Chapter 20: Mr. Spurgeon's First Printed Sermon

Chapter 20.
Mr. Spurgeon's Calvinism A Service at Unicorn Yard Chapel—A Centre of High Calvinism—Extracts from the Sermon-Extension of Mission Work at New Park Street—Opening of a Ragged School.

Soon af ter his return from Scotland in the year 1855, Mr. Spurgeon preached a memorable sermon at the old chapel in Unicorn Yard, Tooley Street, on behalf of the Ministers' Relief Society. This charitable agency had been formed not very long before by Mr. Charles Waters Banks, who was then pastor of a church which met in a chapel in Crosby Row. Mr. Banks soon afterwards removed to what he called his Old Vicarage in Unicorn Yard. He had a great love for this place, and we find him speaking of the old sanctuary in a truly affectionate manner. Mr. Banks succeeded in interesting his friend Spurgeon in the work of what he had called the Gospel Ministers' Relief Society. As pastor of the church in New Park Street, Mr. Spurgeon was already a member of the Particular Baptist Fund, which his predecessor Benjamin Stinton had founded in 1717, and he would be expected to make a collection annually for that institution. He nevertheless appears to have had a strong liking for the supplementary agency which his friend and neighbour had founded. Accordingly, on Wednesday evening, August 29, the young pastor might have been seen walking along Tooley Street towards Unicorn Yard. He was probably in better spirits than he would have been a year before, for the work to which he had set his hand seemed to be going bravely forward; and while the national outlook was less disheartening, Mr. Spurgeon himself was more firmly established as the most prominent preacher of the age. The war with Russia still went wearily on; but some occasional success had elated the French, and the Queen and Prince Albert had just returned from their eight days' visit to the French Emperor at Paris, where some brilliant pageants had been witnessed. The sermon preached on the occasion referred to was entitled, "Christ's Prayer for His People," and the text was John 17:20 —"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." The sermon itself is very characteristic of Mr. Spurgeon's early style, and as such the passages which follow will be acceptable to all who are interested in the preacher's early progress in London. It will be noticed that the distinguishing doctrines of Calvinism are strongly insisted upon. To those who were not fully in sympathy with them, these sentiments, so boldly expressed, would, no doubt, be sufficiently distasteful; but to the High Calvinists, who regarded James Wells and Charles Waters Banks as representative apostles of sound doctrine, the question must have suggested itself whether Mr. Spurgeon was not really being drawn into closer sympathy with the stricter denomination. In the introduction the preacher dwelt on Christ's peculiar love for His people:—

"In the very opening of this subject one feels inexpressibly delighted to see the wondrous love of our Saviour towards His people. He here promises that He will intercede for everyone of them before His Father's throne. He declares that He not only prays for 'these'—that is, the elect who are called out from the ruins of the fall—but that this intercession also arises for those who are yet uncalled, unconverted, and unregenerated. Mark the depth of His affection—He spends all His time continually in interceding for His people. I marvel at the condescension of Jesus Christ—that His people's name is ever on His lips. When we consider that, notwithstanding all His exceeding grace and affection towards them, they transgress and rebel, it appears wonderful that He should mention their names, or that He should regard their persons. But when we remember that day by day in that land where there is no night, He who stands before His Father's throne bears perpetually on His breast their names deep-cut in the precious jewels and stones of the breastplate, and always with outspread hands pleads for them, we cannot but admire His love for them, and feel a deep veneration for that grace which makes Him declare—'For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.'

"You must note here also the peculiar knowledge which our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has of all His people, as well as His particular love for them; for He says He prays for those who are yet uncalled. Now, none of us who have faith in God, none of those called and led to believe in Jesus, are unknown to Him. He knows His redeemed as well in one condition as another. He knows which of two drunkards shall turn and become one of His family. There are none so sunk into the depths of sin and wickedness that, if they are His by the covenant of His grace, do not even now share His intercession. He knows His beloved when there is no mark to know them by. He discerns His sheep when to other people they seem like wolves and goats. He recognises His family when they are black as the tents of Kedar, and He knows they shall be fair as the curtains of Solomon. He knows His children when they do not know themselves; when they fancy they are lost beyond rescue, or when they foolishly conceive that they can save themselves. Tea, and when all hope fails them, when it seems that the Lord does not know them, and the Gospel does not know them—when no Christian knows them, and the minister can give them no comfort, Christ knows them even then, for still it is written, 'I pray for them'—I pray not for the world, I pray also for those whom Thou hast given Me out of the world; who have not believed yet; but who shall believe through the word of those who are already called.

"Another thought before we pass to the subject; for we like to suggest a few of these thoughts just to start with, as they are in the text. The other thought is this—mark how Jesus loves all His people with the same affection. Ho could not pray for those few who in His lifetime had believed, without suddenly (to speak after the manner of men) recollecting that these were but a handful; and, therefore, He stirs Himself up, and says, 'My Father, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe'; as much as to say, These are not My especial favourites because they are converted so early; I do not love these better than others—I pray for those also who shall be called. I pray as much for one of My people as for another. It is well said by one of the Apostles, 'There is no difference'; and verily, beloved, there is no difference in the affection of God towards His children. There is an elect out of the elect, I will acknowledge, as to gifts and standing, and as to the labour which they may accomplish in this world; but there is no election out of the elect as to a deeper extent of love. They are all loved alike; they are all written in the same book of eternal love and life. They were all purchased with the selfsame precious blood of the Saviour. One was not purchased with His foot, another with His hand, but all with His very heart's blood. They are all justified with the same righteousness, all sanctified by the same Spirit, and they shall all enter into the same heaven. I am not sure that there will be any difference in degrees of glory; one star may differ from another star in its peculiar colour and form, but not in brightness or in lustre; they shall all shine alike as stars for ever and ever. They are all saved by the same grace; loved by the same love; heirs of the same inheritance; and Jesus Christ puts them altogether when He says—'Neither pray I for those alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word'!" The first point insisted on is, that God loved His people before they believed. Christ would never pray for those He did not love; and thus such prayers were different from those of the hypocrite. There were too many hypocritical prayers, and they were not worth picking up in the street; they were even wicked. That God loved His people before they were in a state of grace was shown to be a Scripture doctrine, although many talked against it. If men came to God, it was owing entirely to grace. All this brought out the Calvinistic belief of the preacher, so that when, in the second place, he explained the use of a Gospel ministry, he had to take some notice of the objections which would be urged against his teaching:—

"Now, then, the second thing—the use of a Gospel ministry? Now, many captious and cavilling persons will object—'You may say that God loves His people, and, therefore, they will be saved; then what is the good of your preaching?' Then what is the good of preaching! When I say that God loves a multitude that no man can number, a countless host of the race of men, do you ask me what is the good of preaching? What is the good of preaching! To fetch these diamonds of the Lord out of the dunghill; to go down to the depths, as the diver does, to fetch up God's pearls from the place where they are lying. What is the good of preaching? To cut down the good corn and gather it into the garner. What is the good of preaching? To fetch out God's elect from the ruins of the fall, and make them stand on the rock Christ Jesus, and see their standing sure. Ah, ye who ask what is the benefit of preaching, because God has ordained some to salvation, we ask you whether it would not be a most foolish thing to say, because there is to be a harvest, what is the good of sowing? There is to be a harvest, what is the use of reaping? The very reason why we do sow and reap is, because we feel assured there is to be a harvest. And if, indeed, I believed that there was not a number who must be saved, I could not come into this pulpit again. Only once make me think that no one is certain to be saved, and I do not care to preach. But now I know that a countless number must be saved, I am confident that He shall 'see His seed; He shall prolong His days': I know that if there is much to dispirit me in the ministry, and I see but little effects, yet He 'shall keep all that the Father has given to Him'; and this makes me preach. I am not among those who say—'Who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?' at present; but if I could say that, nevertheless, I know they will be saved, and that would comfort and cheer me, and make me go on again. I come into this chapel to-night with the assurance that God has some child of His in this place not yet called; and I feel confident that He will call someone by the use of the ministry, and why not by me? I know there are not a few souls whom God has given me through my ministry, and not hundreds, but thousands. I have seen some hundreds of those who profess to have been brought to God through my preaching in Park Street and elsewhere. And with that confidence I must go on. I know that Jesus must have a 'seed,' His people must increase, and it is the very purpose of the ministry to seek them out and bring them into God's fold. Our Saviour tells us the use of the ministry is, that they may 'believe on Me through their word!' There is one peculiarity about this. It says, 'They shall believe on Me through their word. Have you never heard people call out about running after men? They say, 'You are all running after such a man!' What, then, would you have them run after a woman? You say, 'The people go after one particular man!' Who else shall they go after? Some persons may say, 'Ah, I went to so-and-so, and the people there love their minister too much—oh, it is worshipping a man.' Ah, that is very dreadful, no doubt. But then it is not so. There is very little love towards our fellow-creatures anywhere, and so far as ministers being in danger of being ruined by love, it very seldom falls to their lot. Very generally they get quite as many kicks as anything else; and if they do get too much love in any particular place, they get too much of the reverse somewhere else. If we get a little sweet, somebody else is sure to put in much that is bitter. Is it not singular that the Holy Ghost should say—'that they may believe on Me through their word'? Now, do God's people believe through the word of the ministry? We know it is written, 'We do not receive it as the word of man, but as, in truth, the word of God.' Our faith does not stand in the word of man, but in the word of God. We do not rest on any man, yet it is through their word—that is, through the word of the Apostles, through the word of every faithful minister. I take it, the Gospel is the minister's own word when he speaks from experience and manifestation. What is in the Bible is God's word; what God speaks to me by experience becomes my word as well as God's. And it is then their word, when ministers come into the pulpit with the word in their hearts. I think a minister is not only called to preach what he finds in the Bible—the mere naked doctrine—but what he has experienced in his own heart—what he has tasted, and felt, and handled. If he does this, he will be greatly in danger of being charged as an egotist. He will use too many 'I's' very likely. Well, he cannot preach John Smith's experience, or anybody else's experience; he can only preach his own, and then he will have to say 'I.' But if he does not preach experimentally what he has felt himself, it will not be 'that they may believe on Me through their word.' When we speak that which we know, and testify that we have seen and felt; if we say we know the Saviour will pardon sinners because He has pardoned us, then it is not only God's word, but our word. If I say to a child of God—'Go, and cast thy burden on the Lord, and thou wilt find relief,' and I say 'I have done so,' then it is not only God's word, but my word. When he has proved the Saviour's word by experience, then it becomes the minister's word, as also when he has it manifested to him by the Holy Spirit. Some people say that these manifestations are all nonsense. I have heard many object to applied texts. Such men do not understand much about the real law of piety, or else they would see texts manifested to them at one time which they had never seen before. I know many of my ministering brethren who now testify that they have sometimes taken a text and tried to break it. They have smitten it with a sledge-hammer, but they could not get an atom off it; and they have had to throw it aside. But another time, my friends, when that same text comes before us, though it seemed hard as granite when we took it up in our hands before, it now crumbles and breaks in pieces. Why? Because God's Holy Spirit shines upon it now, and He did not do so before. And we might have continued hitting it till we broke the head of our hammer, and not a scrap would come off it; but the manifestation afterwards reveals the text; and most texts are to be learnt so. It is not by sitting down in deep thought often that you get at the meaning. It is by leaving it until in some hallowed hour of high spiritual intercourse we get into the very secret chamber where the meaning of the text lies. In some solemn moment we dive down into the very depths where the meaning of the text is hidden. God teaches us the meaning, and then it becomes our word. It is ours by application; and we believe, my brethren, that sinners will be converted to God only by preaching the Gospel we find in our hearts, 'known and read of all men!' That they also may believe on Me through their word!

"Let us then come into our pulpits with this determination (I speak to my brethren in the ministry), that by the help of God we will bring our own experience to bear upon it. We will sometimes talk of ourselves, and not be ashamed of it, for whatever the Lord our God saith unto us, not only in His word, but by experience, and by His Spirit, that we speak to the people."

Notwithstanding all, however, God could do without ministers if He chose. When it was insisted that ministers were necessary, it was speaking of them as concerning men, and after the manner of men. The preacher continued:—

"With God ministers are not necessary. He could do without them. I thought to-day as I walked along, 'God could do without me.' I thought of many men who were preaching, and I thought, 'God could do without them; strike them all away, and God could do without them.' I thought of some members of my church, dear to me, who seem to be pillars of it, and I thought, 'What could I do without them?' And then the thought came across my mind, 'God could do without them.' The people of God would still be saved just as well without them if God so pleased. God is enough in Himself, without the addition of any one of His preachers. When He made angels it was not because He wanted them. He could have accomplished His will without the wing of a flaming seraph, and without the voice of a glorious cherub. When He made the stars it was not because He needed them. He was light Himself without the light of sun, stars, or moon. When He made man it was not because He wanted man, it was because He would make him, and for no other reason. There was no necessity for it. He would be the same eternal God were all His creatures dead; and if He were to blot out those lines of wisdom and grace written in the universe, He would be just as glorious and great as ever. And especially in the Gospel ministry God can do without His servants. But this being a dispensation of means, He is not a God acting without means. God does not do without them, though He could if He would. God elected His people without ministers; He did not want any ministers to help Him in that. He redeemed His people without ministers. What great divine could have helped Christ to redeem His people? Tea more, He can, if He please, call His people without ministers; for we know how some have become the subject of grace by the reading of the Word without the assistance of the ministry, and some in the Sabbath school have received the words of eternal life. This should make our pride subside at once. I know it is a great honour, and should comfort us much, to know that God is making use of us; but He could, if He pleased, well enough accomplish His ends and purposes without you and without me. If to-morrow we were laid low in our coffins, and if our people should go out weeping because their pastor was dead, God has other men whom He could raise up; or, if He did not choose to raise other men up, He could perfect His ends without us. And, possibly, there is a time coming when Gospel ministers shall not be wanted; when men shall need no man to say to his brother, 'Know the Lord, for all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest.' There may be happy days coming, 'when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea'; and when there shall be no need of the messengers upon the mountains to 'make glad the city of our God'; when the sunshine of the Lord shall supplant our poor farthing rushlight, and when Jesus shall 'come in His glory, and all His holy angels with Him'; and we shall have too much to do to stand and admire Him, without standing up to men to preach concerning Him who is present in their midst." The orator went on to show that God would never do without ministers; that so long as there were a people to he gathered in, according to the elective grace of God, there would be those abroad who would gather them in. He then proceeded to say some trenchant things about the true and the false "successors of the apostles":—

"Christ says in the text, 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.' Someone may object and say, 'Yes, but their word signifies the word of the apostles.' Then another person might say, 'Are you the successors of the apostles?' There has been a vast deal of fudge in these days about 'the successors of the apostles.' We have people who pretend to be the successors of the apostles. There are the Roman Catholics; they are the successors of the apostles. But, I think, if Peter and Paul were to come and see their successors, they would think there was a mighty difference between themselves and them. By way of parable, suppose the Virgin Mary, Peter, and Paul should come one Sunday and go to a cathedral; well, when they entered, the Virgin heard them singing something to her honour, and praise, and glory; she jogged Peter, and said, 'What are these people after? they are worshipping me. 'My Son said to me, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" He never worshipped me,' she said; 'let us turn out of this.' They stopped a little longer, and they heard one of them say that the apostle Peter was the head of the Church, and his successor, the Pope, was therefore the head. Peter jogged the Virgin Mary and said, 'What a lie that is; I was never head of the Church at all. Did I not fall into sin? I head of the Church! A pretty head I was.' Soon afterwards Paul heard them preaching justification by works. 'Come out,' said he, 'there is no Gospel here; I preached justification by faith without works, and they are preaching justification by works'; and so, upon that, they all three of them went out. By-and-by they came to a place where they heard them singing, 'Glory, honour, praise, and power be unto the Lamb that sitteth on the throne'; and they heard them speak of those who were 'kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' 'Ah,' said Peter, 'this is the place, and here I will stay.' Those are the successors of the apostles who are like the apostles. Are those the successors of the apostles who take our money from us by force to pay for their religion? Are those the successors of the apostles who go to brother so-and-so's house and take away his table, and his spoon, and his candlestick to pay rates for a religion he does not believe in? I should like to read about a church-rate in Corinth, or about the apostle Paul distraining upon some man in Jerusalem. Such men successors of the apostles! They may be in godliness—for holy men are sometimes very much mistaken—but they are not like the apostles. I say again, those who are like the apostles are their successors; not men who are ashamed to speak to anybody else, because they think they are above them; not those who cannot speak plain words. Oh! have we not some ministers to understand whom you need take a dictionary always to chapel with you? Do you call them the successors of the apostles? Tour judgment answers 'No.' A downright honest man, who speaks what can be understood, who declares God's Gospel in unmeasured terms, as God would have him speak it, he is a successor of the apostles; and it is through their word (the apostles' word, and the successors of the apostles) that men are to be saved. Successors of the apostles! I am as much a successor of the apostles as the Bishop of Bath, the Bishop of London, or the bishop of anywhere else, and perhaps more so. We are all bishops who are called of God, ordained by the Most High. We trace our ordination to the hands of the Almighty, who has put His hands on our head. There will always be successors. The ministry shall never cease till the latest period of time. Never has there been a spiritual night so dark when there have been no stars to illumine it; never a sky so beclouded that the sun could not shine through it. There have always been some lights; and until the latest hour there shall always be some who are girded with the strength of the Omnipotent, and made strong in the mighty God Jehovah; who shall testify their words, which is, after all, God's word, that thereby men shall be saved.

"Now, my dear brothers and sisters, having directed your attention to the fact that we are quite sure God will always have a ministry and always use it; and since a ministry under God is necessary, though He could do without them, what should we do for them? I will tell you what some people say—starve them. Some people have a notion that a minister cannot preach experimental godliness, if he has anything more than £1 a week; and supposing he should have enough to keep himself just the same as his people, he will get ruined—of course he will! He is subject to infirmities like other people, and, therefore, he will naturally get proud. Money in the pocket of a man who sits in a pew is all very just and right; but if it was in the hands of his minister, it would make him worldly; and, therefore, some people try to starve him. I do not say it is so here, or with my people, but it is so in many country villages. Unfortunately, there are many farmers who could afford to give ranch to the cause of God, who, while their servant Betty sits in the gallery, and pays her shilling a quarter for her pew, the master only pays a shilling a quarter, too. The poor girl, renting a pew at a few shillings a year, gives as much to the cause of God as the rich man who has his thousands. He says, 'I pay my pew rent'; but how much is that pew rent? And there are many ministers among the Baptists who do not get much above £30 a year. They manage to make both ends meet, but how they do it I do not know. They have to keep a shop. And then, on Sunday, many will go away and say, 'It was a very poor sermon; there was not much in it; our minister could not have studied it.' How could he, while he had to stand behind the counter? But Christ's ministers give themselves to the work, because they feel they must preach; and they would rather preach on dry bread than be silent. Now, we have formed this Society, just to help them. I can assure you, if any one of our dear friends stood in the position I have occupied for a single year, when you came to cast up your income, if you felt any benevolence, you would have a very little left; indeed, you would have nothing left if you listened to the claims made upon you. Talk about Baptist ministers being overpaid! I am sure they are worse paid than bricklayers' labourers.

"When the Emperor of Russia sent an ambassador here, he used to have a fine house, and everything else. I do not ask for such grandeur for God's ambassadors; but I ask a decent maintenance; and when they have it not, I think we should do something to help them.

"Now, one other thought. If God sends ministers into the world to preach His Gospel, how ill does it become us to hurt them—'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye.' I have always felt very careful about touching a child of God. You know there is nothing puts a man so much on his mettle as to touch his children. I have seen a father calm and placid, and very gentle—someone has touched his children, the father flashed into his face at once. Do what you like; touch my property, or my house, and I may be vexed; but touch my child, and then my fury comes up at once. He cannot stand that. Oh, my friends, a heavy responsibility rests on the heads of some, even of God's people, if you view it in that light. Touch God's people; touch God's chosen; touch God's favourites; touch God's darlings! Oh, let us take heed! We had better suffer one to pass who professes to be a child of God and is not, than that we should treat harshly or unkindly any of those who really are His. And, I think, if there is any difference in the case of gospel ministers, this has a special force. We should, above all, seek not to injure their character by spreading evil reports about them. They will have enough of that from the wicked world. But we had need be tender of them, and plant a hedge around them to protect them in every way. They are the standard-bearers of Christendom; and if the standard-bearer falls, what a disgrace it brings on everything! We ought to stand by them; pray for them, plead with God for them that He will hold up their hands; for there is very little sympathy and very little kindness in this world."

These extracts will sufficiently show in what light Mr. Spurgeon regarded preaching and preachers. To help this cause ever afforded him keenest pleasure; and many a time has his heart been gladdened by a liberal collection at the Metropolitan Tabernacle for the Particular Baptist Fund.

Reference has already been made to the home mission work undertaken at New Park Street. The day school and missions were in Guildford Street, where larger and convenient premises for the purpose were obtained. In August an excursion of four hundred persons to Rosherville came off, by which a sum of £44 was realised; and on the 9th of November there was a public tea-meeting, at which Mr. Spurgeon presided. Dr. A. Fletcher and others gave addresses; but next to the young pastor himself, the late Judge Payne seems to have been a chief attraction. Just at that time there was a vacancy in the representation of Southwark, and very naturally "the philanthropic barrister," as we find him called, made capital out of that fact. "It had caused much talk, and the question was, who should succeed to the honourable position of M.P.? He thought their chairman (Mr. Spurgeon) was an M.P. already; for he was a Man of Principle, Made on Purpose, to Move the People; a Magnificent Preacher, Marvellously Patient, and Mightily Persevering." Mr. Payne went on to speak of four classes of preachers—"the freezing, the teasing, the pleasing, and the squeezing." Then what about causes and effects? In the pastor he detected juvenility, capability, versatility, and true humility; the effects of which, as seen on that Lord Mayor's day, were "A stirring call, an opening ball, a social greeting, and a glorious meeting." The fact that Mr. Spurgeon thus early engaged in aggressive mission work shows him to have been in hearty sympathy with the ragged-school crusade, of which at that time Lord Shaftesbury was the distinguished leader. Though more squalid than it is now, London had then more novelties to arrest the attention of explorers, and the low-lying quarters on the south side of the Thames had many relics of olden times which have since, in numbers of instances, been improved away. Mint Street, one of the old sanctuaries in which criminals had been wont to retreat, was still one of the notorious plague-spots of London. There the first case of cholera in the terrible outbreak of 1832 had occurred. The Mint was still what one writer had called it—"the land of death, through which the pestilence stalked, like a destroying angel, in the deep shadows of the night, and the open noon of day." Despite its squalidness at the time of Mr. Spurgeon's coming to London, however, the district was one of singular interest. The houses remained just as they had been built two or more centuries before. "There is a smell of past ages about these ancient courts," remarked one writer of the period. "The timber of these old houses looks bleached and dead, and the very brickwork seems to have been never new. In them you find wide, hollow-sounding, decayed staircases, that lead into great ruinous rooms, where echoes are only awakened by the shrieking and running of large black-eyed rats, which eat through the solid floors, through the wainscot, and live and die without being startled by a human voice." The people who inhabited the lower apartments of some of these antique dwellings seemed to be peculiar to their district; and if you had seen them standing at the entrances of their courts to enjoy a view of the outer world of the main thoroughfare, you would not have included them among "the working classes," or with any class at all apart from themselves. Such was the home mission field which in those days may be said to have been attached to the New Park Street Chapel, though others also worked in it. One of the most curious places of its kind in London was the famous Farm House of the Mint, which, as a common lodging-house, had two hundred beds in its forty rooms. In the great kitchen preachers from Surrey Chapel held services. In the case of Mr. Spurgeon and his people, work similar to that inaugurated at the Guildford Street Hall grew on their hands, until the Metropolitan Tabernacle was surrounded by many such stations. Although times have altered, some of these are still really of the old ragged-school type—such, for example, as the station at Lansdowne Place, in the vicinity of the notorious Kent Street, in the rear of St. George's Church.