Chapter 78: At Work Again

Chapter 78.
At Work Again

Re-appearance at the Tabernacle—Americans and the Evangelical Alliance—Spurgeon's Letter—The College, Spurgeon, and "Unorthodox London"—Death of Judge Payne—Annual Supper—Excursion to Scotland.

On the last Sunday of the year, being the day after Christmas Day, Mr. Spurgeon was again in his pulpit at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and preached with all his old power to very large congregations. On the first Sunday of 1870 the morning discourse was "Assured Security in Christ," the text being 2Ti 1:12—"I know whom I have believed," etc. At this time the friends of Spurgeon in the New World were again found indulging the hope that the great English preacher would make a visit to their country. The Examiner and Chronicle of New York had given out that it was not unlikely the voice of the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle would be heard at a notable gathering of the Evangelical Alliance which was to come off in the greatest city of the Republic. To have allowed such a misunderstanding to become common might have caused some mischief, as well as great inconvenience, to large numbers of friends. The following letter was, therefore, sent to New York:—

"Clapham, January 7, 1870.

"To the Editor of 'The Examiner and Chronicle.'

"My Dear Sir,—I observe in your paper a statement that my attendance at the New York Evangelical Alliance meeting was not improbable, and I have observed in other papers remarks to the same effect. Will you, therefore—to save many correspondents further trouble in requesting me to preach, lecture, etc.—kindly give publicity to one or two words from me? I never had even the remotest intention of being present at the aforesaid meeting, and in no form or fashion led a single person to imagine that I should be there. My health is most precarious, and my home-labour is incessant. I am chained to the oar. I cannot leave home, not even to see the thousands of beloved and honoured brethren in America, with whom my heart is warmly united. Moreover, if I could overcome these difficulties I should still be unable to attend an Evangelical Alliance meeting; not because I would not, but because they have thrust me out privily and uncondemned, and I cannot return to the Society unless it repudiates the deed. The secretary wrote me, requesting me to withdraw on account of my sermon on 'Baptismal Regeneration,' and more especially certain remarks in it upon the Evangelical clergy. Of course I did at once withdraw. I have been told by members of its Council that the letter was unofficial, and that they regret, etc.; but there the matter rests. I am under the ban of the Evangelical Alliance, and should not venture to appear at any gathering connected with it, lest my freedom of speech should again be distasteful. There should be an Evangelical Union wide enough even to tolerate such an offender as I am—for I trust I am one of Christ's—and its meetings should be so arranged as not to occasion difficulties with those holding your views upon communion. There could be no objection to those persons holding a united Communion Service who might choose to do so, but there can be no great benefit in such a service being officially arranged by the Society. However, I have no right to give advice, as I am not allowed to be a sharer in the matter.

"Permit me to assure Baptist friends in America that I am not at all the enemy of their strict fellowship which they seem to think me to be. If they would let me follow my own convictions of duty, they would not find me interfering with them. I do not think you are right; but I set very small store by the question, and have neither written nor spoken on the point—as though it were one great end of my existence to fight with the strict brethren! I wish we all had more light, more life, and more love. If I found myself erring against either of these three principles in joining in communion with my brethren, I should be alarmed; but I do not find it so. That, however, you will probably set down to my deficiency in the first, which will be the kindest interpretation. Wishing success to all brethren labouring for Christ,—I am, Dear Sir, yours truly, "C. H. Spurgeon."

On Tuesday, January 11, the pastor and his people entertained the members of the London Baptist Association at the Tabernacle, when an encouraging report was presented. Mr. Spurgeon was one of the speakers, and he undertook to distribute a portion of the collection made at the dinner-table on behalf of poor ministers. At the annual meeting of the College, on January 26, the President was in excellent spirits on account of the success of the year. He was able to tell of thirty-six students who had settled during the year, and, among them, Mr. J. Magee had accepted a professorship at Nashville, Tennessee. There already existed two hundred and twenty settled pastors who had been educated in the College, while fifty new churches had been formed, and thirty new chapels erected. "We do not always get men fitted for the work, and some who appear so at first prove otherwise," remarked Mr. Spurgeon. "We make mistakes. Unless we had the infallibility of the Pope, we are sure to make mistakes; and I suppose if we had we should make more mistakes still. We should probably rely on our own wisdom, and that would turn out evil." The President then referred to the way in which he spoke to the students when they were first taken in hand. "I give them warning that if ever they have known what work was before, whether as brickmakers or tailors, they have yet to know what work is when they come here. Making all deductions that can be made in honesty and by prejudice, there is not to be found any society under heaven that has accomplished such a work as this is, with, the means entrusted to us. We have only to hear of these settlements to know that the hand of God is with us." The conclusion was that the fifty churches which had been added to the denomination were fifty more than would have existed but for the College, the indirect influence of which was also great. The weekly offering, which had been started in the interest of the College, had realised £1,869 in 1869, so that it would probably reach a total of £1,870 in 1870, without any great extra effort. The great attraction of this occasion was the President's lecture on "Bells."

It was a rare thing for Mr. Spurgeon to send a correction to a newspaper, but at this date he addressed the following to the denominational organ:—"Mr. Editor,—You were so very kind as to tell your readers that the little book of my Talk had sold till it had reached nineteen thousand. Now, that was an exaggeration the wrong way upwards, for the public have bought ninety thousand, and the printers are getting out the hundredth thousand. I am just a little proud of this: as the peacock said when he spread out his tail; so please excuse this short note, just to set you right in your counting.

"I hope your Freeman is getting on, for a sound paper is a great blessing to the country, and Baptists ought to be ashamed of themselves if they don't keep you going at a growing rate. I would say more, but I have no end of sheep and lambs to see to at this season, for I have to take my turn as a shepherd as well as a ploughman. I am glad to do anything for my Master; and if I get half a smile from Him I am as merry as a lark.—Yours, always plodding, "John Ploughman.

"February 5."

A series of articles on "Unorthodox London" was now appearing in The Daily Telegraph. The general title adopted by the writer at first sight appeared to be inappropriate or misleading; but the explanation given was more satisfactory: "It is at the point where religious systems, avoiding the trammels of the Establishment, strike the limits of doctrinal orthodoxy that they become important agencies for leavening the masses." The sketch of Mr. Spurgeon and the Tabernacle as a working hive was true in the main. Spurgeon was recognised as a great preacher, but his oratorical powers were thought to be less striking than his great personal influence and the various beneficent agencies which had the Tabernacle for their head-quarters. Take this passage:—

"Never did I witness a happier sight than that which greeted me inside the walls of Mr. Spurgeon's Orphanage at Stockwell, in contrast to the dull, dark February morning outside. Here some one hundred and thirty-five boys are boarded, clothed, and taught. They are lodged—not in large, uncomfortable corridors and halls, but in separate houses, presided over by matrons—each a little home in itself. Nothing can exceed the comfort of all arrangements in this Orphanage. It was 'visiting' day when I was there; but even the attractions of widowed mothers and indulgent relations were not sufficient to distract the attention of chubby juveniles from Mr. Spurgeon, whom they hailed with the greatest enthusiasm, unmingled with the smallest awe. From the Orphanage I passed to the Almshouses and Schools at Newington, close to the Elephant and Castle Station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. In these schools, again, I was struck with the perfect order which reigned. One hundred and thirty boys moved like one compact mass, and sang their part songs most creditably. Thence I passed to the Tabernacle itself. Now, I fancy most persons have the idea that this is simply a 'preaching shop' closed, and doing nothing from Sunday to Sunday. Never was there a greater mistake. It is a perfect hive of busy workers from seven every morning until night. The rooms behind and under this vast edifice are appropriated to the use of the Pastors' College, where young men are trained for the ministry without expense. They are boarded singly, also free, with families residing in the neighbourhood—a plan adopted partly to avoid the temptation of 'collegiate' life, and also to fit the young men for the humble positions in life most of them are destined to occupy. Here, again, dropping in quite unexpectedly, we found everyone at his post, and the whole complicated machinery working without a hitch. In one room we opened the door on some thirty or forty young men celebrating the Lord's Supper. In another we found an aged lady, with some twenty grown-up girls around her, conducting a Bible-class. In the spacious rooms below, tables were being laid for about one thousand six hundred for tea, as the Annual Church Meeting was to be held in the evening. A secretary, with two clerks under him, besides Mr. Spurgeon's private secretary, form the staff required for conducting the correspondence. Nor was this all. In another room was a man up to his eyes in books, whose business it was to manage the 'colportage;' whilst in yet another was a sort of local Mudie's, where boxes of books are packed and sent to former students, now pastors of outlying chapels, and by them circulated from one to the other. Over all this labyrinth I was conducted in the most cheery way by the Atlas who bears on his single pair of shoulders the whole mass; and this is the man whom we are too apt to regard as merely the preacher on Sundays! 'Mr. Spurgeon,' I could not help saying, 'you are a regular Pope!' 'Yes,' he replied, 'though without claiming infallibility. This is indeed a democracy, with a very large infusion of a constitutional monarchy in it.'

"Then, again, with regard to the discipline of this body, which we are apt to underrate. Certainly no system of direction that ever was organised could equal the hold which, by means of his elders and deacons, this pastor has over his flock. 'I have four thousand two hundred members on my Church books,' said he, 'and if one of them got tipsy I should know it before the week was out.' The records of admission to the Church, of 'dismission' to other Churches and reception from them, are kept with the precision of a merchant's books; whilst each member of the Church has a set of twelve communion tickets, all ready perforated, with dates printed, one of which he or she is bound to tear off and put in the plate each month, to attest presence at 'the ordinance.' The punishment, in case of neglect or of moral failings, is censure and excommunication."

Mr. Spurgeon was visited at Helensburgh House, and the journalist was surprised to find him so modest, unassuming, and genial in private life:—

"He pointed me to his book-shelves, where were his sermons translated into French, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch—to say nothing of endless American editions. Many of these foreign versions were produced without the publishers even sending him a copy and were picked up casually by him in his travels. One edition, in large readable German type, he bought at the Leipzic Book Fair. This is enough to turn a man's head, but he speaks of himself in the most modest terms as 'no scholar.'" A service at the Tabernacle produced correspondingly favourable impressions:—

"It was a sound, practical discourse, of upwards of an hour in length, delivered without note of any kind, with all the preacher's old earnestness, but without a single trace of his former eccentricity. There was not a single 'Spurgeonism' from beginning to end—or, at least, the only approach thereto was an assurance that we 'couldn't go to heaven on a feather bed.' Remembering what Mr. Spurgeon was when he came to London, seventeen years ago, a boy of nineteen, one cannot but congratulate him on the change; while the vast building, with all its varied works—happily compared by himself to the cathedral in ancient times—bears witness to the sterling stuff there was in the man below all his eccentricity. What particularly struck me was his constant and copious reference to such authorities as Augustine, Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzen. He also retains all his old fertility of illustration."

Towards the end of March an old friend passed away in the person of Judge Payne, of the Middlesex Sessions, who died rather suddenly, in his seventy-third year. He was a man for whom the pastor and many others at the Tabernacle entertained a sincere regard as a Christian and a philanthropist. As a pioneer in the great ragged-school crusade, Mr. Payne was second only to Lord Shaftesbury himself; and often, indeed, had his quaint jingles and rhyming "tail-pieces" stimulated interest in all kinds of good work. At the annual supper on behalf of the Pastors' College, held on March 30, a sum of £1,300 was subscribed to the funds of the institution. The attendance was as large and as enthusiastic as ever, and Mr. Spurgeon again told the story—of which he seemed never to tire—of how the work commenced, and how it had been continued. He confessed that he had commenced the work because his views of the Gospel, and of the manner in which men should be trained for it, differed from those which were generally held. The Calvinism taught seemed also to be of doubtful quality, and the religious fervour of the students to be far behind their literary attainments. The College funds were sometimes used in keeping men in certain spheres until a congregation was collected. The failures had been very few; and it was shown that some of the most important congregations in England and Scotland were presided over by men who had been trained in the College. One friend had encouraged the work by giving large sums for chapel building. The interest which Mr. Spurgeon ever felt in the young found various modes of expression; and the favour he showed to the Band of Hope movement proved him to be an ardent friend of true temperance—though he was not then a teetotaller. On April 19 his surprising popularity was again demonstrated when the Tabernacle was densely crowded by those who paid from sixpence to half-a-crown for admission to hear the pastor's lecture on "Bells," the illustrative music being rung by the Poland Street Handbell Ringers. Mr. Thomas Hughes, M.P., was in the chair, and after being introduced as "Tom Brown," he said he had for years looked with delight on the work carried on at the Tabernacle. The entertainment lasted from seven o'clock until half-past nine; and at the close Mr. Spurgeon remarked that it was important occasionally to contribute to the innocent mirth of the people; at the same time expressing his belief that it was the right thing for the temperance cause to be shadowed by the Church of God.

One of the principal addresses given during the spring meetings of 1870 was on "Scripture Translation," at the annual gathering of the Bible Translation Society, at Kingsgate Street Chapel, on April 24. The work of the Society is carried on in India, and on this occasion Dr. Underhill gave an account of what had been done. A passage or two from Mr. Spurgeon's address will show how highly he valued the work of the Society:—

"It is altogether too late in the day to talk about the necessity of translating the Scriptures; but it may not, perhaps, be too late to say how wise it is on God's part thai the Bible wants translating. Ever since that unfortunate building speculation of our early ancestors, when the confusion of tongues came upon them, there has been a necessity, if the "Word of God is to be understood, that it should be translated. Great advantages have come of this. We should be thankful that we have the Word of God in the originals in dead languages; otherwise, through the lapse of time, the words must have undergone some degree of change, and we should not have been able at this time, perhaps, to fix their meaning at all. It is a mercy that the translation of the Septuagint was undertaken, because perhaps one day the Septuagint will be seen to be the true interpreter of the Greek of the New Testament. Nowadays it is often tried to prove the meaning of a word in the New Testament from its use in the classics; but that would be found very often to land us in very serious difficulties. Whereas it seems to me that these men have been moved to prepare that version (which is the only authorised version that I know of, since our Lord Himself distinctly quoted it, and therefore authorised it) to give us a specimen of what Hebraic Greek is, in order that we may know how to read the Septuagint; for, of course, no language which man could employ could adequately express the meaning of the Holy Spirit. There must be terms adopted, as we have been told just now—terms a little wrenched from their original meaning, in order that the mind of the Spirit may be conveyed to us. So we have a translation which helps us to the understanding of one of the originals; and the Septuagint comes in to help us in the understanding of the Greek Testament."

It was held to have been an advantage rather than otherwise that missionaries in foreign countries had had to begin by sitting down to translate the Bible. They had thus been close observers, and there seemed to be no way of studying Scripture so good as translating it. The version made by Mr. Carter in Ceylon was pronounced an invaluable one; but while the work was in progress the translator "brought out certain novelties—certain new thoughts and suggestions that could never have occurred to him if he had not studied the language of the people of Ceylon." Thus, in a sense, translations were expositions. There was necessarily somewhat of the individuality of the translator in every version. After a few words on the extreme value of a knowledge of Greek, the pastor went on to show the need of correct translations:—

"I thank God that Babel ever occurred, because I am sure that in the long run, by forcing our missionaries to search the Scriptures and bring out the real shades of meaning, it really contributes to our knowledge of the Word of God. But there is one thing that I may say about translations: whatever they are, I insist upon it that they should be correct. I feel a loathing in my soul to the expression of that sentiment, because it seems to me to be one that ought never to be expressed. Yet there are some who think we might tolerate a mischievous teaching of a so-called God's Word if we could thereby circulate it. There are some of the excellent of the earth who think Baptists altogether wrong in the belief that before circulating the Bible we must endeavour to see that it is as accurate as it could possibly be. Then, if we say a word in favour of those versions that were faulty in years past—faulty through lack of scholarship and other causes—then at once we are charged with being inconsistent. Yet I see not the inconsistency at all. We are not responsible for what was done years ago; we are not responsible for things which are now facts, and which are past recall. But I am sure if we were to send out the Word of God to any missionary with the injunction, 'Mind you translate the Word of God in accordance with the views of the Particular Baptists;' 'Mind you put in no views with regard to the Millennium but those which will consort with the views of the secretaries of the Baptist Mission;' 'Mind you put in nothing at all in your translation but what may accord with Strict Communion views;' or, 'Mind you consult Dr. Steane as to what is orthodox'—there would be raised throughout all Christendom a universal hiss, an exclamation of horror. We should feel it to be a most disgraceful thing." The crotchets of the various members of a committee were not to be respected. If the Word of God trod on anyone's toes, their toes must be moved, because the Word itself was not to be altered. Thus years ago things were not actually left out, but terms were left untranslated. What had the ordinance of baptism done that it was for ever to be shut up in Greek? In translating anyone's work the responsibility rested upon them of giving the author's true meaning; and in quoting Scripture, a solemn awe should rest upon them to compel their giving the true meaning. The address concluded:—

"I dare not—I would not if I dare—send out into circulation a single copy of God's Word which I did not believe to be honest to the Master's meaning. Wo should look to this more clearly. The more we look to it—notwithstanding all the high and good names that might stand on the opposite side of the question—the more it is self-evident that to give God's Word in its purity must be right. We want no names whatever; the matter strikes our consciences. We cannot help doing otherwise than what we are doing. We seem to be shut up to that course; we must follow it. Paul told us that every work of ours will be tried by fire. Let us build, then, as rapidly as we please; if there is aught of error in it, the fire will be sure to find it out. We may talk of scattering fifty millions of the Bible, but if we knew there was an error in it, the fire would find that error out, and a great proportion of the work we built would be consumed like wood, hay, and stubble. Only truth will stand, and only the work that is done by truth will bear the test of ages. I believe a version, with but few copies scattered, that contained God's Word given in honesty and purity would be more likely to have a blessing that should make it immortal than another copy which was circulated by millions if dishonestly made, or which, out of prudence, covered up any part of the truth. After all, good works ought never to be measured by quantity, but by quality. There may be little done by us, but great things may come of it. There may be fifty thousand Bibles in a district, and yet within a few years all might be forgotten. There may be but one Bible there, and that may as yet be unread; but the time will come when it shall be brought out to light, and from its solitary page there shall go forth lightning flashes of the truth, and the idols will be utterly abolished by its power. We must never, because our strength happens to be little, or because our funds happen to be low, be dispirited; we must never make contrasts with others, and compare ourselves among ourselves; but taking our stand upon this firm belief, that to give the Word of God is the right thing to do; and to translate it honestly, translate it entirely, and translate it to the full, and through and through, even if some passages should seem to fall against our preconceived ideas—that is to follow the path of right, which God will bless and which God will own in the long run."

During its spring session the Baptist Union met as usual at Walworth Road Chapel, and the members were again handsomely entertained at the Tabernacle. Mr. W. Robinson, the veteran pastor from Cambridge, said he was glad to meet Mr. Spurgeon in that building, which he regarded as one of the wonders of the world. He went on to say that, as pastor of the church in Cambridge, he had the honour of dismissing Mr. Spurgeon to bis work in London, and he was well acquainted with the preacher's earlier and remarkable work in that county. After dinner reference was made to the Evangelical Alliance and the letter of its secretary, in which Mr. Spurgeon was requested to withdraw from the membership. One speaker held that the action of the officer was illegal. Mr. Spurgeon said he was quite satisfied with the Alliance ignoring the action of their secretary, although it might be a fortunate thing that the secretary did as he did, as he, perhaps, saved others the trouble. He then added that he could not go to New York himself, as he was bound to his work in London. Each man should go to the New World on his own responsibility. Amid roars of laughter it was then suggested that one who was named should cross the Atlantic to represent the Strict Baptists, while another should go to represent the open communion friends. They were not to go in the same vessel, however, and the open communion brother was to return in an orange-box with a suitable inscription.

It was ray happiness at this time to have Mr. Spurgeon for a personal friend; and as an occasional contributor to The Sword and the Trowel I now and then had the privilege of an interview with the editor in his vestry at the Tabernacle, One evening after the over-night service I received an invitation to breakfast at Helensburgh House on the following morning; and that was the first time that I saw the great preacher at home. He was to me at this time a character of surpassing interest, and any details about his personal history or service in London were always eagerly welcomed. It was at this date that he told Mr. (now Dr.) Peter Bayne, who made some direct inquiries on the subject, that he began to preach in 1850, that he had preached one thousand sermons by the time that he was twenty-one, while six thousand more had been given in the fourteen years and some months following. It also appeared that the sermons, as published weekly, had steadily grown in public favour. The sale almost at once went up to ten thousand a week; but in five years that was doubled, and after ten years an average sale of twenty-five thousand was maintained. In, addition to this, there were individual sermons which commanded quite a phenomenal popularity; the one on "Baptismal Regeneration," for example, having attained a circulation of nearly two hundred thousand by Midsummer, 1870. It was also calculated that, exclusive of those which appeared in newspapers and magazines, fourteen million numbers had been issued at the date first named. The American agents had disposed of over three hundred thousand volumes. The translators of Spurgeon were also already very busy. One volume in Welsh had been issued, and three in German. A society at Toulouse and another at Geneva had between them published six volumes in French; while Sweden had three volumes, Holland had two, and Italy one. More out-of-the-way languages, such as Gaelic, Tamul, and that of the natives of New Zealand, had also their translations. In an able article, published in America at this time, Mr. Bayne ventured the opinion that no man who had ever lived had so influenced the human race by means of sermons. These references were made to the growth of the preacher:—

"I have endeavoured to characterise Mr. Spurgeon's style of preaching as it was in the commencement of his career in London. In the matter of his preaching there has been no change, but the manner of it has considerably altered. The best evidence which can be adduced of the sterling intellectual stuff there is in Spurgeon is that all the work he has done has never exhausted him; all the applause he has received has never turned his head. He has gone on improving every year. His sermons have for many years ceased to exhibit any trace of that extravagance of idea and tawdry showiness of style which, in the early period, occasionally characterised them. He has risen to a higher kind of eloquence, to that, namely, which depends on a chain of reasoning knit in iron links and made red-hot by fervency of passion. Such was the eloquence of Demosthenes and probably of Pericles. The gaudy rhetoric which might dazzle a mob was not the instrument with which to lead the haughty and highly-educated men of Athens. Such was the eloquence of Henry Brougham, who in sheer intensity of power, was, perhaps, the first of modern orators. The style of Mr. Spurgeon is now characterised by lucid simplicity and masculine strength. It is not bald, but still less is it meretricious. It is a stream of compact, nervous, glowing speech, intensely clear, and well freighted with meaning. In his earlier period Mr. Spurgeon could not safely have been recommended as a model to young men; but no one who wishes to speak or to write manly, expressive, idiomatic, and perspicuous English will now err in studying his sermons."

After referring to the preacher's published works, and to the ardour with which he had devoted himself to the College, Mr. Bayne referred to the Evangelical Alliance disagreement, to a proposed visit to America, which was now again being debated, and to some other things:—

"It has often been a subject of astonishment to me that Mr. Spurgeon, the greatest man, probably, who has belonged to the Baptist Church in England since the days of Bunyan, and beyond question one of the most remarkable men of genius in his own profession in Europe, should never have visited that country in which is the largest Baptist church in the world—to wit, the United States. He is willing to go, for, great as are his powers, physical and intellectual, the tremendous expenditure of nervous energy to which he has been exposed has told upon his strength, and he has need of rest. But he will not go merely in order to give himself comparative repose. He must be assured that if he comes among them the Americans will do something for his darling objects—his College and his Orphanage. To these, he tells me, his American friends have never contributed a cent, and he thinks they ought to. I cannot say I regret that he is not to visit America in connection with the Evangelical Alliance. It is far better that he should stand on his own feet. He is a man of iron will and importunate self-assertion, and the thorny angularities of his character make him a dangerous member of any happy family of religionists agreeing to put their peculiarities provisionally in abeyance. I have mistaken the character of Americans if they would not give him a hearty reception. They like to see a strong, original, racy, rough-hewn man, though he gives himself out for what he is, and never stoops to coax and flatter. Spurgeon's nature is not eclectic. What he believes he believes decisively, and proclaims vehemently, with peremptory rejection of other views. Herein is his strength; herein also is the limitation of his strength. His conception of Christianity is identical with that of the Puritans and Covenanters, and he will not hear of accommodations to the spirit of the nineteenth century. He looks with coldness upon the Biblical criticism and theological erudition of modern times; he is suspicious of professors' exegetical apparatus, and thinks that if their students are supplied by them in the universities and colleges with a modicum of human learning, they are apt to pay infinitely too high a price for it in losing their simple devotedness and their fervour in preaching the Gospel. In all this he has clearly his grasp on a great truth—to wit, that Christianity is not a thing to be argued about, but to be lived; its home not in the halls of academies, but by the hearths and in the hearts of nations. But it is also a truth that spiritual civilisation and intellectual civilisation ought to go hand in hand, and that if they do not go hand in hand religion will sink either into a superstitious sacerdotalism or a childish pietism. Take him for all in all, Mr. Spurgeon is one of the most characteristic and remarkable John Bulls produced in the present century—a credit to Old England—one in whom all Englishmen take a certain pride—one who, though he is not yet forty years old, has made his mark ineffaceably in the history of his country." The visit to the United States was not destined to be undertaken, but how eager a number of leading men in the Republic were to welcome the great preacher is shown by a passage which appeared in The Watchman and Reflector during the spring of 1870:—

"If Charles H. Spurgeon were to visit America, as multitudes hope he will, he would receive a welcome from the denomination to which he especially belongs that would gratify even his warmest admirers. With Mr. Spurgeon actually present among us, we should like to see the man or the paper that would then denounce his church as a 'nondescript organisation,' a 'hybrid concern,' uttering in theory hypocritical words of delusion, etc. Further, it may not be doubted as to who would then exhibit toward the distinguished London preacher the most consideration, who would be foremost among his 'personal friends,' or who would evince the most pride in him as a bright ornament of the great Baptist denomination. By the way, the fact of Mr. Spurgeon's being open communion—in which The Watchman differs from him as widely as any—does not, we infer, damage his sermons in papers which rely largely on these to build themselves up, and which take particular pains (even at the expense of a perpetually false witness against others) to make it appear that they alone are 'sound' on the communion question." By the death of Sir James Simpson during the spring of this year Mr. Spurgeon lost a much-valued friend. The preacher never forgot the service which the distinguished surgeon had rendered less than two years before when, at a most anxious crisis, he operated upon Mrs. Spurgeon at Clapham.

About this same time a leading Church of England newspaper gave out that an endowment was being raised for the Pastors' College. "Benevolent persons are assisting Mr. Spurgeon to raise an endowment for his institution for training young men for the ministry," it was said; and the argument used was that if Nonconformists thus sought endowments for educational purposes, there was also need for university "endowments given to the National Church" to be held in perpetuity. The Pastors' College had no endowment, nor was any such fund ever contemplated, so that the supporters of that institution had never—as was thought they might have done—"probably conceived that they have been subscribing to a permanent work, to be maintained on its existing footing so long as the world lasts." The excursion into Scotland during May appears to have been in all respects pleasant and successful; and in various addresses Mr. Spurgeon seems to have warmly advocated the union of the free churches. The programme included an address before the United Presbyterian Synod at Edinburgh on "Wednesday, May 11, and services at Dundee on the two following days, including the opening of the M'Cheyne Memorial Church. Services were also arranged for at Cupar-Fife on the 15th, at Dingwall on the 17th, and at Invergordon on the 18th. The services at Cupar were on a Sunday, the congregation being accommodated in the Corn Exchange in the morning and in the parish church in the evening. The admission was by free ticket, to avoid excessive crowding. The seats at the former service were, for the most part, reserved for persons from a distance—Kirkcaldy, and other places in Fife—the people of Cupar being content to hear the great preacher in the evening. The collections were for the Stockwell Orphanage, and amounted to about £100. The people were not satisfied until they had a promise of another visit at no distant date. The address on Christian Work which Mr. Spurgeon gave at a missionary breakfast meeting of the Foreign Mission Committee of the United Presbyterian Church was one of his most telling efforts. It was widely circulated as a tract of sixteen pages; and when I was in Edinburgh in 1873 the stereotype plates were presented to me. The address was included in the volume of Mr. Spurgeon's speeches which I published in 1878. Two or three passages may be given, such as will show Mr. Spurgeon to have been in his happiest mood. In showing that the people should always help the minister, he said:—

"Sometimes, as the President of a college, I have letters sent to me, asking for ministers, in something like these terms:—'Dear Sir,—Our chapel is very empty; our last minister was a very excellent man, but an unpopular preacher'—(I may say, by way of parenthesis, that I suppose he was one of those men who would make good martyrs—so dry that they would burn well)—'and our congregation is very small; can you kindly send us a minister who will fill the chapel?' On one occasion I replied that I had not a minister large enough to fill a chapel. Of course, there came an explanation that they did not expect him to fill it corporeally, but to fill it by bringing others to listen to him, and retaining them as seat-holders. Then I wrote, and to gain this opportunity ray first joke was perpetrated, reminding the friends that it was quite enough for a pastor to fill the pulpit well, and that the filling of the pews depended very much upon the zeal, the earnestness, and the diligence of those with whom he commenced his ministry; if they would support him by their earnest co-operation, the meeting-house would soon be full."

He then gave a reminiscence of the way in which he was helped himself during the early days in London:—

"I remember when I came first to London preaching to eighty or ninety in a large chapel; but my little congregation thought well of me, and induced others to come and fill the place. I always impute my early success to my warm-hearted people, for they were so earnest and enthusiastic in their loving appreciation of 'the young man from the country' that they were never tired of sounding his praises. If you, any of you, are mourning over empty pews in your places of worship, I would urge you to praise up your minister. There can be no difficulty in discovering some points in which your pastor excels; dwell upon these excellences, and not upon his failures." By some references to the great American naturalist Mr. Spurgeon showed in his very happiest style what can be done by enthusiasm—a noble word, as he declared, and expressive of a characteristic which all preachers ought to possess:—

"You may, perhaps, have read the life of Audubon, the celebrated American naturalist. He spent the major part of his life in preparing a very valuable work on the birds of America. He tracked these birds into their remotest haunts, painted them from nature, lived in the cane-brakes, swamps, and prairies—even among the red men, exposed to all kinds of dangers—and all simply to become a complete ornithologist. When he was in Paris, collecting subscriptions for his new work, his diary was full of wretchedness—there was nothing in Paris for him; and the only bright dream that he had was when he saw the stock-pigeons building their nests in the garden of the Tuileries. The broad streets, the magnificent palaces, the pictures of the Louvre, these were all nothing to him—the stock-pigeons everything. He came to London, and he was equally dull there. Not a single incident shows a comfortable frame of mind, till he sees one day a flock of wild geese passing over the city. He wrote in London a paper on birds; and he says, 'While I am writing I think I hear the rustle of the wings of pigeons in the backwoods of America.' The man's soul was full of birds, nothing but birds; and of course he became a great naturalist. He lived and he was willing to die for birds. We need to muster a band of ministers who live only for Christ, and desire nothing but opportunities for promoting His glory—opportunities for spreading His truth—opportunities for winning by power those whom Jesus has redeemed by His precious blood. Men of one idea—these are they that shall do exploits in the camp of Israel." This Scottish tour, which some may probably have mistaken for a holiday, necessitated the pastor's absence from his pulpit at the Tabernacle during three Sundays. On the morning of June 5 he was again in his place, when the subject of the sermon was "Bands of Love" (Hos 11:4).