7. Anecdotes 61-70
Spurgeon's Anecdotes #61-70
61. Prayer Answered At different times, Mr. Spurgeon has related remarkable proofs, drawn from his own experience, that God is the hearer of prayer. The funds of the College, the Orphanage, and other of his institutions have often been replenished in answer to prayer.
Once, when the funds of the Orphanage were low, he and his co-trustees united in earnest prayer for the needed help, having first given liberally themselves, and within twenty-four hours more than £800 came in unexpectedly. A gentleman withdrew a large annual gift to Mr. Spurgeon's work because a certain action of the great preacher displeased him. Just at the time notice was received that the gift would cease, a lady travelled from England to Mentone to see Mr. Spurgeon, who was at the latter place. She declared that it had been laid upon her heart to see him, and give him a contribution. She handed him just the exact sum that had been withdrawn, about which she knew nothing at the time.
"My hair seemed almost to stand on end," said Mr. Spurgeon. "I felt God to be so truly near and real. And yet," he adds, "there are plenty of wretched fellows who declare there is no such thing as answered prayer. The arguments such men use are exactly like the Irishman's, who, when charged with murder, and told that a dozen people saw him commit it, said, 'I can bring fifty people who did not see me do it.'"
God's promises are like cheques drawn by God Himself on the bank of heaven. They are never dishonoured.
62. Preaching Christ An old minister, who had heard a sermon by a young man, was asked by the preacher what he thought of his discourse. The old gentleman was very slow to answer, but at length he said, "If I must tell you, I did not like it at all; there was no Christ in your sermon."
"No," answered the young man, "because I did not see that Christ was in the text."
"Oh!" said the old minister, "but do you not know that from every little town and village and tiny hamlet in England there is a road leading to London? Whenever I get hold of a text, I say to myself, 'There is a road from here to Jesus Christ, and I mean to keep on His track till I get to Him.'"
"Well," said the young man, "but suppose you are preaching from a text that says nothing about Jesus Christ?"
"Then I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get at Him."
"So must we do, brethren," said Mr. Spurgeon, addressing the students, "we must have Christ in all our discourses. There ought to be enough gospel in every sermon to save a soul. Take care that there is the real gospel in every sermon, whether you are called to preach before Her Majesty the Queen or to a company of charwomen.
"I have heard of a young man asking, when he was going to preach in a certain place, 'What kind of a church is it? What do the people believe? What is their doctrinal view?' I will tell you how to avoid the necessity for such a question: Preach Jesus Christ to them, and if that does not suit their doctrinal views, then preach Christ the next Sunday, and the next, and the next. Those who do not like Jesus Christ must have Him preached to them till they do like Him, for they are the very people who need Him most."
63. Providential Supply In the early days of the Pastors' College, Mr. Spurgeon was not seldom straitened for means of carrying on the work. "Once," he says, "I was reduced to the last pound, when a letter came from a banker in the City, informing me that a lady, whose name I have never been able to discover, had deposited a sum of £200, to be used for the education of young men for the ministry. How did my heart leap for joy! I threw myself then and henceforth upon the bounteous care of the Lord."
64. Prudence versus Faith The first time Mr. Spurgeon preached at New Park Street Chapel, which could seat 1,200 people, scarcely 200 were present, but in a very few weeks the place was filled to overflowing.
One evening the preacher exclaimed, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, and by faith this wall at the back shall come down, too!" A venerable deacon, who had more prudence than faith, said to the preacher after the sermon, "Let us never hear of that again."
"What do you mean?" said Mr. Spurgeon. "You will hear no more about it, when it is done!" As we all know, the enlarged chapel soon proved too small for the congregation, and they had to go to Exeter Hall, and the Surrey Gardens Music Hall.
65. Reason's Paper Pellets Powerless
Mr. Spurgeon once had a man who sat to hear him almost every Sunday. One day he said to Mr. Spurgeon, "You are my only link with better things, but you are an awful man in my estimation, for you have not the slightest sympathy with me."
"No, I have not," said Mr. S., "or, rather, I have not the least sympathy with your unbelief."
"That makes me cling to you," said the other, "for I fear that I shall always remain as I am; but when I see your calm faith, and perceive how God blesses you in exercising it, and know what you accomplish through the power of that faith, I say to myself, 'Jack, you're a fool'"
"You are quite right in that verdict," said Mr. Spurgeon, "and the sooner you come to my way of thinking the better, for nobody can be a bigger fool than the man who does not believe in God."
Mr. Spurgeon proceeds: "One of these days I expect to see him converted. There is a continual battle between us, but I never answer one of his arguments. I said to him once, 'If you believe that I am a liar, you are free to think so if you like, but I testify what I do know, and state what I have seen, and tasted, and handled, and felt, and you ought to believe my testimony, for I have no possible object to serve in deceiving you.' That man would have beaten me long ago if I had fired at him with the paper pellets of reason."
66. Rev. James Spurgeon's Jubilee The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon went down to Stambourne to preach on the occasion of the jubilee of his grandfather's pastorate, in 1860 Rev. John Spurgeon and his younger son, Rev. James A. Spurgeon, were there, and many friends from far and near. An extemporized erection of tents and tarpaulins connected with a barn was the place of meeting. In the afternoon Mr. Spurgeon made some allusion to Dr. Binney's book, "How to Make the Best of Both Worlds," and expressed his opinion that no one could serve two masters, or live for more than one world. The spirit of a Congregational minister present was aroused, and he interrupted the preacher. It raised a discussion, but it had no effect on the evening meeting, which was as thronged and as enthusiastic as that of the afternoon.
Years after, the gentleman who interrupted the preacher came to have such an opinion of him, that in a very kind and genial letter he reminded Mr. Spurgeon of the incident, and asked him to preach for him, pressing his request by quoting the old saying about Cranmer, "If you do my Lord of Canterbury an ill turn, he will be your friend all the days of your life."
Mr. Spurgeon was unable, owing to prior engagements, to grant the request, but he said he would right gladly have done so had it been in his power or within the region of the possible. The meetings at Stambourne were such as to be remembered by all present.
67. Richard Knill and C. H. Spurgeon The name of the Rev. Richard Knill has been "a household word" for many years, and his memory will long continue to be precious to thousands at home and abroad. When C. H. Spurgeon was about ten years of age, and was spending a school vacation with his grandfather, Mr. Knill visited Stambourne, and other Congregational churches in that district, as a deputation from the London Missionary Society. He reached Stambourne on a Friday, ready to preach there on the Sunday. He heard the lad read, and commended him. The minister and the boy were evidently drawn to each other. Mr. Knill was always on the look-out for opportunities of doing good. He coveted the souls of men as misers covet gold, and specially laid himself out for the young. An agreement was made with the lad that he would show him over the garden and take him for a walk the next morning before breakfast. There was a tap at the lad's door, and he was soon dressed and in the garden with his new friend, who won his heart by pleasing stories and kind words, and by giving him opportunities to speak and ask questions. The talk was all about Jesus, and the pleasure and blessedness of loving Him. There were prayer and pleading too. Into the great yew tree arbour, cut into the shape of a sugar-loaf, both went, and the soul-winner knelt down, and with his arms around the lad's neck, he poured out his soul for him. The next morning, and the next, witnessed the same instruction and supplication, while on each day the pair were never far apart, nor out of each other's thoughts.
68. "Salvation to the Uttermost." The following incident was communicated to Mr. Spurgeon by one of his elders:—An Englishman was engaged as an engineer in a South American city. He was surrounded with Portuguese, and seldom saw the face of one of his own countrymen. Somehow he heard of an Englishman who had been guilty of murder, and was confined for life in the prison. Being a Christian man he determined to call on him, and speak to him concerning the love of God in Christ to sinners. Having obtained permission, he entered the prison, and commenced at once to speak through the grating to the convict. The man told him that, a few years before, a young Englishman had called upon him in a similar manner, and left behind some English novels, but between the leaves of one of the novels there was a sermon which had been preached in Exeter Hall by C. H. Spurgeon in 1856. The convict read the sermon. It was upon Salvation to the Uttermost (No. 84), and there was a reference to the notorious William Palmer, then lying under sentence of death. Mr. Spurgeon said Christ could save murderers, and sinners a thousand times worse even. The words entered his heart, and he immediately knelt down in his cell, and cried for pardon. God heard his prayer, and he received an assurance of forgiveness on the spot, and he was still rejoicing that God for Christ's sake had forgiven him. He said he had no hope of liberty in this life, but he rejoiced in the glorious hope set before him in the Gospel.
69. Shams: Mr. Spurgeon's Description of
What multitudes of mahogany-handled drawers there are to be met with in daily life labelled in black on a gold ground, with swelling and mysterious names of precious healing drugs, but, alas! they are handles which do not pull out, or drawers that are full of nothing. What myriads of empty bottles make up your enormous stock, in the universal emporium so largely advertised! What a noble army of canisters filled with air stand marshalled in shining ranks, as if they were fresh from China, and brimming with the fragrant leaf!
Now, in mere business such things may answer well enough, but bring them into your moral dealings, and you shall soon become contemptible.
One smiles at the busy tradesman arranging the shams in his window, but- we are indignant with a man who exhibits unreal virtues and excellences; he thinks that he makes a fair show in the flesh, but when we have found him out once, even what may be genuine in him is subjected to suspicion, and the man's honour is hopelessly gone.
70. Sick, Literally Sick
"I remember," says Mr. Spurgeon, "the answer I received when I once said to my venerable grandfather, 'Never have I to preach but I feel terribly sick—literally sick, I mean—so that I might as well be crossing the Channel,' and I asked the dear old man whether he thought I should ever get over that feeling. His answer was, 'Your power will be gone if you do.' So, my brethren," said he, addressing a body of his students, "when it is not so much that you have got hold of your subject, but that it has got hold of you, and you feel its grip with a terrible reality yourself, that is the kind of a sermon that is most likely to make others feel. If you are not impressed with it yourself, you cannot expect to impress others with it."