Chapter 58: Mrs. Bartlett's Bible Class

Chapter 58.
Mrs. Bartlett's Bible-Class The Origin of a Great Class—Presentation to the Editor of The Christian World—Mr. E. H. Bartlett's Reminiscences—Spurgeon and the City Missionaries.

One of the largest Bible-classes ever collected was gathered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and the conductor, Lavinia Strickland Bartlett, was ranked by the pastor among his chief helpers. This lady was a widow, whose husband had died of cholera; and having commenced Christian work when quite a young girl, she went forward until her success in teaching a class of young women—first at New Park Street, and afterwards at the Metropolitan Tabernacle—drew forth many an expression of surprise and admiration. On a certain Sunday afternoon in the year 1859 Mrs. Bartlett consented to take a senior class which had only three in attendance; but after persevering for a month, notwithstanding that she suffered from an affection of the heart, Mrs. Bartlett had the happiness of seeing the numbers increase to fourteen; and when the Tabernacle was opened in March, 1861, the total had increased to fifty. Her first meeting in the new chapel was in the upper gallery, before it was finished; but eventually, after one room and then another had proved too small to accommodate those who came, the lecture-hall was occupied, the class gradually increasing until over 700 would frequently be present. By the end of 1865 something like 600 persons had joined the church who came from this class.

Those who were thus willing to accept Mrs. Bartlett as their teacher were not all young women; the majority might be young, but many were as elderly as the leader, or even older. By her daily example as regards dress and other matters, this devoted woman sought to teach her following more effectively than by mere precept. The cases of reformation of character which took place were some of them very striking, and the converts came from various ranks in life. In course of time the claims of this class required that the undivided attention of its leader should be devoted to it; for not only were there week-night meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays, but inquirers were allowed to see Mrs. Bartlett personally at her own residence at any time; and it was on this account that Mr. Spurgeon was wont to speak of the place as "the house of mercy." Collections were also made among the members on behalf of the Pastors' College, and from time to time considerable sums were collected in this way. On one occasion, in company with Mr. Spurgeon and other friends, the late Mr. James Clarke was present, and he wrote out a graphic little sketch of what he saw and heard:—

"Many have probably heard of 'Mrs. Bartlett's class' in connection with the Tabernacle, but certainly nobody who has not actually witnessed its magnitude will possess any true idea of what it really is. That it is a large class of young women conducted by Mrs. Bartlett would be the natural inference, but who would imagine the class to consist of seven hundred members, meeting frequently for loving conference with its devoted President? Every half-year, it seems, Mrs. Bartlett is in the habit of inviting Mr. Spurgeon and a number of friends to meet her class, to hear something of the progress made, and to receive a report of the amount subscribed by the class towards the support of the Pastors' College. It was our privilege to be present, for the first time, at such a meeting on Wednesday evening. The visitors were scarcely less numerous than the members of the class, and made up the company to at least fourteen hundred persons. Mr. Spurgeon, having taken the chair, delivered an animated opening address, and mentioned the remarkable fact that no less than fifty of the young women attending Mrs. Bartlett's instructions had joined the Church, upon a public profession of their faith in Christ, during the past year. What reason had they all to be thankful for so abundant a blessing resting upon the earnest and self-sacrificing labours of their devoted sister! And this was, happily, not at all an exceptional state of things, for conversions had ever attended Mrs. Bartlett's loving ministrations. Since the formation of the class, now some years ago, the goodly number of five hundred of its members had avowed themselves on the Lord's side. Several hours having been devoted to speeches on set themes, of practical religion, by gentlemen leaving the College, upon invitation to pastoral work in the provinces and in Australia, Mrs. Bartlett herself spoke at some length, and with intense feeling, to the female portion of the audience, exhorting them to listen to the voice of wisdom, and to walk in the ways of holiness all their days, looking forward to hallowed joys here and to a blessed immortality hereafter. Mr. Bartlett stated, on behalf of his mother, that the sum contributed by the class during the past six months towards the funds of the Pastors' College was one hundred and three pounds, which he handed over to Mr. Spurgeon amidst the general applause of the audience. Mr. Spurgeon warmly acknowledged the gift, and expressed his thorough conviction that the causa of Christ could not be more surely advanced than by bringing out and preparing young men for the ministry of the Gospel; for let an earnest minister be placed in any position, and there would immediately spring up all those other means and appliances adapted for the instruction and elevation of the people. The sending forth of evangelists from that College had already led, again and again, to the necessity of erecting new places of worship. This fresh work was indeed growing upon their hands, and demanding fresh efforts to accomplish it."

It was on this occasion that the President of the College specially honoured Mr. James Clarke, as editor of The Christian World, by presenting to him, by way of a testimonial, the ten volumes of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, handsomely bound. Mr. Clarke had collected from the readers of the paper a sum of £160 for the Institution; and Mr. Spurgeon felt sure that many readers would be angry that so much money had been given to such an arch heretic as himself. Amid the cheers of the people, the volumes were presented as an acknowledgment from the congregation of the practical interest Mr. Clarke had shown in the progress of the College. The editor accepted the books with sincere pleasure, and said he was always glad of an opportunity of co-operating with Mr. Spurgeon in his many laborious and valuable efforts. "Any earnest man may well feel proud of lending a helping hand to Mr. Spurgeon in his college and chapel-building efforts, whether agreeing with him in all his opinions and ways of doing things or not," added the journalist. "There is this peculiarity between myself and Mr. Spurgeon which makes me feel in some sort as standing on the same platform with the renowned pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle: Mr. Spurgeon preaches habitually to by far the largest congregation in England; and I have myself the pleasure of conducting a weekly journal possessing a circulation greater than all the other religious papers of the metropolis combined, of whatever price. I am quite sure that many of my readers are warm friends of Mr. Spurgeon, and believe that at any time when they are informed that his College funds are low, or that special donations are needed for other purposes connected with the evangelistic work of the Tabernacle, they will be prepared to give liberally according to their means." From this it will be seen that in the year 1865 there was not only a strong bond of sympathy uniting the Southwark pastor and the Fleet Street editor, but that Mr. Clarke had full confidence in the College as an evangelistic institution. He favoured none of the prejudices or objections against it which arose in certain quarters; and, as already shown, he continued to be one of its liberal supporters, when his theology had become much broader than that of Mr. Spurgeon. Some maintained that there were colleges enough; that the setting up of a new one would only create jealousy; and that, consequently, if the pastor of the Tabernacle desired to educate men for the ministry it would be far better to send them to colleges already existing. It was no doubt an innovation; the promoters felt it to be so, but they insisted that it was a special effort to meet a pressing want of the age.

What was greatly objected to was the notion that an effort was being made merely to Spurgeonise the Christian church. It was represented in America that Spurgeon was more and more extending his influence, and that a body of preachers imbued with his own spirit, and copying with "ludicrous fidelity" their Chief's manner and mode of speech, were going forth in all directions. "More and more is Spurgeon separating himself from the general organisation of the religious world, and even of the Baptist denomination, and concentrating his work upon his immense church, his college, and the churches throughout the kingdom that have taken his pupils for pastors," said one New York journal. "If this goes on for another twenty years," it was added, "Spurgeonism will be a vast organic and wondrously vitalised body; and, should circumstances warrant, this body may, as many intelligent Baptist ministers think probable, assume the name of its founder." It was thus assumed that the pastor of the Tabernacle would copy the example of Wesley in founding a sect; but, in point of fact, his action at the date in question was showing directly opposite tendencies. He protested against such misrepresentations. The word "Spurgeonism" was utterly distasteful to him, and in connection with the subject he was wont to say, "Let my name perish, but let Christ's name last for ever!" The heartiness with which he had entered into the business of forming the London Baptist Association showed that he was in full sympathy with existing agencies, and had no desire to form a fresh community.

Having given details respecting the remarkable work of Mrs. Bartlett, it may be added here that a son of that devoted woman was among the converts of Mr. Spurgeon's ministry in London, and being still a member of the church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he continued to the last to be associated with his pastor in Christian service. Mr. E. H. Bartlett has written and published a biography of his mother, to which Mr. Spurgeon wrote an introduction in 1877; and he sends to me the following account of work in which he has been engaged during the long period of thirty-seven years:—"I was brought to the Lord through the instrumentality of C. H. Spurgeon, in 1855, at Exeter Hall, during the enlargement of New Park Street Chapel, was baptised on the first Sabbath of February, 1856, and have retained my membership to the present day. Soon afterwards I was elected to the Secretaryship of the Sunday Schools, Great Guildford Street, Southwark, and remained until the church and congregation removed from New Park Street to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The Mission Hall was given up, and many of the teachers took possession of the schoolroom at New Park Street. Soon afterwards I was called to the superintendence of the school, and continued so till the chapel and schools were sold. From there the teachers and some of the scholars went to a schoolroom in Short Street, Brandon Street, Walworth, as a temporary place during the building of the schoolrooms in Station Road, Walworth, which are attached to the Metropolitan Tabernacle Almshouses. In 1875 I took up my late mother's work, which I still carry on. A special Sunday evening service for the young (which is still carried on by Mr. George Cook) was established. Besides this, there was established a Loan Tract Society (which is still in a flourishing condition); and to this was added a Maternal Society for poor women on the districts. For some years a Police Mission was maintained by the youths of the Special Service, who visited every week the police-stations of the South of London with the late pastor's sermons and other religious periodicals. A Coffee-house Mission was also carried on by the young women, who visited the coffee-houses monthly and left a copy of The Sword and the Trowel for the use of customers. Many were greatly blessed by this means, and led to come under the sound of the Gospel at the Tabernacle. When the Stock-well Orphanage was opened for the reception of children there was commenced a Special Sabbath Morning Service, which is still carried on."

All of these operations are traced back as an outcome, direct or indirect, of Mr. Spurgeon's early ministry. The details are given here as coming from one who is old enough to remember the Essex lad as he was at the outset of his London career, and who remained associated with him in Christian work till the last. From first to last of their acquaintance with Mr. Spurgeon his troops of friends have been struck with his keen interest in all kinds of Christian work, especially among lowly people in London and great, populous towns. His interest in what is called "Ragged London" was stimulated in the days of his youth by reading some of Dickens's vivid descriptions, and that interest became strengthened in later years. Thus, the large number of articles published in The Sword and the Trowel, on Low London, will testify to the editor's deep interest in the work of the City missionaries, and of all who are endeavouring to raise the humble classes from squalor and degradation. His sympathy with the agents of the City Mission in their arduous service was all the greater, probably, because he realised to the full that he himself lacked those qualifications which alone will enable a man to do such work successfully in face of difficulties and obstacles which might well discourage even a Greatheart.

More than once Mr. Spurgeon addressed the assembled band of City missionaries; and on one of these occasions, after cordially thanking the men for their service in the name of the Church at large, he added, "Little can we tell what London would have been without you. If there has been a great moral change pass over it—and I am sure there has—it is owing, doubtless, to the ministry, but equally as much to your untiring labours from house to house. I can scarcely dare to draw a picture of what London would have been if it had not been for the City Mission. I am quite sure that, had it not been for this instrumentality, our ministry would have been utterly powerless, in the darker parts at least of those thickly populated lanes and alleys, where the voice of the ministry cannot be heard." In speaking to the men on earnestness in their work, he could find no better exemplar of an industrious evangelist than Richard Baxter, who himself visited every house in Kidderminster. "There was not a child in the parish whom he had not catechised; there was not a backslider whom he had not warned; there was not a reprobate whom he had not addressed with solemn awe." Thus the whole parish knew that Baxter was not only a preacher, but a pastor in the fullest sense. What was possible in Kidderminster in the seventeenth century, however, was altogether impracticable in London in the nineteenth. "I say honestly, from my inmost soul, I do not conceive myself to be guilty of any dereliction of duty in the fact that I do take only one part of Baxter's work," said Mr. Spurgeon. "It is utterly impossible that I should take the other." If he preached as an evangelist up and down the country, and in such a service taxed his powers to the utmost, that was enough; the pastoral work in London had necessarily to be done by City missionaries, and Richard Baxter was held up to them as a pattern—a man who was on fire in his zeal for God, and who would have been nothing had it not been for his earnestness. That earnestness Mr. Spurgeon recommended to the men as the only proper excuse for invading an Englishman's house; but while thus giving good advice he was willing to accept it himself. "I say that my yearly income is robbery to the Church unless I serve it with my whole soul. And so is yours: if you do not put your whole soul into your work you have eaten bread for nought, you have taken money for services which you have not rendered. The Church does not support you and me that we may be images to look at, but that we may be servants to labour."

Like all great men of his class, Spurgeon was a shrewd reader of human nature; so that even while speaking to a large body of men, such as the City missionaries, he not only realised that they were fellow-workers with himself, but that they were confronted with the same kind of difficulties all round. They had to strive against habit; for even good habits might possibly become antagonistic to zeal, and the preacher was able to illustrate this from his own experience:—"I frequently catch myself, when reading the Scriptures for my own private devotion, looking at the verses to see what sort of texts they will make; and I must confess that, while in private prayer, pleading my own case before God, I find a very strong influence, which would carry me off at a tangent, to pray as a minister rather than as a man." This danger was not peculiar to a class: it was common to all Christian workers. Much as this great man hated what he called "ministerialism," he confessed that he sometimes found its spirit entering into him:—"Unless we look very carefully to ourselves, we get like a machine wound up, and we are something like the toys which sometimes our children have, which only need a certain quantity of sand at the top and they run on until they run down." At times Spurgeon seemed to speak as though there were no honours associated with Christian work but such as those which all workers in common were entitled to share. At all events, the City missionaries occupied a place of honour in the vanguard of the Church militant; and therefore there was reason for enthusiasm in discharging their duties. There was also some excuse for one speaking in glowing terms while advising or exhorting them; and once, when addressing the entire body at the mission-house, he as nearly imitated the style of Robert Hall as ever he did in his younger days, e.g.:—

"I charge you, by the names of those saints of God who have suffered in Christ's holy cause, by all the men and women who in devotedness have given up their whole substance and their whole time to Christ, be ye worthy of this glorious cause. Runners, open your eyes, and look at the glorious assembly that surrounds you. See ye not the cloud of witnesses? Play the man, if ever ye were men—play the man before such spectators. When such spirits look on, who will not run? 'Lay aside every weight, and run with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.' If at the old Olympic and Isthmian games men thought they must strain every nerve and muscle, because Greece looked on, what shall we say to you, when the world looks on, and the Church looks on, and Hell looks on, and Heaven looks on? By all these, the spectators of your warfare, fight—fight lawfully, and win the crown, through the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ."