All the men in this world cannot make us alter one single iota of what God has written within us. Ah, brethren and sisters, we want to have the truth confirmed in us. Let me tell you a few things that will do this. First, the very fact of our conversion tends to confirm us in the truth. 'Oh,' says the Christian, 'do not tell me there is no power in religion, for I have felt it. I was thoughtless like others; I laughed religion to scorn and those who attended to it; my language was, "Let us eat, drink, and enjoy the sunshine of life"; but now, through Christ Jesus, I find the Bible a honeycomb, which hardly needs to be pressed to let the drops of honey run out; it is so sweet and precious to my taste that I wish I could sit down and feast on my Bible for ever.' What has made this alteration? That is how the Christian reasons. He says, 'There must be a power in grace, otherwise I never should be so changed as I am; there must be truth in the Christian religion, otherwise this change never would have come over me.'

"Some men have ridiculed religion and its followers; and yet Divine grace has been so mighty that these very men have become converted and felt the new birth. Such men cannot be argued out of true religion. You may stand and talk to them from dewy morn to setting eve, but you can never get them to believe that there is not truth in God's Word. They have the truth confirmed in them.

"Then, again, another thing confirms the Christian in the truth, and that is when God answers his prayers. I think that this is one of the strongest confirmations of truth when we find God hears us. Now I speak to you on this point of things which I have tasted and handled. The wicked man will not believe this; he will say, 'Ah, go and tell those who know no better.' I say I have proved the power of prayer a hundred times, because I have gone to God and asked Him for mercies, and have had them. 'Ah,' say some, 'it is only just in the common course of Providence.' Common course of Providence! It is a blessed course of Providence! If you had been in my position you would not have said that; I have seen it just as if God had rent the heavens, and put His hand out and said, 'There, my child, is the mercy.' It has come so plainly out of the way that I could not call it a common course of Providence. Sometimes I have been depressed and downcast, and even out of heart, at coming to stand before the multitude; and I have said, 'What shall I do? I could fly anywhere rather than come here any more!' I have asked God to bless me, and send me words to say; and then I have felt filled to the brim, so that I could come before this congregation or any other. Is that a common course of Providence? It is a special Providence—a special answer to prayer. And there may be some here who can turn to the pages of their diary and see there God's hand plainly interposing. We can say to the Infidel, 'Begone! The truth is confirmed in us; and so confirmed that nothing can drive us out of it.'

"You have the truth confirmed in you, my dear friends, when you have found great support in times of affliction and tribulation. Some of you have passed through trouble, for one can never expect a congregation which is free from it. Some of you have been tried and have been brought very low. And cannot you say with David, 'I was brought low, and the Lord helped me'? Can you not think how well you bore that last trouble? When you lost that child, you thought that you could not bear it so well as you did; but you said, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Many of you have loved ones under the sod—your mother, father, husband, or wife. You thought your heart would break when you lost your parents; but is not the promise true, 'If thy father or mother forsake thee, the Lord will take thee up'? He told thee, woman, that He would be a father to thy children; and hast thou not found it so? Canst thou not say, 'Not one good thing has failed of all the Lord hath promised'? That is the best confirmation of the truth of God. Sometimes persons come to me in the vestry and they want me to confirm the truth outside of them. I cannot do that; I want them to have the truth confirmed in them. They say, 'How do you know the Bible is true?' 'Oh,' I say, 'I never have to ask such a question as that now, because it is confirmed in me. The Bishop has confirmed me—I mean the Bishop of souls, for I never was confirmed by any other—and so confirmed in me the truth that no one can confirm me out of it."

This, and much besides, was regarded by certain observers as being all very good as far as it went; but it was not sufficient to satisfy them. Probably without quite realising the plain fact, they too much despised the New Park Street pastor's youth. Elderly and experienced Christians found that they could not readily submit to be taught in the deep things of God by a divine who was only twenty years old. There were also some who thought that at times Mr. Spurgeon said things which "fell with an ill grace" from the lips of one so young. The answer was, that a preacher free from imperfections would be altogether contrary to the common rule; and it was not doubted that if this youth was spared he would develop into a servant of God of great usefulness and far-reaching influence.

There was, however, a more select coterie of extreme Calvinists to whom any recognition of Gospel teaching outside of their own denomination savoured of apostasy from the truth. One critic of this school asked even of Dr. Cumming, "Who, taught of God, ever once thought his ministry to be that of life and freedom in the Gospel and new covenant sense of the word?" The same writer naturally regarded Mr. Spurgeon as "another very questionable personage"; and as this person's views were representative of one section of opponents, who turned from the young preacher as from a false prophet during the first months of his ministry in London, some passing notice may be taken of them. When the organ of the High Calvinists came out as an apologist for Mr. Spurgeon, there was "unbounded astonishment in one part of the camp." The article was thought to be an oversight committed through excess of good nature, although the belief was also current that "canting professors" had had something to do with the business. If the magazine was about "to change masters, let it do so at once, and the living in Jerusalem will have done with it." Here is a pen-and-ink sketch of Mr. Spurgeon in 1854, drawn from life by the "Job" to whom we have already referred:—

"It is, then, in the first place, clear that he has been from his childhood a very industrious and ardent reader of books—especially those of a theological kind; and that he has united with his theological researches books of classic and of scientific caste; and has thus possessed himself of every kind of information, which by the law of association he can deal out at pleasure; and these acquirements by reading are united in Mr. Spurgeon with good speaking gifts. The laws of oratory have been well studied, and he suits his action to his words. This mode of public speaking was, in the theatres of ancient Greece, carried to such an extent that one person had to speak the words and another had to perform the gestures, and suit, with every variety of face and form, the movement to the subject in hand. Mr. Spurgeon has caught the idea, only with this difference, that he performs both parts himself.

"Mr. Spurgeon is too well acquainted with Elisha Coles not to see in the Bible the sovereignty of God; and too well acquainted with the writings of Toplady and Tucker not to see in the Bible the doctrine of predestination and an overruling Providence; and too well versed in the subtleties of the late Dr. Chalmers not to philosophise upon rolling planets and methodically moving particles of earth and water, each particle having its ordained sphere. But in addition to these he appears to be a well-disposed person: kind, benevolent, courteous, full of goodwill to his fellow-creatures, endearing in his manners, social—a kind of person whom it would seem almost a cruelty to dislike. The same may be with equal truth said both of Dr. Pusey and of Cardinal Wiseman."

Having thus depicted the more pleasing traits in the New Park Street pastor's character, the critic is too conscientious to shrink from completing the portraiture. How characteristic of such a writer is the following passage:—

"But then it becomes us to beware, not only of the rough garment of a mock and 'arrogant humility,' but also of Amalekite-measured and delicate steps, and also of the soft raiment of refined and studied courtesy (Mat 11:8), and fascinating smile, with 'Surely the bitterness of death is past' (1Sa 15:32). But Samuel had too much honesty about him to be thus deceived. We must, then, beware of words that are softer than butter and smoother than oil (Psa 55:21). Not one of the Reformers appears to have been of this amiable caste; but these creature-refinements pass with thousands for religion, and tens of thousands are deluded thereby. It was by great, very great, politeness that the serpent beguiled Eve; and, unhappily, her posterity love to have it so; so true it is that Satan is not only a prince of darkness, but transformed also as an angel of light, and shall deceive, if it were possible, even the very elect." But according to common belief, Mr. Spurgeon was a converted man, one who had undergone a change of heart. "Heaven grant that it may be so, for the young man's sake and for that of others also!" adds the writer already quoted; "but I have—most solemnly have—my doubts as to the Divine reality of his conversion. I do not say—it is not for me to say—that he is not a regenerated man; but this I do know, there are conversions which are not of God." By this it was meant that it was possible to have some knowledge of Christian faith and of practice, and yet not to be regenerated in a Scriptural sense. What were the paths marked out by the prophets and the apostles? "I believe Mr. Spurgeon well capable of talking about those paths; but I cannot see that he is walking therein," we find it remarked. Hence, such a ministry was put down as being "most awfully deceptive," although it might be "morally and socially beneficial to some people." What Mr. Spurgeon was at that time it was believed he would still continue to be. "His orbit may seem to be eccentric, but he will go intellectually shining on, throwing out his cometary attractions, crossing the orbits of all the others, seeming friendly with all yet belonging to none." The attraction of the preacher for the multitude consisted in a fine voice, and a capacity to use in the pulpit the materials which he so industriously collected in his study. In that respect he was a rebuke to such as were idle, and who, while pluming themselves on being sound in the faith, were tempted to think that hard work could be dispensed with. At the time this discussion among the High Calvinists as to whether the pastor of New Park Street Chapel was worthy of their recognition as a preacher of the Gospel, created much excitement among the members of the Strict Baptist denomination. The chief assailant, some of whose strictures have been here quoted, appears to have been himself a minister in an influential position; but Mr. Spurgeon took no notice of the attack. In after years, he had many friends among the body which The Earthen Vessel represented; but I am not aware that his relationship to the denomination itself was ever of that exceptionally cordial kind which, when he first came to London, some thought would turn out to be the case.