Chapter 36: Last Days At The Surrey Gardens

Chapter 36.
Last Days At The Surrey Gardens

Extreme Inconvenience of New Park Street Chapel—Prospect of leaving the Surrey Gardens—Open-air Services—A Visit to Cheltenham—A Deliverance on Slavery—A Missionary Meeting—Remembering Faces—Last Service in the Music Hall—Reappearance at Exeter Hall—Death of John Angell James—Spurgeon's growing Influence.

While an army of workmen were engaged in rearing the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the young pastor of New Park Street Chapel and his congregation were feeling even more than they had previously done the extreme inconvenience of not having a building of their own large enough to accommodate the vast congregation. As regarded New Park Street itself, it became more inexplicable how such a site could have been chosen by shrewd Nonconformist leaders for their religious home. "A more dingy, uninviting, and repelling region than where the chapel is situated I have seldom explored," remarked one visitor. "It is within a short distance after you have crossed Southwark Bridge from Queen Street, in a gloomy, narrow street, surrounded with small, dirty-looking houses. Within a minute's walk of the chapel you see written up at the corner of a little street, 'Bear Garden.'" Of old this was a disreputable quarter, and though its character may have improved, squalid streets and busy hives of industry did not render the surroundings any more attractive. To make matters worse, there was a prospect of the Surrey Gardens Music Hall being used for Sunday evening concerts, in which case the building would cease to be available for Mr. Spurgeon's morning congregation. On one or two previous occasions the directors had thought of attempting to replenish their exchequer by opening the hall for such entertainments, and had been checked by the intimation that in such a case Mr. Spurgeon's Sunday morning congregation would find accommodation elsewhere. At length, however, the managers appear to have supposed that the Sunday evening amusement would pay them better than the morning worship, and they resolved to carry out their scheme. It was a mistake which ended in disaster; for not only was a large rental, out of which a dividend had been paid to the shareholders, sacrificed, but a beautiful building, which some had said could not even be set on fire, was at length burned to the ground.

It would, of course, be impossible to notice even a tenth part of the services in various parts of the country which Mr. Spurgeon at this time was continually holding. Writing at the time in reference to the "immensely crowded congregations," a correspondent remarked, "He seems as if standing on Pisgah's top, 'viewing the land that is afar off,' though in sight; his soul mounts up as on 'eagle's wings' to the very throne of God." It was thought to be no cause for wonder that such a man should have many ardent admirers on the one hand and detracting enemies on the other. "His heart-probing appeals to sinners, and his stern and unflinching rebukes of their sinfulness are sure to bring down upon him an avalanche of wrath from those who prefer the world to Christ, and are still wallowing in the mire." When the season and the weather permitted, Mr. Spurgeon at this time frequently preached in the open air when visiting country districts where the buildings available were small; and when a sermon in the afternoon was followed by another discourse in the evening, a part of the day's programme was a monster tea-meeting in a marquee on the greensward. An example of what pretty frequently occurred was seen at. Carlton, Bedfordshire, early in October, 1859. In the afternoon the great preacher spoke from the words, "Come unto Me," to four thousand persons in a field. As the days were shortening, the service concluded at four o'clock, when the eager crowd hastened to the tea-tables which were set in the meetinghouse, in the schoolroom, and in a large booth. Having finished this repast and enjoyed an hour's pleasant conversation, all again turned out into the field, when another sermon was preached by Mr. Spurgeon from Hos 2:14. A notable visit to Cheltenham was made towards the end of October, when Mr. Spurgeon preached at Cambray Chapel for his friend James Smith, who, besides being himself a famous preacher and voluminous writer, had been a predecessor in the pastorate at New Park Street. It was on this occasion that the young Baptist preacher met with the present Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, who was about to give a valedictory address prior to his departure for America, while Mr. Spurgeon's object was to make a collection in aid of the debt on the Baptist Chapel. The Cheltenham Examiner thought that the visit to the town of two such preachers at the same time was a striking occurrence; while "the electric shocks of their eloquence" had "already fired many a soul to a sense of its proper position." The vast crowd which assembled to hear Spurgeon in the afternoon gave ample evidence that the preacher's popularity was not on the wane. Mr. Smith assisted in the service; and Mr. Spurgeon's discourse was founded on Hos 2:14,. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." As this sermon was an admirable example of the preacher's early style, a passage which came in towards the close may be given:—

"'I will allure her.' Many souls are brought to Christ, not in the storm, but in the calm; some in the tempest and some softly floating in. Of such a description as the last is this, 'I will allure her.' I must explain this term 'allure.' I frequently observe from my house, coming down the road, especially on a Sunday morning, a number of men with small cages containing birds, which they use as 'hirers' to catch the wild birds in the fields. It is only the other day I noticed one of them had a little robin redbreast, which was singing to allure other birds from the liberty of which it had itself been deprived. I thought that was a lesson for me, and I remembered this text, 'I will allure.' The birds were not caught, they were enticed, and so got into the possession of the fowler. The fowler did not put a cat to catch the robin, but he used a robin because he wanted to catch robins. And so the Lord took me a sinner and set me there preaching, that one sinner might bring other sinners. I am, then, the lure bird; I am one of yourselves and have sinned much against God. 'But,' one would say, 'I am unworthy to be saved.' So think I. Another would cry, 'But if I wont to Jesus He would reject me.' And so I thought, and much I now grieve to know that I should have slandered Christ by thinking so. 'But,' says another, 'I would go if I thought He would have mercy on me.' So I said; but I did more, I put it in practice. I said I would go to the King of Mercy; I was resolved to try, for if I stayed away, I knew I must for ever die. And God did not reject the poorest of mankind. He would receive him, put away his sin and say, 'I have blotted out thine iniquities, thy sins are forgiven thee, go and sin no more.' Would to God that some of you would go and try for yourselves. Every Christian ought to act the part of the 'allure bird.' Some would bring others to the truth, but without this many must have a sad fate. Many people would say, 'To be a Christian is to be miserable;' but it is a mistake; you must seek by a cheerful and happy conversation, and a holy and consistent walk, to entrap others to come to Christ; you are left here to do a work for Him, therefore must endeavour to allure many for Christ. But the text says, 'I will allure.' That is God Himself. A mother had a little child which she desired to teach to walk. She knew it would not be made to walk, it could only be done by teaching, which in its turn must be effected by 'alluring.' The child is placed against a chair, fearing to trust its little feet; the mother holds out to it an apple or a sweetmeat; the child looks, and at last makes the first toddling step; the mother is reached, and there stands the child at rest, the marvellous feat performed of walking the first time in its life. Oh! what is not a mother's love? And what the love of God "to His children? Are they conscious of their own weakness? He said, 'Come to Me and take the first step.' His mercy will bo about them; another step and another will be taken, until they are brought to Him. Jesus said, 'Come to Me, come! come!' I beseech you, therefore, resist not His allurements; despise Him not that speaketh. One would say, perhaps, 'If He would but threaten me I should be saved; if He were full of terror I think I could come to Christ.' Nay, nay, come! He allures you; He stretches out His hands and says, 'By these nailed prints come to Me; by this thorn brow come; by My bloody sweat, and by My cross and passion, come. Shall it all be in vain?' I pray the Spirit of God may now go forth among you, that you may freely come to Christ. The more abject, ruined, and undone you are, the greater reason that you should go to Christ to have your guilt removed and your miseries cast away. Oh! come ye to Christ. 'Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever looketh on Him may not perish, but have everlasting life.'" To those who are old enough to remember the strong man in his prime, when his matchless voice was not in any degree broken, such an example of his preaching as the above will awaken some delightful memories. It is an echo of the good old times when Spurgeon, in a physical sense, was at his best. In regard to the preacher's anti-slavery sentiments there was never any doubt, although when the quarrel between North and South in the United States became a matter which could only be settled by the sword, the slave-holders would have been glad, had it been possible, to claim Spurgeon as a sympathiser, or even as a "moderate" compromiser. How far he was removed from this, however, was shown at a meeting at New Park Street Chapel on December 8, 1859, when, after the usual week-night lecture, John Andrew Jackson, a fugitive slave from South Carolina, was allowed an opportunity of giving an account of himself. The story of this man's wrong awakened lively interest, while his sentiments drew forth outbursts of applause which were peculiarly English. He spoke for an hour, and did so from the pulpit; and when the ex-slave had finished, Mr. Spurgeon himself expressed satisfaction at what he had heard, and gave his opinion on American slavery in general. He alluded to the insurrection under John Brown, and said that if that leader were to fall a sacrifice to the cause he would die a martyr's death. The pastor continued:—

"Slavery is the foulest blot that ever stained a national escutcheon, and may have to be washed out with blood. America is in many respects a glorious country, but it may be necessary to teach her some wholesome lessons at the point of the bayonet—to carve freedom into her with the bowie-knife, or send it home to her heart with revolvers. Better far should it come to this issue, that North and South should be rent asunder, and the States of the union shivered into a thousand fragments, than that slavery should be suffered to continue. Some American divines seem to regard it, indeed, with wonderful complacency. They have so accustomed themselves to wrap it up in soft phases that they lose sight of its real character. They call it a 'peculiar institution,' until they forget in what its peculiarity consists. It is, indeed, a peculiar institution, just as the Devil is a peculiar angel, and as hell is a peculiarly hot place. For my part, I hold such miserable tampering with sin in abhorrence, and can hold no communion of any sort with those who are guilty of it."

Among the pleasant gatherings which came off during the fall of the year 1859 may be included a visit which Mr. Spurgeon paid to the City, being entertained by the friends of the Fox and Knot Ragged School. The occasion appears to have been valued by the pastor, because it gave him an opportunity of meeting friends whom he might not otherwise see from one end of the year to another. Mr. Cutler, one of the chief speakers, had for long been associated with the New Park Street Church, and remembered well the days of decline and of difficulty before Mr. Spurgeon came to London. He it was, moreover, who had enjoyed the privilege, in a scantily attended church meeting, of proposing that the young preacher of Waterbeach should be invited to the pastorate.

Meanwhile New Park Street Chapel was often used for other purposes than the ordinary services which the pastor himself conducted. At one time the late W. G. Lewis, of Westbourne Grove Chapel, would give his popular lecture on the "Pilgrim's Progress," with the much appreciated lantern pictures; at another time you might walk in and find in progress a valedictory service on account of one or more missionaries going out to their destination. On Monday, October 17, Mr. Klockers, who was about to proceed as a missionary to China, was thus commended to the Lord in prayer. The late J. Howard Hinton, W. G. Lewis, and the missionary-elect himself, took part in the service, after which Mr. Spurgeon "gave the charge in a style peculiar to himself. He thought that the undertaking to convert four hundred millions was a human impossibility; if only a twentieth of such a number had been thought of, it would have been equally impossible; but, after all, if the Spirit of God was with the missionary, blessing him in his endeavours, who could tell what the results might be which would follow?" This meeting was long remembered by those who were present. At this time, and through his life, it was a characteristic of Mr. Spurgeon that he could remember people's names and faces in a most remarkable manner, although he was continually shaking hands with hundreds of new friends. An American friend, who was struck with this peculiarity, gives this amusing illustration: "In a throng of people an earnest man tried to grasp his hand, and at last succeeding, inquired in a very vehement manner whether the famous preacher did not recognise him. For once in his life the 'famous preacher' was at fault. He did not, however, hum and haw, and say, 'My dear fellow, the fact is I have forgotten your name, but your face is quite familiar to me;' but he owned right out that he had no recollection of him whatever. Whereupon the excited individual replied, very much to Mr. Spurgeon's amusement, 'Well, that is singular, seeing you rendered me the greatest service one man could render another—you buried my wife.' We must, of course, do the bereaved husband justice to suppose that he did not mean exactly what his words denoted; but nevertheless it was a good joke at the expense of the usually exact and careful pastor, and one that, I have no doubt, be must frequently have repeated with considerable relish." The last service in the Surrey Gardens Hall took place on Sunday, December 11, when the preacher enlarged on the text of Acts 20:26-27, "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Immediately on ascending the platform pulpit for the last time, Mr. Spurgeon said:—

"The service this morning will partake very much of the character of a farewell discourse and a farewell meeting. However sorrowful it may be to me to part with you, whose faces I have so long seen in the throng of my hearers, yet for Christ's sake, for the sake of consistency and truth, we are compelled to withdraw from this place, and on next Sabbath morning hope to worship God in Exeter Hall. On two occasions before, as our friends are aware, it way proposed to open this place in the evening, and I was then able to prevent it by the simple declaration that if so I should withdraw. That declaration suffices not at this time, and you can therefore perceive that I should be a craven to the truth, that I should be inconsistent with my own declarations, that, in fact, my name would cease to be Spurgeon if I yielded. I neither can nor will give way in anything in which I know I am right; and in defence of God's holy Sabbath the cry of this day is, 'Arise, let us go hence!'" The congregation at the Surrey Gardens was now practically dispersed; for when, on December 18, 1859, Mr. Spurgeon again stood on the platform of Exeter Hall, his hearers probably, numbered only about a fourth part of what they had done for such a lengthened period in the great structure erected for M. Jullien's concerts. It appears that a sum of £15 was paid for each service held in the hall. In June, 1861, the famous structure was destroyed by fire. This sojourn at Exeter Hall continued throughout the whole of the year I860, and until March 1, 1861, when a removal was made to the new Metropolitan Tabernacle. When the services were recommenced in December, 1859, a hard frost prevailed, so that "the weather and the parks" attracted the usual attention. Mr. Spurgeon preached on the "Inexhaustible Barrel," and on the following Sunday, being Christmas Day, a seasonable sermon was founded on the words, "Unto us a child is born."

Some little time before, Mr. Spurgeon had made a visit to Brighton, and numbers who had been interested or edified on that occasion were somewhat dismayed on reading an announcement that the great preacher had changed his views by giving up Calvinistic doctrines. In common with some other journals, The Brighton Examiner gave the news, but in the following number the matter was set right by a few lines from Mr. Spurgeon himself:—"The statement you have made with regard to my recantation of Calvinistic doctrine is a fabrication from beginning to end, and one which could only have been invented for malicious purposes. I am the same in doctrine as I have ever been, and I hope to remain faithful to the same grand truth until death."

During this year the young pastor lost by death his good old friend John Angell James, of Birmingham, for whom he appears all along to have entertained the very highest regard. Mr. Spurgeon was continually attracting new friends, however, so that the inevitable passing away of old ones may not have been so severely felt as might otherwise have been the case. One notable man, who about this time was tempted to read for himself The New Park Street Pulpit, was the late Dr. James Morgan, minister of Fisherwick Place Church, Belfast, who, as a competent critic, wrote as follows:—

"I have procured a copy of Mr. Spurgeon's Sermons for the library, in five volumes, and resolved to read one every morning after dressing. Rising at six o'clock, I am ready to begin the sermon at seven, and it takes me more than half an hour to read it. I have gone over about twenty, and find the exercise profitable. Although the sermons are hastily sent forth, they are still very valuable, plain, sound, and practical, and well fitted to be useful. There is a tone of faithfulness in them that makes them powerful." The work to which Mr. Spurgeon had put his hand was now making way all along the line. The pastor, as a preacher, was an acknowledged power in the metropolis; while his congregation was a recognised institution with provincial and Continental or American visitors. There were still certain newspapers which spoke of him unfairly; but the majority were of a different mind, especially since The Times had come over to his side. In The British and Foreign Evangelical Review for 1859 will also be found an article, the writer of which gives the preacher his due, showing how manifest were his earnestness and self-denial. It is probable that the latter even exceeded what could have been expected; for I believe that at this time he gave half, or even more, of his income to the work of the College. It was one of the most singular cases on record of an eminent man receiving a large income, and able to earn a much larger one, being content to live in the most frugal manner on far less than what hundreds of City clerks were receiving. This mode of living was really continued till the end; for although more was expended in later days, much more was also given away. The College was thus founded with the pastor's own money.