Chapter 59: Work at the Tabernacle
Chapter 59.
Work at the Tabernacle
Baptist Colleges—London Association—College Conference—Students and Books—The Baptist Union—Evangelists.
According to the custom which he had observed for many years, Mr. Spurgeon preached on the first Sunday morning of 1866 from a text selected for him by a clergyman of the Established Church who lived in the suburbs. The subject was "Unity in Christ," the text itself being the words of John 17:20-21, "Neither pray I for these alone," etc. The discourse was able and helpful, and struck an excellent note at the threshold of a year which had been anticipated by self-constituted prophets as certain to be a year of supernatural wonders. There were those, as we have seen, who professed to expect that the Lord himself would come in 1866. As the organ of the evangelical Presbyterians, The British and Foreign Evangelical Review at this time gave a survey of Mr. Spurgeon's work, viewing him "as a man, as a preacher, as a divine, and as a Baptist." The Presbyterians and the Particular Baptists being then in hearty sympathy as regarded their theological beliefs, Spurgeon's teaching was generally commended; but when the writer came to view the great preacher as a Baptist his attributes were not so pleasing. In regard to the Baptismal Regeneration Controversy, the Review sided with the evangelical clergy, and declared against Mr. Spurgeon in no half-hearted manner. "We are compelled to endorse the excellent letter by Mr. Baptist Noel, and to say that the charge thus brought by Mr. Spurgeon against the evangelical clergy of the Church of England is as indefensible as it is injurious and uncharitable. In one point of view," it was added, "we might even characterise it as partaking of ingratitude; for nothing admits of being more clearly demonstrated than that to this unhappy dogma of baptismal regeneration, as held by many in the English Establishment, the communion to which Mr. Spurgeon belongs owes much of its success in England." That is to say, people were driven from a church, which they believed taught a semi-Romish doctrine, to seek a home among a body whose methods and teaching emphatically protested against it. The great success which had been achieved by the Pastors' College at the time now under review can only be fully realised by comparing the receipts with those of other similar institutions. Thus the denominational paper gave the following in a leading article:—
"Baptists are not unmindful of the necessity of a collegiate training for their ministers, nor is the amount contributed to college funds indicative of any lack of interest in the work. Bristol rejoices in an income of £1,663 11s. 3d.; Rawdon reports its receipts at £1,412 2s. 6d.; Regent's Park possesses an income of £2,047; Chilwell receives yearly about £740; while the Pastors' College, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, has an annual income almost equal to the combined receipts of Bristol, Rawdon, and Regent's Park, expending, and therefore, so long as under the management of Mr. Spurgeon, receiving £5,000. In the Principality, the college at Pontypool reports its income at £951 15s. 7d.; Haverfordwest at £853 19s. 41/2d.; North Wales at £460 5s. 9d.; making the total for Wales upwards of £2,226. Scotland, several of whose ministers have been educated at one or other of the national universities or in England, has but one college, whose income last year was £250. The Baptists of Great Britain have nine colleges, which are educating 264 young men, with a yearly income of £13,379. It is significant and suggestive that one college receives nearly a third of these students, and more than a third of these receipts. Evidently Mr. Spurgeon and his friends are more earnest and liberal in the work of providing collegiate training for the ministry than are the major part of our pastors and ministers." To those who had merely been familiar with the work of the older colleges, it was a matter to excite amazement when ninety-three students could be received into one institution, the income of which not only sufficed to support them and their tutors, but actually left over something for chapel-building besides. Nor could it be said that those who went out from the College were not successful, for the settlements of students which were constantly being chronicled showed otherwise. Thus, early in 1866, Peniel Tabernacle, Chalk Farm, a large and beautiful chapel, was erected through the efforts of Mr. Swann; and accounts of the successes of former students came about the same time from Dunfermline, Aldeburgh, and Bedford. The annual meeting of the church at the Tabernacle was always a great occasion with the members, so that it was only an average gathering when 1,500 sat down to tea on the evening of January 24. The current expenses of 1865, including some repairs and alterations, etc., amounted to £3,333. In addition, a sum of over £700 was dispensed to the poor of the congregation alone, while a number of smaller sums had been voted to missions both at home and abroad. The treasurer who made the statement was then the venerable "Father" Olney, who in the early days of the Tabernacle was a very familiar figure among the deacons on the preacher's platform. During the year 1865 no less than 438 persons were baptised, and the total membership now stood at 3,258. A series of revival meetings were held during the month of February, and a powerful impression appears to have been made, especially among the younger portion of the congregation. The first meeting of the newly-formed London Baptist Association was held on February 7, at Bloomsbury Chapel. The Association at this time represented sixty-four churches. Mr. Spurgeon, who showed the greatest possible interest in the new brotherhood, gave a stirring address. The outlook at this time was thought to be of the most promising kind. The second conference of the College opened on Monday, March 12. On the following morning the members assembled at Upton Chapel, Lambeth Road, when the President gave the annual address from the chair. In the evening, about four hundred friends, who were subscribers to the Institution, assembled at the Tabernacle, being specially invited to tea and supper. The account for the year, as related by Mr. Spurgeon, was thought to be a marvellous story. About £4,400 had been expended in the twelve months, of which close upon £1,600 had been subscribed by the contributors to the weekly offering at the Tabernacle. Referring to the income in general, he said that it had all come in spontaneously, and it was not intended ever to seek to have a roll of subscribers on whom dependence would be placed.
"Believing it to be God's work, they looked prayerfully and with confidence to Him to send the means necessary for its maintenance and prosecution, assured that when these failed the time would have come for giving it up. The funds had at times been very low, but never wholly exhausted. The amounts received had been spent in the most economical manner possible: chiefly upon the students' board, and in the purchase of books for their use. Mr. Spurgeon reminded the meeting that there were charges in connection with this College not incurred by any other. It sometimes happened, for example, that students had to be clothed as well as fed and educated; while, beyond the limits of the College proper, large evening classes were conducted, into which any Christian young man in business might enter and receive a good education free of all cost, except, perhaps, in the matter of elementary books. From these classes many of the College students had been obtained. Proceeding to specify the settlements of students during the year, Mr. Spurgeon mentioned the names of no less than a score of young men who had gone forth, either to gather new congregations or to revive old and almost defunct Churches, and who had met with success that in several cases seemed perfectly marvellous, and in nearly all exceedingly gratifying. It was pointed out, moreover, that the most rigid discipline is exercised in respect of the students, and that men who discover unfitness for the ministry, in respect either of their talents or characters, are dismissed. Mr. Spurgeon deeply regretted to say that some who had turned out badly were sent to him with the strongest recommendations, and that others whose aspirations for the ministry were discouraged and repressed by their pastors and the Churches to which they belonged, had proved themselves to be divinely called to the work. He begged that ministers and gentlemen would never recommend to him any young man about whose character and qualifications they had the least doubt, or unless they knew him thoroughly. To do otherwise was to commit a grievous wrong, and that in many ways. Testimonials ought to be sacred things, and not signed, as they often were, on mere hearsay evidence.. Regarding the Chapel-Building Fund started two years ago, to which £5,000 was to be paid in during five years, to be lent out without interest, £2,500 had been received, and the whole of it lent; and this was not more than half the sum that could be so employed with excellent effect, if it; could be obtained." The students were encouraged to purchase books by having them supplied at a cheap rate; while settled pastors who needed assistance in chapel-building were assisted in their enterprise by having money lent to them free of interest. An endeavour was also made to teach the men the value of life insurance; and as editor and proprietor of The Sword and the Trowel, Mr. Spurgeon offered to give the profits of the magazine to a fund for reducing the premiums. It was a very animated meeting, although the absence, through illness, of Sir S. M. Peto, who was to have presided, was a disappointment. "In the course of the supper a gentleman offered to give £100 to the funds of the College, on condition that £1,000 were subscribed during the evening. Lists were sent round, and by half-past ten o'clock it was announced that £750 had been contributed, without reckoning the conditional £100. Numerous further sums were speedily promised, and no less than £907 were obtained before the proceedings closed at eleven o'clock."
Mrs. Bartlett's service had now gone on for seven years; the work was increasingly valued by the pastor, and we find it characterised as "one of the most remarkable classes of modern growth." In Mr. Spurgeon's eye the class was in itself a large congregation, which needed the undivided attention of its teacher. The members were accustomed to contribute to the funds of the College, and on April 13 they met together and presented the President with £100. We find it remarked, in connection with this meeting, that "the service, which is conducted by this remarkable lady with only casual assistance, consists of singing, a prayer, and an address, sometimes founded on a passage from Scripture, and as often from an incident which has occurred during the week, and which has been impressed on the mind of the teacher. The addresses are simple in character, and are delivered with considerable eloquent earnestness." As the members of the class had furnished a stall at the bazaar, the £100 now presented did not represent the whole of their gift; so that, while speaking of the spirit of self-consecration manifested by the class, Mr. Spurgeon expressed surprise at the largeness of the amount. Their work was one of love and devotedness, and he blessed God for all that had been accomplished through Mrs. Bartlett. A short printed account of the work of the College was distributed among the company, in which it was stated that the results of the College work had not been paraded before the subscribers, much less before the world; their desire was to avoid boasting and vain-glory, and simply to give the facts in order that God might be glorified, and that the subscribers to the work might be encouraged. "Our plan in London," said Mr. Spurgeon, "has been to do little where we could not do much; to open many rooms, and to start many small communities, in the hope that some of them would live to become self-supporting churches.... Our building fund is of the greatest possible assistance to our good work. We have been much cheered by our success in London, and hope to sow yet more largely in that fruitful field." The College had already supplied nineteen pastors to the London district alone; and in that area eight new churches had been formed which had had chapels built or secured. Ten other churches had been started which needed chapels, while preaching was carried on at seven stations at which it was expected churches would be formed. In addition, several old or decaying churches had been revived. Altogether there were at this time about eighty men from the College who were preaching the Gospel in Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly all of whom were ordained pastors. The Spring Session of the Baptist Union opened at Upton Chapel, Lambeth Road, Mr. Aldis, of Reading, being Moderator. It was noticed that the attendance at such gatherings was much smaller in London than was ever the case in a provincial town. There were only ten spectators in the gallery, whereas at centres such as Bradford or Birmingham, the spectators crowded the space allotted to them. The Chairman's address was on "The True Nature of Dissent." A party of students from the Pastors' College acted as waiters, to whom a vote of thanks was given. To this Mr. Spurgeon himself replied, when the opportunity was also taken of saying something in reply to what a minister present had said concerning students for the ministry. "It is always a great pleasure to differ from Mr. Landels, as well as to agree with him," said Mr. Spurgeon, amid much laughter. "The 'muffs' are the very men who will preach," he added, "and if you do not educate them they will be worse than ever. I find what a friend has remarked—that you get about one good preacher out of every eight students; and I believe that nothing can change that proportion." At the afternoon meeting in the Metropolitan Tabernacle there was a discussion on the education of ministers' children, a scheme having been propounded which would provide a school, the supporters to have votes after the manner of some other charities. This voting system was strongly condemned by many present. Mr. Spurgeon advised that no scheme should be entered upon which could not be carried out; let them remember the advice of Mrs. Glass in regard to the cooking of a hare—first catch it. After referring to the fact that he had himself at one time been the unhappy victim of such a school, Mr. Spurgeon went on to say that he abominated the voting system because it involved a great and useless expenditure of money. "For example," he added, "I have recently received as many as fifty letters at once for the few votes I have in connection with the Orphan School at Haverstock Hill. Of course, I do not answer them, and thus four shillings and twopence is spent upon me alone quite fruitlessly." In the year 1S65 the Baptist Home Mission and the Baptist Irish Society, which for half a century had been separate institutions, were united. On the occasion of the first anniversary (April 26, 1866), at Bloomsbury Chapel, Mr. Spurgeon attended and gave his views on "Home Evangelisation the Work of the Churches." That was in any case a congenial theme, for to such a speaker the extension and maintenance of Gospel work was so far the work of the Churches that societies were to be looked upon as nothing more than a makeshift, until the time should come when the Church would properly understand her proper work. Mr. Spurgeon went on to say:—
"Jesus Christ recognises but one pillar of the truth—namely, the Church of the living God; and the Church is not only the house which He has built, but He also supplies builders for the house. I hope that the societies will flourish, and that God will bless them, but I hope they will grow until they are not wanted, which will be a consummation devoutly to be wished. The day will come when even as a denomination we shall cease to be, because when everybody sees right on the subject of believers' baptism, there will be no need of any distinction. No doubt the way in which societies originate is this: the Churches settle down into the idea, first and chiefly, that the main end of a Church is not to glorify God, but to enjoy itself for ever; they think that 'celestial fruits on earthly ground' will grow without faith and hope; some of them count it to be the end of a Church to maintain a minister, though they do but little of that. The keeping up of the old form of doctrine, the maintenance of the five or of the fifty points, and the contending, not earnestly, but savagely, for the faith, is the first, last, middle, of everything in Church existence. It was a grand thing when Fuller felt that if the Church would not do its work, the work must be undertaken apart from Church organisation, and it is a noble thing that if the Churches will not do their home mission-work there should be a society to take it under its care; but I take it that they will all ultimately come to this—that the Churches, as Churches, will do all the work by the employment of their own missionaries. I believe that this is the tendency of the age, as well as a right and proper principle to act upon. To teach people that it is their duty to work, and that, therefore, the societies are not to do it, would bo dangerous, because it would be pulling down without building up, and would be radicalism without any pinch of the salt of conservatism, which is necessary in all good things, lest they should run to seed, and become bad in the very process of growth. It is only natural that one of the first wishes of a Christian should be to spread abroad in the world those precious truths which only by the grace of God have been made vital to him, and in this respect he is a true revealer of secrets. Even if he were charged by the highest authority to keep silent he would scarcely be able to do it, and I question whether it is not an instinct of the newborn nature to tell the good news to others. Thus, one of the first works of the Church would be that of home evangelisation. Much is said about not allowing small Churches to be formed where they would not be self-supporting, but the attempt to suppress such modes of action would be more injurious than their permission; and if we attempt always to gather up our strength, and to centralise it too much, we might perform an act of spiritual suicide in our attempt to make ourselves strong and healthy. The more we leave everything to the guidance of God's Spirit, we will have to rejoice more in the wonder-working of the Great Head of the Church. We cannot expect to spread much if we go on at the same rate as we have been going. It is not nice to find fault with ourselves, but we do not do all that we should do. We want to grow faster."
It was shown that there were many towns in the country in which there was no Baptist Church, and thus persons of Baptist principles joined other communions. If such were to come out, there would be no difficulty in the matter of forming new interests; but in the meantime, it would be well if persons who were able to do it undertook evangelistic work in a place and then removed to another place. What was wanted, however, was action on the part of the Churches:—
"If the Churches did more in the work of home evangelisation it would be a cure for many ills. Puller said that his Church was in a very sad state, and that there was a deal of quarrelling till someone proposed that they should send a missionary to the heathen, and then they had no time to quarrel. If the Churches have objects before them to work for, there is not much likelihood that the mighty energy which the Baptists possess will spend itself in internal conflicts, but in the service of God. This work will also be a means of spiritual edification. There is no making a thorough soldier unless he sees some real service, and there is no hope of making advanced Christians without setting them to some earnest Christian work. The growth which comes only from meditation will be the growth of the conservatory, but if we work hard as well as pray, we shall grow so that the wintry frost will not be able to bite our root, nor touch our leaf."
Mr. Spurgeon went on to say that he trusted the mission would he carried on in faith, especially in Ireland, where Christianity might seem to be in even a worse state than in England. Was not Ireland really the rampart "which, if taken, might lead to the taking of the whole length of the wall?" He urged them to prayer, to call down the divine aid, and then advised the employment of a number of earnest evangelists. It was maintained that there were many who, though unable to preach in a refined style, yet understood how to get the ear of the people. "If I were a wealthy man," added Mr. Spurgeon, "it would seem to me to be one of the grandest things I could do to find a man who was really fitted for the work of an evangelist, and to give him a yearly salary—£100, or whatever I could afford—to go round from place to place preaching the Gospel; and if judicious persons could be selected for this, they would do great service to the cause of Christ." By way of illustrating what might be done by earnestness and perseverance, something was mentioned which had happened at the interesting little Buckinghamshire town of Winslow, which had been so intimately associated with the work of Benjamin Keach. A young man at Winslow had gathered a congregation in two years, and had actually sent to the Pastors' College for a pastor to settle in the sphere he had made. Just at that time Colportage had been revived in England as a new enterprise in connection with the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and this was recommended, although the notion then hazarded that the colporteur might become a self-supporting agent was afterwards found to be a mistaken one. The practice of Sunday-school teachers meeting their classes on week-nights was also recommended, while it was thought, too, that catechetical classes might serve a useful purpose. Though they were not in love with class-meetings as held among the Wesleyans, they still seemed to need something of a similar kind. The idea of employing evangelists as suggested was thought to be a good one, and the Hon. Baptist Noel, who was present, suggested that the experiment should be made.