Chapter 26: The Founding of the Pastor's College

Chapter 26.
The Founding Of The Pastors' College The Work commenced—Mr. T. W. Medhurst—His History—Becomes the first Student—Early Difficulties—George Rogers the first Tutor—Spurgeon's favourite Institution—A Work of Self-denial—An American Testimony.

When Mr. Spurgeon had been in London about two years, the work of what afterwards became known as the Pastors' College was commenced; but neither the young pastor, nor those associated with him in encouraging a few young men who desired to preach the Gospel, had any idea of the extent to which this service would develop. They seemed to be providentially directed to the work, and in every stage afterwards they believed that God was opening the way. "C. H. Spurgeon's first student," as he is still called, is Mr. T. W. Medhurst, pastor of Hope Chapel, Cardiff; and to tell something of his early life-story will be the readiest way of showing how the college was really commenced.

Mr. Medhurst, who was born in the same year as Mr. Spurgeon, was associated with the Strict Calvinists; and while, as a young man, he carefully avoided all low and vicious tendencies, he really understood little or nothing of that heart religion of which to many the young preacher of Southwark had become the prophet. The theatre had a fascination for him which he could not resist; he devoted many of his week-nights to the drama, and on the Sabbath he regularly attended the preaching of James Wells at the Surrey Tabernacle. The discourses of that pulpit orator exercised a wonderful influence over young Medhurst, who, feeling secure in the citadel of Antinomian doctrine into which he had retreated, felt perfectly safe while endeavouring to serve two masters.

It has already been mentioned that Mr. Medhurst stepped into Maze Pond Chapel early in 1854, and heard what he believes to have been Spurgeon's first platform speech in London. The speaker seemed to show the possession of some extraordinary qualities, and having thus met him at a Sunday-school anniversary, Mr. Medhurst was tempted to hear him at New Park Street Chapel. At first, however, he actually trembled at the thought of leaving a teacher so sound in the faith as James Wells to hear a mere Arminian like Spurgeon. It was leaving the assembly of the saints to hear an adventurer, who was giving the people a stone in place of the true bread; and though he summoned sufficient courage to enter the chapel, he felt that it would be a righteous judgment if the walls fell and crushed so notorious an offender out of existence. The sermon happened to be one of a rousing kind, founded on Hos 6:3—"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." It turned out that Mr. Spurgeon was no Arminian after all; and the discourse made so deep an impression that the young tradesman gave up the theatre, and saw himself "a sinner, lost, ruined, undone." The state of his mind may be judged of from the letter he sent to Mr. Spurgeon, as follows:—

"Will you be kind enough candidly to inform me whether I have any room for hope that I belong to the elect family of God, whether Jesus Christ His Son has died for me, while my affections are in the world? I try to pray, but cannot. I make resolutions only to break them. I from time to time listen to you when you speak of the glory set apart for the saints, when you describe their joys and their feelings, but I feel myself as having nothing to do with them. Oh! sir, that Sunday morning when you spoke of the hypocrite I felt that you described me. I go to chapel to hear the Word preached, I return home and make resolutions; I go to work, then out into the world, and forget all until the time for preaching comes again. I read the Bible, but do not feel interested; it seems no more to me than a book I have before read, dry and insipid. Christ has said that of all who come to Him He will not send any away. How am I to come? I feel that. I cannot come. I would if I could, but I cannot. At times I think that I will give it all up, that I will not go to chapel any more; yet when the time comes I cannot stay away, but feel compelled to go again once more. Do, dear sir, tell me how am I to find Jesus? How am I to know that He died for me, and that I belong to His family? Dear sir, tell me, am I a hypocrite?"

After a time, but not before he had passed through an experience similar to what Mr. Spurgeon and John Bunyan himself had endured, young Medhurst found peace of mind, and was ever afterwards considered by the New Park Street pastor as a son in the faith. He was baptised in September, 1854. On a recent occasion Mr.

Medhurst gave an interesting account of how the college really came to be commenced:—

"Immediately after being baptised, though I bad not then any idea of entering the ministry, I commenced preaching in the open air at Baukside, Southwark, and also on Tower Hill and at Billingsgate Market. Two persons who were drawn into the church at New Park Street by my preaching soon after I started led Mr. Spurgeon to suggest that I should prepare myself for pastoral work. I was just then out of my time. I consented to the proposal, and immediately arrangements were made by Mr. Spurgeon with the Rev. C. H. Hosken, of Bexley Heath, where I went to reside, once a week spending several hours with Mr. Spurgeon (who was then lodging at 75, Dover Road, Southwark), and studying theology with him. After having been preparing for the ministry six months, I received an invitation to preach at Kingston-on-Thames, and this led to my receiving a unanimous invitation to the pastorate of the Baptist church there. Acting on Mr. Spurgeon's advice, that invitation was accepted temporarily until two years of study had expired. It happened in this way:—Mr. Spurgeon himself made arrangements with the church that in addition to the amount they were giving me for my services they were to give him the amount he was expending in the payment of my tuition at Bexley Heath; and at the expiration of the first quarter he handed me a cheque, saying, 'That is yours; the deacons would not have given that extra if I had not put it in the way I have done.' On my refusing to accept the cheque he at once said that as ho had given the money to the Lord for two years he must take a second student. In that way the Pastors' College was commenced. After being with the Rev. C. H. Hosken (who is still living at Norwich), I studied with the Rev. George Rogers, at Albany Road, Camberwell." The above will clearly show how the idea of the college took shape in Mr. Spurgeon's mind. The young pastor's preaching, like a trumpet-call of one of the old prophets, was bringing in young men from the world, and they were, in many instances, anxious to engage in Christian service. The success of Mr. Medhurst was an encouragement to take others, so that before long the work of education had developed into quite a costly institution. One of the chief difficulties at the outset was that of getting the necessary funds; for the students taken in were generally of a class too poor to do anything in the way of paying for their own support, while there would have been little or no hope of their being accepted by any other college. Mr. Spurgeon's ideas of educating students were thus not of the conventional kind. While he did not undervalue scholarship, mere educational acquirements alone were never any recommendation; his aim from the first was to assist and encourage men who were already preachers. Both Mr. William Olney and Mr. Winsor, as deacons of the church, were in hearty sympathy with the new enterprise, and contributed liberally to its support. The next difficulty was that of finding a suitable tutor, a man who, to ripe scholarship, united soundness in the faith. In regard to funds, the establishment of the weekly offering at the Sabbath services ensured a regular income; while the very kind of Principal needed was found in George Rogers, then pastor of Albany Chapel, Camberwell.

Although an uncompromising Pædobaptist, Mr. Rogers was otherwise a man quite after Mr. Spurgeon's own heart. He was born in 1799, and lived to be the oldest Congregational minister in England. Like Mr. Spurgeon, he was an Essex man, and his birthplace, Ardleigh Hall, was not far from the spot where in Puritan times a famous preacher known as Roaring Rogers carried on his ministry. George Rogers was one of a family of thirteen, all of whom strongly adhered to nonconformity. George even refused on principle the offer of a free education at Cambridge University. As it was, he completed his studies at Rotherham College, and on coming to London as a very young man, he served for a time as assistant at the Weigh House Chapel, London, under Dr. Binney's predecessor, John Clayton. He afterwards settled for a time at Upminster, and he was young when he returned to London to take charge of the congregation at Albany Chapel. In London Mr. Rogers settled down to hard work, and desiring, above all things, the sphere of a theological professor, he actually prepared himself for such an office. To discover such a man just at the time he was needed was quite "a find" for Mr. Spurgeon. The pastor of Albany Chapel was then fifty-seven years of age, and being so well qualified for what was required of him, he entered on his new duties with the greatest satisfaction. His acceptance of the orthodox doctrines was as hearty as that of Spurgeon himself, while he was Catholic-minded, witty, and judicious. In the early days of the college the students were lodged in the house of Mr. Rogers, and from the first the tutor showed that he was willing to make sacrifices for the enterprise. When on one occasion the funds were low, Mr. Spurgeon suggested that he should sell his own carriage and horses to aid the cause. The tutor would not listen to such a proposition, and declared that he would even prefer to make sacrifices himself. Mr. Rogers became in time so ardently in love with the work that he was wont to say the college could do better without him than he could do without the college. His students contracted the greatest love for him, and few, indeed, ever departed from the evangelical doctrines which were even dearer to the Principal than life itself.

There can be no doubt that the college was Mr. Spurgeon's favourite institution, and in one place he speaks of it himself as "his first-born and best beloved." The importance the young pastor attached to such educational effort was shown by the self-denial he was prepared to exercise in order that the work might be vigorously maintained. When we think of a young man who had recently married, and who was still under twenty-three years of age, devoting a main part of his income to such service, his wife in the meantime practising the most rigorous economy in the household in order to enable him to do it, we shall not doubt his enthusiasm. Mr. Spurgeon thought he saw a great opportunity, and he was determined to seize it. Like the young pastor's method of preaching, the idea of this college was in itself sufficiently original to be an innovation, and as such it was regarded both by friends and objectors. The constituency catered for was unlike that for which any other college provided. In all other similar institutions married men were not eligible for admission; but Mr. Spurgeon would not be hampered by any hard-and-fast rules. Even a young married man, who could be made more useful by a couple of years' theological and literary study, would be taken in. Another might actually be settled in the ministry; but if by leaving his people for a time he could be helped to become a more effective preacher, he also would be welcomed. In short, the design was to help men who were already preachers to become better servants of God and of the Church—workmen who needed not to be ashamed. So long as he detected genuine talent for the work, Mr. Spurgeon did not greatly concern himself in regard to a young man's educational shortcomings. They could be in some measure repaired; but zeal in Christian service was not to be acquired apart from a change of heart effected by the agency of God's Holy Spirit alone. The pastor always looked with extreme suspicion on a man who proposed himself on account of the possession of exceptional literary talent, whether genuine or imaginary. From time to time a few somewhat ludicrous examples of self-satisfied genius came before him, but with keenest eye and unerring judgment Mr. Spurgeon never failed to take the measure of such men; and none knew better than he how to administer an effective quietus to such aspiring egotists. From the first, the founder of the college never favoured the idea of lodging a considerable number of young men under one roof. It is true that for a time the household of Mr. Rogers included the whole of the students, but that was not a permanent arrangement. When the number increased they were lodged in twos and threes in houses surrounding the Tabernacle; and when the college building itself was erected about eighteen years ago no accommodation for lodging students on the premises was provided.

Mr. Spurgeon's experience in this service confirmed him in the belief that he was doing the right thing, and that his methods were such as would be most fruitful in good results. He was always a man who adopted Christ's way of judging a tree by its fruits; and in this instance he saw fruit which yielded satisfaction while it inspired gratitude. Objectors arose who insisted that he was training men for whom ministerial spheres would never be found; or that the prescribed curriculum was quite inadequate to equip preachers for active service whose early advantages had been so inconsiderable. The most conclusive answer to this objection was found when the young men made spheres for themselves in the Colonies, or in the foreign mission field; or when, as often happened, they secured some of the best positions at home. This has actually occurred in more cases than can be mentioned.

Since the college was Mr. Spurgeon's favourite service, we shall find, as we proceed, that he devoted to it his best energies. Year by year, beginning with 1865, we shall find him at the annual conference, on each occasion giving one of those instructive and stimulating addresses which seemed at the time to call forth at once all his powers and all his enthusiasm. Friday afternoons were devoted to the students; and the lectures then given can never be forgotten by those who heard them. It was a work of self-denial all along so far as the founder was concerned; but he never grudged either the toil or the money that it cost him.

Since Mr. Spurgeon's death, one of his American friends has remarked concerning this work:—

"The curriculum of the Pastors' College has been criticised as too meagre, and as not affording the student an education sufficiently comprehensive for the times; but it ought always to be remembered that the plan of study adopted by this institution was never designed to be a substitute for university training, and its President never under-estimated the value of higher and ampler advantages. Nor should it be forgotten that until within a recent period it has not been an easy thing for Nonconformists to obtain the privileges of Oxford or of Cambridge. Indeed, I have the honour of being myself acquainted with one among the first of dissenting scholars permitted to graduate at Cambridge, and he is not yet an exceedingly venerable gentleman. We must consequently make allowances both for the peculiarities of Mr. Spurgeon's surroundings and for the pressure of necessity for what may seem to be superficial in the Pastors' College. It was devised and inaugurated as an institution for practical equipment, and as such it has unquestionably justified its existence. While the students may not have been taught the art of interweaving much of polite literature in their discourses, and while they may not have been able to acquire the rare lucidity of their President's style, nevertheless they have received valuable and accurate information. They have likewise obtained a complete knowledge of Holy Scripture; and have listened to sagacious suggestions regarding pastoral duties, and cautious against overdoing, against fanaticism, and against perpetually running after this or that tribe of religious gipsies who insist on encamping in the environments of God's holy city."

Such a testimony from the New World the late President of the Pastors' College would have greatly valued.